How much do you spend on car maintenance and repair?

[DebtFree&Broke]

DebtFree&Broke, is that $2000 per vehicle or $2,000 total to cover both car and truck?

$1000 each

[skydivingchic]

I put $150/month aside to cover repair and maintenance to my 1999 RAV and a 2007 motorcycle. I think the car alone is ~$100 of that. The RAV has nearly 180k miles on it and I fully plan on getting at least 250k out of it. Just paid nearly $2k to do the oil change, timing belt, water pump, tensioner, and shocks and struts. I guess for me I would start to question the repair bills once they were exceeding my sinking fund envelope for repairs. So far, so good. Sure $2k is alot, but I hadn't put any major work into it for quite some time so the cost was easily covered by the money I'd been putting aside. And I also figure a "new" car would be $300-400 per month of car payments and/or a huge chunk of my savings, so this is cheaper for now.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I wouldn't spend that kind of money on a 16 year old car. You can get a 10 year old car with lower miles for $5k so i've been seeing. not worth investing in a car that will eat up more money than say a 2002 Hyundai with 60k miles.

I'm not kidding. Before you sink money I'd look on craigslist or autotrader at what's available. You'll be surprised. I certainly was.

I have a 99 corolla with 120k miles and I'm not sinking more than $1k into it. I'd rather buy a $4-5k car with newer safety features and less miles than sinking $4-5k into an older car than can easily need more work.

Our 2000 focus was like that. It ate $2k 2 years in a row with another $2k in repairs on the horizon. We dumped that like a hot cake.

[Sham12345]

How much do you spend on car maintenance and repair

Dude you can buy preety new car istead of wasting for 16 years old car.

[DebtFree&Broke]

I agree!

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Skydivingchic and DebtFree you mention spending $2k on repairs, is it really worth it? I mean I've found cheap cars that are much newer with lower miles (see used car thread I started) and easily some are $4-5k for a 10 year old car, is it worth it over $2k on a 12 and 14 year old car?

I just wonder where do you cut off? Sure it's $2k this year, but then another $2k next year? And the year after?

I am not saying get a car with $300 car payments, but at $150/month that's $5k in 3 years instead of $6k in repairs potentially.

Older cars do get repairs by normal wear and tear. When do you really cut your losses? My car is worth $2-3k is it worth sinking that much in to repair? I think not.

Not for something a few years newer and a lot less miles. I think MonkeyMama Called it grannie cars.

[disneysteve]

Skydivingchic and DebtFree you mention spending $2k on repairs, is it really worth it? I mean I've found cheap cars that are much newer with lower miles (see used car thread I started) and easily some are $4-5k for a 10 year old car, is it worth it over $2k on a 12 and 14 year old car?

Good question. I'm answering because I'm in that same group as Skydivingchic and DebtFree, budgeting $1,000/car/year.

I guess the answer is that I know what's wrong with my car. I know what has and hasn't been done maintenance-wise. I know how the car has been driven and taken care of. I guess if I bought a used car and the seller had full maintenance records, that might be worth it, but I wouldn't get rid of a 14-year-old car to replace it with a 10-year-old car. When I replace my car, it will be with something no more than 3-4 years old so I'm not looking at 4-5K. I'm looking at 18-20K. If I can spend $1,000/year to keep mine going, that's a better deal in my mind than going out and dropping 20K on a replacement.

[skydivingchic]

I agree with DisneySteve on this one. I know the maintenance and repair history of my vehicle and when I do get a new vehicle it will be in the same range DS quoted. I'm not going to get another older, higher milage vehicle that I don't know the history on. The stuff I did this last time was the timing belt and water pump, etc. Those things are on a 90k maintenance cycle per the manufacturer. The vehicle has just shy of 180k on it, so that is pretty well in line with what should be expected any way. Shocks and struts I'm not sure about, but I'm sure one should expect to replace those ocassionally as well. Nothing I had to repair strikes me as unusual or real signs of age and/or recurring problems. So yes, it is worth it in my mind. Also, the $150/month I quoted was how much I save to cover repairs/maintenance to both this vehicle and a motorcycle. Motorcycle maintenance is a lot more expensive than one might expect. So of that $150/month, about $100 of it goes to the car and the rest to the bike.

OP mentioned oil changes and tires in her list of concerns. While these things obviously cost money and should be saved for, they are required for ANY vehicle, whether brand new or 20 years old. So in my mind that stuff is a wash and doesn't really figure into the considerations. It is the catalytic converter that seems like a true repair to me - something that wouldn't be required on a newer vehicle. If it were my vehicle, I would be looking at the repair history of things like that in determining whether to keep it or get rid of it.

[bjl584]

I'd get a second opinion. $1600 for a cat convertor is way too much. You can buy one at the auto parts store for $300 or less. They are usually only held on with a couple of pipe clamps and a heat shield.

If you don't have the ability to do the work yourself, then at least shop around and try to find a better price on repairs.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

But the $1k in repairs a year add up fast not talking oil changes but things like catalytic converter, transmission, engine, etc. Or at least where I live it's pricey. I think I hesitate to drop $2k on repairs even "age" related ones on a 13 year old car I have.

[msomnipotent]

Our oldest car is a 2013, so we only pay for fluids and wiper blades. My husband and I do our own simple repairs and maintenance. We sell cars when the repair costs more than the car is worth. Our last two cars were Dodge/Chrysler and the repair bills were shocking. No matter what went wrong, it was at least $1,000. And it seemed like everything went wrong as soon as the cars turned 8 years old. I prayed that the Caravan would limp into the dealership before it died for good.

[sandrark]

Good question. I'm answering because I'm in that same group as Skydivingchic and DebtFree, budgeting $1,000/car/year.

I guess the answer is that I know what's wrong with my car. I know what has and hasn't been done maintenance-wise. I know how the car has been driven and taken care of. I guess if I bought a used car and the seller had full maintenance records, that might be worth it, but I wouldn't get rid of a 14-year-old car to replace it with a 10-year-old car.

DisneySteve, I am that seller.

We typically buy new, and keep the car for 10+ years. In 1997, I bought a Subaru Legacy wagon new. I kept it for 10 years and 128k miles, and sold it in 2007 for $6k to the first person to see it. I had all service records, and included the spreadsheet I keep for my cars, detailing in a page all of the service done while I owned the car.

In 2010, my doctor told me to sell that car (an FJCruiser) which was built on a truck chassis, and the suspension was a bad idea for my degenerating neck. I sold that car relatively quickly as well - all records, all receipts, plus spreadsheet.

My current car has an accordion file in the seat pouch behind the passenger seat. Every time I do any service or maintenance, the receipt goes right in that file before I drive the car off the lot. About every 6 months, I update my spreadsheet, and print out an updated version for inclusion in the file. I recently switched auto shops, and the new shop was very impressed that I could tell them every thing that had (or had not) been done on it.

We do exist.

[dawnwes]

I will never spend as much as the car is worth to fix a car. When our '96 Saturn had enough issues to need $1000 worth of fixing, we opted to donate it (in 2014.) That organization sold it for $700 and we got to write it off our taxes as a donation.

Right now we have 3 cars. Our oldest car is a Saturn VUE 2002. Recently it didn't pass inspection because in NC they do safety checks and our horn no longer worked. UGH. The horn is built in to the airbag and a whole new steering wheel with an airbag and horn were needed. They would not accept an after market horn placed anywhere else.

Replacing that part was $700 at the GM dealership but thankfully DH found one for $50 on eBay and we swapped it out and it passed.

BUT, if we couldn't have done that, we would have sold it/donated it, and moved on.

Your repairs are too high to save that car is my point.