I'm kind of in a bind right now and I'm wondering what you guys would do. So my partner and I currently share one car which was working out great because my job is flex hybrid where I'm in-person minimum one day a week/as needed and I can choose the day and remote the rest of the time, and he was working Sun-Wed (all in person.) So I could take the car and go in-person on his days off, Thursday and/or Friday. Well someone left at his job so they went back to 5 days a week (Sun-Thurs) and even though they've hired a replacement we don't know when they'll go back to 4 days a week. I was going in on Fridays but now there are more demands for me to go in-person on various days and my boss kind of got on my case about being more "flexible" about coming in (apparently flex hybrid doesn't mean flexible for me, it means I have to be flexible for the job.) We are trying to make this work with a set of carpooling gymnastics tbh (like my partner coming home for lunch, me dropping him off at work (not on the way) then going to my work and picking him up at the end of the day.) But each time is a weird set of arrangements depending on my meeting schedule and the timing of the event I need to be at. So I was like okay maybe we need a second car. Thing is, we technically have his old car which he was trying to sell because it's pretty old and has a lot of problems. I was like maybe fixing that up for a few thousand would still be easier, faster and cheaper than buying a new (used) car. He would only need to drive it a few times a month and his job is super close. The mechanic got back to us and it's $5K to fix the car, but he doesn't recommend it because it might have more problems down the road. So I guess our options are, sink the money in this car, which may not be a great investment long-term, or look into buying a different car. Keeping in mind we JUST bought a car last year. I'm not really keen on doing that again when we're trying to save for a house. Also I need a fast solution. We could continue with this annoying case by case carpooling situation, but it won't always work. I could just suck it up and take ubers, which I also hate spending money on, but it's technically less than $5K. Public transportation is not a great option, the nearest bus stop is over a mile away. What would you guys do? It's honestly stressing me out quite a bit not knowing how I'm getting to work each day.

I think I would just get an old used car, if it’s a garage or deal maybe look into trading in the old car you have for scrap or something to knock a bit off the price? Sounds like at this point a second car is a necessity and for me personally reliability is a priority for a car. Sounds like even if you do put money into the old car you have it’s just not going to be reliable.

@bluerose9 our last experience buying a car took months of researching and visiting dealerships, etc, do you think it's something that could be accomplished in like, a week? I've never tried to do it that fast but it's pretty urgent because I have a bunch of work stuff coming up in the next few weeks.

@aurielle where I’m from yes you could do that. Idk if that’s a thing where you are? Especially if you’d like to trade in the old car.

I think getting a decent used car in a week or two is definitely possible. Ideally you’d have someone who knows a bit about cars come and look at them with you to make sure there aren’t any major obvious problems with the car. A lot of times you can find nicer (older but still reliable) vehicles that aren’t as expensive by dealing with a person rather than a dealership (think people selling their vehicle locally on FB, classified ads, etc). Or if you want to go the dealership route, you can likely trade in his old car to get some credit towards whatever one you choose to buy.

How close is “super close”? Would he need a car to get there? Else he could maybe opt to use a bike as well.

Or maybe the connectivity with public transport since it’s supposedly close?

@Yi_eune about 5 miles so yes he has biked in the past. It's just it's winter now and the weather really sucks so I don't necessarily want to ask him to do that.

Trading in the old car for credit is definitely a good idea, thank you guys so much. Last question what do you think we can get for $5000? Like if it's an even older car than the current one (2010) but it's fewer miles (this one's just under $200K) is that going to be a significantly more reliable car? Can you get a decent car for $5K in the current market?

@aurielle what about public transport? Or could a colleague pick him up? Getting a second car over 5 miles does sound a bit excessive and I feel like you can put all that money to so much better use.

@Yi_eune that is a very good point and he was talking about our dilemma with some coworkers and turns out one coworker drives right past our house on the way to work and offered to pick him up, which is super lucky and very kind of her. She only works Wed-Sun though. But we've decided to not to repair and re-register the old car, and through some combination of carpooling, biking and his coworker driving him I think we can get through this semester at least, which will give us time to save/consider buying the second car.