Repair the car you own, it’s cheaper.
At Tony’s we see vehicles in all states of disrepair. A new car will only need basic services and 2 to 5-year-old cars will need bigger repairs as parts wears out. The cars I 
am talking about are the cars over 10 to 25 years of age and still look nice inside and out.
Just because a repair may be larger than the value of the car is no reason to give up and sell your car. I hear this phrase at least once a day. My car is not worth that. If you have a car that “blue books” at $4,000 and the car needs an AC over haul that may cost $1,800. The repair is worth doing, if your car is in great condition.
Repair it!
If the same $4,000 car needs an engine at $5,100. The car is still worth repairing, but only if the car has been correctly maintained. The car must be in “great condition”. “No accident damage”, good paint, interior is clean plus everything works correctly and you love your car.
In many cases if you go out car shopping you will buy a car that is over $12,000 and you will get a loan to buy the car and your license tags will cost more. Plus your insurance will go up.
It’s less expensive to repair the car you already own. Buying a new car is the same as fixing the car you already own. Now you are making payments vs a repair bill. You must be honest with your self, if you are a person that just does not care for your car. Your car will wear out and fall apart.
A “neglected” car is not worth repairing, junk it and move on
The owner of the car is the reason a car is in good or bad condition, not the repair garage. 
Let’s face it, some people don’t care about anything unless it’s broken. Preventative repairs and basic maintenance is not important, but a cat video on YouTube will have front row attention. If properly cared for 80% of cars sold would last 15 years or more. It’s up to the owner to care about keeping it in good condition.
2005 Dodge Neon, yes it has road rash, but it’s fixable. This car needs a $390 dollar repair. Any repair that is less than a monthly payment is worth doing.
Everyone needs a $1,000 Emergency car fund.
The average “break down repair” at Tony’s is around $650.00. With an emergency repair fund of $1,000 dollars, a $650.00 dollar repair is no big deal. My repair fund is $2,000. I 
have 2 cars and a service van. If all 3 need minor repairs in the same month, I should be ok.
If you have more than one car you should “add $500.00 dollars for each additional car”. If you have an SUV or European brand, double the amount in the fund.
It’s a fact, it is less expensive to fix a good used car than go and buy a new one.
Heyanthonyaz.com
Filters protect your car from harmful debris that can cause damage to internal moving parts. The engine, and transmission need service regularly to keep them alive and happy. So what about you, the driver? Back in the mid 80’s some European car manufactures started adding air filters to the A/C system. Mercedes-Benz called it a particulate filter and it protected the A/C evaporator core from getting contaminated with hair, lint, leaves, and other nasty things that could get pulled into the air intake of the A/C system. It also protected the inside of the car from dust and oder. Most of all, the clean air was a benefit to the driver. European cars started using “Cabin Air Filters” first, around the mid 80’s. In the late 90’s I started to see them in high-end Japanese cars, and by the mid 2000’s almost all cars had some type of Air Filter added to the A/C system. The filter works great till, till it looks like the one in the picture. A filter can only do its job if it can catch and hold the dirt. This filter is past its way past its prime. looking at it, you might think it’s very old, but it’s only 3 years old, but the car is only used in town and in 3 years has only driven 7,000 miles.
working on the car.
