Cars

[duper]

Re: Cars

I definitely prefer the reasonable monthly payment you're prepared for and can tailor to your budget than a repair to a high mileage vehicle...possibly in the thousands of $$$ and more than the vehicles worth. Spending money on repairs, even larger amounts can make sense if you get years of trouble / expense free usage afterwards. Start having to make expensive repairs on a regular / semi regular basis to low value vehicles is not smart IMO. Even frequent less expensive repairs will nickle and dime you to death and either way, before you know it you've spent as much or more in a couple years than you would have spent on new car payments...and you're still driving an old car. Cheaper insurance on the older car is a consideration too.

Replacing a clutch once over 100,000 miles is pretty good service out of that clutch. They're definitely a wear item that will always wear out eventually.

I can understand preferring the predictability of a car payment if you can afford it, but you are definitely not saving money that way, you're just able to budget for it more easily. I've never had a car that I had to spend more than $150 a month maintaining (probably never averaged anywhere near that much) and that would be an awful cheap car payment. That said, I have had two cars that I replaced because they needed a repair that cost more than it was worth to sink into them. So like you said, it is unpredictable, but with the (I'm guessing) $300 - $400 that I'm saving by not making a car payment, I feel like I come out way ahead.

I actually meant to respond to your question as well. I have obviously never bought a service contract, since I've never owned a car that was under warranty in the first place, but I'm about 90 percent sure that if you took the price of the service contract and put it away instead of buying the service contract, you would have from that stash plenty of money to handle repairs as they come up. As people have said, just about any car you buy nowadays ought to get you 150 thousand with very little problem.

 

[duper]

Re: Cars

First car was a 1989 Chevy Corsica 4CYL, aka The Deadmobile (named after the Grateful Dead).

That thing never got stuck, caught air once or twice, hydroplaned once during a not-severe rainstorm (although that was not on purpose; still have some flashbacks, since I ended up doing a 180 on the highway and landing in the grass median between each side of the highway, facing the other way), went mudding with it, added a spoiler made out of a truck racerback (sp? terminology?), jacked up the back end. Then drove it down midway in St Paul (where most summer weekends, classic/hotrod cars would cruise).

I had a '91 Cavalier that I loved. That thing was incredibly heavy for it's size, and could just barrel through any weather. I loved it. Sadly, it was one of the cars mentioned in the previous post that I had to replace when something broke down that it wasn't worth repairing. (I never even had it diagnosed, but it had some serious engine difficulties)

 

[The Rube]

Re: Cars

I had a '91 Cavalier that I loved. That thing was incredibly heavy for it's size, and could just barrel through any weather. I loved it. Sadly, it was one of the cars mentioned in the previous post that I had to replace when something broke down that it wasn't worth repairing. (I never even had it diagnosed, but it had some serious engine difficulties)

I hear ya. I think the 89 (which I sold to my bro for $100, and it was a good deal for me, and eventually he sold for $50 which was a good deal for him) eventually conked out at about 250K miles, which isn't bad considering the abuse that car took. My second car, a '90 Corsica 6CYL, was due to the fact that the '89 was so reliable. And the '90 was like getting a bonus score, given the engine.

Edit: the 89 made it through the Halloween Blizzard, too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_Blizzard
I worked the night of Nov 1, after most of the snow had fallen.

 

[duper]

Re: Cars

One of the driver's ed cars my high school had was a Corsica. I took driver's ed in 1990, so it was probably either an '89 or a '90. And that poor thing had to be driven by dozens of different 15-year-olds.

 

[The Rube]

Re: Cars

One of the driver's ed cars my high school had was a Corsica. I took driver's ed in 1990, so it was probably either an '89 or a '90. And that poor thing had to be driven by dozens of different 15-year-olds.

I'm still mad they discontinued that line. I'd probably still have one, as sad as it is to say. We had Ford (cli)Tauruses. Horrible cars.

 

[JuveGG24]

Re: Cars

Have a 2004 Grand Am that I got in late 2005. It spent the first 30,000 miles as a rental car, and 61,000 with me. Have replaced the brakes twice(once right away, again at 87,000 miles), the ignition coil(I think, whatever you insert the key into), but otherwise no problems.

It has done a lot of highway miles. Saint Paul-Duluth a number of times, Saint Paul-Chicago a couple times, Duluth to San Francisco, San Francisco-Los Angeles, and San Francisco-near Vancouver. I've heard that on average a person puts between 10,000-15,000 miles on their car per year, so I must not drive a lot.

I think once it hits 100k next year, I'll be looking for another car. Not really sure what yet, but something a little nicer.

 

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Re: Cars

I took driver's ed in a late-'80s Olds 4-Door Cutlass Supreme - in 2003. To my young mind, it handled like a fcking tank.

Let's see, my first 1.5 years of driving solo, there was my 1990 GMC Sierra pickup with 170,000 miles, dubbed "The Beater". It would've easily (and proudly) been the shittiest vehicle in my private high school's parking lot, were it not for a classmate's 1980-something station wagon.

Since then, I've had a 2001 GMC Jimmy, a small SUV that I've put ~57,000 miles on (about to cross 90,000 total) and grown to generally dislike due to it's 14-15 MPG city, sluggish handling, and need for a complete brake replacement nearly every year. No money for a replacement at the moment though - hopefully just a couple years away.

 

[jerphisch]

Re: Cars

I should hit 100,000 miles on an '02 Mitsubishi Lancer in the next couple of months sometime. I have spent $0 on non-maintenance-type repairs, unless you count a new clutch, but I don't even though it wore out a little quicker than I would have liked.

I have an '04 Lancer with 139k on it. No repairs other than maintenance on mine either (clutch is fine so far). Can't beat not having a car payment, so I don't plan on getting rid of it until it is completely done.

Wife has an '11 Outback, loving it so far.

 

[The Rube]

Re: Cars

Can't beat not having a car payment, so I don't plan on getting rid of it until it is completely done.

I'm also of the belief: drive until dead.

 

[walrus]

Re: Cars

. Nothing to do with beating them or mistreatment. It's a hobby. Like most car nuts...there's always that next hobby car meaning something has to go. Had to sell the Mustang collection (7 cars) to pay large medical bills. Broke my heart. Good luck with the '67. I'm a '65-'66 Fastback guy myself

It seems to me you are throwing away money if you're trading a newer car with 50,000 miles on it because you're afraid of a big repair bill. Cosmetics are one thing, when I say take care of a car I mean oil changes, scheduled maintenance etc. My 06 GMC is a pig pen but its been maintained mechanically. Sorry to hear about your Mustangs, that must of sucked but on the other hand they helped you out when you needed it. My 67 is a hardtop, factory 390, 4 speed, 9in locker. It was pretty rough but mechanically its all done, the body has been started but prep and paint are expensive!!!!

 

[bigblue_dl]

Re: Cars

Service contracts are the the biggest scam around, don't waste your money on those things.

 

[bigmrg74]

Re: Cars

I'm also of the belief: drive until dead.

Yep, that's how I ended up getting the Malibu, because the old beater truck I had at the time, somewhere around 280,000 I want to say, broke a ball joint when I was up in Midland for a football game in 2006. Scary thing is that the week before that I had rented a car to drive up to Marquette to watch GVSU at NMU, and I believe Fairbanks was also in town that weekend, somebody would have to look it up for me. I didn't really trust that truck to make it up there and back, and as I sat there on the campus of Northwood fuming that I had taken that speed hump a little too fast, was thinking what a wise investment that rental was. I was going to rent an Aveo, as it was just the flat out cheapest they had and I was just driving myself, so I figured I would at least save some cash gas wise that way. But they didn't have any Aveo's, and they gave me a Cobalt. That's a fun little zippy car to drive. And it wasn't that bad in the snow either, as there was a yooper snow storm going thru right as I crossed over on the bridge.

Anyways, towed the truck off the campus there to a place it would be safe for a day, next day got a hold of a buddy of my brothers and took his truck and car trailer to rescue it. Did fix up the ball joint, but it was in need of new brakes as well as a few other things, and well, figured it was getting to be more than I really wanted to continue to pour money into. Ending up selling it to some kid in town cheep, and I think my brother said he saw the truck a few months back.


also, its official! rolled over 100,000. US-12 near US-23 is the spot.

 

[state of hockey]

We had Ford (cli)Tauruses. Horrible cars.

Not sure where you got your Tauruses then. Ours were unstoppable. The 89 we had just died earlier this year. The 91 a year before. Both could have been repaired relatively easily.

 

[LynahFan]

Re: Cars

Service contracts are the the biggest scam around, don't waste your money on those things.

Depends. I bought a used Camry with 29K on it from a dealer in Vermont. Since it was under 30K, it qualified for the extended warranty for $800 for 4 years or until it hit 100K. The kicker? The dealer was offering an incentive on his own (not an official Toyota policy at the time) that if you didn't have any warranty repairs done by the time it expired, you got your $800 back.

Best $800 I never spent.

 

[goldy_331]

Re: Cars

Depends. I bought a used Camry with 29K on it from a dealer in Vermont. Since it was under 30K, it qualified for the extended warranty for $800 for 4 years or until it hit 100K. The kicker? The dealer was offering an incentive on his own (not an official Toyota policy at the time) that if you didn't have any warranty repairs done by the time it expired, you got your $800 back.

Best $800 I never spent.

Well that's a no-brainer. A co-worker also bought an extended warranty from a dealer on his used Mercedes and that turned out to be a good del for him too since the repairs on that car were so dam expensive.

 

[Craig P.]

Re: Cars

I'm curious if those with high mileage vehicles bother to purchase some kind of coverage for after factory warranty has expired?

I'd never dream of it. It's guaranteed to be cheaper to not have some company skimming a profit off of spreading my maintenance costs out over a long period of time, and I have more than enough money in the bank to be able to handle any unexpected repairs (like, say, my distributor quitting this spring).

About the only thing to be said for any sort of extended coverage would be if you have a vehicle that's known to have a significant incidence of catastrophic issues over and above normal wear and tear, then maybe some insurance against that would be justifiable.

 

[Craig P.]

Re: Cars

If the motor blows up, a replacement can be dropped in for about $2k, aka- 8-12 months of car payments. Seems like a reasonable risk since car payments ended back in 2004.

I'd think you could get an engine for a tenth of that at a junkyard.

 

[Craig P.]

Re: Cars

I'm also of the belief: drive until dead.

If my car lasts another ten years (it's at 13 years and 120,000 miles now), I might cage it and race it.

But other than that, yeah, drive until dead.

It's going to have to have a LOT of maintenance issues to reach the point where it costs me more to maintain it than to replace it.

 

[bigblue_dl]

Re: Cars

Depends. I bought a used Camry with 29K on it from a dealer in Vermont. Since it was under 30K, it qualified for the extended warranty for $800 for 4 years or until it hit 100K. The kicker? The dealer was offering an incentive on his own (not an official Toyota policy at the time) that if you didn't have any warranty repairs done by the time it expired, you got your $800 back.

Best $800 I never spent.

Yeah, when you can get the 800 back, it isn't a bad deal anymore. Basically you're covered for any huge problems, and as long as you cover any small stuff outside of the contract, you get the money back, so yeah, that is a no-brainer.

 

[bigblue_dl]

Re: Cars

I'm also of the belief: drive until dead.

If I do this, I'm going to have this truck for a while. This engine has been known to go 1 million miles.