How much money yearly is acceptable to spend on vehicle repairs and maintenance?

There's really no rule of thumb because we each have unique circumstances that determine when too much is too much. It also depends very much on the present condition of the vehicle. If everything is already in top condition, and all the factory recommended periodic maintenance has been kept up with (listed in the owners manual), then you can probably go for years with just the routine maintenance of inspections, fluid changes, tire rotations, etc. and no major repairs. It also depends on what work you can do yourself. Parts are relative cheap compared to labor. Averaging it out with no expenses some months and higher expenses occasionally, I personally budget for $1000 a year which is a heck of a lot cheaper than car payments and it rarely costs me even half that much.

To give you an example, I've been driving a 2003 Toyota for 12 years. It was 4 years old when I bought it, and it was in perfect condition with all the periodic maintenance performed on time by the dealer. I have always driven it gently and done the maintenance at the recommended intervals myself. Until this year, It didn't cost me anything except oil changes 2-3 times a year, filters annually, belts, hoses and radiator flush every 3 years, tires, battery and brake pads about every 4-5 years, etc. In that time the only broken thing I needed to replace was the alternator. Over the last 12 years I'll bet I haven't spend much more than $400 a year on average. Some years, it only cost about $100 just doing my own oil and filter changes. .

Just this year I finally had to do some major work to it, which was replacing the timing belt, all the pulleys and tensioners, and while I was in there, the water pump for good measure since it had never been replaced. At a shop, that job would have cost almost $2000, which would have been more than the car is worth. Doing it myself, it cost under $500 and it's probably now got another 50 to 100,000 miles of life left on it even though it is well over 200,000 now.

But that's just me. I have strong mechanical skills and an acute awareness of when things aren't right, so I head off incipient issues before they become problems. I tend to baby my vehicles and also drive a car well known for extremely high reliability because I hate working on them. As they say, "your mileage may vary" and you may not have the same experience, but I know I could probably make your car last another 20 years . For an ordinary, non-mechanical person, I'd say that when the annual repairs exceed 50% of what a car payment on something 5 years old or newer would cost, or what the annual depreciation on a newer vehicle is, then jump to a newer car.

Totally random, depending on how many miles the car is driven each year, and what kind of driving (over the road vs. short trips) - but when you don't have a car payment, you can justify fixing minor problems, or even doing some upgrades/repairs to keep it running well, and driving comfortably.

Usually the decision making factor will be if the vehicle has a major failure (like a transmission) or if the engine becomes so worn that a total rebuild would be necessary - and it might just be throwing money down a hole.

Even then - taking on a payment for a new car (most of which depreciate in value the second you drive them off the lot - many by as much as half) should be carefully considered against keeping the old vehicle on the road.

You need to look at RulesForCarCosts.com

Everything you need to know is on there.

*rolls eyes*

It really depends on the nature of the work and what has already been done. Most cars have common faults that occur at this kind of age and are expensive to put right. If these have already been done then the maintenance costs afterwards are likely to be less as all that remains are the smaller jobs for another ten years.