car troubles

[englishteacha]

Sigh. Took my car for inspection today at the used car dealer where we bought it. We knew it needed some work, and one thing is a problem they've continually tried to fix, hence we brought it back to them in hopes they'd make it right (In the past they haven't charged us for this one repair). They essentially told us there is too much wrong with it and it's not worth fixing.. I'm very frustrated. Our mechanic (not affiliated with the dealer at all) can't look at it till next Wednesday.

I'm trying to be patient, but this is very tough for me. I had really expected this car to last a couple years longer. It's a 1997, so I wasn't expecting forever, but another year or two didn't seem out of line. It's paid for, and we've taken good care of it. How it can go from perfectly fine in August to "not worth repair" now I just don't know. I'm hoping our mechanic has good news, but I'm not very optimistic.

I just needed to rant for a moment. Thanks!

 

[ancestry]

I feel your pain as I was in your shoes several months ago. We ended up having to get another vehicle. It is hard having a car payment when we didn't have one for almost 7 years.

 

[NYCDiane]

I'm hopping on the same boat you guys are in, only I still have 2 years left on the loan of my car

We bought the car from a used car place. We should have investigated them first but didn't. The car has been trouble almost from day 1. Turns out, they bought it from a rental company so the car was probably treated like crap. I also suspect it had a front end collission because ALL the repair problems were front end: axle, some thing under the alternator, the alternator itself, a few other things that I can't remember, and now the steering rack (about an $800 repair).

We bought the car several years ago and the problems started maybe 6-9 months after we had it. No warranty, nothing. Couldn't do anything under our state's Lemon Law, either. We basically got screwed. Don't even start me in on the financing "deal" we got --- when all is said and done, I could have bought a brand new car and paid the same thing.

At this point, we still owe more than the vehicle is worth --- sooooo, do I bite the bullet and trade this one in for a better vehicle and deal with yet another 5 years of car payments??? (and, of course, they'll be high since the dealer would pay this one off and include that $$$$ into the price). Or do I keep the piece of junk and keep pouring money into it???

 

[englishteacha]

The dealer from whom we bought had a good reputation, but they have gone downhill in the past 2 years. The main reason we bought from them was based on their reputation at the time! Now things have gone wrong left and right with a car that we were told was perfectly fine just a couple months ago, and they told me it's not even safe to drive now. I don't get it. If we fix this car, it won't go back to them for anything, and if we need a replacement, we'll get it elsewhere. Of course, we thought we had a couple more years to save for a car, so on our budget now, it's another older, cheaper car. Ugh.