Cars are a headache

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anglewannabe
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Anglewannabe said:
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
Click to expand...
That would argue that a car-less life is only going to be an option for you if you can get to work without mass transit. Is that an option? Sometimes the home prices are so high and the choices so limited near one’s place of work that owning and maintaining a car really isn’t a choice. The only question that remains is how much money and time to spend on the car and how to spend it (and save it up for future need) the most wisely.
 
EasterJoy said:
can get to work without mass transit. Is that an option? .
Click to expand...
I don’t want to move close to work when it is only a contract and I don’t know where my next job would be. Not to mention, where I live, I have been here long enough my mortgage is low and I bought in the cheapest place in town. To sell and buy another home would mean a bigger mortgage. And believe it or not, to sell and rent would mean my rent is more than my mortgage, condo fees and taxes

Yes, the whole question is how much can I put aside to buy a new car
 
Anglewannabe said:
I don’t want to move close to work when it is only a contract and I don’t know where my next job would be. Not to mention, where I live, I have been here long enough my mortgage is low and I bought in the cheapest place in town. To sell and buy another home would mean a bigger mortgage. And believe it or not, to sell and rent would mean my rent is more than my mortgage, condo fees and taxes

That sounds very reasonable.

Yes, the whole question is how much can I put aside to buy a new car

Yep.
Click to expand...
 
Anglewannabe said:
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
Click to expand...
Anglewannabe is not just making up excuses. This is the way it is in our small city, too. If I were to take a bus to work, the “to” trip would be fairly short (around a half hour, counting the time it would take to walk up to the bus stop, which at this point in my life can’t happen because of my bad knee), but the trip HOME would take at least an hour, probably longer, and it would involve a transfer.

(When I drive to work, it takes five minutes, so even the “to” trip by public transit adds 25 minutes to my morning trip. Not good.)

The Big Cities have wonderful public transit systems, and I think a lot of university cities and towns have great systems, too, but small cities and towns just don’t have this. It’s not cost-effective for us. Too bad.

I’m glad that I do have the option of public transit should the worse happen and both of our cars are gone. But I would not consider it a great option. What I would be more likely to do is work out a commuting arrangement with someone else who works at my hospital, and pay them a small fee to pick me up and take me home.
 
Ask your friend what he thinks is wrong with the car. Since he put a dollar value on how much he thinks it will cost to fix, he must have a pretty specific idea. Then take him with you to the mechanic’s shop (or two- get a second opinion). He can sort of vet what the mechanics say and act as the “male friend buffer” to make it less likely you get taken advantage of.
 
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...
As far as whether to trade it in, Do you have the owner’s manual showing the recommended replacement intervals? If so, what major maintenance needs to be done? How much that maintenance will cost should also determine whether to dump $1,000 into a repair.

For example, is there a timing belt replacement coming up? (not the serpentine belt on th front of your engine driving the alternator/water pump/AC) That is usually a very expensive repair due to the labor involved. If you postpone the maintenance you risk the belt breaking which can severely damage the engine Timing belt keeps the valves in synch with the crankshaft/pistons. In many engines if it breaks the pistons will slam into the valves, bending the shafts which also damages the heads…] It also isn’t unusual at all for a mechanic to recommend replacing the water pump at the same time since you’ve already had to remove it, and that also can be an expensive repair due to the labor- which is why they’ll recommend doing it at the same time, to save you the labor in case it breaks in the future.

Some engines have chains instead of belts, those normally won’t have a replacement interval.

Youtube can be your friend. Lots of videos on the net about specific car problems and their repairs. Even if you can’t do the repair, they will help you understand symptoms for problems, the level of effort required to repair them, overall understand better so a mechanic can’t snow you as easily.
 
I took the car in. Something was wrong with the exhaust and the left front wheel needed new bearings. It ended up costing me $450.

I am definitely starting a ‘car repair’ fund
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top