The risk with doing that is that the compressor may not last very long and who knows how diligent the CL mechanic was about making sure the job was done right. If you’re going to go that route, you might as well do it yourself. Swap out the compressor, vacuum the lines, fill it up, etc. Lots of videos on youtube will show you. You’ll need to buy a vacuum pump and AC gauges. A careful newbie can do a good job. But get a compressor from an auto parts store rather than used. The extra money for the new or rebuilt compressor will be worth it.
Is the car going to be your son’s first car? If so, I would say to give it to him. Young drivers often trash their first car, so it might be good to let him get used to driving in this one. You won’t have to get the AC fixed until summer anyway. If the compressor still works, sometimes, just a $100 freon service will last a long time.
If you have older cars, it might be worth getting a AAA membership for those times when it breaks down.
If he has any sort of mechanical aptitude, he can keep the car running for a very long time. That car is pretty easy to work on and the parts are relatively cheap. And it’s a common car, so lots of spares can be found in junkyards. That’s great for replacing body parts that get dinged up. But I’d recommend getting mechanical parts from auto part stores for reliability rather than junkyard parts.
I agree; The safety advancements over the past twenty years are a bigger reason to retire this car than the cost of repairs. (My brother drives a 1990 Toyota Camry, which my mother has been trying to get him to replace, just because it’s old and ugly but he’s stubbornly refused. So I tried sending him one of those videos to convince him but I don’t think he even watched it. The problem is that he’s a cheapskate.)
Depending on how old the car is it might only have lap seat belts in the back seat.
Also how much work you are willing to put into on old car is probably dependent on whether you can do the work yourself. Of course that does raise the question of how much of your time are willing to spare to keep an older car running. My late grandfather was a retired mechanic; so he basically kept his cars until they were falling apart. Also if you live in a state with annual vehicle inspections you do have to keep you car up to a minimum standard of shape that may make it cost prohibitive to keep dumping money in to it.
Anyway, to the OP, I agree with those who say this is probably a good sign the end is near. I had a Pathfinder with over 200,000 miles on it. It was very reliable, until it wasn’t. Things started to go, I fixed them as needed. One day, it completely died on the way to the airport. I had to get a tow (missed my flight) and it was a complete hassle. I’d take your old car to a dealer, pick out your next car, and get a $100 trade in.
Haven’t read the entire thread yet but wanted to pop in to clarify two things:
Son is not a teen; he’s 24. He’s had his license since he was 18. Took him a bit to get used to driving it - it’s manual transmission - but now he tootles around in it just fine.
Safety: Yes, newer cars have more safety features… but this Civic replaced a 1990 Civic in which we survived 1) a head-on collision with a much larger car, and 2) a 4-car pileup that totalled 3 of the 4 cars (that did it in; we got the “new” one a week later). The A/C isn’t a safety concern; the struts aren’t an immediate concern as far as I know but they do make it drive rough.
Generally never. If it breaks and I can’t/don’t want to fix it, I park it in the back 40 forget about it, till I get around to doing something with it. Got about 4 of those right now.
My rule of thumb is, when the nontrivial repairs start piling up.
If one repair, even a fairly expensive one, will keep an old car on the road for another couple of years, then sure. But if two or three nontrivial things are going wrong at once, or if it’s just one thing right now, but I can feel other things not working as well as they should, that’s when I replace it.
Worn out struts are would just be a bad ride…is there some reason that has to be fixed? 220K miles is a lot…you won’t last much longer so IMHO the repair costs would be better spent on getting something newer.
Check autotrader.com. There are plenty of used vehicles for private sale that owners offer with records and right to inspect, and they are looking for buyer that will pay just a little more than the absolute bottom dollar that a dealer would offer for a trade.
I was thinking about this problem. My last 3 or 4 vehicles were lost, totalled out by deer. I think the last car I had that had high mileage was in the 90s. I am hoping to drive my Escape til it has high milage. Cross my fingers.
I have had 20 cars and two trucks over the years. I still have one of the trucks and the other I gave to my neighbor. I got it free from my brother. It was a thoroughly rusted 1989 S-10 that had had a big run-in with a deer and wore other scars from a hail storm.
Of the cars, I sold ten of them to individuals, donated two of them, totaled three (none were my fault), and junked two.
Many of these cars I bought knowing they could be full of problems. If the OP is worried about selling an old car to an individual, most people who buy cars like that understand the risks they’re taking. I never heard back from any of the ten people I sold my old beaters to!
I get rid of a vehicle when the cost of owning/repairing/maintaining it exceeds the cost of replacing it. I’ve been fortunate in regards to the reliability of my current two (16 and 19 years of age). On occasion I have sunk 1200 or so into repairs, but as noted by others, those were repairs that I can expect to last for several years and thus I view them as cost-effective and better than acquiring a new car payment for several years, or depleting my savings more than that to buy another vehicle outright. You don’t get a vehicle to last as long as mine have without spending some money on maintenance and repair.
I am starting to feel reluctance to use them for extensive road trips, however. The last time I had to take a road trip it was on short notice (yet another death in the family) and I elected to rent a car for the trip. Yes, it cost a few bucks, but it was a newer vehicle less likely to have an unexpected break down due to aging components and I could also get roadside assistance, which I do not normally carry (for local breakdowns I use a local garage with a 24 tow service - I have not needed it often so paying for those two occasions was cheaper than maintaining roadside assistance coverage over the same time span). I may well keep my vehicles for local driving (with two, if one is having problems I still have transportation until it is fixed) but use rental for longer trips for awhile - I’ll have to run the math on that.
A lot depends on how much driving you do, the sort of driving you do, the state of the vehicle, how easy it is to obtain parts (even with my oldest vehicle I can still get parts - I might be going to a [del]junkyard[/del] auto salvage or “recycler” to get them, but they are easily obtained), and what resources you have in your area to deal with breakdowns. About once a year I sit down and consider the matter because, after all, my vehicles are pretty old (although low mileage for their age). So far, it’s made more sense to keep them than replace them although I know at some point I’ll have to do so.
This is close to my guideline. I’m approaching that point now, with a 2003 Honda Element, with 250k miles. I’m going to be a bit sad to see this one go. Other than bad gas mileage, it’s been a great car.
A new replacement vehicle would cost about $30k, and I’ll assume a 15 year life, so $2k/year, in purchase cost. When repairs start approaching $2k/year, then it’s time to start looking for a replacement.
That’s a good point. When I used to be active in a classic car club, I remember talking with a guy who was looking to buy a car “for the winter.” He was looking for something he could keep running for a couple/few months, paying as little as possible for it. Sounds like the OP’s Honda fits that bill, and could be worth at least a couple/few hundred$ to someone who has some mechanical skills and just needs to get from here to there for a short while.
That’s a good rule of thumb, but I question the exact number. Average car gets 12 thousand miles a year, so your 15 year old car is going to have 180k on it at ‘retirement’ I find it unlikely that you’re going to make it to 180 without semi-major repairs that you would then have to factor into your equation. Personally, I’ve found that around 120 or so you start to get fairly regular minor repairs, new alternator, new struts, water pump, cv joints, stuff like that. Nothing major, but pretty regular.
I just got rid of my 2005 Jeep (220K miles) not because of its value vs repaor cost but because it was so many things going wrong. Had a slight wobble so probably needed new rear struts. Was losing oil (about a quart a month but increasing), power steering fluid leak, loss of power, cracked windshield. Once multiple thing started going wrong it was time to replace it.
I generally follow the rules laid out here, once the repairs start to exceed the value of the car it’s on the way out. However, if the electrical system starts to go wonky, I’m getting rid of that car pronto.