You are the voice of reason. It doesn’t make economic sense to dump between $3K to $5K into a 22 year old Volvo 850. My decision making process is clouded by emotion. My silver 850 is a manual, which I really enjoy driving. I know, when it goes, it will not be replaced with another manual unfortunately. I live in CT, and we pay property taxes on cars. So now, despite a high mill rate, the property taxes are under $15 a year because of the age of my 850. Also, I guess I rationalize my decision by the thought, that although my 850 has a value of approximately $1,500, it will cost me far more than that to replace it. Also, because of the age of the car, I only carry liability insurance. I recently purchased a 2016 XC90 T8 Inscription Plug-In Hybrid and was reminded how taxes and car insurance can lighted my wallet.

But I guess, my biggest emotion block to not following your reasonable advice, is that I really enjoy driving this car. It gets decent gas mileage, looks good, and is very utilitarian (trips to Home Depot, the Town Dump, etc). I also have an identical red 1996 850 GLT wagon (also a manual) with nearly 400,000. The silver 850 is at 330,000 miles. I know someday I will have to replace them, but I hope to avoid doing so as long as possible. Fortunately, I have a very competent private garage mechanic to attend to my 850 wagons. If I had to have serving done by a dealer, I would have jettisoned these cars a long time ago.

Hugh