Cars are a headache

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Anglewannabe

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I loan a friend my car. He came back saying it is making funny noises and I should get it checked out. He said ‘If it is what I think it is, it could cost you almost $1,000’.

Not knowing the first thing about cars, I will bring it in. However, my dilemma is

1-) I don’t want to keep pumping money into an old car. Perhaps it is time to trade it in

2-) how can I buy a new car when my contract will end within a couple of months

3-) When I take it in, I have to wake up super early to drop it off then take a bus to work

4-) I don’t know a thing about cars and have no time to shop around. A mechanic could easily see a fish coming in me

I find so much stress being a car owner

Angie
 
The car is unlikely to have anything that will be harmed by having the car parked for a week. Take mass transit, bicycle, or walk for all of your daily needs for a week or two, and see how that works out for you. In the meantime, research cars and calculate how much it costs you to own your car vs how much other transportation would require (such as renting for events that just require a car) and how the time investment compares for you.

Experience may help you make the decision.
 
Anglewannabe said:
I loan a friend my car. He came back saying it is making funny noises and I should get it checked out. He said ‘If it is what I think it is, it could cost you almost $1,000’.

Not knowing the first thing about cars, I will bring it in. However, my dilemma is

1-) I don’t want to keep pumping money into an old car. Perhaps it is time to trade it in

2-) how can I buy a new car when my contract will end within a couple of months

3-) When I take it in, I have to wake up super early to drop it off then take a bus to work

4-) I don’t know a thing about cars and have no time to shop around. A mechanic could easily see a fish coming in me

I find so much stress being a car owner

Angie
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I think it’s time to find a mechanic that you actually trust. We have somehow wound up with two different shops that we have a lot of confidence in that have never taken us for a ride. I was at one of the shops a few weeks ago because of a tire issue, and while I was waiting, I heard one of the employees expressing his concern about a woman who had brought a car in, misunderstood something she was told, and then had been spending a pile of money having it towed around town. The employee was genuinely concerned and didn’t want her to spend money unnecessarily.

Ask around and look at online reviews and lists of local favorite businesses.

I’m not sure what kind of numbers you are dealing with, but if this is a $1,000 car, don’t put $1,000 into it–just sell it and get something slightly better that you can afford. If it’s a $2k or $3k car, it might well be worth it to keep it running. A lot of times you can keep a car running almost indefinitely, as long as you have $1,000 on hand to put into it now and then (particularly if you have access to public transit to whether breakdowns, as it sounds like you do). We had a run of trouble with our older car (2004 Taurus, 116k miles, worth now about $1500) a while back (probably around 100k miles) and put some money into it. Well, ever since, it’s gotten a new lease on life. This summer we were buying a new-to-us minivan (2011, 60k miles, etc.). We had been thinking of trading in the Taurus to buy the minivan this summer, but as it happened, we got such a good deal that we decided to keep the Taurus as well. Our current family agreement is the next time a $1,000 repair comes up, we’re getting rid of the Taurus. I would eventually like to replace the Taurus with a car in the $5k range, but if we sell it, we might need to manage with one car for a while, as we did up until about a month ago. That’s one way of doing it.

So, find a good mechanic, get their opinion, and then make a plan you can live with. Don’t let yourself be panicked into a bad decision, especially with your job ending soon. Nothing is on fire–you don’t have to do anything right now.
 
I also recommend, once you are clear of your current crisis, starting a car repair/car maintenance fund. Put $80 into the car fund every month, and you may find that that’s more than enough.
 
Angie,
Are there repair places near you work? That might be easier to manage than trying to deal with a garage closer to your home, but ask about their labor rates in each area first. Also, you can generally drop off the car the day before, of that would make it easier.

Ask your co-workers and friends (esp men) if they have someone they could recommend. If you know a man well enough to ask this favor of, ask him to come with you when hou drop the car off and talk to him about what the mechanic says.

I have owned many old cars over the years, and have found that most mechanics are honest.

What is the problem your friend thought the car might have? Has the car been making this noise for a while or did it just start?
 
Our parish has a “honey do” ministry, where men volunteer to help women (mainly single women) out with various chores that men usually do.

One of the things these guys do is help with minor car repairs, or at least advise a woman truthfully about what is wrong with her car.

I strongly suggest that the OP check out her parish and other parishes to see if they have this type of ministry. If they don’t, ask around the Protestant churches.

A honey-do volunteer can come and take a look at your car and tell you honestly what might be wrong with it. It might just be something as simple as a part that has come lose and rattles (funny noises), and it can just be screwed back down again. No cost.

I’m serious about this! Car repair shops can really string a woman along. Even if the honey-do volunteer just comes along with you to the car repair shop, it might be enough to discourage the mechanics from doing something shady and charging you for it.

Sorry, car mechanics–I know there are honest ones out there! My son-in-law is one of them. But honestly now, I’ve seen it happen over and over again.

One more suggestion, for what it’s worth. When my older daughter still used a car (she lives in NYC now), whenever something went wrong, she would start crying. It wasn’t an act–she was honestly devastated when something happened to her car. Almost always, the mechanics would take pity on her and do the repairs at a greatly reduced cost, and sometimes for free. 🙂 So OP, you could cry!

But I think your best bet is finding that “honey do” volunteer to help you out. Many men are more than happy to help a woman with car issues.
 
I hear ya on cars being a source of stress.

Back when I was single and lived in an area with no family and no friends who knew anything about cars, I was a walking target for a lot of pretty unscrupulous car repairmen. I hate those sorts of people. Seriously, I was working 2-3 jobs, going to school fulltime, and barely making ends meet, but they still wanted to milk me dry. :mad:

What ended up working out well for me was asking friends in similarly tight financial straits for recommendations for a mechanic. A lot didn’t know anyone, but I finally had a coworker suggest a particular mechanic in a, frankly, pretty bad area of town. I went to him, and never looked back. My car was what I called a reliable piece of cr*p: it had nearly 200K miles on it, looked like…well, insert negative comparison of choice here 😃 …but it did run reasonably well, despite having some minor repairs needed every so often.

The guy who ran the shop took excellent care of the car until I sold it several years down the road. He would always be very upfront about costs; wouldn’t do a thing to the car without telling me exactly how much it would cost. I remember one time when the car broke down on a Saturday evening. I called a tow truck, and then called the shop to tell him that I’d be having the car towed there. They were about to close, and I knew it, but I told the owner I was fine with not having the car locked up overnight because if anyone was desperate enough to steal that car, they probably needed it more than I did. 😛 He actually had one of his guys wait at the shop until we dropped off the car; the guy got the car locked up, and then insisted on waiting with me until my ride got there. (It was a really rough area of town, but that was still way above and beyond.)

Long story short, talk to your coworkers and friends, especially ones for whom money is a concern. Someone must know of a good and honest mechanic. There are some out there–admittedly few and far between, though… I sent probably a half-dozen customers this guy’s way because I knew he was honest.
 
Xantippe said:
I also recommend, once you are clear of your current crisis, starting a car repair/car maintenance fund. Put $80 into the car fund every month, and you may find that that’s more than enough.
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I’d rather buy a Toyota or Honda (or any other make with a very good reliability reputation) with 40-50K on it, maintain it faithfully, and drive it until it goes over 100K.

Also, when looking at repair histories on Consumer Reports, I prefer models with repair issues that are unlikely to strand you somewhere. I’d rather have a car that eats mufflers than a car that has a chancy electrical system or engines that have this way of failing. Getting stranded somewhere can be very expensive and time-consuming, not to mention dangerous.
 
Cat said:
Our parish has a “honey do” ministry, where men volunteer to help women (mainly single women) out with various chores that men usually do.

One of the things these guys do is help with minor car repairs, or at least advise a woman truthfully about what is wrong with her car.

I strongly suggest that the OP check out her parish and other parishes to see if they have this type of ministry. If they don’t, ask around the Protestant churches.

A honey-do volunteer can come and take a look at your car and tell you honestly what might be wrong with it. It might just be something as simple as a part that has come lose and rattles (funny noises), and it can just be screwed back down again. No cost.

I’m serious about this! Car repair shops can really string a woman along. Even if the honey-do volunteer just comes along with you to the car repair shop, it might be enough to discourage the mechanics from doing something shady and charging you for it.

Sorry, car mechanics–I know there are honest ones out there! My son-in-law is one of them. But honestly now, I’ve seen it happen over and over again.

One more suggestion, for what it’s worth. When my older daughter still used a car (she lives in NYC now), whenever something went wrong, she would start crying. It wasn’t an act–she was honestly devastated when something happened to her car. Almost always, the mechanics would take pity on her and do the repairs at a greatly reduced cost, and sometimes for free. 🙂 So OP, you could cry!

But I think your best bet is finding that “honey do” volunteer to help you out. Many men are more than happy to help a woman with car issues.
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It is a very good idea to have a car-knowledgeable person with a mechanic they know and have a long history with to come with you the first time, introduce you, and oversee the work thereafter. Knowing that he or she is being watched by a knowledgeable person removes a near occasion of sin for the mechanic.
 
Cat said:
Our parish has a “honey do” ministry, where men volunteer to help women (mainly single women) out with various chores that men usually do.

One of the things these guys do is help with minor car repairs, or at least advise a woman truthfully about what is wrong with her car.

I strongly suggest that the OP check out her parish and other parishes to see if they have this type of ministry. If they don’t, ask around the Protestant churches.

A honey-do volunteer can come and take a look at your car and tell you honestly what might be wrong with it. It might just be something as simple as a part that has come lose and rattles (funny noises), and it can just be screwed back down again. No cost.

I’m serious about this! Car repair shops can really string a woman along. Even if the honey-do volunteer just comes along with you to the car repair shop, it might be enough to discourage the mechanics from doing something shady and charging you for it.

Sorry, car mechanics–I know there are honest ones out there! My son-in-law is one of them. But honestly now, I’ve seen it happen over and over again.

One more suggestion, for what it’s worth. When my older daughter still used a car (she lives in NYC now), whenever something went wrong, she would start crying. It wasn’t an act–she was honestly devastated when something happened to her car. Almost always, the mechanics would take pity on her and do the repairs at a greatly reduced cost, and sometimes for free. 🙂 So OP, you could cry!

But I think your best bet is finding that “honey do” volunteer to help you out. Many men are more than happy to help a woman with car issues.
Click to expand...
Hey…some men are completely clueless when it comes to cars as well…and some women know everything there is to know about cars and engines. I’m a man but couldn’t even begin to change the oil of a car… I’ve never owned a car. I’ve always lived in major cities with excellent public transit. Far better on the wallet and the environment. I certainly recognize that cars are necessary in a lot of places, but I find that there are a lot of people who dismiss public transit out of hand without ever giving it a chance. It always made me chuckle when friends insisted on driving in traffic to a destination I could get to by train in half the time and at a tenth of the cost.
 
If you were to take the 1000 from the repair plus the value of your car what kind of vehicle could you purchase? What year is your car and can you expect wear and tear to lead to more repairs in a short t

I’m usually painfully cheap when it comes to my vehicles. I drove my last car 4 years without A/C and 2 years without back windows. It had to get to the point where it couldn’t idle without overheating and needed expensive repairs before I traded it in. But then again, I’m not worried about comfort or breaking down somewhere. With my wife’s vehicles I usually expect to get 200k miles from them before I look at trading them in. At that point it is usually easier to get a new vehicle and let somebody else worry about repairs and maintenance.
 
It can make financial sense to own an old car, but it really helps to have a good mechanic. The mechanic who works on our cars is trustworthy, knowledgeable, and reasonably priced. Also, he knows that our cars are old, and he often tries to do the minimal repair possible that will keep the car running, rather than doing a more extensive repair that he might recommend for a newer car. If you can find a mechanic like that, I think there is a good chance that it will make financial sense to keep repairing your car rather than replacing it. (As an example our cars are a 1996 Toyota with over 140,000 miles and a 2000 Toyota with over 250,000 miles, and we don’t plan to replace them any time soon.) But if you get to the point where your car needs a very costly repair, or where it is needing smaller repairs very frequently, then it may be time for a replacement.

My advice would be to ask around for recommendations on a good mechanic, who fits the description I gave above.
 
Cat said:
Our parish has a “honey do” ministry, where men volunteer to help women (mainly single women) out with various chores that men usually do.

One of the things these guys do is help with minor car repairs, or at least advise a woman truthfully about what is wrong with her car.

I strongly suggest that the OP check out her parish and other parishes to see if they have this type of ministry. If they don’t, ask around the Protestant churches.
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If your parish doesn’t have this type of ministry, ask your married friends if their husband can help out.

I can’t tell you how many times my husband has taken a look at someone’s car, or installed a new DVD player, or sat with someone while they talk about car repairs or buying a new car.

He plays male friend so the women don’t get ripped off.
 
EasterJoy said:
I’d rather buy a Toyota or Honda (or any other make with a very good reliability reputation) with 40-50K on it, maintain it faithfully, and drive it until it goes over 100K.

Also, when looking at repair histories on Consumer Reports, I prefer models with repair issues that are unlikely to strand you somewhere. I’d rather have a car that eats mufflers than a car that has a chancy electrical system or engines that have this way of failing. Getting stranded somewhere can be very expensive and time-consuming, not to mention dangerous.
Click to expand...
I don’t think a Toyota or a Honda of that vintage is in our OP’s budget, but if it is, fantastic. The prices on those stay pretty high for a long time, for obvious reasons.
 
Anglewannabe said:
I loan a friend my car. He came back saying it is making funny noises and I should get it checked out. He said ‘If it is what I think it is, it could cost you almost $1,000’.

Not knowing the first thing about cars, I will bring it in. However, my dilemma is

1-) I don’t want to keep pumping money into an old car. Perhaps it is time to trade it in

2-) how can I buy a new car when my contract will end within a couple of months

3-) When I take it in, I have to wake up super early to drop it off then take a bus to work

4-) I don’t know a thing about cars and have no time to shop around. A mechanic could easily see a fish coming in me

I find so much stress being a car owner

Angie
Click to expand...
I hear you. I really hate having car trouble. Even though I’m a guy, between my manner of dress, my general soft-spokenness, and my propensity for a “deer in the headlights” expression, I always feel like I’ve got a big ol’ bullseye on my forehead when I walk into a car shop. It’s not a good feeling.

Asking around is really your best bet. Then sometimes you just have to take a chance. I’m extremely suspicious if I bring the car in for one thing and they start recommending a bunch of other things. I usually just tell them to fix what is broken and hold off on the rest. Then I try to avoid that shop in the future.

You might look online for the bluebook value of your car to see if it’s worth fixing. Though, I would at least take it somewhere for an estimate before assuming that the repair will really be $1000. I was in that situation a few years back: $1500 to fix a $2200 car. That was my sign from God that it was time to get a minivan. 😛

Funny story, but I have a SIL who is a short, petite blonde with a pretty quiet voice. But she knows a lot about cars. She’s had a lot of mechanics try to railroad her. But then she always surprises them by calling their bluffs. 😛
 
Anglewannabe said:
I loan a friend my car. He came back saying it is making funny noises and I should get it checked out. He said ‘If it is what I think it is, it could cost you almost $1,000’. …
Click to expand...
Hello,

I find that remark to be moderately to significantly annoying in its ambiguity. Twist his arm and make him tell you what he is talking about.

Dan
 
EasterJoy said:
. Take mass transit, bicycle, or walk for all of your daily needs for a week or two, and see how that works out for you…
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I would love to get rid of the car all together and just use transit. The problem is because of the bus system, the 20 minute drive becomes an hour and a half commute. Not to mention it is 3 buses and some only run every 30 minutes. If I miss a bus I am half an hour late. Not good when there is no tolerance in the office for someone who is 1 minute late
 
St_Francis said:
Are there repair places near you work?
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The place I go is near my home and I trust them (well, I trust them about as much as I would trust any one ;)). I had friends use it and they like them. Also, they give a 10% discount to people who work in an office I use to work in. They know I no longer work there but said I can keep the discount
 
To everyone who suggested I find a trusted friend to help me. Great idea on the surface but unfortunately not so good in practice. Most men I know are not reliable or aren’t goo mechanics themselves.

I might not know about cars (which is why I could never go to a mechanic and tell him what I need fixed. I am dependent on him to tell me what is wrong). However I am bring enough to figure out if someone else knows what if they are talking about. I can not count how many times I have asked a friend for an opinion and after thanking them, they insisted I do things their way. When I politely said ‘I value your (name removed by moderator)ut and would like to think of this’, they got offended I did not do as they were told. Listening to friends can at times be more costly. I would rather have a mechanic rip me off then a rift with a friend

Angie
 
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