OK, that was about the worst result I could have expected

[winterbadger]

The shop finally called back with an analysis on the car: the transmission is shot.

That makes sense given what I experienced on Saturday night.

They are quoting me $1,025 to replace it (presumably with a rebuild), which doesn't seem too bad for a transmission job, and they'll warrant it for three months. That's approximately its trade-in value right now (well, were it running), so I'm willing to invest that much into it so as not to have to go out *today* and find a new car.

But it does suggest its lease on life is not great. It is 12 years old and has over 150,000 miles on it. I don't know enough about cars to know what else serious could go wrong (the tranny blowing out is pretty darn bad), but various pumps, cylinders, and so forth, plus the various components of the engine itself can all still go bust. I'll ask the guy at the shop what he thinks and if there's anything else he can see that is going to need replaced soon, but I'm thinking it may be time to go back to Carmax and find something that may last a little longer.

On the good news, as I was searching through all the paperwork that's piled up unsorted in my study to retrieve all the things I'll need for doing my taxes, I found what I had thought was a pay stub from work and therefore not opened, but when I *did* open it, it turned out to be a *check* from work for $150. Now, I'm not quite sure why I was getting it, but it will almost cover the penalty for cancelling my tickets. So that's something at any rate.

Comments

[azbound.livejournal.com]

If you trust your mechanic, ask him what he thinks, if it's even worth it to keep it. I'd probably ask if they can give you a longer warranty for slightly more money.

When my wiring harness went (HUGE expense), I asked if it was even worth replacing. Chris said "Brooke, your car only has 220K on it! Of course it's worth it!" ;-)

[winterbadger]

Thanks! That's a good suggestion about the warranty. He did seem to think it was worth replacing the transmission, and I do trust him to be honest with me.

[aitkendrum.livejournal.com]

Well, the silver lining if any I see out of this is that you weren't involved in a more catastrophic accident had the axle or shaft snapped at high speed or worse.

For a car 12 yrs old it seems to have done sterling service. I'd keep searching, you might find more checks, I think your turning a corner so to speak.

[winterbadger]

Given how suddenly it stopped when I slowed, I am indeed glad I was off the highway and travelling at a slower speed when that happened.

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

agreed, you were lucky

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

that's a very high mileage, I get twitchy around the 50 thou mark.

[azbound.livejournal.com]

I have 250K on mine!

[winterbadger]

Yeah, I'm used to getting well over 100K on my cars. 50K? The car's barely broken in by then!

[magaidhbhan.livejournal.com]

We had an old volvo station wagon that lived into its 990,000s. I was SO sad when it stopped being reliable enough to put more mileage on it -- I wanted to see it break a million!

Your mileage may vary

[mikecosgrave.livejournal.com]

How long a car lasts may vary quite a lot between makes, and even within makes. I'd expect a Volvo or a Peugeot to go on forever, and a Merc to last a good long time.

Second had cars are pretty cheap now; and the dealers don't bother to advertise the really cheap ones. Here in Ireland we have stories of dealers having everything older than '03 or '02 crushed to get them off the lot.

You have no guarantee that something else won't blow up next week; I certainly at least look at something newer and seriously weigh up the pro and cons of changing. I'd expect a dealer to give me at least a 6 month warranty on anything more recent then '00.