Saturday, on our way back from Saturday errands, experienced another engine-failure in my wife's #MiniCountryman. The previous one had been due to a need to replace the timing-chain ($6K). So, my first thought was, "fuck: was the repair faulty??"
Took the car in, Monday, to get checked out. On the plus side, it wasn't the timing chain. On the minus side, it still required $800 worth of work: the ignition-coil on the third cylinder was faulty. Back when we'd had the timing-chain replaced, another ignition-coil was faulting, so it had been replaced, then. With two failing in under nine months and the car creeping up on 13yo, they also replaced the other two ignition-coils.
Not great that they were wanting replaced, but not terribly surprising, either. At nearly 13yo, my wife's Mini is nearly as old as my #BMW was when its ignition-coils needed replacement.
So, while $800 worth of work ain't ideal, it's still below the threshold I'd set on the "need to just suck it up and buy a new car" decision. Had it been north of $2500, I'd already have another tab open and looking at what my new #car options are.