Grex Finance Conference

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Grex Finance Item 10: The Useful Life of an Automobile
Entered by gracel on Tue Mar 29 22:09:26 UTC 1994:

        We have an old car, which has been costing us more than we
would like in repairs.  Assuming it does not die catastrophically,
on what basis should we decide when to get rid of it?  We can't
afford to replace it with something new, so we'll be replacing a 
devil we know with one we don't, whether this year or later.

6 responses total.

#1 of 6 by gracel on Tue Mar 29 22:20:52 1994:

The car immediately in question is a 1981 Chevette bought new in 1982,
with about 97,000 miles.  It is at the moment in the shop having the
brakes looked at, & has cost us about $200 in repairs so far this year.

#2 of 6 by danr on Fri Apr 1 03:01:02 1994:

Even new ones can be devils.  I'd figue out how much a new or used 
car will cost you per month, and weigh that against how much the old
one is costing to fix per year.  It might be better to pay $200 every
three to six nomths for repairs than to pay $200 per month to the
creditu union.  I guess it really depends on how bad the car really is
and  how much you can afford to pay.

#3 of 6 by gracel on Fri Apr 8 20:06:14 1994:

        We don't know how bad the car really is, that's the problem.
Dave is beginning to get nervous ("is this the Beginning of the End? -- 
let's not throw good money after bad") especially when he sees some
of the places that have rust.  I tend to be more trusting ("it's been
a good car, maybe it will last another year or so") and together we
fail to decide anything except that we need more money in the bank.
It's up to $280 now, with a new master cylinder, and maybe it will 
last another year of so.  (The "car place" people do not brighten
up & think about vacations in Hawaii when they see me coming, but even
the *new* service manager says "I should know your name by now.")

#4 of 6 by peg on Wed May 4 02:40:01 1994:

Interest rates are still pretty low on car loans, but are predicted 
to be creeping up.  Mine is at 6.9% from Feb 93, when I bought
a new Mazda to replace my beloved '84 RX7.  Part of me wishes
I had kept the old dear, which had only 65,000 on it...but things
were starting to go...
Check out April Car Buying guide Consumer Reports... they list the
best used car deals as well as new...  Good luck.  

P.S.  It's really nice to have a new car (even a *previously owned* 
new car)  Also, you might consider the "program cars", which are the
vehicles returned to the dealer after being leased.

#5 of 6 by gracel on Fri Jun 17 02:15:36 1994:

We junked the car in question yesterday, once we'd found an
acceptable replacement -- an alarmingly unstable crack in the
suspension settled the question.

#6 of 6 by scott on Thu Dec 12 17:20:51 1996:

You *can* do pretty well with an old car.  My first cars were about 8 years
old when purchased, and lasted about 4 more years.  One of them, a Subaru,
got into expensive repairs (well, it was about to) so I junked it.  Overall,
though, it had been quite reliable and in yearly costs had been a bargain.
Same basic deal with my Nissan truck, which Steve Gibbard is still driving
since it hasn't started dying just yet.

Maintenance is the key, of course, and getting a vehicle that was solid to
begin with.

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