Hi,

A couple of things to keep in mind when deciding on keeping a car or trading in:

• With the price of gas going thru the roof, you have to consider your mpg on your Acura. If it is still within an acceptable range, or has it dropped to the point that it is considered a negative.
• Even with possible "big ticket" maintainance or repairs totaling $1200 annually, that comes to $100 a month avg, which is a significant amount lower than car payments for a comparable new car today.
• Most components on a car such as wheel bearings, front end parts, suspension, external engine parts such as alternators or starters, or internal engine or transmission parts are only replaced when they fail.
• Maintainance items such as timing belt, drive belt(s), spark plugs, filters,etc. would need to be done on a new car as well- so there is no true net savings over time on old vs. new car as far as cost of maintainance

If the rust is not eaten thru the metal all the way, it can usually be repaired without major body work or body panel replacement.

As far as what might go out at 142,000 miles, honestly, without inspecting the vehicle, it is very hard to say. Engine or transmission failure, even with regular maintainance, can happen at anytime. Usually there are "tell-tale" signs such as oil sludge in the engine, debris in transmission fluid- both of which should be noticed during maintainance services. But, there can be the unexpected- headgasket blowing, intake manifold leaking, timing belt breaking(which will result in bent valves), for example.

Although schedule calls for timing belt replacement every 90k, I suggest every 60k on higher mileage vehicles, especially if the timing belt tensioner is not replaced each time as well.

As for rest of maintainance items, simply repeat the schedule for the first 120k miles listed in owners manual- spark plugs every 30k, automatic trans fluid(if applicable) every 30k, air filter inspected every 7k and cleaned/replaced as necessary, etc.

One of the most things in vehicle maintainance and upkeep is to find 1 shop that you can trust and depend on to look out for your best interests. This means one that will not oversell repairs or needless maintainance, but will not in such a hurry on basic services such as tire rotations that they dont do a quick check of brake condition, or check for wheel bearing play or front end part looseness. You want a shop that will take you out to your vehicle when they find a problem and show you what is happening, and why something is being recommended. This will in itself lower the cost of repairs as a problem is repaired before it causes further damage.

I hope this helps in your decision.