<prompt> Human: My car recently blew a timing belt while driving. While I dont know for certain if the valves or pistons were damaged, since its an interference engine, the channces are extremely high. At the low end, itll cost 1,500. At the high end, up to whatever it costs to put in a new engine. My dilemma is that I have to be in MS June 6th for training with Teach for America, but I am currently carless. I have no savings it all went into replacing the radiator and clutch in my Outlander and work freelance as I graduate from college this month. Thankfully, Im debt free, but I really dont want to go into debt if it can be avoided. As far as I see it, I have 2 options:1: Get a small loan, and buy a car to get me to MS Ive been pre-approved for 6k, 4 at 36 mo. and Ill be around 35k a year starting in August. Pay it off in 1-1.5 years.OR2: Fix my car 117k miles, not terrible on a 0 CC which I have been approved forEvery fiber of my being recoils at the thought of going into debt, but I just dont know what to do. Any advice is most welcome.  <response>: As someone whos replaced engines in two separate cars... I wish someone had appeared before me with a gun to my head, insisting I dont make this horrible mistake. The amount of money I lost would better have been spent on a similar used working car, that I could have sold for not that much less than I paid for it later. Engines are a LARGE part of the value of a car, they are NEVER as cheap to replace as youre told, and because theyve likely been sitting around somewhere - theyre more likely to experience future issues than an existing old car. Worse, as the mechanic is disconnectingremoving the old engine, youll get all of these chances to cheaply fix long term repairs with new parts, because after all, a good chunk of the labor is done with the engine removed. But this is a fallacy, as it both adds up to a lot of money and a lot of these future proof repairs honestly handle problems that you would never have seen, because you honestly arent going to be driving this car for another 150k miles. You see, I wish someone had put a gun to my head, because I really ran the math and thought I was smart to just replace the engine. But as good as my calculations were, I was wrong. Dead wrong. Cars are NOT investments, unless they are Ferraris.Also, minor note, unless this is a brand new CC, check that theres not a fee for a 0 loan. Because if there is, its not 0... 