So my daily driver didn't pass inspection. My mechanic says it's burning oil and I might be able to get it through with a heavier oil and/or registering it in a county with no emissions testing, but at most I'd be buying another year or two. It's got 280, 000 miles on it. To get the engine rebuilt would be around $5000. I guess numerically it doesn't make sense since the plastic panels are cracked and the metal panels are rusting and it probably needs some suspension work too, plus it's getting increasingly hard to find parts for.

But I kind of want to do it anyway just because I've literally had this car for almost my entire adult life and it's been more reliable than my immediate family. And I just don't like any other kind of car (aside from the obvious).

I guess I could try and do it myself but I don't have a lot of mechanical experience.

I wish I were the kind of person who could let go of things easily...