Well, just got the bad news: My problem was the water pump originally. Unfortunately when it went and the engine overheated (for the third time now in the last year) the transmission got hosed up and needs to be replaced, along with the transfer case.

So: Water pump, $300, transmission, around $3000 I'm told.

And to top it off, he said he's really worried about the engine. Its very termpermental to heat, and since this is the third time now something has busted and its overheated, I could easily sink $4000 into fixing it, and then find out the engine is hosed as well.

Any thoughts or suggestions as to what I should do from here? My thoughts:

1) I don't want to give up my baby.
2) I'd rather spend $4000 to fix it, than $20000 to buy a new car. But maybe I can get some value from it as a trade in?
3) Is it wise to fix with the probably engine problems also looming?
4) If we do end up getting a new car, it won't be a 4 wheel drive so I'll be out of the game for a while.

Ugh. No idea what to do, and very sad because I have a feeling I'm not going to like the outcome of this.

Mark