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There's not much to be done with your in-laws. A car that's still driving with more than 200K on the clock should impress anybody with a brain, but Americans aren't taught to value durability and practicality.

We live in a commercial culture where the economy depends on people buying stuff because they want it, not because they need it, and replacing stuff frequently because it's all mostly crap. If they've bought into that message and that set of values, that you're defined by the stuff you own and you need to own something new, fashionable, cutting edge, and stylish... then there's no hope.

It's the world's largest cult, this consumer mentality, and once somebody is inside of it, it takes years to deprogram them.

Drive your Brick and be happy. It's a good honest car and you don't need to apologize to anybody.