I need some friendly advice :) Since January, my husband and I have paid off about 95% of our debt while throwing as much as we can into our savings. (I know we should pay off 100% of debt before saving a ton, but. we are trying HARD to find our first house to buy and we wanted a cushion) Anyway, we finally reached a comfortable cushion in savings. A week ago the transmission in my car went out. I owe $3, 000 on it still. My husband went to school for mechanics, but without a shop or a lot of experience with transmissions we decided to pay someone to fix it. We got a few quotes and it is ultimately going to cost $3000+ for a new transmission. I called insurance, just to see if there was something we could do since its going to cost more to fix than my car is worth (2011 Chevy Cruze) and since it was mechanical failure it is our responsibility. Our plan right now: buy a transmission from a salvage yard ($1000) and pay my husband's mechanic friend with a shop to help him. ($300). Then I will drive the car as long as it will go and work on paying it off asap. If this was YOU, what would you do? we are kinda taking a loss either way.