Wife's car is told it has a bad piston ring in #.

Wife's car is told it has a bad piston ring in #1 cylinder, has low compression, the nother cylinders are fine. This car has been well maintained we are thye original owners. I am retired and cannot afford a car payments, the mechanic says they can fix it for about $1,900. We like this car it's in pretty good shape. My question is. Should we put the money into it or could we take it easy with it and possibly last another year or even longer?

Thank you Ken