Just how do you know when to give up on a car? An eternal question that we will never have a solid answer to, of course. Our van is a 2001, and it has over 100,000 miles on it. It ran great for 2 years. In April, we had it in the shop twice. Both repairs totalled to over $1,000--while we were remodeling our house, no less!
Lately, the van has been stalling when we hit a bump while turning left with a foot off the accelerator. Talk about weird! The check engine light comes on sometimes, and then it goes off again. It was diagnosed with a misfire last time we had it fixed, and it still has that hesitation. It hesitates over bumps quite often, but it stalls completely only when going left.
Today we took it to our usual mechanic. They pulled the codes from the computer, which made no sense whatsoever. The temperatures varied wildly, but the weirdest was -198 degrees Fahrenheit in the engine!!! Our mechanic said we had to take it to the dealer. On the bright side, they didn't charge us since they couldn't fix it.
During Ben's lunch, a neighbor came to stay with the kids while we dashed to our mechanic and took the van to the dealership. The first thing they said? "So, can you be without a car for a couple of days?" Do we have a choice? Well, we could go on driving as we have been, but we do have plans for some trips later this month. It has to be fixed (or given up on) sometime. Might as well be now.
Ah, the joys of cars. So every day since this has been getting worse we keep asking ourselves if it's worth shelling out money every month or two to fix this car or if we just give up and decide to have a car payment instead. Aaaargh!
House
1 comment:
Definitely buy a new car. With all the various things you're doing, kids and another one on the way, you definitely need a more reliable mode of transportation and it will be more cost effective in the long run.
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