Should you fix up your car? Or break up with it?

You’re looking at a $1,200 repair estimate for your car when an ad catches your eye: a brand new set of wheels for a mere $450 a month.

At first, dumping your old car might seem like a no-brainer — and you can’t help picturing how good you would look in that new car. But automotive experts say you’ll almost always come out ahead by fixing old faithful. There are, however, other important considerations when deciding whether it’s time to say farewell.

“Even though the repair cost might hurt, you really have to think about buying a new car as a tremendously more expensive proposition,” says Jim Manelis, head of direct lending for Chase Auto Finance.

At the very least, for a reliable used car, ex- pect to spend a minimum of $2,000, plus tax and registration fees, says Mark Holthoff, editor at Klipnik.com, a community website for used car enthusiasts. Depending on the severity of your car’s problems, “You can buy a lot of repairs for that kind of money,” Holthoff says.

Of course, there does come a point when it isn’t worth pouring money into a beater.

“Start with the scale of the repair,” Manelis says. “Is it a $1,200 fix or is it a $5,000 fix?” Then, look up the value of your car using an online pricing guide like Kelley Blue Book.

When repair costs start to exceed the vehicle’s value or one year’s worth of monthly payments on a replacement, it’s time to break up with your car.