I hear you on that, though I do hope to outlive our sienna. We bought it to haul around hockey equipment & kids. its been more versatile than that & very little trouble until recently. Hope it can last another 6 or 7 years.
Amazing. I would be very happy with 250,000 miles. Can’t imagine what the interior would look like with 875,000 miles…
Or SMELL like, for that matter! Most Toyotas are built for very long service, if all the maintenance (which is affordable) is attended to. And they stay reliable for a very long time too, so the owners are not driven to distraction with constant breakdowns.
Not to be sexist,but good cars are like good women; with tender loving care they never show their age!
Get a 2nd opinion and maybe not all work is that pricey. I would be hard pressed to spend $2600 on a vehicle that old or worth the same.
Don’t drink the Toyota Kool-aid. They are decent vehicles but do not run to a certain mileage unless you have a large stomach for the repairs.
The response if this was a Dodge or Ford would be junk it from others.
The OP is ‘Detroit Deb’, so I took a leap that it was in Michigan, which has an annual personal property tax. If you buy a new car, you’re going to pay tax, usage or sales, so that’s more tax, Ohio or Michigan. There is no benefit from paying more tax.
Unless you pay cash, your finance charges will also apply as part of the overall cost. 0% finance charge? You paid more for the car to offset financing. No one is going to loan you money for 3 years for free.
A new car will cost more to insure than the old one. Replacement cost will be greater so there’s greater risk. Liability may go up, depending on what you buy. You will pay more liability insurance if you buy a big SUV than if you buy a small sedan.
It’s amazing that your cost increased by only $48 a year. Same agent and insurance company? If so, stick with them, you got a great deal.
As many as you can afford to !
According to good mechanic I know. An engine usually lasts around 185,000 miles. I have a 2000 camry le V6 with 157,262 miles. I replaced the battery a couple of years ago.
I had a tune up done around 100,000. I would say fix the problems and keep the auto out of the junk yard. Hopefully the problems that you are having are not chronic. For example having to do the repairs three or more times for the same thing.
In my humble opinion, for what it’s worth 
– Your car is hitting that age where everything But the engine and transmission starts wearing out. Hondas and Toyotas hit this age later than other cars, but I’ve read that minivans are sort of the exception (I don’t know why, would guess because either they are bigger/heavier, or the japanese haven’t had decades to perfect them…or maybe they are designed to last only until the kids are embarrased by them). So, your annual maint costs are going higher but will steady out, my experience is that you’ll have one year of 2,600, 2nd year 800, third year 1,400, fourth year 2,800, etc.
The financial rule I follow is that when your average annual maint costs are greater than 30 or 40% of a car’s worth, it’s time to replace it. In your situation, I’d either learn how to keep your maint costs lower than that %, or sell it and buy a new car.
Learning how to keep maint costs down means buying your year’s sienna repair guide, and fixing the simple stuff yourself (replace thermostat, buy a bottle of radiator sealer and see if it works). It also means to research on auto boards about common problems w/ your car – maybe your car is notorious for having an exhaust leak in X spot, so you wouldn’t need the entire system replaced.
If you buy a new car, then decide what you want out of a car, do your homework and wait for a deal. Good things to know: zag.com will bypass most of the sleazy dealers. Hyundai’s depreciate faster than japanese, but are as reliable and have great warranties. Don’t buy a first year model. The nicer the car, the more expensive the repairs (for the same parts).
It looks like the catalytic converter, flex joint, y pipe, and flanges that connect to the exhaust manifold is all one unit. So maybe if its only the flex joint leaking you could find a muffler shop who could cut out the old flex joint, and weld in a new one without replacing the entire assembly. It looks like a direct fit after market catalytic converter cost alone is $500.00+ dollars.
I know of many Toyotas that have gone 300,000 miles with few or no problems
In Illinois all the registration fees (annual sticker on your plate) cost the same, but when you buy a car, you pay SALES tax, which is significant (about 7% i think), and even if you buy from a private owner they take you for several hundred or a thousand dollars unless the car is 11 years old or older, in which case you pay only $25 tax, because the state has already been collecting money from the transfer of that vehicle for those years, i guess.
Point is, its always cheaper to keep what you have already got, that is why you took such good care of it all the while.
Your “good mechanic” must have dealt mainly with bad engines. Countless cars have reached the 300,000 miles mark without any internal engine work. Our lowly 1984 Impala with a 305 V8 was finally sold for $700 to a trainee mechanic. It had 320,000 miles on it and had only the starter, alternator, timing chain and water pump replaced. It stilll was not using oil and had most of its compression left, one cylinder, the worst, had 92% left.
This car had been driven everywhere, towed a trailer and had its oil changed every 3000 miles, using normal dino oil.
In the 80s and 90s my father in law in Latin America had a small Toyota pick up truck that made it to 1 million kilometers (which equals 625K miles). It was on his metal shop’s delivery duty every day. Different drivers. Definitely not even light duty. I am told that in the end (the last 100K) he would have to repair it quite a bit but was happy to do so because he wanted to break the million.
Of course down there you don’t have to deal with emissions and safety inspections.
Of course down there you don’t have to deal with emissions and safety inspections.
The words Latin American are not clear to me. But, here in Mexico you definitely do have emissions inspections in some places.
My 2002 Sienna needed repairs this last visit back to the States. I was here in Mexico for 11 months, the battery did go bad, but that is more like maintenance.
At 170,000 miles a screw fell out of the rear wing window. I think the last repair I did was quite a while ago. The canister developed an intermittent and had to be replaced.
Do remember to change the oil based on time, not distance, when you drive that little.
Your car’s problems are age, not mileage, IMO.
you can’t compare apples with oranges. Just because its a toyota, doesn’t mean that particular motor and transmission are going to last the same as a toyota pickup, or other brand vehicle.
Mini vans are a huge pain in the butt to work on. The labor times are usually higher and some shops add on the aggravation fee of working on said vehicles.
I would get a second opinion on the repairs needed .
Deb, do you still need to haul around hockey equipment and kids? And do you expect to exceed 12K miles per yr on your vehicle for the next three years? If the answer is “no” to both, what about leasing a new car? Ordinarily I am dead set against leasing otherwise than for vehicles used solely for business (and business use appropriately documented), but if you can come in under the allowed lease mileage, do the math on a 36-month lease for a smaller, cheaper-to-run vehicle as against the maintenance and repairs on a 13 year old vehicle.
The radiator is your priority -- it sounds like you didn't let it overheat, but obviously it's not driveable if it's going to overheat all the time. I hope you aren't actually *missing* motor mounts, but they could be shot. As for the exhaust, personally I'd go to an exhaust place to work on that -- the local one here is very good with chopping and welding to replace what only *needs* to be replaced and save money.
The way I see it -- I go to my mechanic for most repairs. BUT, for window glass or window regulator problems (or other body work) I'd go to a body shop; for tires I'll goto a tire place, and for exhaust I'll got an exhaust specialist. And god forbid my transmission goes up, I'll go to a transmission specialist. In some cases a mechanic would just take the car there anyway and tack on a bit of markup, and in other cases they *can* do it but I figure for a few automotive sub-specialties I'll go to the specialist.
Edit: I guess I got a little off topic. Anyway, I think Toyota reliability is a *little* overrated (plenty of cars run a long time if well maintained), but still, 135,000 is not that high of miles, I don't see it falling apart on you.