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Y... you should easily get 300K on it. A common problem with them is that the odometer stops working at 299,999 miles, but the car just keeps on running! ...
Gee...that's a real problem. I'd steer clear of those cars
I have an 11 year old car. It is a Pontiac Vibe with 135k miles on it. I've always maintained it well and keep it in a garage out of the weather. I've never needed to fix anything on it in all this time. Just routine maintenance. However a lot of it is still original and no doubt reaching a point where major things need to be replaced.
It needs new struts and a four wheel alignment which will cost me a lot of money. I've been tossing around the idea of replacing the car. I wonder if this is the first of major repairs and maintence that needs to be done. After doing some reading I decided to ask the mechanic to really look at it and give me an opinion. If it's good I'll keep it. If not I will look into replacing it first major repairs it needs.
I'm not a car person. I just try to take care of my car and maintain it. What sorts of things should I listen for from the mechanic as red flags that the car might be more trouble to keep than replace?
I do know the airbag I'd recalled on it. There are no parts to get it fixed yet.
If you want to be frugal keep the car as long as you can,rust is the only thing that would ultimately necessitate getting rid of the car.
I remember my Dad imparting some of his frugal logic my way when i had a car that needed some repairs and was thinking of buying a new one rather than fix the old car,he said whats the repairs going to cost,i said about $500,he then said whats a new car going to cost? about $20K i said.
I put in the $500 repair and drove that car another 4yrs and 100K miles with minimal problems. .
$800 for all 4 struts, sounds pretty good to me if that price includes struts. For one strut, nah, too much!
Doing some googling for this car you can get all 4 of them starting around $170, about $400 with the spring. I realize they have to make their money but $400 to $600 dollars for something that should take about hour at most is a little steep.
Thanks again for the help. I'm keeping not the car. I want to keep the car. But I'm not going to keep it is it's going to be a white elephant soon. Although from the sounds of it my car will most likely be vey sound.
I am going to have mechanic inspect it. What major repairs could be an indication that this isn't a good idea? I'm mainly thinking of repairs that will be over $3000 or so. Big things.
Every car, whether brand new or old, costs us so much a mile to drive it. If you have a new car you have depreciation and payments, and with an older car you have occasional repair bills. I hate car payments, so I drive cars I own outright and I accept that every so often I will have a bill to fix something. I figure that every month I don't have to send some bank $300-$700 for a payment is money I have to repair it when it needs it.
If you have owned that car as long as you have, you probably have established a good relationship with some mechanic you trust, so I would work with him to keep it alive. Sounds like you have maintained it well, which helps a lot.
You are over thinking this, get the struts done when it fails inspection if there is nothing else too serious wrong.
Then just keep up with regular maintenance items until something expensive goes wrong.
Struts, alignment, brakes, fluid changes, tires etc are all regular maintenance items and do not mean the car is about to crap out.
Made the appointment to get the struts replaced. I was wrong only the front ones need to be replaced. I was also wrong on price. I didn't mention it here but I had it in my head the repairs were going to be over $2k. My mechanic told me no, it would be just under $1k and that's for front struts and 4 wheel alignment. Now it I could just get that recalled airbag replaced the car would be perfect again.
You are over thinking this, get the struts done when it fails inspection if there is nothing else too serious wrong.
Then just keep up with regular maintenance items until something expensive goes wrong.
Struts, alignment, brakes, fluid changes, tires etc are all regular maintenance items and do not mean the car is about to crap out.
I overthink everything. It's a personal merit but also a flaw as well. I just like to have a plan and an idea of what I'm going to do over the next year for budgeting purposes. But you are right I am probably over worrying.
I have an 11 year old car. It is a Pontiac Vibe with 135k miles on it. I've always maintained it well and keep it in a garage out of the weather. I've never needed to fix anything on it in all this time. Just routine maintenance. However a lot of it is still original and no doubt reaching a point where major things need to be replaced.
It needs new struts and a four wheel alignment which will cost me a lot of money. I've been tossing around the idea of replacing the car. I wonder if this is the first of major repairs and maintence that needs to be done. After doing some reading I decided to ask the mechanic to really look at it and give me an opinion. If it's good I'll keep it. If not I will look into replacing it first major repairs it needs.
I'm not a car person. I just try to take care of my car and maintain it. What sorts of things should I listen for from the mechanic as red flags that the car might be more trouble to keep than replace?
I do know the airbag I'd recalled on it. There are no parts to get it fixed yet.
Well, I'd pay for the repairs. From what others say it's got a LOT of life left.
I have a 1998 Dodge van with 220K miles on it, just dumped $1,400 in it and now will follow with $1,250
So that $2,650 for the next 3-4 years. Unless the engine does a major failure (Or tranny) There's little reason for me to replace the vehicle at this time.
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