Friday, November 03, 2006

Car Dilemma

I drive a 97 Subaru Legacy with 200,000 km on it. It needs a couple thousand canadianos worth of work on it. The dilemma is: do I fix it and hope the motor (which is running fine now) is good for another couple years, or do I go shopping? Anyone out there with experience with high-milage subarus? Grrrrrrr....I don't know how anyone can love cars. They just cause me grief, but they have spoiled me and I can't imaging not having one.

7 comments:

Wandering Coyote said...

I am not the person to be asking about this, though I will say that my dad is a huge Subaru fan and will not buy anything else. He always trades his in as soon as the warranty is up because he seems to think it's cheaper overall that way. I don't think he's ever let it get to that high a mileage, so I'm not sure what the engines are like at that age. They are coming out with a hybrid next year, though, which would be cool where you are.

Anonymous said...

I can't go a day without being totally unhelpful, so check out this Hydra Spider, a perfect vehicle for the sport fisherman, and yet it can still drive the little lady to the grocery store.

mister anchovy said...

that's it LM, exactly what I need....

Gardenia said...

I think you have experienced a miracle.

Seriously, don't know about subaru's. Bought a new toyota once thinking it would drive until the end of the world, but my daughter totaled it a week after it was paid off.

Radmila said...

Once any car gets over the 200,000 mark is a money whore.

Take it from someone who continuously poured money into a vehicle because it was paid off and all it needed was a couple of hundred dollars of work on it.
A couple of hundred every few months.
The time and hassle and the money I poured into that vehicle could have bought me another one twice over without the "what the hell is that?" sounds, and the "oh, not again" payouts that always happened when I was short on cash.
Now, I resign myself to the fact that I'll make a car payment every month, and have a warranty. When that warranty is up, so is my relationship with that car.
I haven't had car stress since.
My last paid for car had 400,000 clicks on it but I paid for that car twice between 190,000 and 400,000 and it was still running taking a break between breakdowns when I left it in the dealership parking lot.

That car taught me when to say enough.

thehealingroom said...

My 2 cents.
I have a 1998 Suzuki Sidekick with over 200,000 k's on it.
I just got it back from my very trusted mechanic with an $800 bill for some clutch and brake work. I asked him if its worth it to keep putting money into. He said in his eyes 1998 is not old as long as it isn't rotting, rusting, falling apart. I told him that I trusted them to tell me if I was wasting my money on it.
So I guess my advice is to find a trustworthy mechanic.

mister anchovy said...

I have a fabulous mechanic. He could have done the clutch work and I would have been back for the brakes and tires soon enough. Instead, he suggested we think about it - if the car was at 150k he says he would say for sure fix it, but now he's not sure. We'll make a decision next week.