Thanks for all the input so far. I'll try to answer a few questions. Other than the a/c, it's been a fairly decent car. There are a lot of little quirks that are annoying (which is why I dislike the car in general - interior lights that never went off, so I had to pull the bulbs; seatbelts that won't retract and get caught in the door; rust spots - little, but again, annoying), but it's been a decent car otherwise. DH looked up the Kelley Blue Book value and got about $2800. If I have to subtract the cost of the repairs, it seems people are saying I could sell it for about $1000, but I really don't see that happening. I don't think I could get more than a few hundred for it as is.
The air conditioning is really an issue - but only for three months out of the year here in NY. I can personally live without it if I have to, but I'd rather not when I have my kids in the car. I can roll my window down, but it gets sweltering in the back of the van where they have to sit. However, the times when I have to take the kids somewhere but do not have access to DH's car are few and far between. I mgiht be able to get away with not getting it fixed right away.
Yes, I do need a minivan, an SUV, or a wagon. I have one child in a booster seat (for about three more years), one in a car seat for another year (and then in a booster seat), and one on the way come October - so that's another car seat for 4 years. We cannot fit them in the back of DH's Sentra, or any other sedan as far as I know (but if you do know of an alternative, I'd love to hear it!).
I know what caused the transmission problem, and it wasn't wear and tear from past use. It was a transmission leak that I didn't know I had until my car stopped changing gears on the highway one day. By the time I got off the highway (with my two young kids in the car), I had probably done enough damage to warrant replacing the transmission. Stupid, maybe. But I drove a few miles to get to a safe place to stop. I didn't know until after I stopped what the problem was, when I saw the leaking fluid. By that time, the damage was probably already done. The leak was fixed already, but the guy who fixed it could not repair the transmission damage and referred me elsewhere - hence the $1800 estimate.
I have to call the shop in the morning to tell them to move ahead or not. We've talked it over, and I'm fairly sure (though still not 100%) that I'm going to do the repair. Looking at the big picture, and assuming that I am going to be a SAHM in 6 months, I cannot justify spending $10k on a "new" (used) car when we will be losing my income and, basically, reducing our dependency on having two cars. If I am not working, we can basically get by on one car (we live with my parents and have use of their car almost anytime, as neither work outside of the home, so I would not be "stranded" at any time). I just cannot justify taking on a payment right now, even if fixing a beat up old car is not the most logical thing to do (and I ackowledge, it's not!). I checked out used minivans and couldn't find anything under $10k unless it was 6-8 years old, and then I might just be taking on someone else's problems. I don't want to spend $6k just to get a car that's as old as the one I have. I guess the monster I know is better than the one I don't, especially with a "new" transmission
