A $4,000 repair bill on a car worth $6,000 can make the decision feel almost automatic. Spending two-thirds of the car’s value on repairs sounds like throwing money after a losing investment.
That comparison misses something big, though. The car’s resale value tells you what the vehicle might fetch in the market. It does not tell you what it would cost to replace the transportation sitting in the driveway. Those are two very different numbers.
