When to call it quits on a vehicle..

[def90]

Wait, you have another vehicle? Then definitely dump that lemon and be done with it. Save your $$ for something better and drive the Jeep in the meantime.

Yeah, I'm an electrical contractor and the Dodge is my business/work truck loaded up with my tools and equipment.. The Jeep is my personal vehicle which has been paid off off years, don't want to load it up with all my stuff though. Either way I'm leaning towards walking away from the Dodge.

[SouthPaw]

As my old boss used to say:

"At the end of the month, you are either going to have a maintenance bill or a car payment; pick whichever is cheaper."

Sounds like you have both right now so I would say it's time to retire it. For $5000+/-, you can easily find a reliable vehicle that will take you anywhere with little to no maintenance.

[ray1970]

Except it sounds like he needs a truck for work maybe. Good luck finding a reliable pickup for $5K.

[MrPrena]

^ this.

I had very difficult time finding a 5-10 year old pickup for 5000. Then I was looking for a 2000 van. I quit and got a taco.

[Irving]

Can find minivans under 10k no problem.

[SouthPaw]

^ this.

I had very difficult time finding a 5-10 year old pickup for 5000. Then I was looking for a 2000 van. I quit and got a taco.

He said reliable, not newer. There is plenty of mid 2000 4x4 trucks on the market for around $5k; even more for $7k. Just yesterday there was a 2001 Tacoma X-Cab 4x4 TRD 5 speed with 128k, one owner for $3800. Of course it sold almost instantly but good deals can be had. You have to have cash ready and be ready to leave the second you spot it.

[newracer]

I'd fix it myself enough to get it running and sell it.

[Martinjmpr]

If you don't need 4wd and a compact truck will work you can get a used Ranger or B-series Mazda pretty cheap. I paid $2k for a 1996 Mazda B2300 in 2013. 4 cyl, 5 speed, 2wd. Ran like a champ and got ~25mpg on a regular basis. Literally the only money I put into it was new tires (about $400), a repair on the rear axle seal (about $100) and a new stereo (about $150, I installed it myself with a kit from Crutchfield.) Drove it for 3 years and sold it in 2016 for $2000 so basically I drove it for 3 years for free. That generation of Ranger was pretty simple (at least the 2wd ones were.) The Mazda even had working air conditioning and since it was a regular cab, even on the hottest days it would get ice cold inside the cab in just a few minutes.

I sometimes wish I'd kept it but with just a 10 mile (one way) commute, I realized that the cost of maintaining, insuring, and registering a 2nd vehicle was greater than any savings I'd get, even considering that my Suburban only got 11 MPG in the city.

Great little truck, though, and surprisingly fun to drive.

[Jer]

That's a tough call but I'd vote for "stop throwing good money after bad." Pay off the loan and see if you can sell what's left for parts. From its history it seems that this thing is only going to cost you more money the longer you keep it.

In the past when I've had to finance an older vehicle, I've always tried to pay them off as quickly as possible, especially if they were older, so I would never find myself in the situation you're in: Owing money on a vehicle that needs costly repairs.

And next time you buy a vehicle - see if you can pay cash and have no payment.

The last sentence of this post is the most important in this entire thread. Car payments serve only to make the entity lending the money a profit on your dime. There's reason why people who are financially independent don't drive new cars as they're building their wealth.

Save, pay cash, save more, buy a little better with cash when you can afford it and need to. I see stories all the time of people with aging cars that need large repairs and still owe boat loads of money on them and I cringe. They don't think of what could (and likely will) happen down the road and only want that instant gratification of a new (even if just new to you) car. They do all sorts of mental gymnastics to figure out how to get the monthly payment to fit their income and this is the absolute wrong way to go about vehicle purchasing and why sales people work so hard to get you focused only on the monthly number... it's how they make the most profit. Who do you think pays for that profit?

Don't worry about "rebuilding" your damaged credit either. Better credit only allows you to make larger foolish decisions. Never finance a depreciating liability. The goal is to get to the point where you don't need credit anyway so who cares what your credit score is? I sure don't and haven't since about the same yours took a hit from what you've said. I was doing things all wrong and was "investing" on real estate and other things I was duped into thinking was a good idea. I "needed" good credit so I could finance a dozen properties and then make profit on them later so the amount I paid to the banks in interest didn't matter, right? Boy was I wrong.

Lending institutions have successfully convinced society that it's just the thing to do: get a credit card, get a car payment, get other debts including a mortgage and then live paycheck to paycheck barely getting buy to give them a massive chunk of our income to borrow against depreciating liabilities. What a scam and it's the reason everyone is so far in debt in this country. Sadly, our economy would topple w/o the reckless and blind spending though since we don't actually produce anything but that's a conversation for another topic.

If it were me I'd do whatever it took to pay that loan off and narrow it down to one vehicle for everything. Sell it for scrap, part it out and possibly sell the other vehicle too. The goal is to pay off the loan and then have some cash to buy whatever will get you buy for ALL of your needs right now. Notice I didn't say "Put a down payment on a new mistake" I said to buy. This is a rare concept these days since so many want to "finance" and then pretend it's buying.

You may not be taking what I'm saying as constructive criticism and might think me a prick with the things I say but you aren't in a position to be owning two vehicles. That's just doubling down on the depreciation and loss you're realizing over the years.

I say all of this not to pick on you or single you out but sometimes in life we need someone willing to tell us what we need to hear instead of what we want to hear. I really do wish someone had told me many years ago this same stuff which I, too, had to learn the hard way. My god what I would have done differently in terms of financial decisions armed with the knowledge of the subject I have now.

[Great-Kazoo]

Can find minivans under 10k no problem.

Of course you can, but like everything else under $5K the mileage is usually over 150K easy. Based on the OP's mechanical problems, i doubt he want's to invest in another possible money pit