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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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long story short, but in reality, that $600 dent could cost you $2k at trade-in...
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I've had my 93 SL1 (and associated headache) for a year now. The week after I bought it, something happened and the car was overheating ... extremely. Since the sales lot I bought the car from mysteriously vanished (the entire lot!), I took it to a Saturn dealer. The dealer replaced the water pump or a sensor or something - can't remember now - total bill $650. When I started up the car on the Saturn lot, the car was shaking vilontely (had not done this before). I shut it down and walked back inside. The informed me that my timing chain had skipped (funny they didn't notice it when they had my car in pieces). So they wanted another $1,000 to fix that). Total bill now $1,650. I came back a few days later and started my car again which now puttered (evidently to a bent valve). They said that it would cost another $950 to replace the valve. I was now completley out of my savings. So they said that it would be ok to drive the car as long as I didn't mind the puttering at an idle. On the way home I realized that my accelerator now had a point after an inch or so of being pressed down where it became stiff. I figured out I could push harder to get past the point I needed to be able to merge into traffic without being run over, but that the power I had when I first drove the car was now about half. I took it back to the dealer (3rd time in one week) who said that I had a bad throttle box (of course I don't even know what these parts are). They wanted another $900 to fix that (funny how every repair is $900!!). I figured I'd tough it out until I could afford to have it repaired. Until about another week goes by and the alternator goes out. A friend of mine knew how to replace the alternator so he did. I can afford free  But now as I'm driving down the road the headlights (and dash lights) just sporadically dim out for a second or so and sometimes the car nearly stalls just idling. My friend doesn't know what the problem is. The alternator was a new part. So now, I have a bent valve, dimming headlights, sticky accelator, sometimes have to jiggle the battery cable to start it, and on top of it all it seems to burn oil quickly. Here's my question. Am I just a glutton for punishment hanging on to this car, or is it worth saving up the money to fix all these problems? And are these problems normal on a car this old with 146,000 miles? Do I keep the car or get rid of it like a hot potatoe?
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| Given the car's resale value and mileage, and given that you have no used car lot anymore to sue for being ripped off to begin with, I would definitely pull the rip cord, take the painful hit and put your money into something worthwhile. | |
| So much money wasted-- what a shame. I vote with Mr. Shiftright. | |
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Replying to: junglyboi (Feb 12, 2005 10:40 am) |
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High mileage vehicles are like time bombs waiting to go off...
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Replying to: wtd44 (Feb 17, 2005 8:03 am) |
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I think wdt44's point was not to contend that some engines do in fact go 250K, but rather this: that after a certain point, a high mileage vehicle is subject to sudden and unpredictable disaster. The statistics suggest this is true, just look at the odometers in any wrecking yard, on cars that were not in collisions. Some bad and sudden thing brought them there. For this reason, I like to advise people to pay very very little for cars with over 200K on them, as their lifespan could be measured in days....or months...or years...nobody knows what's going on in there. Engineers never planned for engines to go that far.
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Feb 26, 2005 10:51 am) |
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I'd say about 175K on a modern car or thereafter, it could drop dead any minute and, in terms of market value, is essentially worthless except as a high risk beater. I'd certainly pay well below wholesale book, even for a well maintained car. Think of it as if you were buying a 40 year old pitcher for your baseball team. His arm could be gone in one pitch.
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