Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I hit a pothole and can't afford a new car.
Firestone showed me the crack and said this is the work that needs to be done.
Remove and replace FRONT CRADLE ASSEMBLY= $494.00
7000711 FRONT SUB FRAME = $1,250.00
Nuts, bolts & fasteners = 109.00
Total is $1,853.99
Question is this:
I called another mechanic and over the phone I told him the problem.
He said he could do it for $750.00 to high end $950.00.
I am afraid if I tow it there he will change the price to Firestone price and I will be stuck.
Does the mechanic price seem right for this job?
It is a 95 Chevy Cavalier and has 89,000 miles. I have a lot of money invested in the car and will never be able to afford a new car so I want to believe the mechanic"s price over Firestone but don't know if it is possible.
Please help.
Thanks
It hardly seems worth it to put that much money into a 95 cavalier. I'll let others opine about that.
I know it doesn't make sense to fix it but the bottom line is that is the ONLY way I will ever have a car again. I am "up there" and do not have the money to buy new or to spend all of that money on used just to have to then spend more money to fix used because I have replaced so many things on the Cavalier and it will be like starting over.
I'm just wondering if what the mechanic said sounds like it could be true.
Thanks
I hit a pothole and can't afford a new car.
Firestone showed me the crack and said this is the work that needs to be done.
Remove and replace FRONT CRADLE ASSEMBLY= $494.00
7000711 FRONT SUB FRAME = $1,250.00
Nuts, bolts & fasteners = 109.00
Total is $1,853.99
Question is this:
I called another mechanic and over the phone I told him the problem.
He said he could do it for $750.00 to high end $950.00.
I am afraid if I tow it there he will change the price to Firestone price and I will be stuck.
Does the mechanic price seem right for this job?
It is a 95 Chevy Cavalier and has 89,000 miles. I have a lot of money invested in the car and will never be able to afford a new car so I want to believe the mechanic"s price over Firestone but don't know if it is possible.
Please help.
Thanks
My personal opinion is to forget the mechanic who gave you a quote "OVER THE PHONE". Take your car to another mechanic (get some references). I don't know where the crack is or how severe it is but there is a possibility that the crack can be welded (if it can be welded you'll need to get your front end aligned after it's done). I am surprised that you did that much damage by hitting a pothole and your tire and rim are still intact (?) or were they replaced. Good luck to you.
Rule of thumb: An estimate at Firestone will be approximately ten times what you really need to have done and can be done by an independent garage. (That applies to all chains of the Firestone ilk.)
Do you have full coverage insurance? If you do, try them. By the way, you would be lucky to get $1500 for that car before the damage, so take that when you consider what you are willing to pay to get it fixed.
You're shopping at the wrong places. The damage your car sustained doesn't require a service/mechanic shop, but a body shop. Firestone is fine for normal things like brakes, tires, oil changes, shocks/struts, etc. They have no business whatsoever even touching the kind of damage your car has.
Look around for recommendations on a good body shop in your area and have the car taken there. Have them give you an estimate to repair the car as cheaply as possible, but still be safe. Even if you had full coverage insurance, the repair/replace ratio on the car means it will most likely just be totalled. If you are determined to keep the car, then it isn't worth filing a claim even if you could.
One option that wasn't looked at is filing a claim against the "owner" of the road for the damage you sustained. This could be the city, county or state. This might be a difficult process and you most likely wouldn't see any compensation until long after you had the car repaired.
The last thing I would say is that although you seem to have some attachment to the car for whatever reason, damage like that is serious and not something you should take lightly. Chances are the car will never be "right". Any hit that was hard enough to crack the subframe probably caused other damage as well. I would really look at options for getting another used car. FWIW, the car itself is only worth maybe $750 and you could probably buy a similar vehicle for under $2,000 from a used car lot, which is about how much this repair done correctly will cost you.
Is that sub frame real rusty and so weak? is it a crack, or is it broken and so now misaligned baddly?
I agree you are shopping in the wrong place, that a real body shop, or perhaps a welding shop to repair what you have could be in order.
A welding shop might be able to pull the crack, or even the break together and weld it, then added a plate and weld over the break.
Chain shops don't have any real techs in the first place. A dealer shop is lucky to have 2 maybe 3 real techs, but they never see old cars.
That leaves you with Indepenant shops where most real techs are, a good body shop, that doesn't just slam on new parts, or a welders shop that also does some car work.
Chains are top dollar always, for rather low quailty labor and middle of the road parts.
Dealers sell only new oem parts at very high prices.
Indepenant shops will usually offer choices for parts and tell you, or you can ask. if you select bottom dollar parts you get what you get. If you select a middle of the road parts, often times that is as good as you need on a old sled of a car. If you choose the best parts, you pay, and it will last a long time, but will the rest of that old sled?
An example is 2 years ago I put on exhaust to clyinder head gaskets and a valve cover gasket, both as cheap as I could get, thinking I might parts out my car.
This past Nov. Both sets/types of gasket, one blocking oil, the other hot exahust gasses, failed.
This time i spent more and bought the best quaility parts, since my plans changed. The new plan is to drive this old 1985 volvo turbo right into the ground, and that might take me another 12 years or until I can't see to drive.
The real techs here would like to see a clear picture of this mess of yours. So far there is NJGOAT, and me. Gimmie is another, but not here yet, so is Steve B, and a few others I can't recall off the top.
I bet the tech you called is thinking good used parts from a scrap yard, which is a good way to go for older used cars.
I know it doesn't make sense to fix it but the bottom line is that is the ONLY way I will ever have a car again. I am "up there" and do not have the money to buy new or to spend all of that money on used just to have to then spend more money to fix used because I have replaced so many things on the Cavalier and it will be like starting over.
I'm just wondering if what the mechanic said sounds like it could be true.
Thanks
You have to realize that automobile ownership is such that there is the possibility that once in a while you will have to come up with big bucks to fix big problems, for some cars that never happens while you own it for other cars they never stop wanting money for repairs. If you cant afford to repair a car if it breaks then you cant afford to own a car.
If you end up buying a new car in the future try a Toyota,Honda or Mazda.
Up till last summer i had a 2001 Toyota Echo that i sold for $3000 with 220,000 miles on it, it looked like new,ran perfectly and needed nothing,
Last week we took my friends 03 Cavalier with 150,000 miles to the scrap yard with a blown motor,head gasket had been leaking coolant into the engine oil and as a consequence his bearings destroyed themselves along with probable crank in need of replacement, new motor $3 to $4K installed ,value of car $2-$3K
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
