And maybe she will have them fixed. Doesn't mean she has to buy a new car.

Win a (one) million and by the time the (t)axman quits chewing on it, you're only a hundred-thousandaire.

^{_{Modern "education" teaches a version of history so fictionalized, it should be followed by "TM"}
They're warning me about Osama or whatever. Picture me buying the scam; I say "never!".}

Who said GM doesn't make cars that last? 

My car is 9, My TV is 26 (probably older than many people here).  I have clothes older than the TV.

I'd move somewhere with a washer and dryer a dishwasher and where I could have pets.
But I certainly wouldn't buy a new car that I had to pay lots of insurance on.  Or, for that matter, any crap that I would probably be tripping over.

Even $10K can greatly alter your life if you buy a car with it and not have payments for several years.

You should have a realistic goal of what you actually need to make your life what you would be happy with. I would want enough to buy a house and a car and 6 mo. of "emergency funds" equal to what I normally would have anyway. A decent win on the Jersey Cash 5 would do it. I have a shot at that. I got close last month.

Or maybe she already has a working exhaust system, in which case holes in the floorboards are about as dangerous as opening your windows. OTOH, if the holes are caused by rust, I'd be concerned about the adjacent areas that hadn't rusted all the way through yet, and the possibility that  the floor could fail. Either way, I doubt that it would be worth the cost of fixing any significant holes in a Cavalier that's 15 years old. Even in really good shape she'd be lucky if it's worth $1000.

Yep, if it is rust then dump it.  I had to get rid of a car because I got home and pulled into park and put the emergency brake on and the seat went backwards through the floorboard!  Turns out the emergency brake cable  guide was anchored to one of the bolts on the front seat and the floorboards were rusted really bad.

This is the kind of woman I would want to marry.  She's not materialistic and conceded.