Well, the other part of the story is that the folks were planning to replace the Volvo within the next year or so ... mom loves it, but it's not been trouble free and is getting more expensive to maintain than it's worth (not that we'd know anything about that).

With that in mind, it doesn't seem to make fiscal sense to buy another used car just for 6months, especially since I'd want her to have something that would be safe in Wisconsin winter (she has ~60miles/day commute).

Anyways, it's still an idea we're tossing around, but I'm going to push to just go ahead and replace the volvo.

-Colin