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Maintenance & Repair To Fix Up or Trade Up, That is the Question
536 messages, Last post on Jul 24, 2009 at 9:12 AM
You are in the Maintenance & Repair Forum. Your Host is mr_shiftright
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (May 01, 2009 9:15 am) When its junky - junk it. 
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Replying to: euphonium (May 01, 2009 12:24 pm) |
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I need advise. I had an accident yesterday with my 1995 Ford Taurus SHO. I rear-ended a woman who was merging but changed her mind suddenly. Must have hit her in a bad way since she had almost no damage but I will probably need a hood, headlight and turn signal assembly and radiator work. Haven't shopped around yet for body work but a casual quick estimate was about $3000. I dropped collision insurance last year due to the age of the car and the fact that it is not driven much. The car is supposedly somewhat rare and coveted. It is an automatic 1995 Ford Taurus SHO with 107,000 miles on it. Runs perfectly. A slight amount of rust (garaged most of the time). May need dual exhaust system in a year or two. Has new tires, brakes. Like all SHO's it has lots of upgrades. Was never abused, we are original owners, and it still is fun to drive since it has the coveted powerful engine. Fix it up or donate it to charity in its damaged condition or fix it? The car is liked but will it hold it's value to make it worth the costs? Hate to see the fine and fun 95 SHO sent to the graveyard due to a stupid accident, but can I justify the expense of repairing it? Any advise? |
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Replying to: maryh3 (May 02, 2009 2:36 am) Your only other option, which is also the only way there can be any upside to this situation, is for you to find all the pieces you need at a wrecking yard, all in the same color as your car, and install them yourself and drive the car around as it is. |
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Replying to: maryh3 (May 02, 2009 2:36 am) Our 95 T Bird has been repaired several times by such a bodyman and the work is perfect. Right now, he has a 55 T Bird in his shop. If you can find a retired or moon lighting body mechanic as outlined above, fix it. 
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Replying to: euphonium (May 02, 2009 9:18 am)
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (May 02, 2009 9:58 am) 1995 Used Ford Taurus SHO Sedan, White, 3.2L V6, AUTO 4SPD, FWD, 4 door, Stock# 17441 Dealer: Reposses Auto Sales, Inc. 877-299-9140 $3,500 Van Nuys, CA In addition there is: 1995 Used Ford Taurus SHO Sedan, White, 6 Cylinders, AUTOMATIC, FWD, 4 door, Stock# 2248 Dealer: Phillipsburg Auto Sales 888-839-0013 $3,290 90,000 mi Phillipsburg, NJ |
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (May 02, 2009 9:58 am) The only other option would be to buy pieces on e-bay, like you say, and install them myself or have someone do it for me for labor costs only. I see a hood on e-bay for $40.00 in my color, that is 2 hrs away. Headlights are reasonable on e-bay too. I may be biting off more than I can chew though - I'm not mechanically inclined. Will I be able to find all the brackets and screws and monuts that I need? Probably won't know until I try to install the replacement pieces. Do you think I should pursue this route? Basically it needs a new hood, some radiator repair and headlights with the mountings etc. These things do appear on e-bay. This ins't a question of money rather its that I hate to see things go to waste.
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Replying to: maryh3 (May 02, 2009 12:28 pm) "waste" is, as you say, a subjective term. To me, it's a "waste" of your time, but to you, maybe not. Fixing a smacked up car is often not just a matter of bolting new parts on there. Things have been bent, pushed, etc and there are little bits and pieces, such as brackets, trim parts, that you may not yet know are damaged. Why don't you go to a "real" bodyshop and get a real estimate to start with? That would give us some idea of how much you can save doing it all "on the cheap". Also posting some photos would be good. To help you with a frame of reference, I think your car could be replaced with one in kind for about $2,500.
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Replying to: maryh3 (May 02, 2009 2:36 am) When I first read your message, the first thing I thought was '$3,000 to repair a car that probably worth about $3,000, at the very best'. And this is NOT a good 'deal' to get into. I'm not a body repairman, but my guess is that the problem you would get into by buying the parts yourselves, is that you can find the hood, headlights, all the large external parts. But, you probably have broken smaller plastic parts - brackets, braces, clips, etc inside the nose and around the radiator. These will have to be bought from Ford, if available, or gotten from a salvage. And any salvage car hit in the front will not have these parts, since they were also damaged in it's wreck. I'm sorry, but I would not repair this car. I'll bet with 100,000+ miles, the leather on the seats is in rather bad shape. The car has its supporters, but overall is not that special. At it's time, which actually was the early models, 1989 or so, this car was a powerful sedan. But by 1995, many, many sedans had surpassed the power and handling of the SHO. This advice is being given by someone that owned a new 1991 SHO for about 6 years. And, I drove a new 1995 automatic, considering the car to get away from my standard transmission car. The 1995 automatic seemed less powerful, and as I said, there were other options to buy in the 'sport sedan' class rather than SHO's. When we sold our car, it only had about 42,000 miles. It still ran well, but the paint was fading off all over, and I was very happy having the extended warranty we bought for the car, because it had been used quite a bit. The clutch was getting harder and harder to push, and it was going to need work soon, which was not covered by the warranty. Overall, don't put 100% of the value of the car into it. Not even 50%. It's time to move on. A newer Honda Accord V6 will have about the same power, comfort, and handling as your SHO. |
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