A woman is like a car. When she starts making too much noise, costing too much (money and/or effort) to maintain, or has really lost her luster, it could be time to trade-in. Not necessarily for a newer model, but for one that will treat you well without too much noise and aggravation.
2 Likes
My girlfriend had a piece of junk GM Daewoo. The car was constant problems.
Eventually it got to the point where I could tell it needed a new battery, the struts were done for, the windshield was cracked, and the tires were down to their last few months/few thousand miles of life. There are likely other things I missed but it seemed to be one $50-100 part I was replacing each month to keep this one going. Then the head gasket??? or similar let go. I asusme it was the gasket but exhaust was pressurizing the cooling system and blowing the coolant out. You also got plenty of bubbles and that horrid blown head gasket smell if you started it with the the radiator cap off.
I told her at this time to trade it in and that if she got $1000 or more not to argue. The place where she bought her new car asked what she thought it was worth. I did all the talking and told them $2000. They offered $1500 and I said “OK.” That car was gone and not one I missed.
1 Like
Yes, you told us the story about this Suzuki Forenza. It is correct that the OEM head gasket on this car is garbage, but it’s not too difficult to replace, and an aftermarket gasket will probably last for over 100,000 miles assuming proper surface prep and installation. Most of these were junked long ago, and the stock head gasket is the reason why.
I have read about people replacing all the OEM junk parts with better quality aftermarket that they do pretty well. It seemed like a decently engineered car that was put together with low-quality parts. The gas mileage always seemed pretty poor for something of this size and a 4 cylinder as well. 22-25mpg was as good as it ever got. I could see a decent head gasket lasting the life of the car though.
Basically, every problem she had was pretty much par for the course with the car.
She had no clue what she was getting. She wanted the newest and lowest mileage car she could get for the lowest price and the dealership delivered! They still charged way above book value and this was before I knew her. It was a complete ripoff and they knew what they were doing. Within a month of getting the car, it needed all new tires. Then I met her and I didn’t know anything about this car so started looking it up. One of the big warnings I read about was not to let the timing belt go so I looked into that. I pulled the cover back and could see the timing belt was cracked and starting to shred so that was replaced a few days later along with anything that touched it including the water pump and tensioner. At least that was one crisis averted.
1 Like
I don’t go by mileage, I go by when the engine or transmission takes a dump.
We gave up my wife’s 5yo Datsun 510 with a good engine and tranny. But it had a lot of RUST. Rust use to be thee major issue where many people would need to sell a car early. In most cases that’s been resolved by most manufacturers.
2 Likes
Sold my wife’s 1972 Datsun 510 for the same reason at 11 years. The engine and trans was fine… missing a few flywheel teeth… but fine otherwise. The body was a mess with rust.
I would say over 500,000 if Japanese, but it depends on how you treat it.