Unfortunately a lot of people are like this. Friend of mine's wife drove her minivan about 15K over the oil change recommendation, ended up wiping out a cam. She was driving, it just died and wouldn't start. He asked me to look at it since I like to work on cars and had it towed to my house. I scanned it with my OBD2 interface and found a cam shaft sensor error on the 1st bank. Told him it may just be the sensor but considering the condition of the vehicle (you don't even want to know what the interior looked like) its probably a damaged cam from the lack of oil changes. He asked me to go ahead and try replacing the sensor just in case as he didn't have really have the money for a replacement vehicle right now and they just paid that van off a couple months ago. It wasn't too bad to swap so I went ahead and did it just in case. Nope, still wouldn't start, returned the sensor and told him there is just no way I could fix something like this, I'd have to pull the engine and it would take me months.
Got a scrapper to come get it and got like $400 out of it. They used one car for a while until they could find a decent replacement vehicle that they could afford. I told him to make sure she changes the oil on the new one, maybe it won't blow up a couple months after you pay it off. I know they don't have a lot of money just laying around but its a lot cheaper to get a $60 oil change than it is to replace a vehicle.
Got a scrapper to come get it and got like $400 out of it. They used one car for a while until they could find a decent replacement vehicle that they could afford. I told him to make sure she changes the oil on the new one, maybe it won't blow up a couple months after you pay it off. I know they don't have a lot of money just laying around but its a lot cheaper to get a $60 oil change than it is to replace a vehicle.
