DH's primary vehicle is a 1998 Ford Windstar which we've owned since 2000. We put a new transmission in it in 2003 and it has 127,000. It is unfortunately on its last leg and is no longer safe to drive.

We had it in for an oil change on Saturday and had our mechanic look it over. It has several exhaust leaks, is in need of break work, and the tie rods are very bad (read as: UNSAFE). So we're going to do our best to share the one good vehicle we have (a 2007 Grand Caravan) but it is difficult with the schedule we maintain.

Time for another car, a used one obviously. We've managed to save $6,253 and the cars do seem nicer than the $4K range. Not looking forward much to the process of finding one. I've looked on line at the local used car dealers and they seem to have nothing under $8,995.

Wish us luck during this process. We've already decided to donate our car to someplace that might be able to do something with it.

Not fun, but at least we're prepared.