We unexpectedly had issues with our car and sent it in to a transmission place today... And got not great news 😭 so now we're freaked out and stress car shopping. And of course this is a terrible time to car shop, and the car we want is barely in stock anywhere near us. And it's way more than I was hoping to spend. I thought we'd have another 1-2 years at least, and I thought it was for sure be our 13yo car and not our 7yo car that would be the issue first. UGH.
If your car had a several thousand dollar repair and was 7-8 years old, would you fix or replace?
Are we talking 2,000 or 8,000? I wouldn’t mind taking out 2,000-3,0000 from savings that I thankfully have to avoid a car payment because I do not have enough savings that I’d want to use to pay for a car in cash. I am of the mindset to "run cars to the ground" and I’ve always typically driven low maintenance reliable cars, so if 2,000-3,0000 would get me 5 more years, I’d pay it.
wanderingbackwildrice This is the hard part. The guy said he won't know what's wrong with it until he takes the transmission apart. We're trying to figure out our limit before he starts. He's working on another car that's the same model with transmission issues and said it's at $5k and may end up being more, which scared us! According to him Toyotas are expensive. And the car has about 135,000 miles and has had other annoying issues, so I don't know how much longer we'd get with it if we go through with the fix. A crystal ball would be nice right about now!
My other car is 13 years old and hasn't had any major issues. I really like the "drive it into the ground" mindset but haven't faced this kind of higher cost problem before either!
We unexpectedly had issues with our car and sent it in to a transmission place today... And got not great news 😭 so now we're freaked out and stress car shopping. And of course this is a terrible time to car shop, and the car we want is barely in stock anywhere near us. And it's way more than I was hoping to spend. I thought we'd have another 1-2 years at least, and I thought it was for sure be our 13yo car and not our 7yo car that would be the issue first. UGH.
If your car had a several thousand dollar repair and was 7-8 years old, would you fix or replace?
I'm July, my car needed $3k to pass inspection and was only worth $4k in good condition. We ended up trading it and got $2500.
wanderingbackwildrice This is the hard part. The guy said he won't know what's wrong with it until he takes the transmission apart. We're trying to figure out our limit before he starts. He's working on another car that's the same model with transmission issues and said it's at $5k and may end up being more, which scared us! According to him Toyotas are expensive. And the car has about 135,000 miles and has had other annoying issues, so I don't know how much longer we'd get with it if we go through with the fix. A crystal ball would be nice right about now!
My other car is 13 years old and hasn't had any major issues. I really like the "drive it into the ground" mindset but haven't faced this kind of higher cost problem before either!
I’ve had 3 Toyotas and wouldn’t describe them as expensive cars. Do you think it’s possible to get a 2nd opinion?
I assumed he meant the transmission stuff is expensive? We could maybe get another opinion but he said it's currently not safe to drive so it could be a pain to get to somewhere else.
I assumed he meant the transmission stuff is expensive? We could maybe get another opinion but he said it's currently not safe to drive so it could be a pain to get to somewhere else.
Oh:( I’m sorry, that is very frustrating! Hoping it’s a less pricey fix 🙏🏻.
Not getting a second opinion might be a bad idea. Maybe I'll be thinking more clearly tomorrow 😂 we just really need a second car next week so I'm anxious to make the decision either way so we can get it all sorted.
wanderingbackwildrice This is the hard part. The guy said he won't know what's wrong with it until he takes the transmission apart. We're trying to figure out our limit before he starts. He's working on another car that's the same model with transmission issues and said it's at $5k and may end up being more, which scared us! According to him Toyotas are expensive. And the car has about 135,000 miles and has had other annoying issues, so I don't know how much longer we'd get with it if we go through with the fix. A crystal ball would be nice right about now!
My other car is 13 years old and hasn't had any major issues. I really like the "drive it into the ground" mindset but haven't faced this kind of higher cost problem before either!
Given that, I probably wouldn't fix honestly. 135k isn't high mileage but it's not exactly low, either. I have a 2015 with about 61k miles on it and I would almost definitely fix any issue that came up, but with more than 2x that mileage I'd hesitate a lot.
I don't think he should charge you to give you an estimate so that gives me pause. I guess IDK what's normal with transmissions though?
Oh:( I’m sorry, that is very frustrating! Hoping it’s a less pricey fix 🙏🏻.
Not getting a second opinion might be a bad idea. Maybe I'll be thinking more clearly tomorrow 😂 we just really need a second car next week so I'm anxious to make the decision either way so we can get it all sorted.
I had a Toyota matrix in which I replaced the transmission. At 89,000 miles. I would not do it again if I could redo things. It was very expensive (18 years ago!) I would have just rather bought a new car and used the thousands of dollars I spent towards a down payment. (Pretty sure I spent about $3000 getting that thing replaced but it could’ve been more.)
I’m also facing car issues. The check engine light that I had checked out is not good. So that’s fun. My only hope for saving grace is that I got a Mac daddy warranty on it so hopefully it’s not too expensive to get fixed. I only have 30,000 miles on this vehicle so it definitely makes sense for me to spend money to fix it.
I need ham like water Like breath, like rain I need ham like mercy From Heaven's gate Sometimes ham salad or casserole or ham that’s free range, all natural I need ham
We unexpectedly had issues with our car and sent it in to a transmission place today... And got not great news 😭 so now we're freaked out and stress car shopping. And of course this is a terrible time to car shop, and the car we want is barely in stock anywhere near us. And it's way more than I was hoping to spend. I thought we'd have another 1-2 years at least, and I thought it was for sure be our 13yo car and not our 7yo car that would be the issue first. UGH.
If your car had a several thousand dollar repair and was 7-8 years old, would you fix or replace?
Omg we literally had the same thing happen to us today. We did diagnostics and the transmission is bad, it’s a 2013 and we did plan to get a new car next year, but leisurely, not under pressure. It’s really stressing me out, but I think it’s the straw on top of other stressors that is the one I am focusing on. I do not want to fix it, but I went to Toyota and they don’t even have a minivan I can look in, I can buy one sight unseen and hope I like it and hope it arrives soon. Sucks!!!! Sorry we are alike in this.
wanderingbackwildrice This is the hard part. The guy said he won't know what's wrong with it until he takes the transmission apart. We're trying to figure out our limit before he starts. He's working on another car that's the same model with transmission issues and said it's at $5k and may end up being more, which scared us! According to him Toyotas are expensive. And the car has about 135,000 miles and has had other annoying issues, so I don't know how much longer we'd get with it if we go through with the fix. A crystal ball would be nice right about now!
My other car is 13 years old and hasn't had any major issues. I really like the "drive it into the ground" mindset but haven't faced this kind of higher cost problem before either!
Given that, I probably wouldn't fix honestly. 135k isn't high mileage but it's not exactly low, either. I have a 2015 with about 61k miles on it and I would almost definitely fix any issue that came up, but with more than 2x that mileage I'd hesitate a lot.
I don't think he should charge you to give you an estimate so that gives me pause. I guess IDK what's normal with transmissions though?
I don't know what's normal either! He said he doesn't know what's wrong with it until he gets into the transmission, and it will cost $600 just to take the transmission apart. So if we decide to get a new car I kind of don't even want to deal with spending that.
We unexpectedly had issues with our car and sent it in to a transmission place today... And got not great news 😭 so now we're freaked out and stress car shopping. And of course this is a terrible time to car shop, and the car we want is barely in stock anywhere near us. And it's way more than I was hoping to spend. I thought we'd have another 1-2 years at least, and I thought it was for sure be our 13yo car and not our 7yo car that would be the issue first. UGH.
If your car had a several thousand dollar repair and was 7-8 years old, would you fix or replace?
Omg we literally had the same thing happen to us today. We did diagnostics and the transmission is bad, it’s a 2013 and we did plan to get a new car next year, but leisurely, not under pressure. It’s really stressing me out, but I think it’s the straw on top of other stressors that is the one I am focusing on. I do not want to fix it, but I went to Toyota and they don’t even have a minivan I can look in, I can buy one sight unseen and hope I like it and hope it arrives soon. Sucks!!!! Sorry we are alike in this.
OH no, I'm sorry you're dealing with this too!! I think we're going to have to drive like 40 minutes away just to get to a Toyota dealership that has what we want in stock.
We were also planning on a leisurely replacement in a few years, not this. Our last car we had to replace asap due to a tree falling on it (and had to deal with it on vacation on top of that) so I think we're just destined to always replace cars in a stressful time crunch. Ugh.
I am about to trade in my 2011 Buick Enclave with 130K miles on it. Hopefully today my new car will be here. I was in a similar boat hoping to get another year or two out of it. But it needed a new headlight to pass inspection $500(only the bright light didn't work), the a/c had a leak $800, and then the engine was having an issue $200. The engine could continue to have issues so we decided to get rid of it before something really major happened. That said -- there are barely any cars out there to test drive, let alone buy. We got one coming out of production and should be here today. We had to wait three weeks which is not too bad from what all the dealers said.