I’m trying to figure out if it makes sense to have my car repaired before I trade it in. It’s a 99 Honda Civic EX with 104K miles; a/c belt is gone/needs replaced. Have had ongoing trouble with check engine light which has typically pointed to O2 sensors & converter (replaced, but still have troubles). But most recently, I’ve had trouble accelerating (mostly between 30-40 mph) and trouble with the car starting/turning over (it has new battery). And now it won’t start at all. It still trys to turn over, but it just cant. I’m ready to trade in and buy another car, but not sure if I should tow to repair shop (I have AAA) for fixing good enought to run or not. Will it really make a dif at the dealer? I really don’t want to spend more money, but if it helps trade in value, then that’s what I’m trying to figure out.
For a trade-in, you probably won’t get your money back. For a private sale, you might.
A non-running car is worth very little, so if it was me I’d get it towed to a good independent mechanic (use the ‘mechanic finder’ under ‘actual car info’ above). Find out what the minimum is to get it up and running, it’ll likely be worth spending that amount (depending on what it is, of course).
…
Forget about AC its winter, no one will ever know.
I would tow it to a a decent shop and get an estimate for repairs. It may be something really simple and relatively inexpensive $<1000. A non working car is worth about $500 tops in trade-in, sorry to say.