Tired Of This

[Mike_Windsor]

So I came outside to find a flat tire yesterday.

After doing a Vader "Noooooo!", I regained my composure and made arrangements to bring it to Kal Tire.

The guys at Kal Tire told me my tires were from 1997.

They refused to rotate the two new tires I had put on the front to the back because it was a safety risk.

So I have two new shiny tires on the front tires and, well, potential bombs on the back.

Oh, and my front right shock absorber broke free from its mount and is hangin' around.

That's my story, what's yours?

[RiggRMortis]

My story would simply be that I'm sick of buying shitty cars with problems that come up after it's too late.

I got a 96 Cadillac DeVille a few years ago. Dealer was asking $1500 for it due to a bad water pump. I love Cadillacs, so I jumped on it. Sold my wifes Lumina for $1000, put that down and agreed to pay the other $500 in two payments of $250. Well, turned out it wasn't the water pump... It was something internal that broke. A common issue for the Northstar motors. Couldn't drive the damn thing more than a mile without it overheating. I took it back, and eventually got $750 of the grand back, and he kept the rest for "filing fees".

Then we got a 96 Blazer. Got stuck making payments and paying far too much. Within the first year we'd sunk over $1000 into repairs on it, and that's only paying half of the repair cost under warranty. A year later we replaced the brakes, ball joints, and the transfer case. Shortly after that, the tranny dropped. A vehicle that was already over priced at $6k ended up costing us closer to $10k.

We traded in the blazer and my mother-in-laws Regal for a 2002 Buick Century. Nice car, ran and drove great. Made a few payments to get it paid off in less than 6 months and we owned it. Now, there's an electrical issue somewhere and the plate light and reverse lights won't work, the high beam on the drivers side doesn't work, the window regulator on the drivers side went out, the rear windows won't work, it's knocking at idle, and gets exceptionally horrid mileage.

Next I bought my 85 CV for $950. Car looks good, drove great on the test drive, and did great bringing it home. Now there's something going on with the drivetrain. Tranny or rear end, and I can't get any of the cheaper mechanics to look at it.

So basically, every vehicle we've had is a piece of shit. I'm sick of wasting money on vehicles that just break down over and over, but we can't afford payments. Soooo.... We're doomed to drive crap, I guess.

[gadget73]

I'm not even going to re-cap. My fingers would be burned off. Suffice to say that I've never been any good at buying vehicles that were a good buy. Of course I only realize it once its a bit too late. I can and do fix them, its my curse that I can't put up with broken stuff, but it costs a hell of a lot more money than if I'd found something that sucked less to start with. Honestly, if I was broke I'd buy a 3 year old off-lease car and just make the payments. It would at least be a predictable expense rather than the "surprise, its broken!" stuff that old cars can throw at you. The only other work-around is to have spare vehicles and know or become a good enough mechanic that you can keep most of them mostly working most of the time.

[Mike_Windsor]

See, I've always thought it was less expensive in the long run to drive the kind of car I have, that only has occasional breakdown issues. Kind of like me.

[GM_Guy]

So I came outside to find a flat tire yesterday.

After doing a Vader "Noooooo!", I regained my composure and made arrangements to bring it to Kal Tire.

The guys at Kal Tire told me my tires were from 1997.

They refused to rotate the two new tires I had put on the front to the back because it was a safety risk.

So I have two new shiny tires on the front tires and, well, potential bombs on the back.

Oh, and my front right shock absorber broke free from its mount and is hangin' around.

That's my story, what's yours?

Tell Kal Tire to suck it. Your tires ain't going to explode halfway home just because they are from 1997. They'd have a shit fit if they knew how old some of my tires are.
Rotate the tires yourself. If it was summer I'd keep the new ones on front just so I can burn off the old ones. But being winter, steering is as important as forward go. Personal judgement call how you want them.

1/4" bolt and nut to fix your shock mount. Drop the bolt in from inside, run the nut up outside.

Alex.

[RiggRMortis]

I'm not even going to re-cap. My fingers would be burned off. Suffice to say that I've never been any good at buying vehicles that were a good buy. Of course I only realize it once its a bit too late. I can and do fix them, its my curse that I can't put up with broken stuff, but it costs a hell of a lot more money than if I'd found something that sucked less to start with. Honestly, if I was broke I'd buy a 3 year old off-lease car and just make the payments. It would at least be a predictable expense rather than the "surprise, its broken!" stuff that old cars can throw at you. The only other work-around is to have spare vehicles and know or become a good enough mechanic that you can keep most of them mostly working most of the time.

I must have the same curse... Or my wife does. I never had issues with vehicles until we started buying them together.

[79lincolnlover]

Before you buy something, go here to learn what you can expect: www.carsurvey.org

[85crownHPP]

Mike! Don't get discouraged! You could have problems like this with any used car you buy!
The tire guys are right about them being safer on the rear. Have you had a good look at them yet? If they are bad-bad, it's obvious even to the untrained eye. If you see any chord fiber through any rot cracks, they are unsafe. Especially if you see any tread starting to lift away from the tire...

The shock dangle is not a hard fix, don't buy it if they tell you that.

You'll only have to deal with these sorts of things once, at least not before you put many happy miles on it. Some shops do like to shy away from 'old' boxes, but if you can find a good shop, repairs are definitely cheaper overall than almost any car and parts are still plentiful.

Stick with it!! Especially if you've bonded with the car.

[LithiumCobalt]

Tell Kal Tire to suck it. Your tires ain't going to explode halfway home just because they are from 1997. They'd have a shit fit if they knew how old some of my tires are.
Rotate the tires yourself. If it was summer I'd keep the new ones on front just so I can burn off the old ones. But being winter, steering is as important as forward go. Personal judgement call how you want them.

1/4" bolt and nut to fix your shock mount. Drop the bolt in from inside, run the nut up outside.

Alex.

Hell, I know someone who was driving around on bias-plys from the 1970's on his 1967 Continental convertible (that car is one heavy SOB too). Granted it wasn't a daily driver, but he had no qualms about jumping in the car going for a 100 mile trip. One of the tires finally got a bulge in it, but still held air so he decided it was time to get a new set.

[SVT98t]

So basically, every vehicle we've had is a piece of shit. I'm sick of wasting money on vehicles that just break down over and over, but we can't afford payments. Soooo.... We're doomed to drive crap, I guess.

Maybe it's because you bought GM's....lol.


-ryan s.

[RiggRMortis]

Maybe it's because you bought GM's....lol.


-ryan s.

I've had good luck with GM's in the past. 00 Grand Am GT was awesome, A 68 Nova that couldn't be killed, a 93 Jimmy that was rock solid... Almost everything I've had in the past was a GM vehicle and had very minor issues with them... Until I started getting vehicles with my wife. To be fair, she's not picking them out or anything. Just keep buying junk. And my CV is no different at this point.

[sly]

Avoid CFI. Avoid anything without a track record (under 5 years old). Avoid any hack job like my cars unless you know the folks that did the work (like my cars). Anything with COMPLETE service records that is over 120K miles is usually a really good car and most of the really bad crap has been fixed already.

[RiggRMortis]

My car has service records for most of it's life, and ran and drove nice when I test drove it. Which is why I jumped on it without further thought. Now it sits in my driveway because I don't know what's wrong with it and can't afford the $300 just for someone to tell me what's wrong.

My Buick was a solid car when I bought it too. Ran and drove nice. Now it's a ball of problems. I just want a vehicle that works for more than a year.

[dmccaig]

Dear Panthers,
We live on a farm on 12 miles of dirt road.
We have now owned six Suburu 4wd wagons. We buy them at 30-40k ( program cars).. We do the routine maintenance (including the factory suggested maintainance which includes a timing belt replacement). We do nothing to the body or interior except tires. Six cars in 20 years we had to replace one tranny because jiffylube drained the wrong plug. Period.

It's uncomfortable on interstate travel and is desperately uncool. But if I needed a daily driver and didn't have much to spend . . .

Donald McCaig

[DerekTheGreat]

Somewhere Frank Sinatra is belting out "Thats Life" with an organ screaming in the background.. I've had nothing but problems since I switched to Fords but I refuse to drive anything that isn't red, white & blue. I don't care if we make an inferior product, it's our product and I take pride in that we're among the few countries who make cars worth looking at. I see nothing Iconic about new cars or older foreign stuff. I know some people do but I just don't get it, much like anyone under 30 doesn't get why I'd rather listen to Alice Cooper over Bruno Mars.