Cars are tools not mirrors

I drive a 1996 station wagon. It seats 8, it gets 25 miles to the gallon, has 88,000 miles on it and I like it. To me it is a tool much like a hoe or a rake. I think a shiny red one would be pretty but my old one is perfectly useful and already paid for. It gets me from A to B. I personally don't even like to drive, so paying extra money to do something that I dislike is ridiculous. People feel sorry for me at times, I can see it in their eyes. I have even at times contemplated a new car purchase just to prevent the discomfort other people express about my less than new transportation. I personally am curious to see how many miles I can get out of it. I love experiments and am very much enjoying this one. When I was first married we had a car that cost $380 per month for 6 years by the time we paid the car off we had 3 kids and then had to buy a bigger car. It wasn't worth it. For 2 years we loved it and then it became a thing of stress and lost its luster. We paid it off a year early and still only got $3000 out of it.We ended up paying $30,000 for a car that we drove for 5 years. That is a $27,000 loss over 5 years or that is over $5000 per year posted as a loss. I could think of a bunch of different ways to spend that money if I was just going to throw it away anyway. Ballet class for the entire year, gymnastics for all of my daughters, a YMCA membership for the year that includes 2 date nights per month. Summer Camp for all 3 of my kids for 5 days so my husband and I can get away together and a week at the beach with the entire family which we could pay for with what was left of the $5000. Shiny car or shiny memories without a shiny credit card.