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If the OP is asking from nothing more than a financial standpoint, then the calculation is pretty simple. If the cost to replace the transmission is more than the sale value of the vehicle, then it's not worth it. A '98 Toyota Camry with 150K miles isn't going to be worth much as we are not talking about a vintage Mercedes here.
Depending upon the tax situation of the owner, I would recommend calling in an organization like the Kidney Foundation (or several others like this) to come and take the car, and do a tax write off of the current value of the vehicle. You avoid selling a vehicle to someone else that has a potential problem, you help an worthy organization, it's pretty easy to do as they take care of everything.
You might consider a good used trans, if you look around you can find a good junkyard who will sell you one with relatively low or at least known miles.
This is what I did with the 87 Camry. So far so good.
The vehicle was originally owned by FIL, who kept up on all repairs and maintenance. We've had it since 2004 from him, and we haven't had anything go wrong with it, and he looks at the fluids.
The car has 150K. He thinks the transmission MIGHT be going. Just in case he is correct, is it worth it, for the age and mileage of the car, to get a new transmission?
Thanks!
We are facing the same thing with our 1998 Ford Taurus, which has been a gem, but we are starting to have problems. Luckily not the transmission but the transmission pan is leaking, there is an oil leak, it needs some basic maintenance done like brakes and has 120,000. We are thinking of letting our mechanic have it for almost nothing and looking for a newer car...
no way. A new trans for that car is a $2000 bill. Way more then the whole car is worth... Why would you pay for a repair that is more then the value of the car? Makes NO sense. You get in an accident and the insurance co will not repair it if the value exceeds the value, why should you?
Let me know where all these nice Camrys - for $2,000 or less - are located! Besides, even if you did get one for that price, it'd probably have a whole host of other things needing repair.
You simply CANNOT make a blanket statement like this, regarding an older car needing repairs.
I faced this dilemma with my '98 Acura CL at 180,000 miles. I opted to have it rebuilt at about $2200 plus cost of rental for 4-5 days. Since then though it has more than paid for itself and I'm up to 286,000 miles now. In the time since I had it done I would have paid much, much more in car payments than I paid for the transmission, so for me it was well worth it.
Camrys for the most part, in our experience (we've had many over the decades), aren't even broken in until 100,000 miles and are very reliable. My husband has a 1992 Camry with over 300,000 miles on it. Has cosmetic issues, needs AC work (which he won't get but I may just steal the car and have it done his next birthday), still runs just fine, and gets 37 mpg. It had the typical door handle issues of Camrys of that year, but replacements were easy to get, and cheap (less than $50 to get four of them and he replaced them himself).
I consider myself quite fortunate to find and purchase my 1999 4cyl., Camry LE ( Japanese built with kind of rare driver and front passenger side airbags ) at approx., 66,700 miles from a one owner for $3,800.00.
IMO it's still worth it to repair or replace the transmission on a 150k mile Camry if all else is well with such car.
I know that it took me just over one year to find my current car and mind you that I had a $10K budget and couldn't find an even halfway maintained car in that time.
Last edited by atgss; 07-29-2013 at 03:25 PM..
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