Buying a new car isn't automatically a horrible thing.  After all, her car just had a major engine failure, and the future reliability is in question.  Of course, she didnt' buy the car right, but she's not automatically foolish *just* for choosing to buy a new car.  

If everyone bought used cars, then buying a 1 or 2 year old used car would not be an option for very long - they have to come from somewhere!

If anyone wasn't aware, timing belts are not considered "major engine failure." The fact that they break is simply that: Fact of life. Cars are usually due for timing belt changes at or around the 75,000 mile mark, and it's wise to add "timing belt change" to a list of routine maintenance to keep this problem from happening.

This is especially important if you have what they call an interference engine, in which case the breaking of the timing belt causes other parts of the engine to break, which would cause such a problem. (However, it is always cheaper to buy a newer engine, even building a brand new one costs less than a brand new car and will last just as long.) It's important to know which type you have, interference or non-interference, so you know what to expect (financially) if your timing belt suddenly breaks on you. Just my few cents, maybe this can help someone.

I just had a similar situation, and luckily I could afford the bill on my 2005 used vehicle that I bought from the dealer. I also count myself lucky, because at the time I bought said lovely vehicle it had 48k miles on it, and now has 60k. Not bad, it's been a life saver in terms of serving as both an SUV/Truck for Home Depot runs, and as a people hauler for big social events. However, I pulled it in for a 60k tune up, (yes, you can say cha-ching, because that's the big one for an US car), and was told that the water pump leak and oil pan gasket was covered by my 1800.00 premium factory extended warranty that has really paid for itself before x4 (factory mind you transferred for $50 at time of purchase), the serpentine belt was not. Flush, dust, new brakes and everything else, and wash later, it's a $672.00 and I've got a car that I can drive for another 3 yrs. (I hope). Here's the pinch, while waiting for the car, I got bored of every Golf Magazine that was in the waiting room, so I wandered over to the new/used car lot. Once the salesman found out I had a car in the shop you could almost see his excitement and "concern" that he wanted to save me some money! *note to self: anytime a salesman get's excited for you, it means that it has absolutely NOTHING to do with helping you.*  Here's the funny part, he was so interested in saving me 672.00 by giving me 5k less for my trade then the current blue book, (I'm a nerd about knowing the value of the car every six months), and was showing me a car that was "exciting for such a strapping man"... uhmm... okay, 28k for a used top -of-line used car that some GM executive turned in. *note to self 2: no salesman should ever use the term "strapping" around a middle-aged man fully spent of his adolescent preening while wearing a three piece and black trench coat, and orders steak on purpose. I could just feel my wallet alarm going off because the smell was just getting too bad.

I said, sure, I'll bite, what's the catch, they need my SSN, and will fill out this paperwork, and we'll get you the best deal, and put the price on this paper, but only after we run your credit.  Ahhh... so note to everyone, they DON"T need your SSN to put a price down, to artificially inflate the price of the vehicle on the backend if you happen to unfortunately have dinged credit. Lastly, how does buying a 28k car, at 473 per month, save 627.00 one time repair bill? The logic truely escapes me.  Moral of the story: Know you're own numbers, and think about 1 years worth of those numbers to see if it makes sense. Interest is amortized based on the length of the loan, and it's paid first BEFORE your principal. The largest chunk of profit they make is in the first 1/2 of the loan, so of course they don't mind sending the payments out to 72+ months... more money in the bank.