Our two vehicles have over 300,000 miles between them

We own a 1997 Oldsmobile Achieva with about 157k miles. It was my wife's car before we got married, then it became my commuter car. She bought it used in 1999. Our other one is a 1997 Chrysler Town and Country that we bought in 2003 with over 90k miles; now it has over 145k miles. Aside from a couple of annoyances it's been a smoooooooooth ride.

The Achieva doesn't owe us anything — and, we don't owe anything on it! — so it's going to be the first one to go if something happens to it.

The Town and Country has an air-conditioning leak that our mechanic says will take 10 hours' labor and $1600 to fix. Ouch! The last refrigerant charge lasted about six weeks, and they charged it up again this week. We may be able to get by the summer with only one more recharge — but the leak remains, and will be there next summer, if we don't fix it.

So, our aging vehicles are on the way out. It's not an emergency yet — we're able to keep them a little longer even if we plunk down $1600 on our van — but it's probably time to start looking for replacements for one, or both of them. These vehicles will be used — I don't think we'll ever buy a new car.

Here are some of the places we've referred to:

• That global marketplace eBay! Some friends from church have gotten several vehicles off of eBay for great prices. They pick the cars up either by driving up to the seller with a friend or flying out one way. As with everything, there are risks with this, but I usually check the feedback and if it's in the hundreds and above 99% I usually buy things with as much confidence as I buy anything else.
• Kelley Blue Book on the web. A couple in our subdivision is selling their Elantra. They were asking way above what kbb.com was saying their car was worth. Good sanity check.
• Cars.com. A clearninghouse for vehicle classified ads. They used to have black book (dealer) quotes but I can't seem to find them in the same place.
• Black book sites. Another estimate of your car's value to see if any deals you run across are good ones. A search for “black book car values” will give you some candidates. The top ones I tried asked for personal information and an e-mail address. Thankfully, some of the scripts aren't terribly picky about what you put in that personal information! 😉
• Auto auctions. Public auto auctions work like any other auction — highest bid wins. Then it's yours, for better or worse. If you can find a dealer that will bid on a vehicle for you at a dealer's auction (for a fee, usually), then that's where the steals can come up. Those vehicles go at wholesale prices because you need to be a licensed dealer to get in.
• The side of the road! There are a lot of cars, trucks, and SUVs with a For Sale sign in the window around here. The big vehicles look like they're priced to move. Depending on how much gas-guzzling bothers you (it bothers me a little) the biggies can be good options.

I probably tend to buy a little on the old side, but it almost always pays to buy used over new if you can. But the good news is that we can afford to be choosy now, because we're not in an emergency no-car situation. (I've been in those, and it's been by the kindness of strangers that we got by.) If you have a feeling that your car's on the way out, you're probably right, and you should start looking for a replacement before you have to.

And too many AC problems in this kind of heat wave approaches a have-to!