Doug Freyburger

For a while I thought containers had completely replaced box cars, but in the last couple of years I have started seeing box cars in US freight trains again.

I would if it has to do with the shortage of long haul truck drivers.

Does anyone have a good formula to run the numbers to make this decision? When I use mine it seems like I should keep repairing a car forever because it never seems to be a better deal than replace it even with a used car.

I don't count scheduled maintenance because every car has those. I add up unscheduled maintenance since the day of purchase and divide it by how many months it has been since I paid the car off. I compare that number against the typical car loan payments if I were to buy a new car or a good quality used car.

What I used to pay as finance payments I put into a car account and pay repairs out of it. The total never seems to go up to enough to get a replacement car but the total unscheduled repairs also never seem to average more than payments.