I would say all cars are disposable, with a few exceptions. Anything that hits the junkyard someday is disposable. Classic cars are not, cars like Porsches are not. What percentage of non-wrecked Porsches go to the yard? It's a very low number. You fix it, because it's such an anazing piece of machinery. The contour is a relatively normal car. There comes a point when it is not worth fixing. I would say it's 200k or so, like most cars. Certain cars, when treated nicely (Subaru?) have better potential than others (Ford) to go well beyond 200k with not a huge amount of maintenence. However, it is not a certain thing, and depends on a lot of factors. You seem to have gotten a little on the unlucky side, but not too bad. I replaced the engine twice. I did the math once: I put on about 10k/yr. If I bought a brand new $20k car, and drove it for 10 years, 100k miles, before any serious repairs (powertrain), that would be about average. Most $20k cars are worth less than $5k at 100k miles and 10 years. I took the cost of maintenence from 100k to 200k and it is way less than $15k. Sure, you don't get the pleasure of a nice new car, but the costs are way, way less- $5k or less if you're lucky. That's a used engine, tranny, clutch, bearings, struts, and the labor. If you can do some work yourself, you save even more. I was a little peeved at getting a $1.2k engine replacement that lasted 1 year, 10k miles. well, per mile, the cost wasn't terrible. And that included a clutch that will last me until the car dies, and some other little parts. Really, not a bad deal. Now, my car doesn't drive like new. It is a little softer, a lot noisier, a whole lot dirtier, and more work to keep up on regular maintanence. But that's alright, because I've put $3k into this car over the last 3 years, discounting brakes, gas, oil changes, and all the other stuff that would still cost on a new car, as well as my wheels and audio. $1000 a year is less than my insurance! I have no reason to complain, that I can see, even though I'm getting my control arm bushing (thank you NAPA!) and tranny mount replaced this weekend. Wow, that was long. I'm going home.
