Repair or new?

Maintenance/Repairs
1


I have an 89 corolla sr5, 135,000 miles ? love the car am the original owner? but it seems that I have to replace the axels and the struts ? about 1000 dollars ? is it worth it or should I finally give up and purchase a new one



2

How is the rest of the car running?? Any major rust issues???

Now yes the car is 20 years old…but those items your talking about are normal wear items. At 135k miles they are worn and need to be replaced. If the rest of the car is running well then I’d say fix it and keep running.

3

not really as far as rust and it’s running ok-- seems to be

4

Was The Entire Vehicle Checked Over Or Just The Front-End?

It would be worthwhile to see a list of everything this car needs in terms of repairs/maintenance. If that has been done and these are the only two items that need work then I’d probably consider it. If a closer examination of the whole car generates a laundry list of items then that’s a different story.

How much have you spent on repairs in 20-21 years? $1000 divided by 20 is only $50/year. Since you only drive 7,000 miles per year, this car may serve your needs.

CSA

5

If you love the car, that says you really have no interest or desire for a new one. These repairs are entirely normal given the age and mileage on the car. Also they are easy repairs that don’t involve tearing into the motor or transmission or major system on the car.

If you said the car was smoking out the tailpipe, leaking lots of fluids, and had rust holes, the answer would be to let it go. None of these things are happening.

You will need to spend more money on repairs just because the age of the car means parts wear out and rubber hoses and belts get hard and brittle as they age. As long as you like the car you just need to be ready for these kinds of $1,000 repairs every now and then.

6

Try to get parts with a lifetime warranty

7

By all means, keep the car unless you can get another better car for 1000 bucks. Which I doubt. I wish more people would hang onto their cars longer, then the available aftermarket parts inventory would grow simply due to demand. Another thing that would happen is that the prices of new cars would come down due to the demand coming down.

8

thanks everyone- am not a real car person-- this was helpful as I dread shopping for one and am really attached to my corolla – actually it’s an 88 not 89.