When to let an old car go?

[Rick]

@bump

Yeah, typically tires (esp. from reputable makers like Goodyear) almost always come with a mileage warranty- i.e. 50,000 miles or some such number. They’re also almost always prorated based on warranty- so if the tire makes it 15k out of the 45k warranty period, they’ll pay you back for about 2/3 of the price you paid for that individual tire. I think those tires in particular are warrantied for 50k, actually. I also can’t imagine that 15k of wear on a 50k tire would warrant getting a whole new set of tires. Maybe some stupendously wealthy people do that, but nobody else does- they just get the bad tire replaced and go on.

As to the larger question in the OP, I’ve never really had a good actual rule for determining the repair vs. buy another point for any given vehicle, but it usually seems to become pretty clear anyway, and it sounds like you’re either just past that point (you did spend something like $4500 in repairs in the last couple of years), or very near that point.

That said, the cheapest overall option is still probably to keep it and repair it; a handful of monthly payments would still cost more than a fairly serious repair job.

If you’re going to try and have 2 people live on 30k a year, and are bent on getting a new car, you should probably get something gas efficient and reliable, like a relatively recent model Honda Civic or Ford Focus or something along those lines, so that it’s unlikely that you’ll need much repair work done, and what you will need done will be relatively inexpensive. (e.g. the tires cost $75 each installed, or oil changes are $25 bucks).

Mazda 6 are pretty reliable, but they’re not overly gas efficient, or at least my wife’s old one wasn’t. It wasn’t a gas guzzler, but it wasn’t winning any efficiency awards with that v6 either.

About 99.5% (percentage anally derived from my experience in the automotive business, but damn close to right on) bubbles are from hitting a curb which pinches the sidewall which cuts the cords inside the tire and causes a bubble. This is almost always excluded from the warranty* as it is NOT a defect in materials or workmanship, it is caused by an outside influence.
I would bet a beer that the tire is question is or has been on the right front or right rear, and just maybe on the left front. If it is on the left rear, it is from hitting a pothole.

If you have a buyer protection plan it probably is covered, but not all tires come with that, this is usually an extra cost option.

[SigMan]

Why do you have to buy a set to replace one tire? Go to a used tire shop and have them match the size and the wear to keep it equal.

If your car’s in running condition do that and drive til it breaks down.

[Urbanredneck]

We are coming up on 200,000 miles on a 2003 Honda Oddyssey.

[Dead_Cat]

I would say it’s tough to run a luxury/sports-oriented car on a 30k annual income, even though you own it outright. But having done most of the expensive work on it, I’d keep it, budgeting another couple of grand for the items already mentioned.

Also, who the hell gets 50k miles out of a set of tyres, especially in a sports saloon driven to anywhere near its capability? I consider 20k a very good mileage to get out of a set, even rotating them. But then I do have 250bhp going through the front wheels (though I, and my traction control, do my best not to spin them too much).