Overheating

I have the car listed above ES model. It has an overheating problem. The car’s in good shape always well maintained. We took it to our (or was ) mechanic we were using for all our vehicles and all he did was replace the thermostat and then said it has a cracked head gasket, he didn’t even bother doing anything else, couldn’t be bothered, he said; "these cars are notorious for blowing head gaskets" and that he doesn’t want to deal with head gasket jobs, said it would cost more than the cars worth. Yeah time to switch mechanics. So while my husband 's not a mechanic he is definitely mechanically inclined and fixes many of his vehicle problems, and is stumped with this one.

The engine runs good except (the overheating of course) and occasionally makes a noise, so after flushing out the radiator checking it for leaks, changing the thermostat, testing for a cracked head gasket (which it’s not, and so called mechanic didn’t do) husband thinks the water pump needs replacing. However, I’ve read plenty online where all these things were done and the problem still resides. We have someone who is willing to change out the water pump for 500 bucks, which I’m willing to do, or buy it from us for $500.00 (which I’m not ready to do). However, before we do that I’d like to know if there are any other things we can do/replace at less of an expense that might actually be the issue or be more cost effective for us to do ourselves instead of having additional work done by the mechanic while the water pumps being replaced?

I know my car isn’t ready for the junk yard, yet, but I do know realistically and sensibly there is only so much that should be spent to save it, and that needs to happen quickly before the snow falls, husband doesn’t want I buried in snow in the yard when we can get hauled away if need be. He also thinks if it needs to go then donating it might be the better way for us to go then the 500 bucks, but I’m sure about that either, as I think you can only claim the value it’s sold for at auction, and how can you trust that figure.

Any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated.