Thread: To Keep or Not to Keep?

Originally Posted by CSteen85

I bought my GP a week ago today and brought it to my mechanic today for an oil change.
He's a trusted family friend, so I'm not worried about unnecessary repairs.

He told me there's a very bad oil leak and he's recommending I replace the intake manifold gasket, valve cover gaskets & oil sending switch. He said this will be about a day's worth of work.
He also said I need new front brakes with brake hoses (starting to get dry rot splits) by next oil change.
Also, upper and lower radiator hoses.
I'm expecting all of this to cost about $1500, which is what I paid for the car.

Please don't lecture me on how I should have had him look at it before I bought it. I learned my lesson.

Basically, I'm contemplating whether I should keep the car. I'm really sad, because I love it and I never would have guessed all of this was wrong, but it is.

My question is: If I dump the $1500 into this car to fix all of this, do you think I'll be okay for a little while before I have to put more money into it or should I be expecting large amounts of money on a frequent basis for the upkeep of this car?

Basically, I'm asking if I should I cut my losses and try to sell it or keep it and put the money into it to get it in good shape and get another year or so out of it (which is all I'm wanting)?

He did mention that the Transmission looks like it's never had work done to it, and it has 143k original miles on it. How expensive is tranny repair? Is it worth it?

I'm sorry for all the questions. I've only ever owned leased vehicles before, so I'm not used to dealing with used car issues.

I'd appreciate any input. Thank you.

LIM gasket is almost turning into a "need to do" on all these cars. The older versions used plastic, the new improved is aluminum, it should last a while.

Brakes are a normal maintenance thing, hoses are cheap, i think my mechanic charged me $50.00 to do the rears, since it was winter and i didn't feel like laying in snow to do it.

Radiator hoses aren't all that bad.

As far as the trans goes, you have the weak vacuum controlled trans, its a pos.

I would look for another, newer gp

I think I'm going to have the work done and see if I can keep the car.

I don't know how to explain it - I know anything can go wrong at any second, but I have a good feeling about this car. If I get what's wrong with it fixed, I think I can get at least another year out of it. By then, I'll hopefully be in another place - better job, living elsewhere, etc.

It's a daily driver, but I'm not driving it a lot. I must be putting about 20 miles on it, weekly, which is why I think it should last me at least another year if I'm putting mileage on it so slowly.

The car looks and FEELS great. I didn't even know ANYTHING was wrong with it (although, I could feel the brakes going). So, I'll take care of the regular maintenance work. Maybe if the tranny starts going, I'll reconsider, but it feels great right now.

Thanks for all your suggestions!

Time to start saving -- good thing I've got a tax refund coming to me!!