dont fret man, I know what you are going through as well.. one of the biggest no no's in my opinion is sinking all this money into the car then selling it.. if you have all this stuff done then keep the thing. I have a 92 accord LX and I paid $3000 for mine...I thought it was a great deal until stuff started breaking etc... I have put right at 1700 into the accord and theres no way im giving it up. because the sad fact is no matter what reciepts you have or how much youve sank into it you will never get what you put into it.. my advice fix it and keep it, a car with no payments in good running order is excatly what you need. BTW my accord LX '92 has 187,130 miles.

 

Yeah, I thought about keeping it, but we don't need it anymore. I got another car. Upper management (my wife) doesn't want to keep it. She'd rather sell it to pay off a credit card. I'm cool with too. After all, it's just a car. It's just money. You live and you learn. All I know is, the next time a buy an old car, it'll be a GM product from the 60's or 70's. Driving nostalgia, cheap to fix, and easy to fix.

 

If you don't mind a gas hog, I owned a 1981 Chev Impala, 305, atuo, power nothing, that I bought when I came to Canada in 1987. I put a few bucks into it and it lasted until 1998. I sold it to someone who ran it for another 4 years!

It was the cheapest-to-maintain, most reliable car I ever owned.

It was a big car, so it had a large, easy to work in, engine compartment, and you could change the water pump in that car in no time flat.

I think this basic style was produced through 1990 - not really that long ago. Because of their low cost and reliability, they were in use by taxi companies for many years after that, and I've actually seen a few around here still in use.

 

u got lucky becuase those 2004R trannies are NOT known for lasting past 100K

 

Even if it had failed, it would not have altered the equation very much. I think that transmission could be replaced at that time with a rebuilt uint for less than $700 - and that was getting someone else to do the job!

I wonder what it would cost to get our 92 Accord's tranny replaced? (Please don't tell me. Didn't you just go through something like that?)

 

oh yeah no doubt old GM cars are simple.. my very first car was a 78 chevy nova.. had the 250 CID 4.1L inline 6 350 turbo 3-spd tranny...you couldnt kill that car, unless of course you get rear ended by an 18-wheeler. heheh

 

I totally agree with YEU.........it is the BEST 60-70 dollars that you will ever spend when buying a used car ,,,,,

yeah you might know what to look for but do you have a lift to raise the car way up and look underneath? you will be surprised how much you can miss if you do not raise the car up and look underneath,, oil leaks, coolant leaks, car been in an accident. suspension parts worn,

my advice for what it is worth ,, before buying a used car take it to a shop that specializes on that particular car or the dealer and ask for a buyer's inspection ,,cannot be more than 70 dollars but if anything is wrong, the shop should write it down and give you estimate on how much the repairs will cost ,, this way you can also negotiate for a lower price if repairs need to be done or ask of the seller to fix the repairs if he ( she) expects to get what they ask for ...

I have seen many customers come to my shop after they bought a used car for us to inspect.. a few of them were shocked to find out it needed over 1000 dollars in repairs .and trust me it is seldom that we inspect a car and needs hardly any repairs ,,