Car problems stink!

I think that we were chosen out of many people to have to go through car trials. I know everyone else has car problems from time to time, but we seem to have them regularly. Our last car, which was a Pontiac Grand Am, gave us CONSTANT problems. I'm pretty sure it was a lemon. We probably sunk around $7,000.00 dollars in repair in that piece of junk. And you know we always had a loan on it and the payoff was way more than the book value of that thing, so we were STUCK with it. We would fix one thing and immediately another thing would go wrong with it. And a lot of the things were very pricey! Transmission, clutch, you name it, we fixed it. Well, we finally got rid of it and bought Ollie and Sharon's van (Dodge Grand Caravan), which had a warranty left on it. SO we didn't have to deal with anything for a while, probably a year. Then the warranty expired and things started to slowly go wrong. We had to put new brakes on the van last April (2006). And then in September,2006, Ryan was backing up and hit a corner post which made a huge dent in the front drivers side, knocking out the turning signal and making a loud noise every time you open the drivers door. I know that's not the van's fault, but it is still something that needs fixed. Then in June (2007), I was driving out to Colorado for Stephanie's wedding and the stupid air conditioner went out on me. It will cost around $700.00 to get fixed. So we had NO A/C this summer, it was MISERABLE. The passenger sliding door is starting to be hard to open. And just recently our van's brakes started to squeak and even when we weren't using the brakes, the wheels squeaked. SO I had it checked out today, and there's a bunch of things needing fixed that will cost $478.00. I'm very frustrated! Why does car repairs have to cost so much??? If we fix everything that needs fixed on our van, it would probably cost us $2,500.00. Just say a little prayer for us, this is just a trial, I know, but I'm incredibly stressed over this STUPID van.