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I have a 2000 Chevy Malibu that has 130,000 miles on it, found out that it needs 4 new struts. 2 tire rods and a 4 wheel alignment. cost is around $1100 is cheapest I could find in town. I dont want another payment but its another classic what should you do?
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Seems a little high, but that is normal, routine maintenance that would be pretty normal for a 12 year old vehicle. If it's been paid off 5-6 years or more you have saved the cost of a car payment all those years, so $1,100
for this is relatively little.
How much do you still like/enjoy the car? It's only worth about $2,000 and all of those things you list are just normal wear and tear, repairing them isn't going to add to the value of the car. If you still like the car and will drive it for a while yet I think you should fix it up. If you're tired of it and want something else I would trade it in before spending that money and put that $1,100 towards buying something else.
I recently traded in a 2005 Kia with 100,000+ miles that needed about $2,500 worth of misc repair work, (windshield, tires, brakes etc) done for a full size truck. I'd put every one of those miles on it and was tired of driving it. So for me it was worth spending the money towards something I wanted to drive to get out of something I no longer did.
I have a 2000 Chevy Malibu that has 130,000 miles on it, found out that it needs 4 new struts. 2 tire rods and a 4 wheel alignment. cost is around $1100 is cheapest I could find in town. I dont want another payment but its another classic what should you do?
Its been a good car other than those problems.
A 12 year old car is not a classic in any category. I am guessing this is not the first issue neglected.
I have a 2000 Chevy Malibu that has 130,000 miles on it, found out that it needs 4 new struts. 2 tire rods and a 4 wheel alignment. cost is around $1100 is cheapest I could find in town. I dont want another payment but its another classic what should you do?
Its been a good car other than those problems.
I would get rid of it if I had the money to make payments on a new car. Those are some of easier to fix and cheaper parts that tend to go bad on high mileage cars; sounds like it's only the beginning of you repair headaches.
Invest in $15 Haynes manual, go buy the parts, and make a day of it. Seriously, working on cars ain't rocket science and if you get yourself in trouble there are a plethora of make/model related websites with great how-to advice, pics included.
I didnt neglect it... Im thinking struts go out on there own? I dont know enough about tire rods. we dont hot rod them at all.
I believe the general rule of thumb is jack up the car on the front side you want to check. Grab the tire at the 3 and 9 oclock positons and try to move side to side, if there is excessive play it's your tie rod ends ( not the entire tie rod, that's some pretty hard -azz steel, so IMO, it's unlikely you need new tie rods, it's the ends that go bad. Grab the tire at the 12 and 6 oclock positions, try to rock back and forth , excessive play , it's probably your ball joints.
There are some nuts you have to loosen, (in my case I knew I had a bad outer tie rod because the wheel would wobble excessively , like I had a bent wheel). I bought a new one $10 or $15 I think it was, but it needed grease, didn't have a grease gun so I stopped by a mechanics place and they injected it with grease for free. Before I loosened the nut I marked it with a piece of duct tape ( to get a rough idea at to where to tighten it back up in place) the aftermarket tie rod end was slightly longer thean the original so I had to account for that on my tape placement. Long story short all these armchair mechanics said no you better take it a shop , this is your steering your playing with...it's dangerous blah blah , blah. Never did get an alignment afterwards ( although you should). I let go of the wheel on flat paved road and it doesn't veer of to the right or left, goes straight down the road and monitered the tire wear, no problems there either.
I'd for the heck of it , get a list of what the mechanic said you need and see what the parts store would charge for the items and if it's only $300for the parts I'd do it myself.....$1100 seems kind of high to me.
A 12 year old car is not a classic in any category. I am guessing this is not the first issue neglected.
Please re-read the OP's post. The OP said the question is a classic scenario-- ie, the age old question of fix it or sell it? The OP didn't say the car is a classic car.
Location: Finally escaped The People's Republic of California
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Well can you afford a new car? you have an extra $250.00 a month laying around you can buy a new car, or for what would be around 4 payments on a new one you can fix your old one. Only you can answer this question
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