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Have a 95 Roadmaster with 93k. Body and interior near perfect. Since December replaced water pump rear brakes and assembly including calipers. Couple weeks ago starter,battery and alternator. Most of these parts were original except the battery so I can hardly fault Buick. Last week the car shut down and it was the distributor. Got it back and it ran fine. The next day the car ran well until warmed up and died. Had it towed back to the shop. Is it possible the new distributor failed? I have often heard new parts fail. The shop was closed over the weekend, so I haven't heard anything. They generally warrant parts for a year and they have a great reputation around town. But what if it is something else? I have spent over 2k in repairs since I got it. I don't really want to spend anymore on it. BUT since I have already dropped a ton into, seems like I should try and drive it for awhile. Two different shops said after the last repairs there really is not much left to go wrong with it. But I don't know. When the car is running well I love it. And it is so pretty. I finally went out and leased a car so I don't have to depend on this one any more. Any thoughts???
Electronic parts, if they are going to fail, will usually fail right away.
As for putting money into a used vehicle, to me a car is an expense. New, used, either way you pay! Just like the electric bill, there are regular expenses with a car.
Once I get a used car into good working order, usually it is not very expensive (on a yearly basis) to fix things which go out. Say one year I spend $500 on brakes. That is $42 a month. MUCH lower than new car payments.
Then I see people fix a lot of things on a used car - starter, battery, alternator, brakes, tires. Then they might need to spend $700 to fix something... But instead of doing that, they go out and buy another used car. Then they need to start over again and replace; starter, battery, alternator, brakes, tires. (It would have been less expensive to spend the $700!)
What would you do if you decided to sell? Buy another older/used car with unknown issues that might also need the same (or more) cash investment? It's a risk, you'll never know if it's a profitable one or not. You can Mitigate that risk a little by having a competent mechanic perform a pre-purchase inspection... but that won't pick out a battery/alt/starter that's about to fail, nor a distributor ~ those are generally pass/fail items. There's really no financial gain in trading a low-mile (yes, 93k is low miles) older car for another.
If you were to replace it with something New, then you have to consider that 2k will, on average, pay for 5 months of a lease/payments (at $400/month, not counting the higher registration and insurance costs). There's REALLY no financial gain there.
My litmus is simple, have Never hit it, but it's simple. When unanticipated repairs Average 1/4 what a replacement vehicle would cost, I'll switch. The other part is when a vehicle becomes unreliable (or rather, my opinion of unreliable), should I *NEED* to make it 36 miles to the closest hospital and I don't trust the vehicle to get me there reliably 100% of the time, I'll get rid of it. But like I said, I haven't had either of these occur. They are my own, personal, limits... what yours are, only you can decide.
I too have been at this crossroads with my own car, a '98 Acura CL. At 180,000 the transmission went. I was looking at $2200 plus having to rent a car for 4-5 days while they repaired it. In the end I did it, as the car had been a great car up until then. I too had spent a lot replacing parts as they reached the end of their natural life (Acura parts are ridiculously $$) but had no major mechanical problems. The guys at my shop told me they were amazed how good the engine looked and thought it was worth doing (this was not the transmission shop, lol). Also I really love this car, it's quick, fun to drive, and still decent on gas for a 6 because it's small and light.
Once I made the decision though, I committed to it for the long term. I wanted to keep it at least long enough that the money paid for the trans was less than I would have paid in car payments. My Baby now has 285,000 miles and still going strong. I am excited to have a car that reaches 300,000 miles and am praying nothing happens before then!
There are some cons to keeping a really old car - I had the rather terrifying experience of my brake line going on my way to work, which would most likely not happen in a newer car (my mechanic said it's from years of road salt, and living at the ocean doesn't help). Also little things go that I miss but not enough to pay to fix, like my heated seat works inconsistently now, and the radio controls on the steering wheel don't work anymore. I still love her though, my insurance is cheap, and I haven't had a car payment in 5 years.
These LT1 powered B-platforms (Roadmaster, Caprice, Fleetwood) are among some of the most reliable passenger cars ever produced. The only fault I have with the engine is the LOCATION of the optispark distributor, not necessarily the design. It is a possibility that it was not installed correctly or the that the water pump (directly above it) is leaking out of the weep hole and corroding/shorting the distributor contacts. At 93k I would not expect the water pump to be weeping unless you let the car sit for extended periods of time.
If you don't want to pump anything more into just put it on ebay, it will get snatched up pretty quick as there is a cult following for these particular GM platforms.
Good advice given so far and I agree, if you sell waht will you buy another used car? At least with your Buick you know the history and what has and has not been done. The prices of new cars are expensive and they also have their problems, yes usually under warranty for the first 3 years but still your car will be in the shop. I have older cars and I sure am glad I don't need to make a monthly payment on them. Yes sometimes something happens and it can be a costly repair but when I think what a new one costs it isn't that bad.
If you really like the car and it looks good and is safe then why consider selling it? What you could do is put aside about $400 a month like you were making a average car payment and when you need to fix the buick pull the cash from the pile or when you go to buy a new one you will have nice down payment.
The way I see it is if the amount you spend in repairs monthly amounts to the monthly payment of a new car, then it's probably time to get a new one. This doesn't include regular maintenance, however if you buy a car with a warranty, you won't have to worry about maintenance for a few years.
These LT1 powered B-platforms (Roadmaster, Caprice, Fleetwood) are among some of the most reliable passenger cars ever produced. The only fault I have with the engine is the LOCATION of the optispark distributor, not necessarily the design. It is a possibility that it was not installed correctly or the that the water pump (directly above it) is leaking out of the weep hole and corroding/shorting the distributor contacts. At 93k I would not expect the water pump to be weeping unless you let the car sit for extended periods of time.
If you don't want to pump anything more into just put it on ebay, it will get snatched up pretty quick as there is a cult following for these particular GM platforms.
This all that I have heard. The 5.7 is a great engine. And I am one that has a cult following with this car. The water pump was replaced around 91k.
Have a 95 Roadmaster with 93k. Body and interior near perfect. Since December replaced water pump rear brakes and assembly including calipers. Couple weeks ago starter,battery and alternator. Most of these parts were original except the battery so I can hardly fault Buick. Last week the car shut down and it was the distributor. Got it back and it ran fine. The next day the car ran well until warmed up and died. Had it towed back to the shop. Is it possible the new distributor failed? I have often heard new parts fail. The shop was closed over the weekend, so I haven't heard anything. They generally warrant parts for a year and they have a great reputation around town. But what if it is something else? I have spent over 2k in repairs since I got it. I don't really want to spend anymore on it. BUT since I have already dropped a ton into, seems like I should try and drive it for awhile. Two different shops said after the last repairs there really is not much left to go wrong with it. But I don't know. When the car is running well I love it. And it is so pretty. I finally went out and leased a car so I don't have to depend on this one any more. Any thoughts???
Your post is why I no longer buy used cars. I've owned 65 cars in my life and I have no patience with something that doesn't run properly. Buying a new car is actually not that much more expensive than a late model used car at a dealer. If you buy new, you will be the only one who has driven it. You will know if it has been abused and you won't need to worry about it. A car today is a large mobile appliance to most people. If your refrigerator was constantly breaking down the cost of repairs would be prohibitive and you would still have an old refrigerator. A car is obviously more expensive but the costs of repairing today's complicated vehicles can be prohibitive. The day of the shade tree mechanic are long past.
I haven't spent a dime on a car in years. Don't need the hassle.
Leasing might make sense but it would always depend on how much you drove it. Of course you could always buy it at the end of the lease period if you liked it well enough. But in general it's going to cost you more.
To answer your question directly, would you feel comfortable getting into it and driving from coast to coast? If you wouldn't the answer is obvious.
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I am excited to have a car that reaches 300,000 miles and am praying nothing happens before then!
