I have a '98 Taurus SE with 96K miles on it. I lost my heater ($500 to repair)and don’t know whether or not to buy a new car, which I don’t want to do. I also don’t want to have to keep throwing $500-1000 every time I turn around. Can’t find any info on the net that addresses this. I could do a new car, a very small one, but frankly love the Taurus, been driving one for close to 20 years, but not beyond 120K miles
Well, this one is almost 10 years old. Even if it has been taken care of, mechanic’s wisdom is still that the odds of anything breaking at anytime begin to go up at an accelerated rate. I still see lots of mid- to upper- '90s Ford Taurus’s on the road, so they may be durable. Or, at least, fairly inexpensive to fix. But any car over 10 years old will nickle and dime you with various repairs.
I do most of my own repairs, so I tend to keep a car until the wheels fall off. Generally, replacement parts are far cheaper than mechanics labor charges, so doing my own repairs keeps my repair and maintenance costs way down. But, if you cannot, or simply choose not to do your own repairs, then you might want to consider going to a more reliable, newer car while you may still get some return for this one. After all, labor rates aren’t going down any time soon.
The transmission is #1 because a Taurus transmission is a big #2. Sort of. Keep the front end in alignment- see #2.