Car Trouble

Once again the painful dilemma of car trouble. I remember the evil three "C"'s from my environmentalist past: cows, cars and chainsaws. I still agree with these and they all tie into carbon dioxide, but my here and now is about the pain of dealing with car repair. That would be my wife's car with 60,000 miles and still a year of payments upcoming. Thanks to the merciful loss of painful memories, the real car crisis days are a faint recollection, regular breakdowns, repairs, replacement parts, the "beater". I have not been an "end user" of the automobile since my 20's. Recalling some of those experiences even helps now, putting this now fairly rare dilemma into perspective - whether to repair or replace and what to do with the shock over the price. The problem is a broken timing chain and damaged cylinder head. My estimate is $800 and everyone does well, the real price is $2700!! The car must be fixed, it has a ton of post-repair value. I may be able to do it myself after about 3 days of work ( I would be really inefficient and with no warranty). A favorable trade-in deal will just leave us with more car debt. Finally, there is the balance betweeen the value of reliability and safety we can afford and rightfully low and basic place the hunk of steel has in the big picture.
I've always advocated everyone have a doctor and a lawyer in the family. I guess I would add auto mechanic to the list.