Your car is not running correctly and you have no knowledge of what could be wrong with it. Recognizing your own limitations, you take your car to a local garage to get the car checked out. But, once you get the car problems diagnosis, what will you do? While some people may automatically assume that repair is the only thing to do, there are other options that can be used.

The mechanic runs the diagnostic test and gives you the bad news. Your new car has a major issue, one that will result in a total engine failure in just a matter of days rather than months and unfortunately the repair is going to be quite pricey. First, there is the cost of the part (or parts) to consider. Next, the cost of the labor involved in putting these parts in will have to be added in. the estimate that you are given by the mechanic can be off by as much as twenty percent or more. And, while it certainly can be less than what you are originally told by the professional, that is rare and the more likely scenario is for the cost to be much higher.

Now that you have the results of the car problems diagnosis in hand, you have to decide whether to repair or not. In this case, it is likely that you will proceed because even though the cost is high, the car still has fairly high value to you.

Now, imagine the same scenario for an older car- choosing to repair a car that is getting close to retirement age might not be in the budget. It might not be effective in any way. It might not even be advisable. The cost of repairing an older car might be higher because the parts have to be special ordered or may not even be available any longer. At this point, it might be time to consider using the car as a trade in, waiting for a dealership is having a drag or tow event which will give you the most money, even for the clunker that needs repaired.

Not everything that can go wrong with your car is going to be a major, wallet draining repair. There are times where the problem is something as minor as a small hose that needs tightened up or a small part that needs to be replaced. For some people, saving their car, no matter what is the goal. For others, it is nothing but a matter of time- they are looking for anything at all, any reason to ditch the mechanical beast that they are driving around in. for those people, it is fingers crossed that the car is broken beyond reasonable repair.