Buying A Used Car
Out of context: Reply #14
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- vaxorcist0
I'm mister 250,000 miles, so for me, I may be different from most other people..... If you're willing to spend time, and listen very carefully to your car, check fluid levels once a week, and know at least 2 trusted mechanics, you can make a car last a damn long time as long as the previous owners were not idiots....
My current ride has 167,000 miles.. and I've driven it on trips from Chicago Tennessee, Chicago to Minneapolis, Chicago to Detroit,etc without any problems this year. It currently should have a new CV joint/axle in the next few months.... $250 repair I'm planning for....
The previous owner was very careful and kept a book of all maintenence records. I also know the dealer looked at the van 1 year ago and said it needed a new transmission and over $2000 of other stuff or it would supposedly "be a death trap on wheels" according to the dealer tech.
I took it to 3 different used-car mechanics locally and got 3 different estimates of everything that was wrong with it, and got the words of a smart mechanic who said "just add some transmission fluid every 2 - 3 weeks and you'll be fine for a couple of years, once it starts to give you the transmission clunk, you can replace the Transmission solenoid for $400 or so"
I just throw $100 a month into the "anticipated repair cost" account... and I change the oil every 3k miles, get a complete check each time, etc.... and I whenever you get a mechanic to look at things, ask carefully how urgent each thing is to fix, most used cars need $500-$1500 in repairs to "be perfect" but are "mostly ok" with half of that or so....