Old '94 Buick took a took for the worse today. Check engine light popped on this morning, on the way to take it to the shop. Stalls on me going up a hill and everything shuts off. Was told water leaked into the engine and blew the gasket. Car won't start up anymore, ignition won't turn over. That said I'm guess it's better off to look at a new care instead of repair this? Heard it would be around $1500 to fix and it doesn't seem worth it at 185k miles.

That said, just hoping for some general advice and would appreciate any knowledge you guys care to share. Are craigslist cars usually worth it? Seen a bunch of decent looking cars for ~2000-3500. Do these usually last a few years smoothly, or are the mostly money pits? Do you every recommend just buying brand new? Almost seems worth it to just have all my car issues covered under a warranty for a bit.

[Edited on June 29, 2013 at 11:03 PM. Reason : a]

6/29/2013 11:02:21 PM

buying a new car is not a smart move from a money standpoint. it's a luxury and a convenience.

6/29/2013 11:26:27 PM

it will be much more than $1500 to fix that. sounds like you locked up the engine and possibly warped some junk = time for new engine

6/29/2013 11:36:59 PM

A lot of us have had great experiences with $500-$3500 cars. You really need to know what you're looking at and what you're willing to deal with though. It helps if you can spend a lot of time looking for a better than average car to come along at shitty car prices rather than just looking at the current lot of shitty cars and taking your pick. If you know you're not ready to turn wrenches or deal with some things that are broken and not worth fixing you should probably just buy the cheapest thing you can in the "nearly new" category and carry on.

[Edited on June 29, 2013 at 11:47 PM. Reason : l]

6/29/2013 11:47:03 PM

Thanks for the advice guys, seems like it makes more sense to start checking out those used cars. When I go to look at these things in person I'll have a much more mechanically inclined friend along with me, but are there any red flags you can spot just browsing online?

6/30/2013 10:50:21 AM

You should take some time to learn basic car maintenance including checking fluid levels and watching temperature gauges/lights or it will happen to you again with your next car

6/30/2013 12:16:50 PM