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I've made a few threads here recently on my car dilemma. Hopefully I'll only have one more and I'll be done with this whole expensive and stressful episode. So here's the info:
2006 Subaru WRX wagon
105k miles
There are 3 pressing matters with this car:
Needs a new windshield ($400)
105k maintenance w/ timing belt (quoted at $800)
Dreaded secondary air system failure causing CEL (quoted $2000, doesn't affect driveability or reliability of car whatsoever)
I just paid $3k for repairs that took a whole month to complete. Now the car is driveable again and I'm really itching to get out of it before anything else goes wrong. If something else goes wrong it's going to put me in the poor house.
Here's the question for CD's awesome car community: would I take a bigger hit having these services before the trade or trading it as-is? I'm thinking I'd be upside down about $1k on my loan if the car was pristine, so it KILLS me to trade it but I really just can't afford this crap anymore.
The way I see it there's no easy way out, so how can I minimize the toll financially?
EDIT ADD: I should add that total repairs outside of routine maintenance for this car have gone over $5k in the 18 months I have had the car. This is a potentially important consideration.
Yes, they will ding you a lot for the windshield and the A/C.
AC works great. Secondary air system is a faulty system on newer turbo Subarus that fails in literally every car. It has to do with smog on a cold start.
In my experience, both as a car salesman and as a consumer, the dealer won't worry too much about specific problems with the car for a couple of reasons. Number one, the repairs you have to pay retail for they will get done at cost. Sure they will dock you a little, but not enough to justify paying for the repair before trading. And number two, given the year and mileage of your car, they will probably just to what they have to do to make it appear that it doesn't have any problems and send it to the auction.
AC works great. Secondary air system is a faulty system on newer turbo Subarus that fails in literally every car. It has to do with smog on a cold start.
It would probably work out better to just trade it and use the money you would have paid to make the repairs as a downpayment on the car you are buying to help offset any negative equity. Chances are any repairs you make will not recover the same level of value at trade, so that $2k you drop on repairs, may only make the car worth another $500 or so at trade. Better to take the slight hit on the trade and use the cash if needed to butter the deal on the new car.
Autotrader's "instant trade-in offer" approximated $8400 for my trade
I had a dealer do a rough appraisal via email (I told them the problem in full detail) and they're offering me $5k-$6k.
I owe a little over $11k. I'm so effed . . .
It appears that literally my only option is to have the repairs done to the tune of an ADDITIONAL $3k. Thanks to those last repairs I'm nearly broke. The total bill for repairs in my first two years of ownership (not including 75k maintenance, 90k maintenance, or oil changes etc) looks to be over $8k. That is just criminal. I'm sure Subaru won't mind losing me as a lifelong customer, they've already sapped my entire bank account and are literally pushing me to the brink of personal financial crisis.
What a terrible terrible financial decision I've made.
When I was in your situation I bought a Craftsman tool set for $160, a Haynes manual for $15, and started surfing web boards specific to my car where writeups existed. Saved a ton of cash, and I learned to do things myself. Necessity is the mother of invention, you can do it.
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