Fix it or sell it?
we’ll tell you which, even when it isn’t us

Someone handed you a number and now you're deciding whether to put it into a car you were already half-questioning. Most advice about this is either a mechanic who wants the work or a buyer who wants the car. We buy cars, so read us with that in mind — but the calculation below is the real one, and it points at repairing often enough that we'd rather set it out than pretend otherwise.

Compare the repair cost against what the repair adds to the car's value, not against what the car is worth.

That distinction is the whole thing, and it's where most people go wrong. "My car is worth $6,000 and the repair is $2,800" feels like the right comparison. It isn't. The question is what the car is worth fixed versus what it's worth as it stands, and whether that gap is bigger than the bill.

A $2,800 transmission on a car worth $6,000 running and $2,200 broken adds $3,800 of value for $2,800 of cost. That repair is worth doing even though it's nearly half the car's value.

The same $2,800 on a car worth $6,000 running and $4,800 broken adds $1,200. Now you're paying $2,800 to gain $1,200, and you should sell.

Everything else on this page is just working out those two numbers honestly.

These come up regularly and the honest answer is keep the car. We're not going to buy one of these off you at a number that makes sense for you.

And these are the ones where paying the bill usually means paying it twice.

If you're fixing a car in order to sell it, most of this is money you won't get back. Buyers price condition, but they don't reimburse invoices.

The general rule: mechanical repairs that make the car sound normal are worth more than cosmetic ones that make it look newer. And nothing you do to a car returns more than it cost, which is why fixing it up before selling is usually the wrong move.

The exceptions are worth knowing, because they change the answer.

There's a version of this question that only applies in a salt state, and it catches people out.

Central Ohio roads are treated for roughly half the year. Salt collects in the seams underneath and works on frame rails, brake lines and fuel lines. A car that looks fine at eye level can have a structural problem you cannot economically repair.

This matters here because it changes which side of the calculation you're on. A $1,800 repair on a mechanically fine car with a solid underbody is often worth doing. The same $1,800 on a car whose frame rails are going is money spent on a vehicle with a short remaining life regardless.

It's the first thing we look at, and it's why the answer sometimes changes once the car is on a lift. Freeze and thaw does the rest — the potholes that arrive every February bend wheels, wear struts and knock alignment out.

The decision needs two figures and most people only have one. You have the repair quote. What's missing is what the car is worth as it stands, unrepaired, today.

That's what we'll give you, free, with no expectation that you sell. Send the year, make, model, mileage and what the shop said is wrong. If you have the written estimate, send that too — it tells us more than a description does.

We come back within 24 hours with what we'd pay for it in its current condition. Put that next to the repair quote and the answer is usually obvious. Sometimes the answer is fix it, and we'll say so.

Two things worth knowing before you come. We buy clean-title vehicles only — salvage, rebuilt and reconstructed titles are outside what we can take. And the car has to be running and driveable. Beyond that you do not need to fix anything before selling to us, and telling us what's wrong at the start never costs you money — it saves a revision after the inspection.