12 year old car needs $1500 repair; what to do?

[Anonymous]

We have a 2006 Volvo XC 90; engine mounts are shot, I’m told by trusted mechanic, and I’m not sure what to do. Repair will be between $1200 and $1700, depending on what they find when they get in (again, I trust these guys). AC needs a Freon fill up, but that’s no big deal.

I like the car, actually; it’s bells and whistles don’t really work (the sunroof won’t work, and annoyingly the cd exchange makes a loud sound for 20 second when you turn it on). But under the hood it’s been well maintained. It’s got some dings on the body. It’s at 153,000 miles.

Husband hates the car - hates the dings and the stuff that doesn’t work; wants new car. I’m the primary driver.

We are not currently in a financially super stable place - husband is building a business. I think it’ll fly, and in a year we’ll be better off, but things are pretty lean right now, and a new (or new to us) car I assume will be about $500 a month. That would reduce our retirement savings (I’m 40, we have $275k saved; currently put in 30k in employer account - includes our contributions and employer match - and we’re currently putting 11k/year into two Roth’s. Feel good about that, but behind on college savings for kids (8, 5, 1) which is only at $22k).

On the one hand, this car is old enough that more can go wrong fast. On the other hand, for the price of 3 months of car payments, I could get another couple years out of my dear Volvo.

Thoughts? Thanks.

[Anonymous]

IF you got your next car now, what would the payment be?

Say 300. It equals x.

Take 1500/x = 5

5 months.

Will the repairs last you 5 months of 0 more maintenance? Or not?

If it will last 5mo w/o more investment, keep the car. If not, don’t keep it.

We played this game with our really cheap last car. Dh put 700 into it. I said...ok now we can’t have any more $ into it for 2-3 months. It did last.

Then it happened again. Suggested work we going to be 1000. We didn’t think it would last 4 months w/o yet another need. So we sold it.

(So you can play this math game preemptively, or going forward after repairs. Either way. Take your estimate of your next car payment & use it as a guide)

[Anonymous]

I don't think there is a way to know for certain what the best course here is.

We've sunk a lot of money into our 12 year old car over the last 3 years - way more than the car is worth but it has come one $1500 charge at a time. If we had known three years ago we were going to spend this amount of money we never would have but now we are in for a dime, in for a dollar.

But our car only had 95,000 miles on it when the repairs started and today only has 115,000 so if we get to 200,000 miles (which is not unrealistic for this model and brand) it will likely still have been money well spent.

I'd look up the Consumer Reports info on this particular model and year to get a sense of what you might expect but if these are the first repairs on the car I think it is reasonable to expect that there will be more to come and for similar or greater amounts.

Having said that based on your situation it is nuts to think of getting a new car but a similar used car will still cost more than your current repair bill so I'd roll the dice and make the repairs.

[Anonymous]

Sell it. Buy something with a payment of $300-$400. Eat less take out. Be happy.

[Anonymous]

Your first mistake was getting a Volvo. Your second mistake was keeping it. At your income and savings rate you should have a recent but used Toyota or Honda. They are great cars by the way!

[Anonymous]

Which engine mounts? If it's the top one, front right, or transmission mount, it's an easy DIY. If it's the bottom front, it's doable. Back bottom is very hard.

Don Beyer wanted $317 to replace the top engine mount. It's six bolts and a 15 minute job for a beginner with a $40 part. They wanted $395 for the front right mount. It's a $35 part and maybe 30-45 minutes worth of work.

There are DIY videos on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA7qjGjg8Yc

[Anonymous]

If it were me I'd be much more careful in buying a dependable car. There are ratings online to show you reliability of each car. Volvo does not have good reliability.

Sell the car. It's not worth the risk of things going wrong again within the next few months. Realistically, you'll have to drive the car without any further issues between 5-6 months to make it worth fixing it. Why put yourself through that hassle?

This time, buy a used car (Toyota) with low mileage (30k-45k miles), either a certified pre-owned (which you will pay thousands more for in fees and uncharge), or find one on Craigslist, auto trader, etc... take the car to your trusted mechanic to give it a thorough inspection ($100). Sellers are accustomed to this. I've had sellers give me the keys to the car to take it to my mechanic, and I've had sellers follow me there, but I have never been turned down by a seller to get an inspection on a car. You can get a good, used Toyota with all of the maintenance records, for $7-10K less than the same car you'd get brand new. You can get a car loan for it and make payments on it the same you would at a dealer (only the dealer will charge you an extra $450-$595 to press a button to run the software that gets you your loan).

Don't go to Carmax.

[Anonymous]

Your car has 153k miles on it and is 12 years old. It’s not worth fixing it for that much money. Things go wrong at this point in a car’s life.

[Anonymous]

I've made the same calculations on my 2004 Acura. But mine has only 120k miles, so I have made a couple of fixes on it in that price range. I like my car and don't really want to shell out for a new one, so I don't mind spending a couple thousand each year to keep it running a bit longer.

If you think you'll be in a better place in a year or two, could you consider a lease? The monthly payment on a basic car would be less than a payment if you purchase, and in two years you might be in a better place to buy again.

[Anonymous]

I love my 2005 LR3, so I would do the repairs - any car I would replace it with is $50k+ and there’s nothing out that I like that much.

[Anonymous]

Motor mounts are not hard to fix. I used my car jack to lift engine a bit up so I could pull it out one at a time and replace them. Have husband fix it then sell car

[Anonymous]

You can fully finance a brand new Camry @ 0% interest for ~350/month. Not sure where the 500/month number that you came up with for a “new to us” car is from. If you really must have a European car then I guess you are correct, but I’m not sure why somebody who is not in a financially stable place would buy one of those rolling repair bills anyways.

[Anonymous]

We maintain and keep our cars a long time too. I wouldn't sink that much money into the car; you’re still going to have a twelve year old car with over 150,000 miles on it. You could buy a new Honda Civic or basic CRV (my favorite car, I have a CRV touring higher end version) and have reasonable payments. Or could look for a newer used car. Use that $1200 as a down payment, and you’ll have a car that will last to 200,000 miles and be very dependable and safer to drive. The one you have will be a ticking time bomb, just a question of unknown time until something else expensive goes up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Which engine mounts? If it's the top one, front right, or transmission mount, it's an easy DIY. If it's the bottom front, it's doable. Back bottom is very hard.

Don Beyer wanted $317 to replace the top engine mount. It's six bolts and a 15 minute job for a beginner with a $40 part. They wanted $395 for the front right mount. It's a $35 part and maybe 30-45 minutes worth of work.

There are DIY videos on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA7qjGjg8Yc

I second this. Even the mechanic in Firestone, who told us about the motor mounds suggested to do it by ourselves. $1500 is way too much.

[Anonymous]

I would fix it and get a new car in the next year or two.