blown head gasket

The check engine light has been on for months. I've had work done on the vehicle at times but, it has never been fully fixed. I'm a woman and have no idea about fixing cars or what I need to do. It will not start and when it does theres lots of smoke coming out of the tail pipe. Is this problem worth looking in to or should I just look into purchasing another car? Please help I am in tremendous need of advice!

What color is the smoke?
Autozone will check engine codes.
Purchasing a new vehicle? Depends on what is wrong and if it's worth fixing.

We have a 93 Sable and it did that when we had only 58K miles on it and that was 3 years ago. Head gasket was blown and car looked like a fog machine with white smoke coming out exhaust. cost us $2600 for head gaskets, radiator, water pump, timing case gasket. Now 3 years alter we had to replace all 3 motor mounts and we still only have 68K miles. today the steering started growling at us and the A/C keeps loosing freon. Get rid of your car - these things are a POS. Any car with this many problems and this few of miles is not worth owning.