To Fix Up or Trade Up, That is the Question

cinlm

Can someone help me with this? I want to get a new car and want to get a car with the highest mileage range I can find in the economy range. I've looked all over and can only find info on miles per gallon, but not on how many miles per tankful. I just have this thing about frequent pit stops. Hate em! I decided on the Honda Fit for that reason. It only has a 10.8 gallon fuel tank. What's the point in getting good mileage if you have to be stopping at the gas station all the time. Any suggestions? thanks.

qbrozen

interesting question ... but I'm not sure I completely understand. I think you are saying you want an economy-class car, and not just a car with good economy, correct? Do you have a price limit in mind?

this probably isn't the right discussion, though ... actually, I think this might be a better place to ask and might get you more reponses:
Please help me decide between...

wlbrown9

Edmunds has that info under "Reviews & Specs". Go to New Cars, choose a vehilce, the go to Review & Specs. Info in right there. Here is that section for the Honda Fit. (Of course, all they have done is multiplied out the tank capacity time the 2 EPA ratings, so if you don't get the highway mileage rating of 38, then you would get less than the 410.4 mile range show. Also, you could get a Suburban with an extra tank and possibly get more range, of course that blows the budget when you pay for 3 times as much fuel to go the same distance :-) )

Specs:

Fuel Tank Capacity: 10.8 gal.; EPA Mileage Estimates: 33 mpg / 38 mpg; Range in Miles: 356.4 mi. / 410.4 mi.

pch101

You can find out both EPA ratings and range on a tank of fuel at http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/sbs.htm. Search for the cars that interest you, then click on them individually, and you'll find out how large the fuel tank is and the estimated mileage per tank based upon the EPA rating. (Of course, your mileage may vary...)

d1ane

As the title states I currently have a chevy malibu with 147k on it, however it has a dent on the hood, scratches on the bumper(parking in NYC), needs to be alined and I think the head gasket needs to be replaced. I've decided i want to get a new car and would like to use the malibu as a trade in. Should i spend some money to fix it up, the exterior looks great with the exception of the small dent and bumper, interior is also pretty nice but the head gasket and the aliment are an issue...

cccompson

No - given its mileage it is worth little on trade regardless of its condition. Just use that "repair money" for a larger down payment.

d1ane

Thanks! but i hear that large downpayments for leases are a no no...

cccompson

Oops, thought you were buying. Somehow, the idea of trading a car in on a lease seems foreign to me.

kyfdx

The dealer will cut you a check for your trade-in.. There is no requirement to use the entire proceeds to put down on the new lease..

isellhondas

The cost of those repairs may exceed the value of the car.

wtd44

...your local newspaper, or weekly advertising paper, and let the car go cheap with full disclosure to the new buyer. Do an "as is" bill of sale as an added protection, should the buyer get unhappy even after full disclosure. If these alternatives sound unappealing, how about a donation to a charity that can sell it and furnish you with a good tax deduction?

gunman24x

So I purchased a 2003 Toyota Celica GT Used and Certified by a Toyota Dealer in Aug 2005. The vehicle had about 46k miles on it already. Most of the car seemed ok, but being naive as I was didn't really look into it. I paid a crap load more than what the car is worth. Like almost 20k. (Bought at like $16500, but was had in like maintenance packages or something) Yes gasp as you may, I've had a discussion about this on other parts of this forum.

Well now I have enough money to pay it off in full through a loan. (My payments are killer at $389/mo at 10.60% interest for 72 months.) The Total amount is $17.5k. The problem now or question that I have is:

My car's clutch has already burned out; it is currently at the dealer getting checked out. They've only confirmed that the clutch pad will need to be replaced. They are still going to check with warranty and check deeper into the car for what else needs to be fixed.

I've only put around 6k or so miles on it from the time I bought it in Aug of '05. No damages other than some rock scratches, no real problems that I know of other than this clutch pad.

So my question is, if none of my warranty or coverage covers the repair costs. Should I just trade in my car for a new 06 or 07 car?

Again I have the money to pay of this car already, but if the car is just going to cause me problems in the future, would it be worth it to just trade in and pay off the new car instead. My reasoning for this is because my overall payments are so high ($17.5k), shouldn’t I just get a real new car?

Or am I just a fool once again. (I enjoy my Celica, but I'm trying to save a bit of cash in the long run. Also not too car savy)

Help Please, suggestions, comments, flames.

Thanks,

Car Newbie.

stubborn1

The clutch is a wear item. Granted, it shouldn't be going bad at 50k miles unless the previous owner wasn't proficient at driving a stick.

Is there a prepayment penalty on your loan? If not, I would start paying whatever extra you can swing per month and pay it off early. You've got a 2003 Toyota with only 50k miles. The financial hit was already taken when you bought the car. Trading for new at this point just makes it worse.

bobst

Pay off the car loan and get the clutch fixed.

Then you will not have a car loan and you will be able to save some money.

Keep driving the car for at least 6 more years or 150K miles, whichever comes first.

When you get a new car, pay cash for it. No more car loans for the rest of your life.

qbrozen

put me down as another vote for the above solution.

gunman24x

Ok So I just fixed the clutch, cost me around $1400.

So now I've got my loan to pay off the dealer. Is there anything else I should ask from my dealer or get from my dealer before paying off the car?

Are there any additional benefits I could squeeze out? Since I'm keeping this ride, I was possibly thinking of adding a sun roof to it later on. Anyway I could cut a deal from paying off my car early?

Thoughts?

Thanks!

bobst

Gunman, I think your goals should be to 1) pay off our present car loan and 2) save enough money so you can pay cash for your next car.

In other words, no sun roof.

I have no idea if you can get a deal for paying off your loan early. If you are paying a high interest rate, I think the dealer would prefer that you not pay off the loan early and would therefore not give you any kind of deal. However, I could be totally wrong.

termico

I've got a 2001 Silverado with 90K miles. I bought it used 18mos ago and currently owe about what it's worth to re-sell. Its in good shape, only a minor dent in the side panel. So far I've had no problems and have done regular maintenance. I use the truck to haul my horse trailer and it has worked fine for short hauls. At some point, I would like to be able to go longer distances and am thinking of selling and purchasing a used later model with less miles and a better towing package.
I have fair credit and have been current on all but one payment(in August). Is it a better financial decision to wait and pay down this truck and refinance another used one in the hope my interest rate has improved? Or should I try to get the most value from this truck by selling now when it's under 100K?
Any advice is appreciated.
Thanks!!

Mr_Shiftright

I think the 100,000 miles rollover mark is a significant one in the eyes of a buyer; also you have rolled over another calendar year and before all the 2007s hit the streets and people get used to that, you might want to sell now.

If you can make your payoff you are essentially starting from zero...all you've lost then is your initial down payment plus whatever $$ you put into the truck.

So if you put down 2,000 about 18 months ago, you have to figure that + your sales tax that you paid as part of your costs.

Also that dent might have to be fixed for you to get your full value and the truck highly detailed, so figure THAT into your costs as well.

As for interest rates, that's up to your credit score--and that won't be hurt by selling the truck certainly but it might not be improved either.

My feeling is that even with a somewhat better credit score, the interest rate isn't going to amount to a huge sum of money on the overall loan costs on a used truck.

Each 1% on a car loan varies your monthly by about $10-15 a month on a $20,000 loan over 60 months...if that gives you some perspective.

Of course I don't personally ever enourage anyone to go into debt, but if you are paying off one loan to take on a somewhat equal loan, that's fine. If you're going to double the debt, that's worth thinking about before you do it.

wtd44

For me, 90K is too high to keep. I would be conjuring up visions of repair expenses, etc. I've got a couple of friends that have recently run their cars past 200K, and love to brag about it. That's scary territory for me. I would recommend getting a much lower mileage vehicle, if you intend to tow with it. I have towed trailers from coast to coast to coast (east, west, gulf). The strain on the drive train is significant.

jr07

Please help. I am in deep with a Chrysler Pacifica. Here is the background info.

I bought a 2005 Chrysler Pacifica in Jan of 05. Over the last 8 months it has been in for service 6 times-many of these visits were for multiple things.

Some of our problems have been:
Breaks going out on several occassions (in 3 times just for this multiple problems with ABS)
Broken front axel which stranded my entire family, including our toddler and infant.
Broken Air conditioner
Broken window regulator
Passenger airbag indicator light would come on for no reason-saying the bag was *turned off*.

These are just some of the problems we've had. We have been to the service dept in Aug 06, Sept 06, Nov 06 which the dealer claims to have performed the 27 point inspection each time. On top of it all we had many complaints about the service dept at our local dealer and called Chrysler corp to complain at least twice...

Fast forward to today. The car starts making odd noises-running rough. We take it back to our local dealer, (this was a week ago) who looks at it and said we have engine sludge...at 25,000 miles mind you-and that if we cannot provide written, dated receipts of all of our oil changes it is going to cost us $6000 for a new engine.

THis car is a lease. It only has 12 months left on it-and now we are stuck with a $6000 bill for something we did not break. We didn't save our oil change receipts-I've never even heard of sludge! We have always owned imports, this is our first American experience, and I will tell you that it's borderline ruining our life.

The car has always been a safety risk-we have never felt safe in it. We have tried contacting Chrysler Corp with no avail. The lemon law would never have worked because the ABS problems were all with different sensors. We are very discouraged and feeling hopeless.

Every mechanic I have spoken with says there is no way we could have sludge build up at 25K miles. No way. I wonder if something happened to my car to cause the sludge...it's obviously a *lemon*.

So we are now faced with the following choices:

-fix the car for $6-7,000 drive it for another year and turn it in in hopes we would be able to walk away from it and have no further out of pocket costs. This idea scars us because it could break again, and what if this time they try to say sludge, or something again that will cost us even more? We don't feel safe when driving it, so I'm sure we'd let it sit 90% of the time over the next year.

-Try and trade it as is. Will anyone take it? Prob not is my guess but we are thinking about looking into it. We have 12 payments of $359 per month, and I think it has an inflated residual, so we're upside down A LOT. We could put the $6K down on something to try and offset some of the negative.

-Do not fix it or drive it-park it in our driveway for the next 12 months pay our lease off and then *patch it together* before we turn it in-not sure how much we could be hit with from the leasing company after the fact, and we're paying $359 p/month to have a car sit, undrivable in our driveway.

Can anyone advise us what might be the best *worst* option for us?

Thanks.
Thank you.

jlawrence01

This is where you call the Chrysler Zone Manager and start talking seriously. The vehicle is under warranty - I believe that the warranty on the model is 3 years/ 36 months. At this point, I would NOT talk to an attorney BUT that may be the next option.

We have had pretty good experiences with the Pacificas in our fleet.

Mr_Shiftright

Looks to me like your only viable option is to fight this "sludge" diagnosis tooth and nail, to the bitter end, whatever it takes. Letting it sit doesn't work because you still have to fix the engine for the lease company. Fixing the engine yourself pretty much implies that you admit fault.

I guess the first thing you need to do is have an independent shop VERIFY that your engine has sludge and take it from there. If it IS sludged up, in fact...then you'd better figure out how you're going to prove that oil changes were done....old credit card records, even a signed statement from the shop that changed the oil.

If you can't prove oil changes, and the engine IS in fact sludged up, the only other thing I can suggest is a very clever attorney to figure something out for you---maybe some compromise position where you bear half the cost, etc.

dtownfb

First thing jr07, calm down. since your car is well within the warranty period, don't jump at trying to sell off the vehicle or worry about being upside down.

The first question I have is have you changed the oil regularly? If so, where and when (approx. mileage)? If it was at a dealership, the records are in the computer. No need for receipts. If it was at Jiffy Lube or some place like this, they have the records on computer and can easily print it out for you. Same with an independent mechanic. Take a look in your owner's manual and see what the minimum maintenance requirement is for your car. the mechanic that stated about sludge not being possible at 25k miles is mostly right. You would have had to completely neglect the car for the past two years for this to happen.

Since the dealership has drawn the line in the sand with regard to needing a new engine, I agree with Mr. Shiftright. fight this thing! find out, how they came about this diagnosis and how it is possible that oil would sludge in a 2 year/25k vehicle. do this in person and write down his explanation in front of him and repeat it to him after he is done. this way he can't dispute it later. Then I would tow the vehicle to another mechanic for a second opinion. Or drive it if it is drivable.

I find it hard to believe with all the time this vehicle spent in the shop, no oil changes were done to it.

qbrozen

by the way, on the '05 models, the powertrain warranty is 7/75 (or is it 7/80?) ... something like that, anyway.

brakes going out 3 times smells like a possible lemon to me. I would get the engine replaced, THEN talk to an attorney.

fezo

I had something like that happen years ago with a VW Rabbit. The dealership tried to void the warranty claiming abuse but when they had to look in their own computer and find out it had been serviced by the book they backed right down. It didn't hurt that my brother is an attorney and I had him make a call.

qbrozen

we may never hear from jr07 again ....

jipster

You ask if it is a better financial decision to wait or sell now. I say wait... don't think it financially wise to be buying newer vehicles every 18 months. Financially it would be better to wait and pay off your old loan. The truck is only 6 years old, still plenty of miles left on it. It's been a reliable truck, so unless it starts to prove otherwise, save your money and improve your credit score, and hold onto it.

jipster

You ask if it is a better financial decision to wait or sell now. I say wait... don't think it financially wise to be buying newer vehicles every 18 months. Financially it would be better to wait and pay off your old loan. The truck is only 6 years old, still plenty of miles left on it. It's been a reliable truck, so unless it starts to prove otherwise, save your money and improve your credit score, and hold onto it.

dc17

I want to trade up on my car, but it has some wear/tear. 42,000 miles, runs great. The wear/tear:

-fairly good sized dent in front left bumper/fender, all cosmetic but those parts need replaced (thank you stranger who hit my car in a parking lot)
-definately needs new tires
-windsheild crack on across the very bottom (out of field of view)
-the SRS light (supplemental restraint system) just came on yesterday

Which of these items is it worth my time/money to fix before trading it in (or selling it privately, should I decide to deal with that hassle)?

Thanks.

qbrozen

a dent? any harm to the paint? if it can be fixed without replacing or repainting, do it.

SRS light ... check with a dealer. Since it isn't that far out of warranty, maybe you can get Honda to fix it out of goodwill.

What do you want to trade it on? If another Honda, I'm sure those things won't matter a whole lot. If somewhere else, it is more of a problem. If selling privately, I would fix everything.

alexo2

Busted up my '00 saturn LS1 yesterday. The car has 140K on it and there's about $2400 damage. insurance will pay, less my $500 deductible, to have it fixed. In addition the car needs about $500 work (new rear tires and brake work)

So, should I just have the car fixed, or take my insurance check + the money I would have to spend anyway to try to get a used car in the $3000 range? Just looking on the used car sites, most cars in that price range have fewer miles than my saturn, but are generally older (mid-late 90's models) I'm worried about getting a lemon, and in this case it may come down to a choice of the devil I know (the saturn) vs an unknown used car with 90-120K miles on it. We just bought my wife a new car and absolutley can't afford another loan. Just wanted to get some opinions before I authorized the repair.

jlawrence01

Busted up my '00 saturn LS1 yesterday. The car has 140K on it and there's about $2400 damage. insurance will pay, less my $500 deductible, to have it fixed. In addition the car needs about $500 work (new rear tires and brake work)

Or in other words, should you spend $3,000 to repair a $1,000 vehicle? Shouldn't take you more than three seconds to make that decision. (Particularly germaine this week as it was a $2,500 repair on a $1,200 vehicle for me.)

Buy another vehicle.

bobst

I agree. If it took Alex three seconds to make that decision, he wasted two of them.

wtd44

You have received probably all the advice you need, but it still leaves a nagging concept. Do you mean that your insurance company will not insist on just giving you "X" amount of cash and then junking the car themselves? Will you get the "X" amount of money when you decline to have the repairs made?

jipster

Neither. Repair(out of pocket) only what is needed to get the car running and safe. I assume you are a young(er) driver, I wouldn't turn it in to insurance as your rates are likely to skyrocket. Run it till there's no longer any useable tred on those new rear tires.

jdog420

I HAVE A SLIGHT PROBLEM. I BOUGHT THIS JEEP FOR $350,NOT RUNNING I WAS TOLD IT HAD A KNOCK IN THE ENGINE. WELL I FOUND OUT WHY IT WOULD NOT RUN A 4 WAY VACUUM LINE WAS DISCONNECTED. GOT IT RUNNING THAT IS WHEN I HERD THE KNOCK,ON FURTHER INSPECTION I FOUND IT SPUN A ROD BEARING ON #4 CYL. I WAS WONDERING IF ANYBODY KNOWS IF I CAN TRANSPLANT A DIFFERENT MOTOR WITH OUT TO MANY MODS OR IF I SHOULD JUST STICK THE SAME NEWLY REBUILT ENGINE OF COURSE A 2.8L V-6 IT IS A 4X4 TO. ANY FEED BACK WOULD HELP!THX

Mr_Shiftright

I would just go out and buy a clean good running '84. They are so incredibly dirt cheap I can't see the wisdom in fixing up one with a bad motor....unless of course you want a hobby, etc., then go for it. You should be able to buy a very decent 4WD Cherokee for $1,500. You won't get yours going for that.

jdog420

THANKX FOR THE INFO. I FOUND A 2.8L BRAND NEW FOR $800 I THINK I MIGHT DO THAT AND THEN SELL FOR MORE THAN WHAT I PURCHASED IT FOR AND BUY ONE THAT IS A LITTLE NEWER WITH A 4.0L INLINE SIX. I DONT KNOW MAYBE I WILL KEEP IT FOR A THRASHER/HUNTING VEHICLE. I USED TO BE A DODGE TECH SO I HAVE ALOT OF OPTIONS, I AM NEW TO THE JEEP'S BUT I HERE THEY ARE A GREAT OFF ROAD VEHICLE

Mr_Shiftright

Yeah they are good off-road but the Cherokee resale value totally stinks is the problem. So you have to be careful how much you invest in one is what I'm warning you about. But hey, if you like to turn wrenches, have fun and make something out of it, sure, why not?

wtd44

Drive 'em 'til they drop.

Mr_Shiftright

'zaxly right! The perfect approach for this type of vehicle. Use 'em up, enjoy 'em and kiss 'em goodbye and buy another one. There is still no shortage.

rnmwalsh5

I recently bought a 1993 Eldorado off of a guy on Ebay. Its a beautiful car and it was worth the money. He said that the person he got it from said it was running and just died. I took the oil filter off and tore it open and the oil was perfect. I turned the engine over by hand and it worked. I put a new battery in it, checked the terminals and wires. My question is what in god's name could make the car just "die" like this. Thanks, Mike

Mr_Shiftright

You mean the engine won't spin on the starter or that it cranks and cranks and won't fire?

rnmwalsh5

as I further investigated I found the torque converter bolts somehow came loose and it broke the converter and oblonged the flexplate holes to the point where the bolts were cutting into the starter face and they got to the point were they actually got bound against the starter I now neew to remove the trans and replace the torque converer and the flex plate and the starter,thanks Mike

Mr_Shiftright

Yikes what a mess...better have a peek into the tranny while it's out...

wtd44

That could get expensive. Can you do it yourself?

bobst

Oh, is that all? I was afraid it might be something serious.

rnmwalsh5

yep I am going to tackle this job myselfI am pretty good friends with the owners of a couple of local auto parts stores and i can get a reman torque converter for 150.00 and a used flexplate/flywheel from a friends junkyard for 35.00, so I will be getting that taken care of hopefully this weekend

wtd44

Hey, that is an impressive agenda! I admire your fortitude, and it sounds like you are on the track to a satisfactory repair. That is a lot of work staring you in the face.