Pure Agony
My car. I hate my car. I want to love my car, but I can’t. I took it in for the 90,000 mile service this week. It’s actually at 98,000 miles. The service alone costs $512.00. The report from the mechanic is that I need a new clutch ($1050), the aftermarket brakes I had installed in March make noise ($800), a fog light is out ($120) and various other fluids and belts need flushing and replacing ($500).
I did everything except the brakes, which I can never hear squeaking because I play the radio too loud, and the clutch. When I discussed this with a friend who’s driven my car before, he told me that he thinks my clutch is too tight and it really does need replacing. He’s kind of car savvy and says there’s something wrong with the pressure plate and that means my clutch is going. His opinion is that at 100K miles my clutch has done well and I should replace it now. I seriously thought I could go another year on it, but apparently not.
*sigh*
The reason I took the car in was because it needed the dealer servicing and I thought about selling my car this week. It’s only the second or third time I’ve taken it to the dealer for any kind of work. Why was I thinking of selling? A friend of mine wants a manual transmission for her son’s first car and we were discussing the possibility of selling my vehicle to her. I gave her a litany of things that would have to be fixed and that’s what prompted taking the car in to be thoroughly checked out. I had a pretty good idea of what was wrong with car, but I really didn’t think the clutch would have to be fixed till next year.
I ran the numbers and decided that I couldn’t sell the car because I didn’t want a car payment anymore. No matter what, not having a car payment is very important to me. I want to keep this car for another 4.5 years when it’s 10 years old. But frankly, I’m sick of driving it. I’m the only owner and all 98k miles on the car are mine. I want to love my car again, but I think I’d need to mod the car to fall back in love with it. I’d have to get better shocks and sticky tires so I could corner a lot tighter. I am not that interested in putting the sweat equity to do the modifications though, so that kind of destroys that option.
So why is this killing me? It’s killing me because I put it on my credit card and now I want to drain out my savings to pay down my credit card. Bah. *drama queen*
D wrote:
I see your plan is to keep your car for another 4.5 years. It’s a good plan, but I think you will take some of the blahs from your car by thinking in smaller terms.
Here is my suggestion:
Total up all the repairs and maintenance and your annual expenses (insurance). Say it is $3k.
Next divide the total cost by a year. 365 days or $8.22 per day.
This equals $254 per mth about.
Ok, reasonably speaking a new car would cost this or more, right?
Calculate what that new car payment would cost you add in the annuals 1/12 don’t forget what you expect in maintenance (oil). I bet it is way above.
Isn’t it nice to see you are saving money? Then use your savings to payoff that debt, so you don’t pay interest. Then pretend you bought that car. Put the above monthy amount in your savings, like you did splurge.
Your savings should be growing at about $350 at least a month. $4200 a year. Don’t forget the interest you make and don’t pay. I would say after 4 years you will be paying cash for that new car. As long as you are not looking for a designer vehicle.
This means bargaining power and more bang for your buck.
-d
Posted on 14-Jul-06 at 9:39 am | Permalink
alberen wrote:
Mapgirl I am sorry about the car troubles. They really do stink.
Sometimes it’s like we are trying to run up the down escalator and their is a little money gobbling gremlin speeding the thing up just as we see the top.
really, d’s advice is good for anyone. If you are not making yourself a car payment each month then you are failing to plan for your ride’s inevitable last ride. Replacing your car is a true “cost of driving.”
Posted on 15-Jul-06 at 3:09 am | Permalink
Jonathan wrote:
I would just agree that clutches really never last far past 100k miles. Whether you can get another year out of it? I dunno.
Posted on 20-Jul-06 at 2:39 am | Permalink