I have a 2002 Hyundai Accent. My transmission died. I got the car into the shop, and am looking at a used transmission. The shop is offering to put in a transmission with 32k miles for $2260 plus tax (in MA) with a one-year warranty on parts & labor.
I’ve seen used transmissions online with about 20-30k miles on them with a one-year warranty (for the part) for about $450 (including shipping and tax). The shop will put this in for $756 but won’t warranty the labor.
Either way, I won’t have my car until Tues/Weds next week, which means I’ll have to rent a car for a couple of days, and add a few hundred bucks to the mix.
I can’t afford a new car. I have 106k on this car (which I love and is perfect for all my needs), and had every intention of it lasting to a minimum of 200k miles. I’m also broke (like everyone) and $1200 is better than $2200 any day of the week, but not if I’ll have to cough up another $756 to fix the cheaper transmission.
Any suggestions on what’s the better plan?
First, who has actually diagnosed this as a “dead” transmission and on what basis? Are you at a local and reputable non-corporate chain transmission shop? General auto mechanics are normally not qualified to diagnose or do transmission work. (A lot of Chrysler owners have ended up with new transmissions for want of a repaired grounding strap - just to pull a random, thing out of the blue).
If you don’t know any details you can at least post the symptoms.
Second, transmission costs can vary a great deal from car to car and place to place so you can’t read too much into this. But I was recently quoted a total of $2500 for a remanufactured transmission with a 3 year/100K warranty. $2260 for install of a used Accent transmission sounds really high to me. Perhaps you could check around for some more quotes?
The problem with ordering your own is the gamble. If it all works perfectly you save a bunch of $$ & smile. If anything goes wrong then you quickly end up spending as much or more + the aggravation on having the problems remain in your lap.
It wasn’t a transmission shop, but the general repair shop where I’ve gotten other things fixed in the past and I trust them. The car had been making some rattling noises for a while and I took it in and they didn’t find anything (a few weeks ago), then yesterday the speedometer stopped working and there was a major clunking noise (horrible horrible noise). They showed me the chewed up speed sensor and said it was something major in the transmission.
I looked again online and found that the $450 ones actually were for manuals (I have an automatic) – the automatics cost around $1000 and had 100k miles, so I decided to go with the $2260 version, and they said they’d fix my oil leak (rear main seal) while they’re at it. I’m hoping this will now give me the aimed-for 200k miles and that I can start putting money away for my next car…