As I’ve written before, my old Escort has been a very faithful, if boring, friend for over 10 years. She’s served me well, doing her job with few complaints. Nearing the end of her life, she just keeps on going, like a big, rusty, 2,500 pound Energizer Bunny.
That is, until yesterday.
After work as I turned into my neighborhood, I attempted to downshift into second gear. I say attempted, because it just wasn’t having any of it. No amount of clutch pumping and shifter shoving was working. I managed to get it the remaining few blocks to my driveway. Later, I tried to run an errand and found that it wasn’t going to go at all. It was stuck in reverse and when I did get it into neutral and started, the clutch was simply not going to let go. All atempts to get it into gear was left with the sounds of coffe beans being ground.
So there it sits and I have a decision to make. It’s just shy of $250 and a full weekend in the garage to fix the clutch. I’ve got only 10 payments on my van left, when I had planned on putting the old Escort out to pasture. That’s really too many to feel comfortable about getting a new vehicle, but few enough to make replacing this clutch a painful choice. Still, it’s less that one of those 10 payments on a new car between now and owning the van free and clear, so it’s likely the right choice. I’ve tried real hard to find a way to make it the wrong one, trust me.
Anyway, I’ve got more substantial stuff to write, but I think I’ll be spending my time under the car for the next few days.
Hey Doug,
I’m a big advocate of keeping the old car running. Fixing the clutch in a manual transmission car is a minor (and expected) repair. It doesn’t indicate any pervasive deterioration of the car. If the car is in otherwise good functional condition I’d fix it.
I drove a 1989 Mazda 626 off the lot as a new car. I finally sold it last year with 289,000+ miles on it. I drove that car for 13 years AFTER paying the last car payment. Most of my friends bought two or three new cars during that period of time. Personally I’d rather have the purchase price of two or three new cars in the bank.
I replaced that car with a “new” 1995 Corolla, with “only” 118,500 miles on it. I paid $2500 cash for the car. I’ll gladly make repairs on this car to keep it rolling for the next 100,000 miles.
FWIW that’s my point of view!
Alan
Alan – I’m with you completely on this, although maybe not quite to the extreme that you are. Cars are not just transportation to me, they are fun. Fun to drive is one of the things I look for and I’ve been dying to get out of this mundane Escort for that reason for a while. Common sense has prevailed, however, thus far.
My car buying goals include an approximate 10 year life and only one car payment at a time. It’s a fairly recent revelation, frankly, When we were young and foolish, we thought we had to have newer cars every 4 or 5 years once they got past 125,000 miles or so. We had two payments at once to accomplish that. Seven or eight years ago we saw the light and sold the car that was worth the most and bought a junker for me to drive with what was left after paying off the loan. Back then, this Escort was our good car and I drove an 1988 Celebrity 2 door. Mom and Dad gave us our first minivan a year or so later, a 1988 Caravan that we nursed for a few years (I say nursed, it got a lot of new parts during that time including an engine and transmission) and about 60,000 miles until we were able to buy the Odyssey we have now. The Caravan had 184,000 miles on it when we traded it in.
I’ve had this Escort for 10+ years and about 155,000 of my own miles, for a total of just over 181,000. I had planned on keeping it until the end of the year when the van will be paid off. It would have around 190,000 on it by then. Buying a newer ‘go to work car’ that I can pay off in 3-4 years will take me to when the Odyssey will have around 200,000 miles on it (it’s about 125,000 now). Then we’ll shop for a newer van and start the cycle over. I’d push the Odyssey, but with the tranny troubles I’ve had, I’m a little nervous about it.
It’s a nice theory, we’ll see how it plays out. Life has a way of intervening unexpectedly with things like bad clutches. I suspect I’ll be installing a clutch this weekend, although one of Maria’s co-workers said they have an ‘old car’ they want out of their yard for ‘a couple hundred bucks’. It’s a 1991 Escort with only 100,000 miles. If the price is right, another Escort might be in my future instead.
Ummm, 1991 a fine year. Dude for a couple hundred bucks, (less than the clutch), that escort sounds like a winner.
I had to replace the water pump and alternator on my truck last year. The alternator was as I was about 50 miles from home and noticing 10 volts. I pulled into Napa and pulled out my trusty wrenches. Both projects we’re good feelings once they were done.
“A couple hundred” turned out to be $500. It’s got 90,000 miles. On my Escort just after 90,000 was when I needed to replace the first clutch, the timing belt and the shocks started going out. If I go the cheap route, I’ll likely fix what I got.
you can’t go wrong fixing a car that’s paid for, can you?