Before I saw the pic I was going to say if the body is in good shape, in my view stick with it unless you don't like it for other reasons.
Having seen the body, at least cosmetically it looks very good.
Getting mechanical stuff fixed is much easier than dealing with a rusted out body so if it is sound I tend to prefer that route.
As someone said, new car payments are pricey and then there is collision coverage for insurance that is required. Take the combined amount and save it. That will cover an awful lot of repairs. A new vehicle probably will give less hiccups and less shop time but isn't less expensive.
I used to keep two old cars and found that far less expensive than the one newer one I eventually got. The nice thing about the older cars was that if one broke I had a backup. When both were running I would switch which I used so neither was just sitting (cars don't like to sit in my experience) and the change was always pleasant.
I also don't like some of the newer things they are putting into cars such as traction control and antilock brakes. While under typical road conditions both of these systems work fine and as advertised, they have given me grief less than typical yet more or less common road. The traction control cutting throttle as I was pulling into traffic because a bit of sand on the road surface at the intersection. Without traction control the sand would have gotten kicked out from under the tire and it would grab the road. Antilock brakes cutting braking force cause of the sand/gravel that accumulated at the bottom of the driveway at work causing my vehicle to go out into cross traffic in front of a semi. My other car the tires would lock up and while skid a short bit in the sand/gravel, stop the vehicle.
So between annoying technology and cost of new vehicles, I have lost interest and have no problem putting significant money into an older vehicle that has a good body.
As also has been said, it makes no sense to get rid of a vehicle just cause you had to put a bunch of money into recently. That's like fixing up a vehicle for someone else so might as well get some value out of it.
As I see it, suppose someone puts a new engine, a few months later a new trans into a vehicle with a body as good as yours and then...a few months later has an alternator go bad and thinks that is the last straw, I suppose I wouldn't mind taking that lemon off their hands...for the right price since I would be assuming such a risk you know.
And if you are thinking of not a brand new car, but a newer used car, I always think, unless I am really lucky, odds are the car I am looking to buy was someone else's headache so I anticipate some rehab expenses in the not too distant future so the costs get you one way or another so I like to stick what I know unless the body is too far gone to justify putting more money in.
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