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Yeah, not at all unusual for Toyota's and Honda's produced in the '80 and '90's to easily run to 200K plus miles. A former boss of mine used to give us employees rides in her Accord with 200K miles+ on it. It was QUIET and REFINED. At 200K miles! Ridiculous!
It really does sound like you are dealing with wack job mechanics trying to fleece you for everything you've got (and then some). $1000 for a coolant flush?!? what the....?!? Run for the hills! Or just find a new mechanic. Better yet, learn to do your own work. Get a genuine service manual for your Toyota, or just check one out at the local library.
Quote:
Originally Posted by northbayeric
Another vote in favor of keeping your current car! 120,000 miles on a well-maintained Corolla is nuttin'. Two friends of mine from church (husband and wife) have a '91 Corolla wagon with about 210,000 to 220,000 miles on it, so I'm thinking that once you take care of the 120,000 mile service, you're going to be good to go for a long time to come.
It really does sound like you are dealing with wack job mechanics trying to fleece you for everything you've got (and then some). $1000 for a coolant flush?!? what the....?!? Run for the hills!
I think you've misread my post. Approximate amount of $1000 is for timing belt/water pump, 120K service (plugs, transmission fluid/filter, etc...) and coolant flush etc.... It wasn't just for the coolant flush, I'm not that stupid!
It's a no brainer. Stick with your 97 Toyota Corolla. It can easily go to 200K or more with proper maintenance.
Agree! Any younger/lower mileage used car will need maintenance. You know this care well and know what's already been done to it. Buy new struts for it. Do the coolant flush. And actually, if you want to save money, do the coolant flush yourself. And while you're at it, get yourself a factory service manual and start working on the car yourself.
I have a couple of older Hondas. Right now, I am driving a '93 Civic with almost 200K miles. I bought the car six years ago for $500. It needed a head gasket job. My boyfriend is handy and did the job for me. OEM parts (with my 20% employee discount from the dealership I used to work at) were only $175. We did the timing belt too, and in my back yard. That was about $150 in parts. Anyway, long story short, I love my beater car. It's cheap on insurance and gas. My yearly excise taxes are close to nil. I can work in the city and never worry about my car. And for some reason, since the car is rather shabby looking, no one has ever hit or scraped me. It's very freeing to not care about the exterior of a car should it get a new dent. And best of all... no car payments. I haven't have a car payment in over ten years.
Being a Honda, it's a very reliable car and I know that it will last forever. I have a '94 Civic with almost 400K miles on it. It's my favorite car and I don't drive it in the winter anymore or leave it in the city. If I were to go on a road trip, even to CA, I wouldn't hesitate to jump into it and take off into the sunset.
BTW is your Corolla a manual transmission car? All my cars are. They also all have manual crank-up windows. So no window motors to ever replace. The simpler the car is mechanically, the better imo.
I feel there are much better things to do with my hard earned money than make car payments. A "nice" newer used car for me would be one that costs $2500. As it is, my boyfriend is loving his '92 Volvo 240 wagon with 200K miles. He bought it in the spring for $800. This last weekend, he took out the automatic transmission and put in a manual one. Now the car is perfect.
I know a couple of guys that have taught themselves to work on their cars. I'm a bit lazy, now that I have my mechanically inclined boyfriend, but I have replaced my own radiator and also some dashboard light bulbs. I do own factory service manuals for all of my cars. And to help out my boyfriend, over the years I've accumulated a number of nice Snap-On tools bought used off of eBay. I own two Matco torque wrenches. This year I need to get an aluminum racing jack as the one my boyfriend bought from Harbor Freight finally died (after four years).
I got $200 in trade in for a car with just under 200K miles on it. And I got the best price in the area on the new car as well.
Or, you can just have it hauled to the junkyard. I think I got $70 bucks from the junkyard for a car that was nearly twenty years old. I paid about $150 bucks for the car and it ran. Until it got into an accident.
I ended up getting $1k for the Daewoo and financing at 4% with Nissan. Hubby had a Honda and no one wanted it for trade in (7 new car dealerships and 5 used cars dealerships) even though it was running good and he ended up selling it to the junkyard for $150. This was quite a while ago (maybe 7 years).
lol, but even with the additional "suggested" repairs, you should still be well under $1K, and the "necessity" of all of them seems quite dubious.
You can get the factory plugs and get 'em installed for $50. A coolant flush, $100. About the same for drain and refill of the transmission fluid and filter. There's no way the a timing belt and water pump replacement runs an extra $750.
Seriously, check with another mechanic or two, and see how much service your car really needs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by X-Greensboro Resident
I think you've misread my post. Approximate amount of $1000 is for timing belt/water pump, 120K service (plugs, transmission fluid/filter, etc...) and coolant flush etc.... It wasn't just for the coolant flush, I'm not that stupid!
lol, but even with the additional "suggested" repairs, you should still be well under $1K, and the "necessity" of all of them seems quite dubious.
You can get the factory plugs and get 'em installed for $50. A coolant flush, $100. About the same for drain and refill of the transmission fluid and filter. There's no way the a timing belt and water pump replacement runs an extra $750.
Seriously, check with another mechanic or two, and see how much service your car really needs.
There was more to it, I was trying to only capture the bullet points and save everyone from the pointless details. My main point was that the 120K required maintenance (timing belt, water pump, all drive belts, Fuel filter, PCV valve, throttle body clean up, plugs, plug wires + cap and rotor, Transmission fluid + filter change, coolant, etc...) is an expensive service, close to 50% of the value of the car. That's all.
I have already done most of the work except the timing belt/water pump/trannsmision service etc... I'm waiting to figure out what the problem is with the rear end before spending any more money.
Buy used and run it until it dies. Then resurrect it. Repeat until it no longer casts a shadow.
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Two friends of mine from church (husband and wife) have a '91 Corolla wagon with about 210,000 to 220,000 miles on it, so I'm thinking that once you take care of the 120,000 mile service, you're going to be good to go for a long time to come.
-it when they were younger.
Hubby had a Honda and no one wanted it for trade in (7 new car dealerships and 5 used cars dealerships) even though it was running good and he ended up selling it to the junkyard for $150. This was quite a while ago (maybe 7 years).
