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Excluding lube, tires, battery, etc. How much should a person expect to pay in repairs outside of normal maintenance throughout the life of a car; assuming it is bought brand new and driven to about 150k miles?
My experience with car repairs has been...
99 Escort.. $750 repair, transmission blew at 180k miles and was a total loss; bought w 30k miles, died at 180k miles
01 Taurus.. $900 repair, engine blew at 160k; total loss; bought w 60k miles, driven to 160k
05 Prius... $250 repair, still going strong @ 125k miles, bought w 35k miles
99 Windstar... $6000 in repairs; bought at 40k miles, sold at 100k miles
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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It would be really hard to come up with an average. I have been driving for almost 40 years with about 25 cars between me and my wife, and it varies from zero to about 6,000. Only had major engine problems in the earlier years and back then did my own work. Parts for replacing a head gasket, lifters, or exhaust system was inexpensive then. I have had to rebuild transmissions on 4, from $2,200-$3,200. My current ride is a 2007 Ranger bought new with 65,000 and I have not had to do anything other than regular maintenance so far. Our recently traded in (at 100k miles) 2002 Jeep Liberty cost us about
$6,000 mostly in the last 2 years. All the rest were in between but probably closer to $1,000. I have not had to replace an exhaust system since about 1980, they seem to last a lot longer than they used to. Typical repairs have been heater cores, heater fans and resistors, and interior problems with power windows and door locks, and fuel pumps. With a stick shift, figure at least one clutch replacement. I have paid as little as $100 (1978) and as much as $600 (in 2012) depending on when.
Accord: 15-140k, $800. Only necessary because it ran too long without an O2 sensor too long and destroyed the cat.
Eclipse: $2,000 or $3,000 between 90 and ~130k. Not exactly fair, tracked, driven hard, lots of parts broke from hard use.
Mazda3: $1,100. AC compressor failed, goodwilled by Mazda so I didn't pay any of it. Currently at 130k.
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