When do you guys call it quits on vehicles.

[ls1mike]

Out here in Washington with the lack of rust and general ease of the environment on a car I would say if a mechanical repair exceeds the value of a good known running car. That is to say you know what you have in it.
Not uncommon to see 20 to 25 year old daily drivers out here.

Guy who sits in the office with me has a 1990 Toyota pickup he drives daily. (his other cars are a huge diesel truck and a Charger)

 

[zzyzzx]

At least some of that stuff the OP mentioned is routine maintenance. Maybe a burnt valve isn't, but at that mileage having to do a single expensive engine or transmission repair really isn't unusual. You just hated having to spend that type of mony on a car with 175K miles on it (completely understandable). IMO, Subaru's are below average in reliability.

 

[Andrew1972]

Originally Posted By: Nick1994
Need to start doing repairs yourself. $600 for front brakes? That's a $100-$120 job and a few hours of time.


The pads/rotors were destroyed because the caliper had seized and needed replacement. Brakes normally have been $240 for pads/machine rotors.

 

[Bluestream]

An older vehicle will nickel and dime you to death unless you can do your own repairs or at least most of them

 

[Andrew1972]

Originally Posted By: zach1900
How does one burn a valve?


Apparently from research this is common on Forester/Legacy/Outback turbo engines in 2004-2006 due to the "stock" tune causing lean burn in certain cases. Folks who actually did a tune do not encoutered the problem.

Due to Subaru flat 4 design it required engine removal to have the heads redone spiking the price of valve job by $1000.

 

[cptbarkey]

my tolerance changes as i age, there is no point in a set rule. my 83 year old dad managed to change his battery on his truck by himself, he and i consider that an accomplishment. in contrast a few months ago i sawed a 1998 corolla into 8 chunks and hauled it to a scrap yard. any loon can pay someone else to do repair work, until there comes a point in life when i cannot do my own repairs i should be considering if i should even drive in the first place. repair costs these days are just TOO [censored] expensive to pay someone else.

 

[Astro14]

Perhaps the question should be: when do you guys call it quits on mechanics....

 

[IndyIan]

Do you like the car? You really can't buy anything new like it unless you go to BMW or Audi, but I doubt they have a mtx on this side of the pond.
Also they are one of the best looking cars on the road IMO, if they drive as good as they look, a new CVT cute ute will feel like $25-30k+ in the toilet after the new car "honeymoon" has worn off.
I guess on the flip side, the car may have a bit of a following and worth more to sell privately than you think.

 

[99Saturn]

Personally I think it's a matter of where you want to spend your money and how much you value your time/impact of down time without a vehicle. In past years between 2 of us we've commuted 40K to 50K a year, and we've been doing 3 cars for a few years because one is old/in case of breakdown. One is over 200K, one over 100K, and one still has payments. I don't like making the payment every month but there is piece of mind that we can go on vacation or my g/f can go to work with little fear of breakdown. On the other side, it's satisfying not having a payment on the other cars, but issues come up - they have never been as much as the payment for a new car, but the frustration of leaving early or being late, or being stranded for a few hours gets old fast.

 

[GenesisGuy70]

Originally Posted By: madRiver
In 2014 we spent nearly $2800 on our 175k 2005 Legacy turbo wagon 5mt to get a burned valve repaired. In the process it got all sorts of maintenance (plugs,timing belt etc) done.


This was your first mistake. No way I would've ever spent that for a 9 year old 175k mile engine. I'd have done it myself or scrapped it and cut my losses.

Tisk tisk.

 

[HerrStig]

Originally Posted By: zach1900
How does one burn a valve?
If the valve "lash" is not properly adjusted and the exhaust valves don't close tightly they can burn from exhaust leaking by, and if a cylinder is running lean because of a clogged injector that can burn a valve as well. The OBD II monitor may detect the lean condition but not a loose exhaust valve unless the engine starts to missfire. The Camry I4 will generally go hundreds of thousands of miles before needing a valve lash adjustment.

 

[bubbatime]

Originally Posted By: Throt
Originally Posted By: madRiver
In 2014 we spent nearly $2800 on our 175k 2005 Legacy turbo wagon 5mt to get a burned valve repaired. In the process it got all sorts of maintenance (plugs,timing belt etc) done.


This was your first mistake. No way I would've ever spent that for a 9 year old 175k mile engine. I'd have done it myself or scrapped it and cut my losses.

Tisk tisk.


Ridiculous. We take cars to 250K miles in my family and they have a ton of life left in them. If he keeps the car for three more years, that $2800 he put into the car equates to $75/month. A new car would be $350-$450/month. That's over $10K in savings in just 3 years. I don't know about you, but $10K is a lot of money.

 

[4wheeldog]

In answer to the original question......I keep vehicles until they no longer fit my needs for said vehicle.

Over the last 30 years, I have found all the vehicles I have owned to be cheaper to repair than to replace. I replaced an '88 4runner because I needed a 4 door version, to accommodate elderly passengers. I replaced 2wd '96 Tacoma with a 4wd 2005 when we moved to snow country.

We bought an Outback in '12 when we needed better economy than the '00 4runner. We kept the 4runner. It is still very useful, with 250k on it.

 

[Andrew1972]

Originally Posted By: IndyIan
Do you like the car? You really can't buy anything new like it unless you go to BMW or Audi, but I doubt they have a mtx on this side of the pond.
Also they are one of the best looking cars on the road IMO, if they drive as good as they look, a new CVT cute ute will feel like $25-30k+ in the toilet after the new car "honeymoon" has worn off.
I guess on the flip side, the car may have a bit of a following and worth more to sell privately than you think.


It is actually my wife's commuter car. She has a thing for manual transmission station wagon with some power(has a Subaru WRX engine). It was the first car she ever bought herself and not hand me down free FWD Japanese crudbox her dad handed her.

 

[BigD1]

Don't forget to include the collision insurance requirement when you are making payments on that new car. That can add up to a considerable amount of money just in a years time, and if your driving record is less than stellar it could be very expensive.

 

[CT8]

Originally Posted By: bubbatime
$300 monthly car payment = $3600 a year
$400 monthly car payment = $4800 a year
$500 monthly car payment = $6000 a year

If repairs remain well under a yearly car payment, I'd stick with your current car. If repairs start to total 75% or more of what a new car payment cost, I'd look at trading in the car. If it cost you $1500/yr to maintain your vehicle that equates to a $125/month car payment. Still much cheaper than a new car. Most people buy a new car when they WANT a new car, not when they NEED a new car.
If the engine runs well everything cept the valve is normal wear items.

 

[skyactiv]

Originally Posted By: IndyIan
Do you like the car? You really can't buy anything new like it unless you go to BMW or Audi, but I doubt they have a mtx on this side of the pond.
Also they are one of the best looking cars on the road IMO, if they drive as good as they look, a new CVT cute ute will feel like $25-30k+ in the toilet after the new car "honeymoon" has worn off.
I guess on the flip side, the car may have a bit of a following and worth more to sell privately than you think.


My wife bought a new 2015 Audi A4 Quattro with a 6 speed manual.

 

[IndyIan]

Originally Posted By: skyactiv
Originally Posted By: IndyIan
Do you like the car? You really can't buy anything new like it unless you go to BMW or Audi, but I doubt they have a mtx on this side of the pond.
Also they are one of the best looking cars on the road IMO, if they drive as good as they look, a new CVT cute ute will feel like $25-30k+ in the toilet after the new car "honeymoon" has worn off.
I guess on the flip side, the car may have a bit of a following and worth more to sell privately than you think.


My wife bought a new 2015 Audi A4 Quattro with a 6 speed manual.

The All-Road is the only wagon though I believe and its only available in auto as far as I can tell. Same with the AWD BMW wagons...

 

[javacontour]

Not too many cars you can drive for $233/month.

If you spent $2800 in 2014 on M&R that's probably half of what a car payment is on a comparable new car so that's your $233/mo

In 2015, you've spent less over the course of the year so far.

So what would it cost to replace the car with a comparable model?

I suspect a 2015 Legacy Turbo Wagon is north of $25K, meaning you'll be either forking out a lump sum of $25K for the new car smell, or $500/mo to make payments for 5 years.

Unless the car is simply unsafe, it's usually cheaper to drive what you already own vs buying a new car.

Originally Posted By: madRiver
In 2014 we spent nearly $2800 on our 175k 2005 Legacy turbo wagon 5mt to get a burned valve repaired. In the process it got all sorts of maintenance (plugs,timing belt etc) done.

In 2015 we hit $600 front brakes(187k) seized caliper, pads, rotors etc and torn front axle boot($200). To get $500 in four new tires(wear item) we needed $200 in front end suspension work to align($80) the car.

2011/2012/2013 the repairs never hit $200-$500/year albeit
2016 to start

the rear brakes will need replacing including rotors likely $350. Also hatch wiring harness is partially broken and fraying (rear wiper dead) but may lead to reverse lights out needed for inspection($350 fix or $120 no guarantee patching-both difficult).

What is folks tolerance for this stuff?

 

[Tzu]

Very true. My '91 Camry 4 cylinder went 248,000 miles before an exhaust valve burnt causing no compression on cyl #3. I never adjusted them, and my in-laws sold it to us in 1999 before that required maintenance mileage was met. Long before it burnt, the car was very quiet, because there was no lash in the valves. I pulled the head myself, had a machine shop go over it, bought 3 new shims and got her running again. 65,000 miles later and all is well.

Since I like my current vehicles and they don't look outdated, and I like messing with them for the most part. I would say the time to get rid of them is when you get tired of driving them or rusted out frames/uni-bodies that would make them unsafe to drive. I remember having a '83 Olds Cutlass that looked great. But when the engine locked up from what I believe was that Teflon engine restorer stuff (forgot name, and the oil filter was plugged after), the used replacement engine made the same car feel totally different for me. It was not the same car after that, but it appeared to be.

I've walked the lots looking, and not having a car payment while my vehicles are freshly washed and waxed shining in the sun, makes a brand new car seem unnecessary to me. My Camry should have been gone along time ago if it wasn't for me liking the car and doing pretty much everything on it myself. Having a car that you don't worry about at ALL is very nice thing

Over a month ago the dealership wanted $1200 to replace the entire fuel lines on my Impala and then the brake line blew out in their parking lot. Now the car's CEL is off, and has been off for over 1200 miles, and I fixed the front brake line at home for $50 in my driveway. It still looks very nice today. 27.2mpg is a bonus too. I can put the $700 saved in 2 months on a new car into our porch remodel.
Originally Posted By: HerrStig
Originally Posted By: zach1900
How does one burn a valve?
If the valve "lash" is not properly adjusted and the exhaust valves don't close tightly they can burn from exhaust leaking by, and if a cylinder is running lean because of a clogged injector that can burn a valve as well. The OBD II monitor may detect the lean condition but not a loose exhaust valve unless the engine starts to missfire. The Camry I4 will generally go hundreds of thousands of miles before needing a valve lash adjustment.