Instead of having the transmission inspected, have the fluid changed every 30,000.
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I have written about the cousin here in Mexico. This pickup in the photo looks in comparison right off the production line, compared to his 1976 Chevrolet pickup. And, it still runs and he drives it on 50 mile round trips.
The seat, you sit on wire thingies that were once covered by padding. To start it he has to take a small screwdriver and shove it in a hole near the steering wheel instead of with the key. The glass would not pass inspection anywhere in the world. But, he still uses it a lot for his work, and for neighbors.
I wasnât concerned about the new safety features either. That changed when I had to give my teen new driver a car. When you have 30+ yrs of driving experience in all sorts of conditions, you probably are the âsafetyâ feature; not so much if you got your license yesterday.
What can I say? Two days ago there was a 16 year old killed in western Minnesota in a head on with a semi. The semi had crossed the center line in the fog and the teen had no where to go. They said the kid had done everything right with seat belt, lights on, conscientious driver, and so on but tangling with a semi on the highway at 6 in the morning was too much. Its said every high school class sees the death of a classmate and after 50 years I remember ours like it was yesterday. I guess safety features only go so far and fate catches up.
Not just the annuals/100 hr inspections. The AD notes over the years help keep the planes new and my wallet thin.
Thanks to a few too many pilots who never learned how to flare a Piper Seneca during landings, I had to dish out over $6000 to replace the main gear trunions due to the âpotentialâ for cracks. And years ago, it was a trip to propeller shops to have the infamous Hartzell AD 77 12 06 which required the needless ultimate destruction of perfectly good blades.
One thing of interest re: Cars vs planes.Maintenance: labor is typically paid for by (GASP!) the hour and not flat rated- most likely because of the many things that can need fixing on a plane. If you find an efficient mechanic it will save you money. Exceptions being shops that âflat rateâ annuals or 100 hr âeventsâ. But I digressâŠ
My 03 Mustang GT really started nickel and diming me around 170k mile mark. Over the course of 4 months, 3 coil packs failed and the intake manifold (aftermarket) sprung a leak near the thermostat. Before that, it was pretty good, with only a power window regulator and the ABS/traction control module needing replacement.
The 2016 Mustang GT that replaced it has already been in for warranty work twice since Iâve had it.
Taking care of the body is important. You can always replace engine parts, but you canât replace a body.
Actually you CAN replace a bodyâŠIt is just difficult and expensive! And it helps if you have a popular car model!
1967 Mustang body shell
MG-B body shells
http://www.bmh-ltd.com/mgbshell.htm
Original Mini
http://www.bmh-ltd.com/minishell.htm
1957 Chevy
It sounds like you like the car, live in a good climate, and have taken care of the car. I personally have the Ford 4.6L in a truck with nearly 300,000 miles on it. The engine runs great. I have lots of other quirky issues with this truck but the engine runs like new. Ford sent me some recall notices a while back. It rolled into the dealer and I am sure they thought it was a pile of junk. They seemed amazed at how well the engine ran and that the oil and coolant were clean. This is mainly my firewood/winter truck so it gets very low miles per year. I use full synthetic and change it once per year and the oil still looks like new. It gets a few decent long haul runs to pickup hay, etc. so it isnât all just short trips around my farm. Yes, it either stays running at highway speeds for an hour or more or goes 1/4 mile and gets turned off. I have no doubt the body and frame will rust before the engine and transmission failâŠ
No car is truly âbeyond repairâ. What you are more concerned about is the car being beyond ECONOMICAL repair. For example, my GF had a car that was a discontinued model that wasnât known for reliability. It was the GM Daewoo made Suzuki Reno/Forenza. The car seemed to have some $50 sensor go out every 3 months. While this was frustrating, it was pretty much par for the course with this model and I told her it wouldnât leave her stranded and was cheaper than a car payment with me doing the work.
There were some deferred maintenance issues but for the most part the body and interior were in good shape. We were looking at getting the struts replaced (the factory ones were known junk). The windshield was busted and I guess being a more unusual car, they were like a tad under $400 anywhere I looked. There was some other $500-1000 repair that I wanted to get to as well but forgot what it was.
Then one day she complained about the car getting a little warmer than normal. I was out of town of course so told her to drive to pickup a gallon of premix universal coolant at the Autozone next to her work and add it after the car had sat all day. She repeated this process like 3 times and used most of that coolant. I was concerned but figured it was a leak. I couldnât find any leaks once I got home and then found exhaust gasses bubbling out of the coolant. This was a car that could sell for $1200 with $3500-4000 in repairs. She was also not in love with the car. I told her to dump it which she did.
Your question is not if a car can be kept forever. It is if it is going to cost you a fortune and more than the car is worth to keep it going. I work on computers which have a shorter lifespan than cars by a long shot. I often get one in that is outdated and has many problems so I tell the owner they need to dump it for a newer model. Basically using an unsupported Windows or Office suite is like playing with fire in terms of security. It would be like if once a car got to 25 years of age, you could no longer buy parts for it and it would become a liability. Yes, I could upgrade these systems to current standards but it would cost more than just going out and buying a new one ready to go.
Most everyone here has probably seen the movie Uncle Buck and remember that beatup Lincoln or whatever he was driving. I tell them âIt still runs but is costing you a fortune.â
I stand corrected.
We;'ve had several postings on when a car has reached its replacement time.
I teach workshops in asset management and this topic is covered every time.
With respect to cars, the following guideline applies:
- When a car becomes unsafe and cannot be made safe economically, e.g. rusted out with structural damage.
- The car becomes unreliable to the point of owner missing work or paying a financial penalty for the unreliability.
- The car can no longer pass emission and safety inspections, and cannot made to comply economically.
- The car becomes so unsightly that is hurts the ownerâs image or self esteem. This latter reason has some flexibility (Re: Uncle Buck).
- The cost of constant repairs exceeds the cost of owning a newer car. Many owners who love their cars often go way past this point and keep sinking money into their steeds. German cars reach this point faster than US or Japanese cars.
In industry the accounting definition for replacement is when the Annual ownership costs start exceeding the Cumulative Lifetime Average Annual ownership costs. Unless you keep very detailed track this point is difficult to determine by the average car owner.
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Yep. Like I said I should have dumped my Riviera at 350K instead of going to 530K and would have been money ahead and avoided irritation. Also should have dumped my diesel Olds at 200K instead of 480K for the same reason. Trying to squeeze your money out does not always end well.
You had a diesel Olds that made it to 200K? Iâm impressed. My dad bought a diesel Olds 98 (I want to say a 1983 or 1984 model) for a song in 1985, nobody wanted to buy those things apparently. He promptly discarded the diesel engine and swapped in a circa 1969 Turbo-Fire 350 with a TH350 backing itâŠ
The specific engine had started life in a Malibu, which my dadâs cousin wrecked. Dad bought the engine, had the heads cleaned up, got aftermarket intake manifold (I want to say it was an Edlebrock) and put it in a 1974(or 1976, I canât remember which) Malibu wagon (a car which my parents acquired when I came along). Mom drove the Malibu wagon up until 1985, which it was decided that it needed to be replaced. Dadâs great idea was to buy a cheap diesel Oldsmobile and put the SBC in it. Which as it turns out was a brilliant success. Mom drove the car until around 1990, which she got into an accident with it, no injuries or anything, but the car was not worth repairing.
The potent 4 barrel 350 made the Olds 98 something of a sleeper. It wasnât really fast, but it was substantially quicker than youâd think a car of that size would be. I hope someone managed to snag that engine from the car before it was junked.
Yeah I had an 81 diesel. Paid $800 extra for the diesel option. At 200K I put a Goodwrench rebuilt in. Then after that head gaskets and after that somewhere another used engine. And countless injector pumps at $500 apiece. After a while I could put them in myself. Yeah it was a disaster and would have been money ahead to dump it after two years at a $7500 loss, but I kept going trying to get my money out. Toward the end with 480K on it, the air conditioning was shot so Iâd get a belt squeal every morning to wake the neighbors, the head gaskets were causing over-heating so little heat in traffic, and finally just sold it to a diesel guy for $200, the price of the new tires I had put on. Then to add insult to injury, six months later I got a summons to appear for parking violations. The guy had never transferred the title and had accumulated parking citations. Took me a day off work to prove I didnât own it anymore. Nice comfortable car when new though and got 24 mpg.
Yes, there is the economic standpoint which I made as well as safety. If something has degraded to the point it costs more than the current value to fix, whether it be a mechanical repair or a crash, consider it totaled out. Sometimes there is economic value in the parts as mentioned above which might recoup some of the costs.
My 1997 Ford was a good example of this. I got it and kept finding problems for a while. It took a lot of time and money to finally get it right. I would have dumped it had I known what was coming up but I already had money into the thing and it was only one more problem so I thought it was worth proceeding with the repairs. It is still a piece of junk but a reliable piece of junk at least. I havenât really had any problems in quite a long time.
Then there is the Uncle Buck factor. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPqPDdiiJIw Do you drive up to a job interview in something like this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQCAqu6koEQ These days you would probably get arrested for mass pollution or inciting panic because it sounds like gunfire. They would put that school on lockdown and call in the National Guard these days over something that sounded like that.
There are a lot of factors playing in that are not directly related to the car. A car that works for someone who is unemployed/between jobs might not work for someone who has a full time job that demands extra hours/weekend work. Also, depends on whether there is another reliable car in the family that could be used as back up. The list goes on, every decision is very individual.
The 1997 Ford is my farm truck and winter beater. It would probably make it across the country and back at this point since everything has been replaced but isnât something I would want as my daily driver.
The other point not brought up is that some newer vehicles are just as capable while being safer and being more economical to run. My 1997 Ford basically drinks gas. There is nothing wrong with it as the the mileage I get is what it was supposed to get when new. It is just a gas hog truck. Nowadays you can get one with a smaller engine that puts out more power while burning less fuel. If I was driving a lot of miles in this truck replacing it with something more efficient would make more sense but it might get 1000-2000 miles a year so I plan to keep it until something major goes wrong.
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I had a friend who was given a Dodge Shadow while he was out of work. It was rusted out, had a slipping transmission, and blown head gasket but he could drive it anywhere he needed to go that was close without issues. He poured the liquid glass head gasket sealant into it and that basically band-aided the junker until he found a new job and this rolling heap was promptly traded in on a better car.
The car wouldnât meet the standards of most but it was better than walking during the winter months and it got him from point A to B. He never went too far to where he couldnât walk home if it left him stranded which it actually never did.
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