car is a money pit

addiebee

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My mom signed over her old (2001) Buick to me; she's not driving anymore. I sold off my Honda. No reason to have two cars and just one driver.

Weeeelllll...... this is the same car where the rodents got in and chewed up the writing harness. I had the back brakes rebuilt, etc, etc. Other various expenses last summer.

Nearly $900!


NOW - take the car for winterization... I figured the battery is about to die on me - it's original equipment for cryinoutloud so I KNOW I was living on borrowed time. I could tell it was not cranking properly. I also had been told last summer about some issues with leaking shocks and was limping along with that.

Well - front suspension, back suspension, new battery, new tires (yes also orig. equipment - I feared dry rot and a highway blowout), oil change, brake fluid flush (now I SWEAR the dealership did that last summer, but apparently it's contaminated ... crap), alignment. In the neighborhood of $1,800.


This is a local franchise of a national auto repair/tire store, not the dealer. One teensy upside is that I could get their house credit card and take 90 days same as cash. The owner also said he would work with my bill and see what he could whittle down.

Sigh...........

There is JUST NO GETTING AHEAD THESE DAYS!


I would love a new car, but cannot afford one. This one is paid off, but is at an age where maintenance and repair bills are going to be huge, like they are now.
 

sibohan2005

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I know that feeling I got my grandmothers car safety'd and 5 months later it was stolen.... it cost $1500 to safty it and when it was stolen the blue book replacement value of a 1991 Dinasty was $526.00

Talk about a money pit.
 

going nova

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Ive got a money pit too. Now I'm renting a car until I get the time to go get another. My dead car is a 95 Ford.
 

katiemae1277

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I just found out last week that I needed $1500 worth of work done to my car
I have a 2004 Chrysler Sebring, but it has 120,000 miles on it so things are starting to go when you get up to that mileage... struts, exhaust, wheel bearing and tie-rod (sp?) I'll soon need new tires in the back and brakes
I still have a year left to pay on the thing so I can't get a new one, hopefully after I put all this work into it it will last me a few more years so I won't have a car payment for awhile
 

twstychik

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Originally Posted by katiemae1277

I just found out last week that I needed $1500 worth of work done to my car
I have a 2004 Chrysler Sebring, but it has 120,000 miles on it so things are starting to go when you get up to that mileage... struts, exhaust, wheel bearing and tie-rod (sp?) I'll soon need new tires in the back and brakes
I still have a year left to pay on the thing so I can't get a new one, hopefully after I put all this work into it it will last me a few more years so I won't have a car payment for awhile
Could be a mopar thing. I just replaced the struts on my Intrepid last summer and the rack and pinion needs replaced too. I can't afford it when the car has 160,000 miles on it. At least my engine and tranny are still good... it's just everything else that's falling apart.
 
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addiebee

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Originally Posted by Yosemite

Should have kept the Honda and sold off the Buick!
Don't laugh, Linda. I seriously considered doing that! But the Buick only had 25K on it and the Honda 120K... so...
 
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addiebee

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Originally Posted by icklemiss21

Forget old cars, we only had our Ford F150 a year and a half when it needed $3k worth of brake work that for some reason they would not cover under warranty
Hmmmm.... that doesn't sound right...
 

fwan

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our car finally broke down this morning, we've been having problems with it for the past two weeks but FH noticed there were problems with his car since we got back from europe. (don't lend cars to your siblings
)
its going to cost over 1,000 to get it fixed
 

pushylady

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Our Subaru has had one thing adfter another too.
Not much you can do when you need your car every day.
 

Ms. Freya

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This is pretty much the reason we got rid of the "Death-van" our old '96 Plymouth Voyager. We bought it off my parents years ago in an emergency and my mom freaked out when I mentioned replacing it...because she couldn't believe we still had "that unsafe thing" on the road.
It got to the poitn where payments on our new-used car were less than what it was costing to keep the van on the road.

We certainly are over a barrel when it comes to needing our cars, aren't we.
 

icklemiss21

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Originally Posted by AddieBee

Hmmmm.... that doesn't sound right...
The brake pads installed by the dealer wore out really quickly and we had them replaced under warranty as it was way under the normal wear and tear of pads/shoes. Then when we brought it into our local place - the replacement brake pads had worn away completely and had chipped away at the brakes etc so we ended up threatening to sue them over it before they agreed to pay half. As soon as the lease was up it went back and we will never get a vehicle from Ford again
 

butzie

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The best car we ever had in terms of reliability was our 1985 Volvo 740 GLE. It was the first car DH and I owned together. We brought Jenny home from the hospital in it.

We just had routine maintenance while we had but, of course, had to do some more expensive repairs as the car got older.

We donated it in 1994 when it had a little over 240,000 miles on it! You could still drive that car. It was just awesome.
 

katiemae1277

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Originally Posted by twstychik

Could be a mopar thing. I just replaced the struts on my Intrepid last summer and the rack and pinion needs replaced too. I can't afford it when the car has 160,000 miles on it. At least my engine and tranny are still good... it's just everything else that's falling apart.
You're probably on to something there, my mechanic said that in Chryslers everything starts going downhill after 100,000 miles


oh and you all do know what Ford stands for, right?
Found On Road Dead
or
Fix Or Repair Daily
 

whisky'sdad

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Originally Posted by AddieBee

Don't laugh, Linda. I seriously considered doing that! But the Buick only had 25K on it and the Honda 120K... so...
25k on the buick?? And all that work needed to be done? Wow! Did she do dirt track with it?


I will never buy another American car again. All the imports that I have had have given me next to nothing in problems. My best car was a 1979 Rabbit.
 
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addiebee

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Originally Posted by Whisky'sDad

25k on the buick?? And all that work needed to be done? Wow! Did she do dirt track with it?


I will never buy another American car again. All the imports that I have had have given me next to nothing in problems. My best car was a 1979 Rabbit.
Yeah, that's my mom - the drag racin' granny!


Just crappy parts I think... It has 27,900 right now. both back shocks were leaking, the struts in the front needed work - something about the bearings and the front end not tracking...(I'd have to go look at the bill) also a front end alignment, new battery, new tires, oil change, brake flush.... and on it goes.

ETA: Oh, Domestic cars are supposed to be engineered for the 10 year/150,000 mile limit... but seldom ever get there...
Hooefully (knock on wood) It won't need anything for quite a while. But it certainly rides and handles much better now. As much as a wallowing land barge "handles".
 

mrblanche

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The problem with the Buick may well be age, not mileage.

Rubber and plastic parts DO go bad while a car is just sitting.
 
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