Here's the story: My mom was traveling back to Pittsburgh, PA from Des Moines, IA in her 2003 Mercury Sable wagon. In Moline, IL, the transmission refuses to go into any gear but Reverse. So she parks it, calls AAA. Yadda yadda yadda, she gets it towed to a shop and she gets a rental. She arrives here in Columbus with her rental.
Here's the issue. The car has 100k on the clock and is beat to shit (scrapes all over, front bumper has been wrecked three times, interior is nasty). If it needs a new tranny, the car is not going to be fixed. She's already dumped about $1500 into it with brakes, two tires and fixing a previous tranny issue this year alone.
So what now happens to the car? Should she have it brought back to PA to scrap/trade-in? Should she leave it where it is in Illinois and just have someone buy it there? Maybe convince the shop to give her a few $$ for it? I've never had to deal with this before and I have no idea how to help her deal with this situation. I know if it's totally fucked, she won't want to deal with trying to sell off parts or anything of that nature.
Any advice?