<prompt> Human: Both me and my wife are 26, full time students and working full time. We take home somewhere between 70 and 80 thousand a year in combined income. We both have 11 thousand in student loan debt but should not need to borrow for school again as Im going to be using the post 911 GI bill for my tuition when I exit community college and we make enough to pay for her CSU tuition with grants and our own income.We own 2 cars. A 2009 Toyota Rav4 with about 60,000 miles on it, that car is fine and should be for the foreseeable future. The problem car is the 2008 Hyundai Elantra. It has 150,000 miles, which is fine, but its had an uncharacteristically large maintenance bill since we bought it. About 3500 in 2 years. Im fairly sure it had been in an unreported front end collision, the dash board is split in the middle, which Ive read can be caused by air bag activation or being out in the sun for too long. The air bag light also turns on and off frequently and the mechanic we use has told me if the light is on, the air bag will not actuate. That is my main concern. Im not sure Im willing spent another 2 grand to diagnose and fix another problem on this car nor do I feel comfortable driving in a car which may or may not feel like deploying its air bags in the event of an accident.My wife has good credit, I do not. My bad credit situation is due to a series of poor, but willful decisions I made in 2008. Since then I have paid the full balance of all my delinquent debts, rehabilitated my student loan and managed to obtain a stable life. We have 11,000 cash which we are willing to use for a down payment but can tap up to 15,000 if needed. We currently save around 1000 a month unless we need to make a tuition payment. After some discussion we decided the most we are willing to spend on a car payment is 300-400 per month.I know nothing about auto loans or if we are even in a position to borrow. We are looking to borrow with Navy Federal Credit Union. This would be the first new car any of us have ever owned if we do and we are considering a Prius or an Elantra. Would it be better for us to buy used again or go forward with our current plan to buy new. I personally am very weary about borrowing again as I know Ive made the wrong decisions in the past and fear repeating past struggles.  <response>: You were rocking it well till you decided to go down the car finance route.You have 11,000 cash. Sell the elantra, use that plus.. 8 or 9k of that saved cash and buy a car.Ill let you know that the financingloannew car IS that wrong decision staring you dead in your face. 