2003 Ford Explorer XLT RWD, should I keep it or sell/trade-in?

[amtex]

I purchased it at roughly 95,000 miles in 2009. Since then I had several relatively minor things repaired (around $700) and serviced the car acording to manual (engine, transmission oil changes, brakes, etc.) Now it has 145,500 miles.

Now it seems that my rear differential needs repair (humming noises at 30 mph) and they would accelerate with the speed but because of the road noise it's not that obviouse at higher speeds. Plus rough noise coming with strong vibration as if you would pass those Bott's dots (pavement markers) and that mostly happens at cruising around 35-75 mph.

So I guess to fix these problem it might take more then $1500 or even couple of thousands dollars... I don't know if there are going to be some other expensive repairs coming after that. My question is should I keep it and do repairs or just sell and buy something newer? I have to add that I use FordEx for long trips too not often but sometines it happens and I kind of concerned about safety of driving systems.

 

[DAT05EXPLODER]

Are you prepared to take not a lot of money on trade in or even selling? Say you get $2500 would you feel like you got $4500 of use out of it?

 

[D Hook]

I always just ask myself if I'm ready to go back to making $300/mo car payments again. The answer is usually no.

 

[amtex]

"$300/mo" thing is holding me back too but on the other hand what does Ford Explorer's life look like after 150,000? Is it just trans and rear differential repairs or there are some other expensive repairs should be expected too?

Plus with these gas prices and with us having sometimes long trips I was thinking about something with higher MPG rate.

 

[MrBean]

I only got 70k on my engine and cylinder #4 took a **** on me...putting on a new engine soon and gonna drive it around till the 6 months warranty expires then I will probably gonna sell it...not gonna hang on til the transmission goes out