Car repair, grrrr Just venting

[beebalmmama]

I know car repairs always seem to come at the worst time. Although at least this one happened after our tax return. So in that respect we are lucky. However now $400 is going to car repairs on one car, while we were supposed to be planning for $600 to go to the other car for it's 80,000 mile service which is already long overdue. I really don't think we can do both...... I think dh will need to double his efforts for summer employment (teacher) and bring in some extra $$. Gah!

[zebra15]

Not a car repair but just GAS for the car.... $45.00 for a regular ol' mom type car....4-dr sedan type thing.... some days I just cant win.

Had to get an oil change earlier this week  $42.00(high mileage oil change)....

I feel your pain...

[beebalmmama]

Okay now it's worse. So they just called to tell me the $400 job was done and they found another $550 job that needs to be done. REALLY can someone just shoot me now! This is generally the type of financial stress that throws me over the edge. Wish me luck that I can overcome. I did ask them if they could at least give us a deal on an oil change (for free preferably!) and a car wash. I would be very appreciative. At least if my old beater car comes back clean and ready to go I'll feel better......not much...but better.

[Contrariety]

I finally threw it in on my beater.  I couldn't deal with the stress of not knowing when I'd have to spend who knows how much to fix it!  We bought a new to us car which is wonderful.  My BIL took our beater and in order for it pass safety and emissions, it needs $2,000 of work!  Yikes!  Looks like we ditched that ride just in time!

[beebalmmama]

Well fortunately and unfortunately our car isn't quite a beater, but it's getting older. It's a Subara with still under 200,000 miles, with a mostly rebuilt engine. We decided to do the repairs because they weren't engine repairs and for the most part have not had those parts repaired before (except brake pads but then that's pretty standard repair anyway). I also did a local blue book check and the value is holding on the car more than I expected. So I think we're hoping it will hold out for a few more years (before additional $$ repairs) and by that time we should have the newer car paid off and will then be able to afford another car payment.

[CarrieMF]

Are any of these repairs things that your Dh could do himself?

[wendyland]

My husband has a subaru and does a lot of things himself.  It sounds like you have some harder to repair items, but there's a subaru repair forum that's really good.  They've helped him through a lot.  Maybe that can help in the future for smaller repairs.

[beebalmmama]

I know he's worked on cars in his younger years, but I'm not sure how extensive. Also these were OLDER cars which were a bit different to deal with.

Plus we have no place for him to work on it nor the proper tools. He's great with minor maintenance and minor repair. But these repairs are for brake pads, rotars (sp?), and the drive shaft.....far beyond his experience.

At least we have the cash. The last time the car needed engine work we had just paid off our last credit card and had to put the repair costs back on the card. Well we just paid off a cc last month.......hmm. I joked last time about how we should just keep a $25 balance on our cc to stave off car trouble. This is a little eerie.......maybe we really should carry a balance, some kind of crazy karma at work. I'm sure it's dh's bad karma from his troubled youth, LOL!!