<p>Since we are headed out of town on 12/22, when the mechanic told me on 12/16 that the transmission was dead, I just handed him the credit card. Shop for a replacement vehicle, pack for vacation, and decide what to do with a semi-dead car all in 5 days? No way could I begin to wrap my brain around it!</p>
<p>So now we are the proud owners of a 160,000 mile 2001 6 cylinder Honda Accord with a rebuilt-to-Honda-specs. transmission. The brakes were re-done within the last 6 months, and the radiator and a bunch of other front end stuff was new last month (paid for by auto insurance) after a close encounter with a deer. All regular maintenance has been done at an official Honda garage, and has been done according to Honda’s schedule.</p>
<p>How do we begin to evaluate whether to keep fixing this thing or to get rid of it after we get back from vacation in January?</p>
<p>happymom, we have been through similar decisions several times. I suggest digging out all the repair bills from the past year or so. Consider anything that wasn’t “normal maintenance” (i.e. not oil changes, new tires, brakes), and not the collision with the deer. If you are spending on average as much as a car payment every month, time for a new car. </p>
<p>Also, if you are having to deal with lots of repairs regularly, so that it becomes a quality of life thing (DH’s truck would die regularly, requiring me to arrange for tow trucks, pick him up at strange hours because it was dead, etc.), time for a new car. Otherwise, if you like the car and it isn’t causing chronic headaches or becoming a money pit, then I’d keep driving it and start planning for a new/newer one so when that day finally comes, you’ll be ready.</p>
<p>Q:When to stop repairing 160,000 mile Honda Accord?</p>
<p>A: 100,000 miles ago :)</p>
<p>Seriously,you’ve had it THIS long,why throw in the towel now? I never like owning cars for more then 3 years,so i can’t make a suggestion as what to do</p>
<p>160,000 miles in 9 years? That’s a lot of miles…the average is like 10-12K a year. But Honda boasts that they have many cars that go to 400,000 or more so you’re not the highest mileage. </p>
<p>Check Kelley Blue Book on line for estimates as to how much it is currently worth, re-sale or trade-in. I’d guess somewhere between $2,500 to $5,000, depending on condition. </p>
<p>You can take it to another mechanic and have it looked over thoroughly for an estimate as to how long he thinks it will keep going without any more major expenses. Since so much of it is new or rebuilt, it might run another couple of years…provided the frame is sound. I’m of the 'keep a car ‘til the wheels fall off’ school. It just makes sense economically. You’ve put a lot of money into it recently which you won’t get back on a re-sale and the trade-in probably won’t be much. Of course, if some dealer offers one of those ‘$5,000 for any trade’ deals, jump on it! </p>
<p>I suggest another mechanic not because yours isn’t trustworthy but because it’s asking him to judge how much more money you’ll be paying him and that might put him in an awkward position. </p>
<p>There are some really good car deals out there now, thanks to the poor economy, so if the mechanic says ‘maybe you’ll get another year out of it,’ unload it and get something new. If he says it’s good for at least 3 to 5 without major expense, keep it.</p>
<p>Happymom, have your mechanic do a compression check on the engine. If all the cyclinders have good compression, you should be able to keep drive the cars for years.</p>
<p>It is a 10 year old car so small thing will start to go bad. If Happydad is relatively handy, i.e. could change a blower motor or charge up a can of R-134, I say keep it. </p>
<p>BTW, at 160,000 miles, I will assume you have done at least one timing belt change.</p>
<p>That is pretty high miles-
We got rid of our minivan when it was 12 years old- & we should have done it way before that- because it had had a LOT of transmission problems- that were chronic with the car.</p>
<p>I would look on Edmunds or [Automotive</a> Repair, Auto Recalls, Automotive Software & TSB’s - ALLDATA](<a href=“http://www.alldata.com/]Automotive”>http://www.alldata.com/) & see what kind of other problems you may be facing ( kinda like checking out dog breeds )- if nothing else is looming, I would hold on to it for a bit more unless you find something that you can get a really good deal on.</p>
<p>We just went through this type of discussion. My 2002 Pathfinder has 230K miles on it and needed $3000 worth of work. Mechanic felt the car ran fine otherwise. We did the repair. With S starting college next fall, 10yo D maybe starting at an expensive middle school next fall, the last thing I want is a car payment. If I can get another 8 or 9 months out of the car I will be happy, but my fingers are crossed I will get several more years.</p>
<p>We believe in driving cars until we need to pull over and shoot them to put them out of their misery. We have two basic tests for keeping a car …</p>
<p>1) Are the average monthly repairs on the car less then the payments would be if we bought a new car … that is essentially the financial cutoff.</p>
<p>2) Do we feel the car is still reliable enough to drive? While it may still be cheaper to keep our paid-off car do we feel it is safe for our daughter to be driving the car home at midnight? </p>
<p>When either of those tests fail it’s time to get new car. (In reality changing life events has driven more of our decisions … our cars last 7-10 years … when we had our second kid we needed to trade in a car “only” 5 years old because we needed something bigger)</p>
<p>The easy answer is when you no longer love your car.</p>
<p>If you still like the car, it makes far more financial sense to keep it than get a different car. Even if you have to replace your entire engine in your car, it’s still cheaper than buying a new or newer used vehicle.</p>
<p>I saw this subject header and wondered whether I’d created this post in my sleep. </p>
<p>Our Honda Accord, 1996, also has 160,000 miles on it. Power steering died this fall, A/C died a couple years ago. We can still drive it, but it’s not fun. We have to decide whether to fix the power steering or just get a new car. Since our other car has 110,000 miles on it, we’ll probably get a new car sometime this summer. (Our goal was for this car to last until our daughter finished college – she graduates in May, so it looks like we’ve made it.)</p>
<p>As you can tell, we drive our cars until they die, or are almost dead. There’s a part of me that wants to fix the power steering and keep going with the Accord, but I am also looking forward to having a safer car with some technological bells and whistles (like, a CD player!)</p>
<p>* I am also looking forward to having a safer car with some technological bells and whistles (like, a CD player!)*</p>
<p>how novel!
My Hs car not only has those really annoying automatic seatbelts, but it doesn’t even have cupholders!( of course his pickup doesnt have headrests- or a visor on the passenger side- but I think he keeps it for conversations with the neighbors)</p>
<p>We have been able to limit our car payments- I am driving a 2002 Jeep Liberty & H drives a 1992 Thunderbird supercoupe ( he bought used despite protests from a coworker) he also has a 1966 Ford pickup.</p>
<p>We both walk for short errands & I am determined to get a bike soon I think that will help stretch the cars use for a few more years ( well mine anyway- but H is very stubborn & I noticed the more I complain about his car- the more he is determined to keep it)</p>
<p>Ummm…we have a 2000 Odyssey with 178k and we are expecting it to get to 225K (or until one of our kids graduates)…we have the usual maintenance, though we no longer go to the dealer for it, and then typically one big repair a year so far that runs around $1k. </p>
<p>My brother has an Accord with over 500k…he takes really good care of that car!</p>
<p>We traded in our 2000 Honda CR-V (old, small version with stick shift) with 142K this summer and were pleasantly surprised to get $3k from Carmax.</p>
<p>Sounds like you have just bought yourself another couple years of reliable transportation.</p>
<p>Thanks to all of the other drive-it-into-the-grounders here! And especially to Novelisto for suggesting a “second opinion” as to the car’s mechanics. I’ll do that in January. </p>
<p>I knew that you guys would have good ideas for me!</p>
<p>We are drive until it dies, unless the repairs are more than getting something newer. We had told our mechanic we needed to keep our 2003 caravan going until DD graduated in May. Then DH lost his job and the mechanic went out of business. So now we need to keep it until he finds something (cobra is worse than a car payment). Our new mechanic is faced with the challenge of keeping us going. We’re at 233,000. I’m hoping to see 300,000
PS if anyone is selling a reliable vehicle with good gas mileage cheap, DD’s going to need to replace her '95 Explorer. The gas for her commute is killing her budget!</p>
<p>My 2000 Avalon has about 207K on it and it feels like a new car. I recently put in about $1,500 for suspension and brake work. It’s not only the payment issue (we pay cash for cars but the concept is still interesting), but the lower insurance and property tax costs. A new car will cost about $900 a year in property taxes in our area while a car four years or older will cost $81 per year. My general feeling is that Toyotas and Hondas will just keep running if well maintained. Sometimes you’re knocked for an expensive repair bill but believe me, it’s nothing like owning a European car. I felt like I had to make this decision every other month when I was driving European cars.</p>
<p>In general, a lot of stuff has to get fixed around 60-80K, 120K and 160K. Those additional repairs make you think about replacing the car. If you do get those things fixed, you’re usually in good shape for a while. I drive and park in bad areas frequently and having an old car means that I don’t have to worry so much about it getting stolen or damaged. It’s an old granny car so kids aren’t going to steal it for hot-rodding either. Around here, Honda Civics and Accura Integras are the cars of choice for young adults looking to burn rubber.</p>
<p>My four-year-old car (Audi A6) has 96K miles on it, and I plan on driving it to at least 150K and perhaps longer. That said, I’m always looking to see what the next car will be, just in case.</p>
<p>At 80K miles I had a serious conversation with the head mechanic at my dealer’s service shop. My question: what do we need to do to keep this car running well and reliably to 200K miles? The answer boiled down to regular maintenance and regular thorough checks. </p>
<p>My husband is fond of pointing out how expensive it is to buy a new car. It depreciates immediately by 25%; you either have monthly payments or lose the opportunity to otherwise invest the price of the car. That adds up. However, a two-year-old car can be an excellent deal, and I’ve seen some very nice prices on the last of the 2010s–basically a new car reduced in price by the amount of the depreciation so that the dealers can get rid of them.</p>
<p>If repair bills is equal to resale value of car and does not increase the service life until the next major service, then I’d start looking. </p>
<p>Late 2008, we gave DS our '96 Camry, 180K, all major repairs, and 2 sets of newer, premium tires. Its good for another 4 years. We needed a more economical car (Prius) as we were looking towards retirement. And DS only needed a reliable parttime car for grocery, camping/skiing trips, and coming home to Oregon.</p>
)- if nothing else is looming, I would hold on to it for a bit more unless you find something that you can get a really good deal on.</p>