As your averaged monthly repair and maintenance costs approach what you would pay each month to buy a replacement car you have to make the decision if you're looking at this strickly in a dollers-and-cents point of view. But it's not always that easy when dealing with cars because so many other personal things can come into play. Assuming you car's payed off do you want to spend "replacement car" payments, new or used, to maintain your present vehicle? How attached are you to the car? Some folks think spending $1000/yr to maintain a car is OK. Some think $100/yr is too much. What are your expected replacement car payments? $300/mo adds up to $3600/yr. That's alot of repairs! Maybe.... Lots of room for discussion here that's why there's so many different cars on the road and so many repair garages. Personally if I had the money I would buy a different classic car every six months, drive it for a while and then sell it for another. Porsches, MG's, Mini's, Healeys, Citrons, Alfas, 1800's, Jaguars .... So many cars and so little time. Just dreamin'. Sorry to get so carried away.