nav screen story

I have a 2004 Prius, which should hit 123,000 miles sometime next week.

When the car was still under warranty, the touch screen began to malfunction, it would stop working and give an error message when any of the side buttons or screen functions was selected. True to Murphy' Law, the moment you roll into the dealership, everything works flawlessly, so the shop was unable to diagnose the issue.

Shortly after the warranty ran out, the screen finally gave up operating altogether. I came to Prius Chat and searched around, determining that the part itself would cost in the neighborhood of $600 - $800. Not having an operational screen didn't appear to affect the performance of the car, I could deal with using the steering wheel controls and ignoring the rest. Once in a blue moon, usually when the temperature is exactly 73 deg. F, at sunset, in the middle of a great radio tune, the screen will suddenly work again and I pull over where ever I may be to reset radio stations and do whatever, before it stops working again. I did finally ask the dealership to diagnose the issue and they came back with a $2000 quote to fix the problem (which I declined).

At any rate, it's been several years now, with no major problems. I did note, after repairing the car post-fender-bender, that the AC didn't seem to be functioning as well as it could. I assumed this was a problem with the coolant mix, and figured I could have that fixed at some point in the future, and thought no more about it.

When the hot weather arrived early this spring, the AC was noticeably worse than I remembered. Sometimes it blows cold air, sometimes hot air - regardless of what speed I'm driving at, or when the AC is engaged, there seems to be no pattern. I took the car to the dealership and now it appears that the AC problem is related to the touch screen problem, so now if I don't replace the screen, I'll continue to have these AC issues, on top of the rest of it. Now I find out that a NEW part is $4400, a refurbished part is $2000.

I love my Prius, it's been a solid vehicle. I've replaced tires, filters and parts here and there due to small accidents. I am still using the original brakes - although I'm getting close to needing new, maybe by the end of summer - nothing major has broken down and required replacing. I am NOT prepared to do self-maintenance (although I am proficient at changing the drivers side headlight bulb, and did mange to replace the normal car battery in the rear of the hatch), nor do I have any friends with that talent. Pretty much any work that needs doing, I take it back to the dealership.

Faced with my first major repair to the car ($2000-$4000 seems major to me), I'm wondering if this is the beginning of the downslide. Do I start putting more money into the car, or is it time to consider trading it in?

Any input here would be appreciated. Thank you!