When to give up on a car?

Oh wise ones, how does one tell when it is time to give up on a car?

Car in question is a mere 12 YO, 172K miles. Lately, I've seen repair costs have been steadily escalating in the past two years. I try to do most of the wrenching, to a point. I willingly farm out the work when it is too tiring or hard to do out in the driveway.

Most cars ( that I buy, ) seem to have relatively low maintenance costs, for quite a while. Then, after x years, big stuff (or lots of little stuff) starts to require constant feeding of $$$.

When do you pull the plug? What would make you give up?

6 months before you post up about when to give up?

What is the car? If it is pretty pedestrian, let it go. If it stirs your soul, you give up just before bankruptcy.

Depends on how much you like the car, I suppose.

On my last car, the lame '99 Saab 9-3 base slushbox, I gave up when the water pump, power steering pump, and alternator needed replacing, as did the turbo, battery, rear main seal, brakes, suspension, tires, and a 1/4 panel....

With my 9000 Aero, it'd take a lot more than that

flexi wrote: When do you pull the plug? What would make you give up?

If it is a daily driver I dont particularly care about, I give up at the point that the total maint costs for a year total more than what it would cost for car payments in that given year for a pretty new replacement car.

I USUALLY (but not always) give up when the cost of a repair exceeds the price I paid for the car. Of course, that rarely, really happens, as it always SEEMS like the repair falls under that threshold.

If I really liked the car, and it was hard to replace it....with another decent car, I usually keep going. Keep in mind, my last few cars have been Japanese and they seem to last longer. I did have a '78 Z car that I gave up on when the wiring got too corroded to keep it running reliably and the rust made keeping it on the road dangerous. It also didn't help that the A/C didn't work and the car guzzled gas (it was a 4 speed).

i give up when the repair costs more than finding an equivalent car

When you can find something you like better for less money than it will take to keep the existing one, assuming same-condition.

I've sold a car exactly once. All others were kept until the bodies were thoroughly rotten and thus only fit for scrap. Well, all except for the Isuzu, which was a special case. Some sort of demonic rituals were used in what I will charitably call its "engineering". Scrapping that car was doing the world a favor.

Knurled wrote: When you can find something you like better for less money than it will take to keep the existing one, assuming same-condition. I've sold a car exactly once. All others were kept until the bodies were thoroughly rotten and thus only fit for scrap. Well, all except for the Isuzu, which was a special case. Some sort of demonic rituals were used in what I will charitably call its "engineering". Scrapping that car was doing the world a favor.

Really?!? I thought the same about my 2nd Fuego and the body was in great shape!

I am kinda facing a similar dilemma on my E30.

Its a 4 door automatic eta and I havent really ever had it running right. I got it to be my daily driver, but I never seem to have the time to get it fixed. Whenever I do find the time for that car (mustang work or working on my moms 2 cars are higher priority) It dosent solve the problem. The most recent problem is that it started chugging and running like butt and ran better with the O2 disconnected and I just havent been motivated to mess with it (been months). I like the car, but hate its driveline.

I have put a new timing belt on it, readjusted the valves, plugs and wires, new vac hoses, transfer pump, etc. Still havent ever gotten it to run right.

I know I could fix it if I gave it some time and effort, but I am burning out on it.

Been really thinking about cutting it loose and just getting a FWD manual econobox to replace it, preferably something that wont steal wrenching time from my more fun cars.

Then again, I fell like if I could get it to run right I would be fine with its other faults and love it.

current fix-it list on the car Runs on wrong loop (efi) so runs like butt, odo went nonfunctional, slow windows (pass dosent work sometimes), leaky sunroof, funny sound sometimes turning right at a certian moderate degree (replaced wheelbearing early in ownership), leaky trunk, nonfunctional horn, drivetrain clunk (guibo and rear bushings?), etc..

When the wiring in the miata cannot be fixed or traced and changing out the instrument pod didnt seem to make a difference.

In reply to Tyler H:

If only we all had that kind of crystal ball

98 LegacyGT. DD for my wife. Still a pretty decent car. I wouldn't go bankrupt for it, though. My miata, that is a different story.

I have a rule: three times on the hook and it's gone. My Saab 9-5 went away after #3 (transmission failure). In lieu of that, structurally significant rust is the one thing that pretty much guarantees I'm done. My old 533i (which never once came home on a hook) had to go at 238k miles after I discovered that the floor above the rear subframe mounts was rapidly disappearing.

Come to think of it, I've never sold a car that was fully functional. I suppose that speaks to my stubbornness more than anything.

Well, I'm at that stage in the life of the Eclipse. I drove it almost 350,000 enjoyable miles. Twelve years. I sold it once and got it back. Resurrected it and sold it to my E36M3head roommate. He took my formerly pristine car, guardrailed it, wiped the front fenders off it. Up until a week ago, it was slated to be the $2011 challenger. Until I got a look under it. Rot is one thing I refuse to deal with (unless it's attached to my VR-4)

When you don't love the car any more. I got to that point with my Porsche 944. When it worked it was so much fun. However it spent a lot of time broken. I remember when I got it back from the shop once, and it did nothing for me. I wasn't happy. I just drove it home like it was any other car. That's when I knew it was time to sell it.

When I loathe looking at the thing anymore.

Sounds like you already made the call on killing the Saab.

You may be at the point where the decision is whether any new work will be worthwhile for resale or future use.

Every rule that you can come up with has merits and exceptions.

I have bought a $400 parts car for a car I paid $200 for. Worth it! Sold cars with nothing wrong simply because they were....boring!

You will suffer until you hate it enough to do something about it...but you must be the one to choose where that line is.

Bruce

In my case the car is an Aerostar, MY '91. AWD, 290 K miles. I got the thing for free; PO was going to abandon it at the dump. I said, "if you're gonna throw it away, throw it my way", and he tried to talk me out of it. I use it for back and forth to work, about 1.5 miles each way. BUT, it never leaves town, gets an oil change once a year whether it needs it or not, consistently gets about 100 miles on a half tank of gas, got a battery I took out of the Chevy van, and the most I've spent on it has been license and oil changes. Thus, now when it needs a front u-joint (and probably stub axle by now...clunks going around corners), I'm loathe to put any money at all into it. I'm basically waiting for the day when it refuses to play along anymore. So far it's like an old dog you keep buying food for, knowing that he'll die eventually, but you can't bring yourself to put it down, because he's still willing to please and doesn't cause much grief.

PETA members should get a charge out of that! But it's exactly how this blasted Aerostar is. Just reliable enough to keep me from pulling the plug. Because then I'd have to buy another POS vehicle to replace it, and I've enough Scottish blood in me that that particular idea is really painful.

ignorant wrote:

flexi wrote: When do you pull the plug? What would make you give up?

If it is a daily driver I dont particularly care about, I give up at the point that the total maint costs for a year total more than what it would cost for car payments in that given year for a pretty new replacement car.

this...when I had spent $800 in 4 months to keep my 90 cavalier running, and found I could be making payments totaling 1k a year on a used 1 owner corolla, and then the OTHER ignition module in my cavalier let go, I called it quits.

Now if we were talking something fun like a "ive wanted this car since I was in highschool" type car, then thats a whole other story

flexi wrote: Oh wise ones, how does one tell when it is time to give up on a car?

When I'm sick of it. And if it's a daily driver, when I just no longer trust it.

I'll tolerate a lot of maintenance with one of the toy cars, but not so much with the daily beater that has to get me to work on time every day. That car can't be coming home on a wrecker.

There also the viceral dislike factor. When I cringe at the thought of opening the hood again, it's time to switch to another car. Same when I cringe at the thought of driving it again. Time to change cars.

There is also the cost factor, others have covered that well. I like it as rationalization for getting another car.

02Pilot wrote: Come to think of it, I've never sold a car that was fully functional. I suppose that speaks to my stubbornness more than anything.

Heck...I've never even owned a fully functional car!

For me, it's time to let one go when I'm bored with a car and/or someone is willing to give me more money than I think it's worth.

Clem

I tend to sell my cars when the next thing that breaks will put me in the red. Car is usually running great with no issues but I know if something else goes wrong it wouldn't make financial sense to fix it.

I give up only when the repair costs would buy me another car that i like MORE than the current car.

Unfortunately, that'll be a tall order with the MX6 or the Celica. I'd need like... at least a $2500 repair to come up with the MX6 (everything on the car goes up in flames?) and probably... $5000 to come up on the Celica. (Is there even $5000 worth of stuff to go wrong on that car?)

I guess i don't give up.

Rust is a quick way to make me run away, though.

There are a couple different cut-offs I might use:

1. When the repairs needed cost more than what it would cost to buy a better car. At least for a daily driver - I freely ignore this with project cars.

2. When the unibody or frame is rusted to the point that it's unsafe. Very rare in the South.

3. When I've got the money to buy something better saved up, don't have any other things I have to spend it on, and feel like getting something else.

When the engine died on my ZX2SR after 10 years of great fun, dd, track days, iceracing. It was beginning to get old to me anyway, so that helped me to decided

Tyler H wrote: If it stirs your soul, you give up just before bankruptcy.

epic