Purchase Versus Repair

Hello,

This may get flame responses... So it goes.

I have a 2005 Prius. Love it. Has 170k miles on it. Haven't really had any "major" issues. Had to replace a $500 part two years ago (computer sensor or something like that). Just oil changes and belts/etc.

The heater box apparently is now an issue. Making lots of noise. The dealer service dept tried to lube it up to make the noise stop, but they said it might need to be replaced at a cost of around $4k for parts/labor.

KBB on this thing is ~$5-6k... So I went and talked to my dealership about a trade in. I got them down to (on a Prius Four no sunroof) $27,863, and giving me $5,300 for my trade in.

Now I'm debating... Do I front the $4k heater box repair... and keep driving the 2005? Knowing Toyota, I'll probably get another 100,000 miles out of it. I was hoping to go another 1-2 years before my next purchase (hoping the plug in would do better than 11 miles a charge by then!), but do I pump $3,500 into something that won't be worth that much when I trade it in for a 2013 or 2014 model?

Be cool to have something new, of course. My 2005 is a Model two, so it doesn't have nav, iPod, etc. I installed XM myself.

I guess I'm curious on that price, too... He said it's "invoice," and it seems in line with KBB's opinion on a "fair" sales price. I wonder if I can do better at another dealer, but then again, I really trust my current one and have bought from them multiple times.

Eh, I think I just needed to write this out to get my thoughts on "paper"! Thanks for reading.

 

Thanks for the advice. I'm not very mechanical. The dealership has been fine to me on repairs and such, at least I think so.

I'll have to investigate that heater box fix. Thanks.