Car repairs are killing me!

Avatar for colomom99
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-28-2003
Car repairs are killing me!
4
Tue, 08-04-2009 - 1:40pm

I have a 2002 VW station wagon with 97K miles on it. I still owe a ton on it and it is worth practically nothing so I have no choice but to hang onto it. So far I have spent nearly $4K just since April. It died in a snowstorm and had to be towed to what turned out to be a rip off joint. First there was $2K for a new cutch and something else plus $400 for four new tires. Then two weeks later $200 more for something about the wheels which I deeply suspect had to do with the way they put the tires on. Now it is $1,500 for a new timing belt, a water pump and some other leaks. I am holdng my breath it is not more because they are worried about the gasket. I am at wit's end. I want to pay off this thing and get rid of it but it will be at least another year or more. I can't afford to keep pouring this kind of money into a car. Since I bought it three years ago I have put probably $5K in repairs in it and I fear I'm not done yet.

Sorry. Just venting as I watch my emergency fund disappear and my credit card balances go up.

Jenny

Avatar for cl_phocid
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Tue, 08-04-2009 - 3:34pm

Ugh Jenny - I'm so sorry to hear this. What a "clunker"!

Hopefully you're done for a long while with repairs.

All my best,
Danni
cl-phocid, Debt Support Group



All my best,
Danni

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-01-2008
Tue, 08-04-2009 - 3:53pm

I'm sorry.

Norma


"Patience is the best remedy for every trouble"- Plautus


iVillage Member
Registered: 07-10-2003
Tue, 08-04-2009 - 7:30pm

Don't remember where you are from, but if its Western WI, do NOT take it to a well known "brake repair" chain.

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-17-2007
Wed, 08-05-2009 - 10:24am

Our car is very good at starting and running God has blessed us with it.


Friday I had to have my mouth operated on. I was in so much pain when I left the office. We got in the car. Raymond went to start it. Now this is a car that starts on a dime and has for 9 years without any problems at all.


NOTHING totally nothing. I was sitting there almost screaming with pain and it would not start. We called AAA and had to wait for like 45 minutes for them to come. In the meantime I called up to the Dentist office and the Dentist husband came into the parking garage and got me and brought me home. Again Thank God


The AAA man told Raymond is was the battery It was to small for the car. So happens there is this company that is connected with AAA that would bring Raymond out a new one. 129.00 The battery we had in the car was a replacement to the battery the car came with from the lot 9 years ago. Battery was a 4 year job with a year left on it. So the car lot had put in a smaller battery then what the car called for and Raymond had just bought one the same size when he replaced it. He is good about replacing batteries before the time runs out on