So, I (M25) have/had a 2003 Volkswagen Jetta. It was fairly good, but it had a few issues: the wheel bearings were acting up and the breaks were getting very spongy. Frankly it was getting to a point where driving it made me anxious, my mechanic dad agreed, and we decided to fix the thing in May. Fortunately, we also own a grand prix which me and my mother share, while my dad (M53) owned a white truck. Neither of the latter two are in stellar shape, but they get us from point A to point B. We're a little poor but my dad has a lot of connections as a mechanic, so we cycle through very low quality vehicles.

My very kind older brother gifted his car to my dad so he had an easy way to get to and from work. It's a black 2015 nissan rogue

Now, I was going to get parts for the Jetta, but then an unintended expense (my mom stealing my credit card to pay the internet) came up and I could no longer comfortably afford them. It was over summer too and my job (online tutor) had slowed down waaaaay more than I had anticipated.

Now here's the thing: my dad had been repairing vehicles basically for a year straight, in addition to being a mechanic, so I wanted to cut my old man some slack and just let him drive his new, upgraded car without having to fuss over a terrible one, since I couldn't even get the parts comfortably anyways. I sincerely felt bad for him. It was work, work, work, work, work for the poor guy. He was grumpy/sad every day and honestly, I couldn't blame him.

Now, Dad gets laid off in the winter temporarily, so I figured "OK, I'll keep the Jetta running but not actually fix it until November when he's done with work, then I'll get on him about fixing it." He had earned some rest. I wanted him to drive his new, relatively nice car around without stressing out his poor back even more.

I tried running the Jetta and driving it around the yard here and there but eventually the battery died, and is dead. This was in October. This is fine, I thought- at most it'll sit for a month, and then dad will get on it.

And then? His relatively new Nissan Rogue died. Transmission went out.

So, I thought, OK, he'll focus on the Rogue, right? It's a good car, he'll get to it when he gets to it, and then we can fix my Jetta. It'll be relatively quick.

Nope. He just doesn't tend to it due to lack of money. His plan is apparently to sell some old stuff in the backyard to get the parts to fix the Rogue. Now, he's starting work back up in a week.

Dad seems genuinely happy and relaxed right now for the first time in forever, and he's going back to work- and I'm about to ruin it by telling him he has to fix yet another car in addition to his Rogue and going back to his job. AND the Jetta is going to be in especially terrible shape because it has barely gone anywhere for nearly a full year.

I feel like a shitstain idiot failure of a son. I tried to protect him from his stress and instead, I just made it worse. On top of that, I got this jetta from my other brother too, and it's like I'm shitting all over his gift. On top of that, I didn't actually communicate this to my dad. I just wanted to quietly give him some rest, so I didn't buy the parts, and now I gotta explain all that, which might mean explaining my own bad financial decisions and my mom stealing from me.

TL;DR: My car went out and I decided to not get the parts for my dad to fix it so I could give him a rest- but now, he just has to fix a bunch of cars at once, and one's in much worse shape than it used to be and it’s all my fault.