What sorts of price tag is on the repairs? You bought your car brand new, and it's only at 72,000, that's not bad. If the repairs are under, say, $3000 it's going to be cheaper to get repairs than it will be to buy a decent new car (unfortunately, $3000 cars tend to be not so good cars if you want them to last the long haul instead of just a year or so). What's even more important than asking about repairs is checking into what sorts of problems your car is most likely to have at 75,000 and above and what the book value of it is. If your car's book value is around the same as the repairs, well, I'd dump it.

Car loans suck. Five year car loans really suck because you spend way more. If you get a car - make sure that if you get a car loan that's that long you get a car that will last 10 years. I highly recommend consummer reports - if you don't have a subscription, go to the library (their website won't give you the info you need unless you pay to join IT).

It sounds like selling it may be the best option. I hope you'll post what your mechanic suggests?

Cars on the east coast can definately last ten years. My Godmother's Honda Accord is a 1996, and she drives up and down to MA and ME and all that, and she was commuting from PA to NJ daily for a while with it. But in general, cars that drive that much often don't last that long. (My car was 13 years old when I sold it, two years of which were desert years, but I didn't put much mileage on it, and I'm sure that's part of why it was such a great car).