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This is exactly why an automobile should be treated as a depreciating asset, rather than an investment.
You fix a car if it will cost less than half of its value at the time of the repair. If it cost more than half, get rid of it at the first opportunity. There are caveats to that rule of course. So don't fault yourself for buying another car.
You had some bad luck and that is just a part of owning a car. In commiseration, I invested $2500 into an Acura TL that I dearly loved for timing belt and some other 100K maintenance items. Only to have its transmission blow up less than 4 months later. The $2500, plus the transmission replacement would have been well over half the value of the car. I traded it. For a car that I still own and absolutely loathe, but it's been reliable and I've put over 160,000 miles on it. My oldest kid now drives it.
The short answer is:
Keep your current car. It's basically new. From a manufacturer that is notable for the reliability of its products. You also know its maintenance history, which is incredibly important.
Have your payments kept ahead of depreciation? Meaning, can you sell your car for enough to pay off your loan? Just so you know, that's almost always "no", but your results may vary. You would also be forced to buy another car. 7.59% APR sucks, but are you able to get a better rate now on another car? Do you have the down payment for another car? Again, you may not have any money left over from selling your current car and paying off the lien.
If you can refinance it at a lower the rate, then absolutely that is the path you should take. If not, then taking a more global look at your finances are in order to make the payment more palatable.
I don’t think this part is really right. Buy a newer car because you want a newer car (and can afford it) or because your old car can’t do the job you need anymore. Newer car is almost never going to save you money.
If you have an old paid-off car that is worth basically nothing on paper but in good shape and runs well for you, and it needs a repair, it’s almost always going to be cheaper to do the repair.
If you get a more expensive car from a dealer (new or used) the car payments and interest are so much higher than even ongoing frequent repair costs it’s just crazy.
Even in OPs story replacing the engine — I don’t know what else was wrong with it — but if they put $6K into a new engine and next year $1K into brakes and next year $1K into tires that’s still way less money than just three years of interest payments on a nice new CRV. That’s not even counting the down payment and the principal!!
You might have lots of reasons besides money to replace a car, but that’s a question whether the cost is worth it, not a question of whether it’s cheaper
The place in my mind when the old car is no longer economical to repair is when:
The repair can’t really fix it eg the body is rusting away etc. Car is done unless you rebuild the whole thing, too bad time to say goodbye
frequent breakdowns, even small cheap easily fixed breakdowns, mean you can’t get to work and lose money or risk your job (consider if the breakdowns are related cause though — maybe you need to replace all old rotted rubber hoses and exposed gaskets in the car all at once and it will be reliable again? Making an unreliable car become reliable again requires you or somebody you trust knows something about cars to decide; most people can’t do this)
the repair (including rental car or lost work due to downtime, which can be more than the actual mechanic cost but totally counts just the same as a cost to you) is more than the cost of whatever vehicle you’re going to replace it with — this.. mostly doesn’t happen. putting $6K repair plus $800 for two weeks’ car rental into replacing the engine on a otherwise-$10K old Versa is still cheaper even than buying somebody else’s $10K old Versa in running condition (by $2200 + tax + registration) — let alone a newer car.
The other situation is safety. If you are driving a '95, and you have a baby or something, moving to an '08 gets you a lots of advancement in safety and you cannot pay to replace the people you care about.