still cost effective

So I've spent a good deal of money fixing my car this year. Is it still a good idea to have a 12 year old car when I can clearly afford something that costs 5 to 10 times as much? Let's do a quick cost assessment....

Since the beginning of the year, I've driven a little over 4,700 miles. Total cost -- including gas, toll, insurance, repairs, license, parking: ~$1,200. That's about 25 cents per mile... or $400 dollars a month. I think we're still ok.

Of that, about $480 is maintainance costs. The rest is mostly gas and insurance. A new car would have about the same gas mileage (21/28/23 city/hwy/avg) so gas would be the same. Insurance would probably cost more. That means that my car has an equivalent car payment of $120 / month. Not bad.

But yeah, I do have some maintenance coming up. Need to change the oil in a couple of weeks. That'll cost me about $10. Oh no...

But wait! I should be getting $80 in rebates to offset those maintainance costs (thanks, Monroe!). Awesome! But somehow this *still* doesn't justify me spending tons of money on camera stuff.... or does it???