u/Jiannies

I've got a 2017 Ford Escape 2.0L, 127k miles on it. Bought it CPO at 70k miles and at 84k I got hit with the dreaded coolant intrusion, paid $6k for a brand new 0 miles engine with a 1 year warranty. So the current engine has about 55k miles on it.

I've noticed that I get some weird shudders around 40mph or less, took my car in to a mechanic and they told me that the transmission fluid is pretty black (this is entirely my fault, I've done my oil changes on schedule but have never done any trans fluid changes) and that my torque converter could be failing. They quoted me 8k for a transmission rebuild, and said that doing a fluid change could help but could also hurt it, and that I should be prepared to put in a new trans if I decide to change the fluid. I need my car for work, and the shudders aren't terrible yet, so I decided to forego it until I get a couple weeks off in July at the end of my current job.

I finally paid this car off a few months ago, so the thought of taking on car payments again sucks, but obviously a broken car doesn't do me any good either. I'm planning on calling around to some transmission shops to get some more quotes- is there a price that would make a new transmission make more sense than taking that money and putting a down payment on a new or CPO car?

Of note, my job can sometimes require a shit ton of driving depending on the gig. On the last project I was working on, I put around 25k miles on it in four months. So that could factor in as well

Thanks all in advance