Cheaper to drive a maverick then to Buy a new car

thats the sad part you look at what most of us have into engines then look at two or three monthly payments you would make on a new car and usually you could do alot more to your engine with the extra money.

 

When "new" cars go out of warranty... BIG BUCK$$$S

I bought my Comet a few months ago strictly as a "project" but for the summer it's my daily driver. The healthy little 200 c.i. six seems to be getting 20-25 mpg - mostly city driving.

I have spent about $300 in parts - mostly fixin it up, and $750 to buy it... but haven't had this much fun fixing and driving a car in years. It doesn't leak any oil, and we have a "strict" air care-emmisions testing system in BC ("AirCare"). The Comet flew through the test with very low tailpipe readings. I hadn't even tuned it at that point...

A few years ago I bought a brand new Integra - fast, fun little car - but after 2 years the bill for a major tuneup and brakes was 1200.00 (required under warranty to get the damn "check engine/maintenance light to go off since the car was leased)... so I "sold" the car back to the dealership immediately. I was also bored with it and it was costing me $400 a month.

As for "newer" vehicles after a couple years?... my Astro Van which has repeatedly failed AirCare has cost me $1500 for a tranny rebuild, $400 for a cat converter, $300 for a "tuneup" after I recently did a "tuneup" to determine WHY it was failing aircare, and I need $350 right now for yet another oxygen sensor and an EGR valve to get it to pass Aircare again. It's a Chevy, so I just parked it and now I just drive my Ford.

My girlfriends 98 Civic - we bought used since it "looked" very clean and straight - tuneups I did were a respectable $80 for parts... but when anything mechanical goes faulty you CANNOT buy the seals, gaskets, kits, etc to fix or rebuild any components. The distributor failed and I could not buy the bearing without the complete ignition module and distributor, the headlights leak and you cannot buy the thin rubber seal that causes the leak, so they expect you to buy the huge bug-eye units complete, the tranny slips in 2nd of 4 gears, and it costs more than the engine does just to rebuild.

Her Honda as it stands today is a useless piece of plastic... (although aluminum is a hot commodity I could probably get more from a scrap metal dealer than an auto wrecker just for the aluminum) - so we are going to drive it until it falls to pieces and then it will wind up scrapped. She paid $8000 for it, and it is worth absolutely nothing right now because of cosmetic damage and wear & tear:

$3000.00 tranny rebuild
$ 600.00 distributor (bearing worn out and can't be replaced)
$ 500.00 complete headlight units
$ 200.00 plastic wheel well liner that mysteriously "popped out" due to snow packed in it last winter. I got home after a snow storm and it was missing??? The dealership said "yeah... it happens occasionally."
$ 250.00 stone/road debris damage in front end and inside passenger door due to the missing wheel liner
$ 750.00 rear bumper moulding, cracked taillight lens, taillight bezel, body work and paint to repair a dent from being hit in a parking lot - this is the 2nd time it happened so we didn't fix it.
$ 450.00 timing belt and valve adjustment (according to Honda service this needs to be done every 2-3 years based on the mileage we put on the car)... BTW... if a Honda timing belt gets oily or overused and fails prematurely... it destroys the engine. Collision valvetrain is not worth the risk - dealerships always scare you into replacing them regularly.

and ya know what?... mileage aside... small cars with small engine cook their fluids twice as much as old American cars with reliable, low revving cast iron engines. The Honda needs oil changes done constantly... and transmission fluid changes and "flushes" where they run even MORE oil through a car to clean out the gunk. In that respect... her car is actually burning up twice as much OIL, tranny fluid, grease, etc... as my old Comet. During the last tranny service... they used 7 litres of oil to flush it. I think my old C-4 uses 1/2 that...

I got completely fed up with new cars and the complications and cost of maintainng them. I am much happier, and wealthier, now that I drive an old Ford again. Most importantly... it's FUN to WORK ON.

New cars are boring. They all look the same.

Whisky

 

They just did a comparison similar to this on HorsePower TV or one of those shows that come on the tube on Sunday morning and they factored in all cost. Payment, insurance, maintenance and all of those such things and it always works out in favor of keeping your old "gas guzzler" I think the cars they were comparing were a car that was old and paid for and got around 12-15 MPG and something newer that would require a payment and full coverage insurance and got high 20's low 30's MPG and with all factors considered it was still cheaper to keep the older Vehicle in the long run. I believe the way that it figured out it would have taken lie 12 years to make up the difference and break even

 

347 with a 750 holley doesn't do much for fuel mileage on my mav.... and the fact that premium is about 4.11 to 4. 33 depending on where you go, I drive a 5spd cavalier for my everyday driving....