car broke down last night, was towed; fixable?

[xfer]

Looks like it's going to be about $1400-$2000 in repairs after the clutch or transmission went kerflooey on a busy highway yesterday evening. Is it worth it on a car with 300,000 miles on it?

sigh.

(Toby, I swear it wasn't my "bad clutching" that caused it)

 

[Baliset]

i'd say not worth it.

 

[xfer]

our family has had that car for ten years

1994 (?) Toyota Camry.

and NOT fixing it will still cost over $100 in diagnostics and storage fees.

 

[minxnim]

not worth it.

 

[xfer]

 

[xfer]

okay, my dad's going to try to haggle it down...$500 of it was a water pump problem which may not be necessary to fix...$900 for a clutch seems REALLY high (should be 2-300 tops), unless when they said "clutch" they meant "transmission", so maybe he can get it down to $500ish total?

 

[avi]

totally not worth it.

some places that take donated cars will come n tow your shit away n everything

 

[FrostGiant]

Even haggling down I would say no. That's a lot of miles.

 

[minxnim]

yea did you look up the bluebook value of the car? i asked my sister (v.p. of commerce insurance auto claims) she said, no way. not worth it.

 

[xfer]

since it's my parents' car, though, it's in fabulous shape. besides the burnt-out clutch, of course.

 

[xfer]

sigh. oh, well; my days of having access to a car are basically over, i guess.

 

[minxnim]

well you can always get another beater.
welcome to my world.

 

[0sm0se]

I just donated my minivan after it died after having a problem much worse that yours. (warped heads, caused by the cessation of the water pump, but the fact that all the belts and hoses had been replaced caused the heads to warp before the belts snapped. By replacing the old hoses and belts, I had allowed the car enough resilience to kill itself. IRONY!) I say donate it to the American Cancer Society, they pick it up for free from where it is, no charge. You get a nearly $2000 tax deduction in some cases, which is worth more than the 40 bucks you'd get selling it for scrap, unless of course you can find a camry collector, unlikely to put it lightly. At least yours died near home, I was 600 miles away from home when mine died. Seriously, take your money and put a down payment on a new car, its a lot more worth it.

 

[xfer]

i don't want to own a car. i was just borrowing this one from my parents for a little while.

and yeah, thankfully it died on a night i was more or less free, near home. however, it's sad that this little car lived in Connecticut its whole life only to perish in Boston, far from home.

Oh! let me look on you once more
And bless you for it now;
And if upon some distant field
Sick, suffering you should lay,
May some kind hand in tenderness
Soothe all your pain away.

 

[minxnim]

my roommate just donated his shitty van to the ASPCA they were so psyched.

alex maybe you can borrow one of my dad's huge pick up trucks.

 

[xfer]

i'm good with trucks! i can stick-shift like Hurricane Melinda.

 

[mindspell]

The clutch should not be more than 150$-200$ true. Problem is installing it. It takes about 6 hours for a qualified mec to take it out and put it back on. You have to add to that a bunch of gaskets, other crap and most probably new bolts for the clutch cover which they usually kill by taking it apart.

A Camry is normally good for about 300 K before it starts giving you a shitload of trouble. I certainly would not pay to change the clutch on it. It was a good car, it simply died of a good death.

 

[xfer]

sigh.

update: death warrant signed by my dad. it'll be in the merciless dissecting hands of the american cancer society within the week.

:'(

 

[0sm0se]

Along side my faithful minivan. I request a moment of silence on behalf of cars that gave all they possibly could and more. Amen.

 

[lizard]

my 83 Cavalier is still running but developing big problems, after 170,000 miles. I know what you mean about a family owned car; this was my dad's, then my brother's in optometry school, then mine. they took good care of it and when it finally dies I will be sad.

The 83 Grand Marquis is still running! and in a note to Greg, this weekend I noticed it has a Providence RI sticker on the back window! It was so faded I hadn't even noticed it before.

It's always sad when a faithful steed has to be put down *sigh*