I have an '95 Isuzu Trooper that needs a new clutch.
considering that the vehicle is only worth about $2k,
is it worth spending $800-1,000. on the clutch rebuild?
195K, and is the orig. clutch, motor and rest of truck
in good shape.
Let’s see, car with new clutch worth $2,000 Car without clutch worth -$.$$ to tow it to the junk yard. I would go for the clutch.
How much would it cost to buy a replacement in comparable condition? That, minus the price of the new clutch, is what your old Trooper is worth to you.
No one seems to want to buy or even make an offer. As soon as they hear about the clutch, there gone.
Thanks for the opinion.
I’m curious, where do you live that you need to pay to get a car towed to the junk yard?
I don’t know if there is variation in this geographically, but in the North East US the price of scrap metal is so high you can usually get a fair chunk of money + a free tow out of a junkyard for a scrap car. My local junk yards are paying $200 a ton for scrap cars, so a 2 ton trooper is going to worth a pretty good amount of cash even after a tow.
Of course it’s worth putting a clutch in. With a truck or car this age, assuming it’s paid for and owes you nothing, the money you put into it at this point is paying for transportation. What could you get for $1000 that would be as good or better? Could you rent a truck on an as-needed basis? Is this your sole transport? If so, it’s really a no-brainer to fix it and be happy. Put $300/month or whatever into a savings account and pay for any future repairs with that account. At some point you will have enough money in the account to pay cash for a newer or even brand new car/truck. That’s when you want to stop fixing the old one.
If you already have enough cash on hand and want something newer, then that’s enough reason to junk it and move on, but if you really don’t have the cash to buy something else worthwhile then fix this one.
The point I was trying to make is that it’s cheaper to put a clutch into your Trooper than to replace it.
An old car in good condition has two different values. The low one is what you can sell it for. The high one is what it would cost to replace it. Therefore, your old Trooper is worth several thousand dollars to you, even if no one will give you more than scrap value for it.
A few years ago, I spent nearly $1k on new struts for a 20+ year old Mazda RX-7 with 180k miles that was worth maybe $500. I then drove it another three years before giving it away. As far as I know, it’s still running.