You didn’t really give us an idea of your financial stability, but fixing this car, then KEEPING it, while you make payments on another, used, depreciated, car is a reasonable way to go if the other logistics work out.
For one thing, a debilitating high-stress OMG my vehicle is DEAD becomes "Huh, well, I guess I’ll have to figure out how to get it over to get fixed and drive the other car in teh meantime.
Consider: a 2006 Toyota Camry in good shape, private party sale, is a little over $10,000
Over 5 years, at 5%, that’s $188 a month.
They’re BOTH dependable vehicles, and you wouldn’t have a lot of expected repairs as a result…you’d ALSO put half the miles on each vehicle…because you only have one butt.
I’ve seen similar advice from sites/magazines like Consumer Reports and Money magazine, etc. Now, admittedly, they’re ‘pop-advice’ outlets, but the reasoning does seem sound.
The basic response to “Should I get Triple-A Insurance on top of my insurance?” questions seems to be “Take what you would spend on Auto Club and stick it in a savings account. Tap into it when you need repairs or maintenance. When your repairs are costing more per-month than monthly loan payments, get a different (new?) car.”
Another bit of advice I’ve seen (though I’m not sure how often it’s followed): When you pay off your car, don’t stop budgeting for it. Instead, divert that money to a fund for maintenance, repairs, and eventually replacement. Again, when the cost of repairs exceeds the per-month loan bills, ditch the junk and get something else, using the junk and the rest of the diverted money to fund it.
—G!
My last car was a No Va!
I’m much happier on my motorcycle now.
I’d also keep in mind how much breakdowns might have an impact at work. 2 or 3 times per year being late or missing work due to unreliable transportation aren’t exactly good for the career.
KBB lists the “sell it yourself” price at $6200 (for a 2001 it’s loaded). However, I’ve been rear-ended twice (some serious damage that was fixed by insurance, but will be on Carfax) and I have some minor body damage I’m not going to repair (bumper squishes, scratches, etc). I figure $4500-5000 would be the private seller price if I were to take care of the mechanical problems (dealer trade-in would be $13.26 :p)
Relative to most Americans, I don’t drive much – about 8,000 miles a year. I do love this SUV, but am having new car lust on and off. I like the poster who suggested getting a detail job and buying a little car gift for myself to quell the lust :).
Last year I spent 1500 for a new compressor/radiator work and it seems that the same problems are back again. This, with the other maintenance , would be equal to about a year +/- of new car payments (or fewer payments, since insurance would go up). Looking at it this way, it makes financial sense to keep the truck at this time.
What are the possible ramifications of waiting three or four months to have the compressor and radiator work done? I check my coolant/anti-freeze level several times a week and the heater works great (A/C doesn’t work, but def. not an issue right now in New Jersey!) I have some extra moola coming in four months and doing the major repairs then would lessen the blow to my budget.
It was actually replaced 14.5 months ago and it went out of warranty at 12 months (naturally!) This prob seems to be a Nissan X-terra thang – my brother and some XT friends have all had to replace the same stuff at least once.
In your situation a lot of people would just throw a bottle of stop-leak in the radiator and check every couple of days for a while, get the tires/brakes/struts fixed and never fix the A/C compressor. Living in NJ just putting all the windows down and toughing it out in the summer is definitely an option.
Yay! The “get it detailed” recommendation was me. New seat covers are another good gift, or a backrest, and getting it washed semi-regularly couldn’t hurt either.
I like nice things as much as the next person and it’s tough when you do have the money to get a new car. But it’s helpful to remember that a car is a terrible, depreciating asset. What the poster above said sounds good. Also if your next car wouldn’t need to be an SUV you could consider keeping it down the road with collision only insurance so you have an extra car and a big vehicle to move stuff in!
Drive it until you have your mechanic on speed dial
and who’s this Opal broad anyway?
Other than the upcoming 1,800 dollars, what kind of shape is the car in, in general? Does it have the reputation of being a workhorse? The occasional BIG bill isn’t necessarily all that crazy for an older car, if the repairs net out to less than a payment on a newer one.
What I’m getting at is, is the 1,800 bucks the tip of the iceberg, or do you think that would be “it” for major work for a while? Are the repairs of the “hmmm, will it start today?” variety or the “Huh. Odd noise. A/C isn’t working all that well. Better get it looked at” variety?
When our 10 year old Caravan died on us in Canada (we’re US-based), then over the next 2 months kept having problems… and yes, I dialed the mechanic’s number from memory more than once… we spent 1,000 dollars in 2 months and weren’t sure it was sorted out (the issues were of the “will it start” variety), we decided that it was time for a new car. It had about 125,000 miles when we got rid of it.
By contrast, Typo Knig has a 13 year old Civic with about 140,000 miles, it periodically wants 500ish in repairs, but that’s cheaper than a payment on a replacement.
