When is it no longer practical to maintain a vehicle?

I understand that it is possible to pretty much maintain something forever, if you are willing to have parts especially machined, etc. Excluding that sort of thing, how long is it practical to keep some vehicle around?

As an example, I used to own a (1992) Ford Probe LX. I had planned on keeping it forever, and rebuilding/replacing things as needed. That strategy seemed to me more economical than buying a new car every 5-10 years or so (we put a lot of miles on our cars, can't say from any one thing). This changed when I tried to get some motor mounts for the car and found that no one had them. The car came with 3 choices of engine: 4 cylinder, 4 cylinder turbo, and V6. I got the v6. Turns out that this wasn't a popular choice - maybe a few percent of all the Probes that year were sold with the V6.

Bringing it to the boating world, I have a 1989 Mercruiser 4.3 and was shopping for parts for it. Found out that a number of parts were NLA. Call it ironic, but the fluid motor mounts were one of the parts I was looking for.

Hence the question that I asked at the start of this post: how long is it practical to keep a vehicle around?

Re: When is it no longer practical to maintain a vehicle?

I guess it depends on your factoring.

If talking 'because I like it and that's that!', then until you go broke or something else bumps it off the list.

If talk fiscal responsibility, then until the money you save by not replacing the entire object is exceeded by the cost of upkeep (and near future upkeep).

For example:

"I WANT it!": I have a boat. I bought it for $1,000, which is not too much money. I have almost double that into it already and I still have fiberglass and resin to buy. I could have bought a nice condition model for $3000 (likely $4000) which needed very little. I didn't want a nicely working, I wanted THIS boat. So, for me, for this boat in particular, it will always be worth it. If parts for my 3.0 motor stop getting produced, I can search junkyards or make my own parts. If that is impossible, then I could replace the engine.

"It costs money": When it comes to my cars, if I lose a transmission and have to pay someone to replace it, that could cost upwards of $3000. Since I paid $3000 for my current car (2000 Dodge Neon), I would simply go out and buy another car.

Your example brought up buying new, which to me is never an option. I am not filthy rich, so I don't buy new. I buy what the guy after the filthy rich guy is ready to sell. I don't need a spa on wheels. I need to go places. You would have to have one heck of a high repair bill on that probe to warrant buying new in my book.

All of that said, a 1992 vehicle, especially a Probe (from what I've heard, the all time recordholder of resale value loss when new) is not meant to last forever, and you will very likely have some parts begin dying which are simply not replaceable.

Re: When is it no longer practical to maintain a vehicle?

Basically, for me...
When upkeep is more expensive then payments.

If you are spending $300-400/mo maintaining your vehicle, then it isn't worth it. Just buy a new one with a warranty. Well, like said before, by new, I mean new to you.
I had a '94 Chevy S-10 Blazer, great little truck. Point A to Point B with all kinds of problems, but everything was either bypass able or livable without it (IE - AC, Heat, Power Locks, Power Steering, Inside Door Handles, Rear Glass Shocks). If it didn't make the thing stop moving, I didn't need it.
But, then came on the mechanical problems. New ECU, new EGR, new motor mounts, rebuilt throttle body, and various other little things. The truck had seen 250k miles, but I was not giving up on her. Even after all of those problems, I only spent about $600 in the course of a year.
If it weren't for some drunk hitting me head-on I would probably still be driving it today.

But, with that being said, I bought my explorer after I got the insurance money from the Blazer. It was only $1900 after taxes and tag (I got $2050 for the Blazer) and have only had to spend $100 in two years. Because, my sister borrowed it and took a trip out of state. She had to have a new thermostat put in it (Mechanic charged her $80/hr to work on it!). Took him 25minutes too. If I were there, I would have had him spend the last 35minutes detailing the thing or something, I paid for the whole hour. I am going to get a whole hours worth of work. But, she was happy to continue her trip.

Re: When is it no longer practical to maintain a vehicle?

Wasn't the Ford Probe a Mazda product or colaboration? Have you tried mazda for parts?

Re: When is it no longer practical to maintain a vehicle?

start lookin in junk yards,
You can often find your exact car in a junk yard, just take off what ever you need.

Re: When is it no longer practical to maintain a vehicle?

Bob_VT said:

Wasn't the Ford Probe a Mazda product or colaboration? Have you tried mazda for parts?

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HA HA HA that's funny Bob! I worked at a Mazda dealership for about 3 months in 2008. Their parts system SUCKS!!!! We ordered more Mazda parts from the local Ford dealer (which we didn't own) than we did from our own parts counter!

Re: When is it no longer practical to maintain a vehicle?

Whenever I get another truck, the previous had some major issue. I had a D50 once that the 4WD transmission it needed was going to set me back $2,500-$3,500 (best estimate w.o going in) but I was told to expect that price to double. I had already put in a junkyard tranny that bought me a couple years. It took six months to locate 3 states away. Next truck I rolled. One got T-boned.

Re: When is it no longer practical to maintain a vehicle?

lowkee said:

Your example brought up buying new, which to me is never an option. I am not filthy rich, so I don't buy new. I buy what the guy after the filthy rich guy is ready to sell. I don't need a spa on wheels. I need to go places. You would have to have one heck of a high repair bill on that probe to warrant buying new in my book.
.

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At the point the probe became unmaintanable due to lack of parts (2006, 14 years old with 175K miles on it), I did buy another new car. I expect to get about the same amount of use out of the new one too. It's not a 'spa on wheels', just a set of wheels. At the time, I was commuting between Charlotte and Richmond and needed reliability plus better gas mileage. A "reliable used car" was certainly in consideration at the time, but they don't come cheap either. [I am not "filthy rich", buying the car reduced things in other categories.] But let's shelve the discussion about used & new for another time.

lowkee said:

All of that said, a 1992 vehicle, especially a Probe (from what I've heard, the all time recordholder of resale value loss when new) is not meant to last forever, and you will very likely have some parts begin dying which are simply not replaceable .

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I wasn't buying it for it's resale value, nor was it an investment so I knew I was paying out money in exchange for a service, if you will.

But your last point is pretty much what my question was about: How long should I expect for parts to be available for something? And, possibly more importantly, how can I tell when the end is near?

Back to the Probe, I had the transmission rebuilt about a year and a half before "the end". Had I known that parts were becoming scarce, I would have bailed out on it at that point in time.

So, now I'm seeing parts become "NLA" on the boat motor. The motor seems to be a pretty popular type, and continued to be manufactured for years... I'm hoping that some aftermarket company will pick up making the parts - and increasing the cost, of course. But at least they will be available.

I have several motorcycles - Hondas - from the mid 70's, and haven't had any difficulty with getting parts for them. The difficulty lies in finding the best price...

-V

Re: When is it no longer practical to maintain a vehicle?

Bob_VT said:

Wasn't the Ford Probe a Mazda product or colaboration? Have you tried mazda for parts?

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Yeah, it was. Yup, tried Mazda, "Green Ford", etc. No luck. This was a couple of years ago, though. More places have an internet presence now, so maybe I could find the parts. But I don't have the car anymore.

Re: When is it no longer practical to maintain a vehicle?

Bringing it to the boating world, I have a 1989 Mercruiser 4.3 and was shopping for parts for it. Found out that a number of parts were NLA. Call it ironic, but the fluid motor mounts were one of the parts I was looking for.
So, now I'm seeing parts become "NLA" on the boat motor. The motor seems to be a pretty popular type, and continued to be manufactured for years... I'm hoping that some aftermarket company will pick up making the parts - and increasing the cost, of course. But at least they will be available.

Click to expand...

Ayuh,....

The Difference between your Boat,+the car is,...
The boat's NLA parts have been superceded to improved parts, that are reasonably Easy to Up-date....
Nothng on your boat can't be Fixed at this point in time,+ for the foreseeable Future....

Re: When is it no longer practical to maintain a vehicle?

bowman316 said:

start lookin in junk yards,
You can often find your exact car in a junk yard, just take off what ever you need.

Click to expand...

Ahhh... this brings up a number of debates in my head. Back in school, I took a number of statistics courses. I learned that you can use statistics to make pretty accurate predictions on things - this is exactly what insurance companies do with things like life insurance. That's why they ask you all those questions - did you smoke, did your dad die before 55, etc. Knowing those things allows them to statistically calculate how long you will live. Now it is an average, so its quite possible that you - individually - will beat their prediction. However, most people wont. And they charge everyone enough so that they still make money...

Other places use this sort of thing too - how do you think that companies come up with a warranty period? Statistics!

Now the point: during some of the industrial engineering courses I took, I found out that things - say a light bulb - have an average life span and will fail. The thing is that the failure range isn't your standard bell curve, the range is different. For more information on this see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliability_theory

It all comes down to: if you get a part out of a junk yard, for the same year of car, you have what I would consider an abnormally high chance that that part will fail too. Unless there is some other mitigating circumstance - like the car was junked "young" and the part dosn't have that much wear and tear on it.

Re: When is it no longer practical to maintain a vehicle?

It all comes down to: if you get a part out of a junk yard, for the same year of car, you have what I would consider an abnormally high chance that that part will fail too. Unless there is some other mitigating circumstance - like the car was junked "young" and the part dosn't have that much wear and tear on it.


Exactly what I was going to say in response to the junk yard donor. Even though I have bought many parts from them, they are usually parts that don't fail, like bumpers and trim. I would never buy a motor mount from a junk yard.

Brian

Re: When is it no longer practical to maintain a vehicle?

I have had used parts last longer than the new replacements!

If you like the car fix it, if you like the money more, replace it.

myself a ford/mazda I would scrap,,,,,

and somewhere out there is a buick with solid mounts because they were not available,,,,

Re: When is it no longer practical to maintain a vehicle?

for me it was always an equation of how much I spent on the car, How long I had the car and what the repair was going to cost. for many years I would buy a 0$-$500 car and limp it along.

$80 station wagon got a used battery and one El Cheapo tire in the year and a half. I was then $50 in to fixing the car. It then broke a coil spring and I wasnt able to get the suspension apart with my hand tools so I sold the car to a friend for $50. 1.5 years for $80

Free car + $100 in brake parts and I was on the road for 2 years. I got a flat on the interstate and couldnt get the lug nuts loose on the side of the road and the car got impounded before I could get back to it. Paid the impound fee and left them the title. 2 years for $100.

"splurged" and spend $1000 on a car. new battery , starter and alternator and 2 tires over 3 years. maybe $500 in to it. Friend offered me $600 cash and he got it. again, easy equation.

Re: When is it no longer practical to maintain a vehicle?

Here in the rust belt, when fuel lines and brake lines start rotting out - that's my cue to give up.