I shot this TT roadster because of its glowing color. But it reminded my that a (female) friend of ours in the Bay Area recently mentioned to me that she had a $7500 repair bill to replace the transmission in her gen1 Audi TT 3.2 Quattro. That was a shock; I’m such a cheapskate; I can’t imagine such a thing. It’s probably eight to ten years old, and I wonder if it was even worth that much. It got me thinking: what was the most expensive repair bill I ever had?
The electronic-feedback carburetor in our ’85 Cherokee V6 needed replacing in about 1990 or so. The unit alone was $500, plus labor; probably about $1200-1500 in today’s money. And the transfer case needed to be repaired, but that was in Eugene, not the Bay Area, and I don’t remember exactly, but it was probably in the same ballpark.
But I’m quite sure I never broke the $2000 barrier, thanks to wrangling a deal for the fourth tranny in our Caravan ($900), despite having 88,000 miles on it. And you?
Your question of the car being worth the repair bill reminds me of how I think:
At what point do you stop pouring money into that beater and just replace it?
How many times can you stand to hear the mechanics laughing at you behind your back as you sink more $$$ into your jalopy?
I suppose it’s when that ‘beater’ still worth some money. For example it’s easier when the jalopy in question is worth less than $10,000 in the used market, to just walk away when faced with such repair costs. But what if the thing still worth $50,000? In the used market, no less, never mind how it costs you when new?
I don’t think a jalopy is a vehicle valued at $10k let alone $50k.
The first one I can think of is the most expensive simply by adding the numbers. On an ’86 Gran Fury, the 4 barrel Quadrajet was stumbling badly. So I rebuilt it myself (~ $30). Having parts left over, I then bought another carb only to learn the difference between square bore and spread bore. That was another $100. I then took the car to a local shop where they worked their magic on the original carb for another $120. Running smoothly, making no power, and drinking fuel, I then found a carburetor shop is St. Louis. He then sold me a different carb for $425 – but it needed nothing and ran better than ever. So, $675 for a carb on a car I sold a few years later for $1200.
Live and learn.
“Live and Learn” – one of my mantras also! The older I get, the more I use it. Usually follows “Never again!”.
The worst situation I have heard of is one that happened at our dealership. A customer came in to pay his bill for a $2700 head gasket replacement on his 15 year-old, 130k mile Saturn SL2. He proceeded to max out three credit cards to pay for it. I kind of stared at him in amazement and asked if he had considered just trading it in or selling it and buying something else and he said he didn’t want to make payments on another car! I wonder what his combined payment was on those three cards at 20% interest?
Figure the sales tax on anything new is going to be north of $1500, plus higher insurance and reregistration costs. 20% on 2700 is still less painful than 3-5% on 20k.His folly was going to the dealer vs. a trusted independent.
If its a car that’s clean and otherwise in good shape that’s not out of the realm of rational. As long as you keep feeding them oil the Saturn SLs can live for a long time.
20% might be completely incorrect as well – I have numerous credit cards with 0%-purchase offers.
If you have even one maxed card, you are not going to get 0% off of anyone.
As a college student, I had a credit card maxed out on 0% for 60 months (finance major, go figure 😉 ). I could have had more if I asked! (Same applies today; in turn, savings yields a measly 0.25%).
Agreed. I had an old ’99 SL2 with north of 290K miles on it when I finally sold it cheap to it’s next grateful 17 year old owner. Still ran like a champ. $2700 seems incredibly high for such a repair though–that’s Cadillac repair money. I’ll bet an independent shop could do the job for well under $1500.
Cadillac engine repair? Try $8000.
That is extremely high. Any time we get into internal engine or transmission repairs that climb like that I usually just suggest us dropping in another engine. Since I have access to pretty good used engines with warranties its usually much easier, and cheaper to just drop it in. Low mileage (under 100K) Saturn motors are like $600-700 with 12 month warranty and $350 or so to drop it in. I would not waste time opening that engine up unless you had a customer willing to leave it for a while and a guy wanted something to do when it was slow.
It just depends where one is and how their economy is. I had 2 hoses replaced on my previous DD and it was $275. Hoses. Strong local economy has its downfalls. Can charge anything they want. (One of the very few times I went to an independent repair shop rather than the dealer–just as expensive).
The 5-speed transmission failed in my first ’03 Matrix and that cost north of $3,000. Then add the car rental for the five days it was in the shop.
I hated to do it, but obviously I couldn’t sell the thing with a failed transmission. The car had about 80k on it — way too many miles to justify such an expensive repair, at leas in my mind.
Annnnnnnnnd then six months later I was in an accident that totaled the car.
dropping 2000 bucks on my 1980 Peugeot 504 diesel bkz engine was in need of rebuilt really bad(original motor lasted only 65kmiles,must have been made on Friday)I am sure the whole car worth probably half of that but there is some emotional attachments to this car since my late dad bought it new&it reminds me of him driving it&7 years old me in the back seat every day.otherwise a guy who sells a 90 camry only bkz it needs a new clutch would not be spending that kind of money on cars.
That’s really hard to answer…because my car ownership stretches over 36 years. I paid $700 for an engine rebuild on my Super Beetle in 1977 (no shop and not the time or experience to do it myself). That’s about $2700 in today’s funny-money.
I’ve been lucky in that in the last fifteen years I’ve been employed well and haven’t needed to own beaters. Most times either my needs changed (sell the house, lose the pickup) or I’d get bored or concerned with long-term odds (My T&C minivan, abused mercilessly, still good paint and running well) that I’d trade it in. On hobby cars, like my late Jeep…something broke, I’d fix it. Didn’t matter how long it took…hydro clutch, or water pump, or wiring…I’d muddle through.
How much WOULD I spend? Look at the value of the car, versus the cost of repair. And how much I would get dumping the broken car, as opposed to selling the repaired model – or using it and hoping the failure was an isolated one, not general wear.
I did dump my 2003 Dodge Ram Van…simply because the whole of repair of little things, plus a looming TorqueFlite failure, plus a tired, thirsty, weak V-6, was more than even the cherry, rust-free shell was worth to me.
In 1982 my Sunbeam Rapier fried it’s auto box,£400 to repair it.Don’t know how much today allowing for inflation etc.
Borgwarner 35 the biodegradable transmission Ive seen several Hillmans blow those and believe it or not that trans was also in the Aussie Valiant so guess how long they lasted in those.
Even less!I’d no idea it went into other cars,I thought I’d just got unlucky as mine was only 7
I think the stiffest bill was $175. The next highest, maybe $60. (Not counting tires, or batteries. I do brakes and exhaust myself).
1. Nine times out of ten some little thing is responsible for what seems at first a major problem. Time and patience will find it out.
2. Low powered vehicles, if maintained and not abused, rarely experience a failure that costs big bucks.
3. Although my 26 year old truck, 25 year old truck and 16 year old minivan are all computer controlled, none have the power accessories, or audio/digital/electronic features that would result in high repair/replacement bills.
I cant wait till people start trying to fix their 11 speed automatics and multi function touch screen whatchamacallits, were going to hit a point where everything in the car is going to cost a ton to fix and be almost impossible to repair, hoo-ray!.
I always think about this when I see cars from the last 20 years in bad shape, beaten up, rusted. I wonder how these people, most of whom are probably living paycheck-to-paycheck, can possibly afford to repair all the electronic/power/automatic doohickies on these cars when they go kaput. Even the simple front airbags. Aren’t they hundreds of dollars to repair after they deploy?
And also people who buy older Mercedes/BMW products. Maintenance on these cars is expensive enough for well-off people.
Very few people repair their transmissions (or anything on their car, myself included) themselves, let alone an 11-speed transmission. Today’s cars are (supposedly) much more reliable, most times going 100,000 easy miles before any major repairs present themselves.
Why would you worry about fixing your air bags? If you have the appropriate insurance, it will be covered. And today’s cars’ air bags don’t deploy as easily, only when absolutely “necessary”, probably when you wouldn’t want to keep the car, let alone worry about replacing the bags. Like all new technologies, replacement costs lower in time–air bags on older vehicles are cheap.
People who buy older MB/BMWs? Poseurs have it coming!
“Why would you worry about fixing your air bags? If you have the appropriate insurance, it will be covered.”
That’s an interesting question. The rise of airbags accompanied my own rise in income…since they’ve come out I haven’t had to depend on an old car. I’ve been able to afford loans for more expensive cars, and more recently been able to afford to buy a new car with cash. That won’t change; I think that, barring catastrophe, I won’t be in the market for a daily-driver again in my lifetime.
But…that said; I haven’t had a car with airbags that wasn’t worth enough to keep full coverage on; OR that I couldn’t just walk away from. And, fingers crossed, I haven’t had one of those gas-bags go off in my face. Yet.
Most people aren’t that lucky. And full coverage is not cheap and isn’t getting cheaper. I expect, as times get tougher, more people are going to be keeping the bare minimum insurance on their cars. And they’ll have to deal with airbag deployment…well, when it happens.
Which means a lot of people are going to see their $5000 car reduced to essentially zilch with one incident.
As to the transmission: True enough; but it used to be, a transmission failure meant going to the boneyard and finding an interchangeable one at a reasonable price. Or, if you had more money than sense, you went to AAMCO.
An 11-speed, or hydrostatic CVT, or Mag-Lev Drive, won’t be so common; won’t be so interchangeable; and won’t be so cheap. Sure, most cars today are good for 200,000 miles; but when they fail…IT COSTS.
Airbags deployed usually means the car is a write-off anyway due to structural damage.
You beat me to it, Carmine. I see so many buff-book guys out screaming for multi-speed transmissions and various electronic doohickies that the driving dynamics of the car take second place.
An eight speed transmission will have four planetary sets. Replacing those would cost a fortune. But then again, it doesn’t matter as an entire generation has been raised with permanent, low monthly payments.
I think the biggest bill I’ve ever had was getting the clutch done in the Focus, which was about $1200.
There were extenuating circumstances that made it both cheaper and more expensive:
– My Father in Law works at the dealership so we get family rate on parts and labor, which makes it way cheaper.
– I told him “I only want to pull the engine once on this car so lets do everything that requires engine removal” So we put a water pump and I forget what else on it which made it more expensive.
There are lots of people out there who can afford to eat a $7200 repair bill, hopefully your friend was one of them.
I can afford a couple of $1k-type trips to the shop per year, but I try to plan them ahead of time and address multiple issues concurrently. Beyond that I do my own maintenance and repair, it’s worked well so far…
Great point on having multiple (related) issues done at the same time. I recently had the dealership replace a water pump (I’m not even going to mention the insane mark-up price) on my 3800 Buick. I knew it’d be needing an accessory belt replaced soon (120k on original), but forgot to mention that. I would have saved around $100 in labor if I had them throw a new belt on at the same time. You and I both know they wanted that $100 the next month. A Cadillac dealership should have known better.
$3800 for a new transmission and torque converter for my mother’s 1992 S-10 Blazer in 1998… and that was WITH an employee discount.
Incidentally, this was its third transmission… but it has lasted for 15 years since, so the money was worth it in the end.
Between the transmission, front end work, starter, I’ve put a little over $7500 in my 220k Trooper over the past 2 years. This also includes maintenance items like timing belt, water pump, etc which I chose to be proactive about.
On the other hand, haven’t had car payments since 2004. ($45,408 saved)
Car shopping now, but the Trooper is going to be retired to vacation duty up north. I expect it to last a long long time with sporadic use unless the sunroof finally rusts through.
Replacing the hydraulic top mechanism and lines on my Saab convertible was fully covered by the extended warranty I got. Thank you European car God
Around 1984 I paid way too much money (over $1k, but have blocked the exact amount out of my mind) for a valve job on my 77 New Yorker. The shop also claimed that it specialized in de-LeanBurning on Chryslers, and this was done too (as it had likely caused the burned valves). Unfortnately, the car never ran right after that. In fairness, it never really ran right before that either, but now it was a different kind of not-right.. After several trips back to the shop, I gave up. I loved the car so much, it was worth the money. I had convinced myself that if I could make it run right, I would never buy another car again. Stupid, but I’m sure I am not the only guy to have ever thought that.
In those pre-internet days, specialized info on these cars was hard to come by, and I tried to fix it with my checkbook.
$3400 after I snagged an exhaust heat shield on my ’05 V70R on a steep parking lot entrance. Bent the exhaust into the drive shaft. I remember just the exhaust was $1200 from Volvo, drive shaft about the same, plus labor at the dealership.
The next one if the CVT goes out on my cube. Taken together I must have spent $5k on the 2002 Saturn Vue. It was $600 for a slave cylinder on the clutch. That was something I had done to my Nissan in my driveway but Saturn (Opel) required you to open the bellhousing. The clutch went out the next year and I replaced three computers in the thing.
When it would fail I couldn’t dump it and when it was running it ran great. Never again.
I remember a college student paying $3000 to make her 15 year old 1975 Volvo run for 6 more weeks, because she drew the Alpha predator mechanic at my dealership. The car was a rust bucket with no rear passenger floors, and needed about $500 worth of work to run. Beware of playing “might as well”.
I paid $1600 (Canadian dollars on par with US dollars at the time) to get one new head and the other rebuilt on my 1986 Vanagon. Needed it for work and was scared of tackling the job myself. But compared to the $500 plus a month over the last 3 years to finance a similar newer van I guess I got off lucky….
Technically, the most expensive for me was getting a transmission rebuilt in a 2001 Honda Civic that we bought for my wife, which cost about $2,800. But, I got the car dirt cheap (under $2000) with the intention of fixing it. All in all this was a good deal as she used the car for a while, and we ultimately traded it in for her current Mazda 2 for $6,000 🙂
The most expensive bill on a car that was mine to begin with was one of the transmission rebuilds on my 95 Thunderbird. I loved that car, and kept fixing it way longer than I should have. The first rebuild cost $1,500 I think, then $1,000 to rebuild it again a couple of years later. The next time it went, I just replaced it with a good used trans myself (a low mile factory reman unit), which is what I should have done in the first place.
Lately, the amount of driving that I do, and the complexity of cars has been scaring me away from keeping them too long. So I have been buying new cars for my daily driver, and any issues were fixed under warranty. I also have been dumping them long before I paid anyone for a major repair, though $1,000 worth of tires on the 2008 Saturn Outlook a few years back was probably the most expensive purchase on any of my newer cars (albeit, a routine wear part).
Probably around $1000 for a 92 Dodge Dakota V8 4×4- Completely new everything front end suspension and steering, halfshafts and brakes. Timing cover gasket, oil pan gasket and water pump too. That was the cost of parts and wheel alignment. I performed all the labor. The truck probably wasn’t worth it anymore nearing 300,000 miles but I wasn’t working at the time and couldn’t buy a different one.
Now days the most expensive thing tends to be a set of tires. $600-700 for each car. I don’t keep cars long enough anymore to cost me for repairs.
The highest figure was $1800 for an E4OD transmission on a 4×4 Ford pickup. The failure was only the pressure regulator solenoid, but was talked into a full overhaul because it had over 100K on it and every other Ford automatic of similar vintage that I knew of seemed to go about 120K or less before dying.
I declined a $1200 (independent) estimate for a timing belt on the 200K V6 Camry. “might as well” replace water pump, all engine seals, etc, etc. drove up the price. Dealer told me engine is non-interference and recommended just driving it until it quit. Dealer price on belt replacement only was just $240.
The BMW blew a headgasket at 150K and decided to sell it as-is. Early e36 sedans just arent worth that much.
An independent quoted me $1200 for the timing belt thing on my TL. Honda quoted $650 all in and told me, “Unless the water pump is leaking, there is no point in replacing it.”
If it’s an interference design, that’s a bit of a gamble.
I meant the water pump, Roger. It was not leaking so it was not replaced when I did the timing belt.
Hopefully the water pump doesn’t give out a few thousand miles afterwards…! 😉 After all, they need replacement sooner or later as well.
Also paid my most expensive bill, about a grand, for a timing belt on my 2001 V6 Eclipse. Didn’t want to take chances on that one, though…
I think I paid $981.00 to have the main wiring harness replaced on my Mystique. The hardest part of all that was trying to find a wiring harness for the car, as Ford had long stopped supporting that car, and just about every junk yard we contacted said that they always cut the harnesses and never saved them! Thankfully, one was found, and the car ran again!
At about 55 thousand KM my car exibited what I felt was a bit of seal chatter in the steering rack, only evident when backing into my parking spot at home. I took it to the dealer and they confirmed my diagnosis and gave me the option of spending 2500 dollars to replace the rack. I said, no thanks, and did some research on the internet. I found a new replacement rack at carsteering.com for about 400 dollars. I went to my newly recomended independant mechanic, told him what I had found and he asked me to give him a couple of days to see if he could find the rack cheaper. He called me the next day and told me to order the rack as he could not find one less expensive. I did, and the whole repair cost me about 1100 dollars. In wondering why a seal could deteriorate I fixated on the proximity of the rear catcon of my car’s v6 to the steering rack (firewall mounted). I discussed this with my genious mechanic and he was sceptical but said that the reflected heat could have been causal in the seal deterioration. In the end, I purchased a cooler, my mechanic installed it, I switched to a synthetic power steering fluid that I have flushed every two years and seven years and many KM on, no problems. It was money well spent.
A year ago I gave my mechanic ~$6300 for making my ’87 535is road worthy… A little bit of everything, new bell housing, fuel system overhaul, radiator, every rubber hose/belt…
This is a rolling resto that I can no longer do myself since I’ve lost my garage…
All that for a car worth ~$2500… But damn do I love that car!
–Ed
Having sold repairs, I can only tell about the biggest bills I have ever given. It was a 1988 Dodge Dakota, which had been left outside near the Pacific Coast for three years. Its driver was a 19 year old hippie kid (with rich daddy) and he loved this thing. It was a rolling disaster with corrosion all over the place. Many parts were seized, for example the lug nut. To get it derivable, daddy spent, get this, $5800 plus taxes! The total bill with taxes and shop supplies was almost $7000.
I got daddy to pay for it with his Visa card over the phone. My boss thought I was a a genius!
I got $4000 out of an old LH once and $3000 repairs were routine on Grand Cherokees.
A friend of mine told me a similar story from an exotic car place he worked at, except it was a 91 or so Diablo, sat outside for about a year or two, near the ocean, I think repairs totalled in the $50K area.
2500.00 on a transmission rebuild for a 2002 Mazda 626.
One of my coworkers spent $2600 to have the water pump replaced on his A4 Audi. Seems that you have to tear the whole front end of the car off just to get to the part.
Another coworker declined to have an ignition key for his Saab that his daughter lost replaced for $2500.
My sister bought a 2003 BMW 740 a couple of years ago for $19,000. Only had 49,000 miles on it. Thing looks like new and is a great interstate cruiser, but the first hint of a problem the thing goes into the great BMW shitcan. It won’t be worth fixing.
Audi’s (and modern VW’s) have always been like that. Early Audi (dont remember the exact model) heater hoses took six hours of shop labor to replace. I saw some poor guy trying to replace the water pump on his daughter’s New Beetle. He had the whole front of the car apart.
I love old VW’s but cant stand the new stuff. After the used BMW ownership experience, its Japanese brands for me now. Sis unloaded the Jetta for a Toyota after it started to become a money pit.
Somewhere around $25-2800 for a reconditioned engine plus a few other things (clutch?) for my 86 Mitsu Sigma back in 1996-97. Due to the different configurations in bellhousing bolt pattern and fwd/rwd on the 4G54 2.6L Astron 2, my actual engine was sent out, fully machined, new parts etc and came back to me. I had bought the car cheap with a known blown head gasket and ~160k miles on it, then owned it for 10 more years and the only engine problem I had was spitting an overtightened spark plug (my fault), so I think it worked out ok. Mind you the car still ran fine with the head gasket blown so perhaps I could got away with just that, but due to the mileage and intended long-term ownership (not necessarily 10 years but several) I thought a full re-co was the best option.
Most expensive repair ever was a $1,200 clutch job (rip off) on my second ’88 T-bird – which I never would have paid except that I had just graduated high school (this was in 2001) and my parents offered to put $800 towards it as a graduation present. Right before this I had done a torturous clutch job on my CJ-7 and I just wasn’t up to it. The Jeep came with a swapped-in AMC 360 from a full-size and when I tried putting it back together there was no way to get it to match up to the 3-speed that came behind the original six cylinder engine. Ended up having to get a few pieces machined to fit and go through infinite pages of parts catalogs to find parts that were all happy working together. No idea how the previous owner had gotten it all together the first time… probably a hammer.
Since then, if something cost more than $300 I walked away and did it myself. I’ve never had a garage to work in, so if I have to do anything in the winter I’ll often take the car to a shop first – or at least call and ask. If I had somewhere indoors to work or lived in a warmer climate, I’d do everything myself. Personally, I’ve never had a good experience with a mechanic and it kills me to pay some bozo a small fortune for crappy work, but occasionally it beats cracking my knuckles open with snow on the ground or waiting at the bus stop at 5AM in 10 degree weather.
I remember my dad saying he paid $2,800 or something like that for a steering rack on his VW Passat a couple years ago… and then having the engine give up the ghost to the infamous sludged oil pickup screen literally 3 days later. Brutal…
Yeah, that bites it.
I had some work done on my Super Beetle…put it off from the day I bought it, to a weekend four months later. Distributer work…thing finally ran like a champ. For two days; then I get whacked in the rear.
Broke the block on that engine. The one that went in out of a boneyard; that was the one that had to be rebuilt a year later. That car was a hole in the road I was trying to fill with money…
Mid ’90s, I killed the rings on my ’84 V6 Ranger. Looks like the long block cost about $1000, plus the tow to the shop when I couldn’t get it to start. Oops, got the distributor on the wrong tooth and I didn’t have the time and help to run a timing light to figure it out. This was also costing me vacation time, so cash money cost less than time at the end.
I’ll not count the engine hoist–that gets used for a lot of non-automotive lifting.
Lightning hit the exhaust stack of one of my Freightliners; cooked every electronic component plus engine head and cylinder liners. Huge PITA to sort out the electrical problems because you fix a few things, start it up and see what does not work, then repeat.
$18,000 give or take a couple bucks. Biggest number but definately don’t feel like a winner.
That’s a little different…:D The price ranges are a little skewed like your GVW figures.
Shame, though. No truck, no pay. Hope you had insurance.
I can’t remember what my biggest bill was, but low four-figures. For a bunch of car guys I’m surprised these comments don’t contain far worse horror stories than these.
This one didn’t happen to me, but when I was fresh out of high school in early ’80s I did a gofer/car-jockey/parts-delivery job for an Alfa-Romeo dealership. The Italian immigrant mechanics there had an excellent reputation, and so our repair dept also attracted other European marques besides the usual malfunctioning Alfas and finicky Fiats. Once we got in a Porsche, probably a 911, that needed a new shock tower assembly. Our Pakistani immigrant Parts Manager called a local Porsche dealership, where his call was taken by his dour German-immigrant counterpart (straight outta Stuttgart!) to inquire about the price of a replacement shock-tower assembly. The Porsche Parts guy consulted his catalog, and told our Parts guy the damage would be somewhere around $1200.
We knew Porsche parts weren’t cheap — for that matter, neither were Alfa parts — but this was more stratospheric than any of us Italophiles were accustomed to or prepared for.
“$1200!” exclaimed our Parts guy to their Parts guy. “You must be joking!”
There was then a meaningful silence of several seconds, followed by perfect Teutonic deadpan delivery.
“Ja, I am choking. Zat is vat I do. I zit here all day makink chokes.”
Wow, so far these repairs don’t sound so bad. I think I’ve got the largest repair bill (that’s not for a commercial truck). Patient of mine spent over $15K on an engine rebuild for his Audi TT (early 2000s, don’t know the exact year). He was driving it home, noticed that the engine warning light was on but because he was so close to home, decided to ignore it.
Last time I saw him, the estimate climbed north of $15k. Course the car is worth around $15k but he loves his car and he has the cash. As a caveat, his car has a larger turbo and he’s getting some additional engine mods on top of the rebuild.
Google VW 1.8 Turbo problems and you will get some sobering info of the engine seizing up when the oil pump pick up tube screen clogs up with oil sludge. The damning thing is that VW has not been supporting the owners unless all oil changes were done on time, as scheduled per the service recommendations and it is thoroughly documented. In one too many cases, no documentation of oil changes means no valid warranty.
Funny, because my VW 1.9 TDI has no problems with sludging, only the 1.8 Turbo. I look at that beautiful Audi TT that Paul has photographed and wonder what’s the condition of it’s engine internals…..
I tend to judge cars based on how easily and inexpensively I can service the vehicle. Of course I am not going to buy a car that is totally unreliable whatever the make, with that said I rather have a car that I can keep up easily, even if it needs more regular attention, than a car that might go longer quiet period then take massive expensive dumps. There is a reason why I keep my little Century wagon going with over 200K and being 20 years old, because no matter what goes (even an engine or transmission) it is no more than $500 and/or a day’s work for me to fix it. Considering the insurance is $25 a month and gas is fairly reasonable the money I am saving is absolutely incredible. Of course, I suppose if riding around in a 20yo wagon with wood grain on the side affects your social standing then I do not know… So the wife drives only new cars under lease with warranty then I don’t have to deal with it and I drive what I please. It is a win-win arrangement…
I never put $2700 into a Saturn but I did spend about $1100 on a clutch and some other repairs for one (I am apparently hard on clutches, or was then–it was way early for a new clutch). With the current Subaru, the most I’ve ever spent at once was about $850, and that was for a major maintenance interval, plus wheel bearings. (I have a good independent Subie mechanic–if you live in SoCal and need a recommendation for one, let me know.) I’ve kicked around the idea of getting another brand of car when it’s finally time to buy again, but I may be a Subaru convert for life, partially due to the car and partially due to the good relationship I have with this shop.
Too bad there isn’t a Ferrari or Lamborghini owner here to really make jaws drop…..
I saw one (Lamborghini) that cost $8,000 to replace the belt every 10,000 miles.
I’ll give you an idea what things cost in other countries, i.e South Korea.
In 2002 the timing belt let go on my 4-year old Daewoo Lanos-DOHC. Interference of course. Of course it failed well before the recommended 100,000 km mark, like all Daewoo (read GM, read Holden) do.
To add insult to injury it happened right at a toll booth and the toll lady had to help me push it while horns blared away. I knew what I was in for so I had it towed to a Daewoo service center in Daegu. Car was too new and too minty to junk.
Complete new head, water pump, accessory belts, hoses, plugs, wires etc, 700,000 Korean won, about $800, and ready the next day! Here the cost of parts will always exceed the labor.
Biggest mechanical repair bill for me was an engine saga in my old ’86 Honda Accord 1.8 EXL-S (a JDM used import). I’d paid NZ$1200 for it in 2001 to use as a beater. It was fully-loaded with all the extras, and very tidy and clean for a beater. Then the engine saga began when the oil pump went…
It was going to cost more than the car was worth to replace the oil pump (and the motor got fairly hot when the pump expired too), so my mechanic compared options. It turned out Honda NZ had a few new-old-stock B18 complete long engines they were wanting to get rid of. Their price was NZ$600, a bargain for a brand new factory motor! So I authorised the mechanic to remove my old B18 engine.
Then the new engine arrived. Yes it was a B18, but quite different (Integra) spec to mine… There was no way it was going to be cheap or easy to connect all the ancilliaries, let alone the electronics or the JDM vacuum system… So the motor went back whereupon I now had an engineless Accord. If the cheap new Honda engine hadn’t been available, I’d have scrapped the car, I wouldn’t have gone to the expense of having the old engine removed. But now I had an engineless car, worthless to the wreckers…
So in an effort to get things sorted, my mechanic sourced a correct B18 from a wrecking yard ($750!) and popped it in. It lasted a week before blowing the water pump – the wrecker did begrudgingly fix it under warranty though.
All told, the cost to me of the engine saga totalled $2,400…for a $1200 car. In disgust I cut my losses and sold it to a friend for the $1200 I’d paid. He had it a fortnight before failing to give way and totalling it… He had no insurance, so all the money and effort on the engines went down the drain…
Two years ago I put a little over $2000 in my daily driver…I didn’t have the time to do it myself, maybe a bit unusual in that it is 13 years old, and it didn’t involve the drivetrain (directly)…I went ahead and had the entire suspension replaced (plus new tie-rod ends)….I went with progressive rate springs, but if anything, they raised the ride height (I don’t remember exactly what my car looked like when new before the original springs sagged, but I think it rides an inch to inch and a half higher than new (much higher than it was before the job was done)…almost looks like it is all wheel drive (it is only front wheel drive VW Golf). Two years later, I’m glad I had it done, but I realize my car isn’t worth that much more (to me it is, but not to the market). Kind of like the Car Talk guys joke, that on an old car they double the value of the car just by filling the gas tank, it is hard to know when to not put money into a vehicle if you’re soon going to have to give it up for some other reason.
Interesting thing is that I don’t think many people bother to do this…the shop that did it looked at me and kind of asked “are you sure you want to do this” , and I replied yes, since I like the car and plan on keeping it….but as others have mentioned, especially right after I had it done I had visions of someone hitting the car and getting it totaled, such that my $2000 gesture towards keeping it would have been wasted. I had a friend that had bought some expensive parts for his car right before he had an accident totalling the car, and he was able to return them to where he bought them…guess procrastinating sometimes saves you money (not that you can plan when you’re going to have an accident, though).
I’ll never forget what happened at the first shop I worked at. A guy brought in an early 70’s 510. The car had came from the east coast and had a fair amount of rust. The interior was also trashed and it had something like 120,000 miles on it and the engine burnt a fair amount of oil. His complaint was that the tires were wearing funny. The owner diagnosed it as needing struts and maybe at tie rod end or ball joint. By the time all was said and done the bill was more than the car was worth. A month or two later the engine gave up the ghost. the customer was pissed, we did end up putting a used engine in and ate some of the labor. All told he probably had $1200 into his $400 car.
Eric, I don’t know how many times I have tried to talk people, usually women, out of pumping large amounts of money into old, tired cars. However, for many, a car is an emotional attachment. Pumping money into them is like trying to keep your 18 year old poodle alive.
Sometimes it’s also that you just really like the car. I liked my 95 Thunderbird so much I paid to rebuild the tranny twice, did the headgaskets myself (Ford 3.8) and finally replaced the trans myself with a used low mile factory rebuilt tranny for good measure. Was it worth it? Nope…not by a long shot. But it was a very comfortable car that I liked driving.
Would I go through that now? No, probably not.
$1200, 1988, 1984 Corolla LE bottom end-rod bearings spun at 74,000. A puzzlement to all at the time, as these were supposed to be “bullet–proof” cars, even if this was the first year for the front wheel drive Corolla. Done, well-enough, by a local dirt-floor shop, as the dealers wanted much more and, to top it all off, this was the month I was separating from the soon-to-be-ex-wife. Some $1200 expenses are more painful than others. Lovely, honest little car, my first new one, cream colored with brown fabric interior, five-speed, power windows and air. Fit me like a glove, 35 mpg, carried people and stuff well above its footprint (a true “three-box” design), and handled nicely once I put bigger tires on it. Traded with the wife for the ’89 Honda when we settled (she got the house, but I got the Honda, fair enough), she kept it till a front wheel fell off at 90,000. Poor thing must have picked up some of the bad kharma from the marriage.
Automatic transmission on my 1997 Escort wagon, rebuilt $2000, back in 2008. Still going strong despite my ex-wife’s abuse (I still see the car around town now and then). That woman isn’t gentle on anything except stray dogs.
1993 Nissan Quest – $2800 for a variety of repairs at one time including a timing belt and an exhaust leak that failed inspection. Car had 189K on the odometer but ran well. That was 6 years and 68K ago so it was a decent call. The exhaust manifold studs were rusted. I never went back to that shop since it was the second time that I was uncomfortable with the outcome and I would have had to pay them for their time just to junk the car. They pulled the top off of the engine and told me that it looked more like a 60K engine than 189K.
$3,000 for an engine in a 97 Camry last May (V6 sludge at 140K). 2-3 years is my breakeven point. The kids love this car and it is an XLS in good shape otherwise. One year later it is running very well. I figured it was better than any $3,000 car that I could find.
$2,000 Tranny on a 97 Taurus with 75K. Three years of service (now 100K) has proven me right on that decision.
Grandaddy of all ripoffs is two tranny jobs on an 95 LHS in 18 months (57K and 75K). First guy ripped me off and was even referred by my mechanic at the time. It was the last job for the tranny shop so they had nothing to lose. I drove that Nice-looking piece for 12 months after the second job but kept the 93 Quest in 2002 when my wife got a new car. The Quest had higher mileage (110K to 85K but was more reliable and we still have it as a kid car with 257K on the clock.
If there is not something else to buy, my guideline is that I have to get a mile of use for every .10 spent for example 30,000 miles for a $3,000 repair.
Right at the tipping point on my 1995 Regal. I’m fine with brakes/hoses/tires but if it come time for a steering rack or transmission, bye.
Maybe I’d even entertain replacing the engine because 3.1’s are cheap used and I know a good, cheap shop.
This is the first time in my life I’ve ever had cash on hand to replace a car so it feels good. Either way I’ve got my money’s worth out of this car. Spent 2500 for it at 80k miles, sunk around 1000 into the leaky engine over the years. Now it’s at 179000 and I just came back from a three hour drive.
I cannot believe the prices people are quoting on jobs in the comments. We have a shop now and do not charge nearly those kinds of prices for work. We take in mostly older cars, but will do anyone’s car that we know if we can do the work. I did some quick estimates on some of the listed jobs and the figures are appalling. $7500 or R&R a trans in a TT? My main supplier ETX offers a brand new one for $3,995 with 3 year 75K warranty and installation is 6 hours. We did a full carb service on an 88 Cadillac Brougham parts and labor $400. $3,000 for a Camry engine? Dealer? Someone needs a Change Engine light. Our local LKQ supplier has a 3.0 V6 engine that will fit a 97 Camry 78K 12 month warranty 90 days labor $600. We get $400 to install it in the car and we keep the old engine. No reason to bench build a motor unless it is an antique car or custom build. Modern new cars there are enough remans or used ones you can clean up to fit the bill.
I know why I keep my 93 Century wagon going. I can repair things daily on it and still come out ahead. The last time I did anything outside of routine maintenance on the car was last June I put in a new radiator that cost me $108.
Craig, I believe it. I had to replace my New Beetle TDI positive battery cable a few weeks ago. Since it is pretty much a pre-formed cable, I went to the dealership where I bought the car. Was quoted 178 dollars, For a cable approximately 20 inches long, with the proper battery cable connector and starter lug. Funny thing is, on line, the very cable that the parts man quoted me is going for 115 dollars.
From the same dealership. But he never told me that. It was just happenstance that I came across their site and that price. And people wonder why they call them “stealerships”? I don’t have the invoice directly in front of me right now, but they replaced my TDI engine glow plug harness and 4 glow plugs for a cost close to 700 dollars. About 2 years ago I replaced those very same glow plugs (not the harness) at a cost of about 14 dollars each for Champion glow plugs. Ordinary folks feel very vulnerable dealing with dealership service departments.
My 2006 Colorado starting battery went bad recently, so I thought I’d give the local dealership a call. 2 of them said they don’t have a battery in stock, but they’d pencil me in for an opening on Monday morning. This was Friday. For a Colorado starting battery. I ended up doing the job myself, which I am learning is the only way to go for the majority of the work required in car ownership these days. I feel you really open yourself up for getting taken advantage of if you are not an educated consumer and car owner.
North Platte, Nebraska, off I-80. I left NJ for a cross country trip to look at and buy an Opel GT in California. Screeching noises from my 89 Ranger STX transmission in Kearney had the stomach churning and the heart racing. When the screeches became anguished wails around North Platte I called it quits and pulled into the local Ford dealer.
Nice enough folks there, but after the wrong transmission was ordered in (did you know Ford sourced a 5 speed manual from both Mazda and Mitusubishi in this time period?), the total time spent in the local Days Inn at North Platte was 7 days. Lots of TV time and listening to the local Union Pacific freights at nearby Bailey Yard.
2300 dollars later I was on my way to California. But by the time I reached Salinas, another loud noise from the engine and drive train was making itself known in the Sierra Nevada mountains. So, into the Ford dealer at Salinas, went the truck. Another 6 days later, my exhaust manifolds were milled flat to stop some severe exhaust leaks. Another thousand dollars plunked down. And on my way back to NJ, without incident. Thank God. I was treated well by both Ford dealers, but I came away feeling very vulnerable on such a long trip. Bring lots of money and a good credit card, just in case!
Oh, and I did buy the Opel GT from the original owner. Love it dearly and still own it to this day, with this May being the 11th year of ownership! There were quite a few hoops of fire to jump through to buy this little car, which makes the story of owning her so much more endearing!
My parents close friends had to sink 2700 big ones into there 2006 Camry XLE V6 but the problems were a combination of exhaust, engine and transmission re-flash. The car was brought in for spark knocking and bucking when going up hill. The Toyota dealer uncovered a leaking intake manifold, a bad catalytic converter and a required transmission flash update. The car had 61K miles and thus was out of warranty. Nearly 1300 was in labor, 500 in parts for the engine, another 400 to diagnose and re-flash the tranny and the remainder was for the catalytic converter. I would be willing to bet some of this could have been done cheaper at a local repair shop but the transmission issue is dealer only.
Oh what a feeling Toyota. Reflashing the computer is not a dealer only thing anymore. There are universal programers available and the independent shop can purchase the updated program. It should not have cost $400 for the software update, it takes a few minutes to check the current software revision, a few minutes to figure out if the software update is indicated and then a few minutes to load it.
I’m 20 years old have been only driving for four years, however I have put quite a few miles on my cars over time. My first car was a 1993 SOHC 1.8l Mazda Protege, with the 5 speed manual – a basic car with crank windows and manual locks but other nice touches like a dual power sunroof/moonroof, spoiler, and power windows. I think it was an SE model. Awesome car, bought it for $1000 at 265,000 kilometers, saftied it for $400, and drove until 325,000 kilometers, where I sold it with a valid safety check in good condition for $2000. The only repair on that car was the timing belt and water pump which I did out of my own paranoia at 280,000 kilometers, running me $550 CDN. Next car was a disaster; a mint, cream puff 1995 Oldsmobile 88 Royale with the 3800 series II, my first automatic transmission, for $1200 CDN. Wish I knew the series II motor had so many issues; I knew the 3800 motors before that were very reliable. Bought with 55,000 KILOMETERS, the car required only $300 in work to be safety checked and insured. Then the problems began; the car left me stranded three times, randomly stalling and sputtering but only after an hour or more of driving. Took the car to a local shop which works on our cabs in town (mostly Chevrolet Impalas with the 3400) and they diagnosed it as a faulty fuel pressure regulator. $250 – the part itself was $144 + tax). Got the car the next day the shop said it was fixed, stalled on the way home. Had the MAF sensor replaced after that, another $100 or so. Finally, I self diagnosed the problem as upper AND lower intake manifold leaks and got scared and dumped the car – fully disclosing the intake manifold issues – for $1800 CDN with a safety check. I had only put 5,600 kilometers on the car. The owner fixed the issues and has been driving the car since, ran into them at a local shop the car now has 104,000 kilometers as they live in the country and they havent had one issue with the car. That brings me to my current car – a 2007 Kia
Spectra 5 speed manual. Bought with 28,000 kilometers for only $7900 plus tax from a dealership, I use this car for pizza delivery and personal use and it now has 90,000 kilometers on it in 2 years of ownership, without one single problem other than oil changes and tires. The tires were my biggest automotive purchase so far, running me $1000 with taxes!
Sad to hear you didn’t keep the Olds too long! The Series II was an excellent motor! I sold my last car with right at 300k miles on it and still ran PERFECT! It needed a few sensors at one point due to stalling, like yours; it also leaked like yours, but didn’t affect anything for years. The small minor repairs sure did add up on it though, but what a smooth and powerful engine!
Here is a picture of the mazda. Was 16 in this picture lol. Oh and the Mazda was rust checked its whole life and even in salty northwestern Ontario, it was rust free.
I’ve had multiple money pits– although I usually own more than one car at a time. I agree with the previous post – the European car repairs are horrendous. They ride nice until they break. I probably will never do another European car.
98 vw beetle– . I bought a 99 beetle for my niece – what a money pit. 100,000 miles . 1400$ for leaking steering rack. 1400$ for gearshift syncho stuck. I’ll never own another VW again! The dealer was the worse I’ve ever been in and the shop manager had the nerve to say ” we usually don’t work on cars over 10 years old” — the car was a 1998- he was a lazy piece of shit and I promptly wrote a 2 page letter to VW.. Funny enough 6 months later they were under new ownership and had changed thier name.
85 fiero Gt – idling issue …hours and hours of diagnostics and parts replaced = 3400$ . I replaced every sensor I could think of myself before finally taking it to the dealer . They ended up replacing fuel pump, injectors and many other things . Also had the exhaust manifold machined/replaced a few years prior to that due to 2 snapped manifold bolts -ugg = 4000$. They had to drop the engine and recommended other things replaced since the engine was out, Fieros are money pits that’s why you dont see any running on the streets. I’m $10k in the hole on repairs and the cars only worth $5k…..so I’m keeping her indefinitely.
04 350z – clutch and flex plate = $3200. Nissan does not resurface flex plates I found out. Car dies drive like a dream . I’ll probably sell her soon as she is depreciating just sitting in my garage and plus I also have a 99 Miata. Love the miata !