Well my first suggestion is to talk to a financial planner so that you can actually calculate out the costs of both options and get high quality advice. You should be able to estimate the summer gas costs for the Civic, since you have the cost of your summer gas and I’m sure you can estimate the average price per gallon over the summer, thus giving you the number of gallons used, use that to find the number of miles traveled, use that to find the Civic’s theoretical gas cost. Is there no way to reduce your gas expenditure during the summer? Carpooling, using public transit some days, working from home, being wiser about running out for errands, anything? I cannot recommend buying a new car if you are in financial troubles. You can almost guaranteed find a solid used car for much less than a new car costs. Look around for used Civics, they’re not at all rare.