So, I need to buy a car.
3Well, I don’t need to, but mine has been sitting behind the Honda dealership covered in snow for almost 3 weeks because the brake and fuel lines are rusted and I can’t really decide whether to fix them or get another car. They’re probably going to want me to make a decision soon, or forfeit the Bugsy Malone soundtrack cd and my father’s ashes that are still inside (and a bunch of other crap).
My current car is a 2003 Honda Civic. The front door lock doesn’t work, that’s really the only thing wrong with it other than the brake and fuel lines but it is at an age where other stuff will probably start to go wrong soon.
I HATE the visibility in the new Hondas, and really most new cars. Yeah, the newest models have cameras so you can see what’s going on around the car, but you need them because otherwise you can’t see anything. I like the Fit, but am not sure how I feel about buying a new car, and am worried that I’m selling myself short with an economy model that I’ll be driving for a decade if the past is any indication.
So, car-owning people: what kind of car do you drive/like/love/hate? Offer me your sage wisdom! Tell me what to do! Please!
- 26 comments, 85 replies
- Comment
Buncha people here seem to love Subaru if I remember.
@f00l That is true. But the Honda dealer has my car…
@mossygreen are they holding it hostage? I can’t recommend the Subaru Crosstrek enough
@mossygreen if it’s got to be Honda the CR-V is a no-brainer in my opinion. The all-wheel drive is fairly well regarded not quite as good as Subaru’s but not bad at all.
@f00l Owned two Subarus, a Legacy and a Tribeca. Had problems with both. I’m done with them.
What’s the current mileage? Any other rust? Auto or manual?
@narfcake About 56,000, auto, I live in the Midwest, so yeah, there’s some rust here and there.
@mossygreen Mileage is a huge plus; 56k is nothing. Keep the tranny fluid clean; these aren’t the most robust years for Honda automatics.
If the rust isn’t catastrophic, keep it.
@narfcake I know I probably shouldn’t get my car serviced at the dealership, but I do. They quoted me $2850 to fix the brake and fuel lines, which, yes, is way cheaper than a new car, but it pushes a new car purchase a few years into the future since I have to justify the money spent, and that makes me sad for some reason. It’s just kind of a letdown. Both of my cars have been compromises. I have no idea how much it would cost to fix the driver’s side door. Your advice is good, though. My boss said essentially the same thing, but he phrased it as “buying your own car.” He also strongly implied that if I bought a Fit I would die.
@mossygreen $2850!? Okay, maybe not – that might be more than what the car is worth!
Safety has improved substantially; I would not worry about the new Fit whatsoever, which actually weighs more than your current Civic.
http://www.iihs.org/iihs/ratings/vehicle/v/honda/fit-4-door-wagon/2016
http://www.iihs.org/iihs/ratings/vehicle/v/honda/civic-4-door-sedan/2002
@mossygreen
I don’t disagree with him.
@narfcake They offered me $500 as a trade-in. Simply as a courtesy, I’m sure.
ETA: Boy, 2003-05 were bad years for head restraints, apparently.
@Pavlov So is it some kind of a curse, or what?
@mossygreen Just noticed that @narfcake has mentioned that safety for the Fit has taken a turn for the better in a comment above . . . IIRC the Fit was plagued with safety issues in earlier years . . . a bunch of Cali drivers actually tried to get a class action going a few years back because the car was killing so many people. @MrsPavlov’s mother needed something to get around town in a while back and she thought it would be a good idea to buy herself a used Fit. Frankly, after spending an hour in that car, I would be fearful of being inside it anywhere the surrounding traffic might possibly exceed 35 MPH. I was not at all impressed. I talked to the wife’s brother and we traded it away that afternoon and bought her a brand new Subaru. I figure she’ll live longer . . . which may not have much upside for me, but it made the wife, my son and the wife’s side of the family happy. The car just had a bad vibe. Which is I know a weird thing to write, but I can’t quantify the feeling in any other way.
@mossygreen Have you tried bringing it to a mechanic that isn’t a dealership? That sounds like an insanely high price for brake and fuel lines.
@Pavlov a friend in college had a Honda Fit. I borrowed it once. I never wanted to borrow it again.
@Pantheist I agree the problem is he’s at a dealer with a 14 year old car. The fact that they offered him 500 trade-in credit but want nearly three grand for the repairs makes me think their priority is selling or leasing him a new car.
With that said not having Blue Booked the car or anything it may very well still cost more to fix than the car is worth.
@jbartus Ha! A buddy of mine bought a Fit after finishing school and landing an $80k job. I was like, wtf dude, splurge a little and buy something that’s not a shitty little death trap. He now drives a truck.
@mossygreen
If I had a vehicle with 56k on the engine I would sure have it evaluated by a trustworthy independent mechanic before I started shopping for something else.
@f00l yeah, with dealers there is always a conflict of interest, and their prices are obscene. A good mechanic will do just as good a job at a fraction of the price and will tell you when the car’s actually toast, not just because he wants to sell you a new one.
@mossygreen get your car out of the dealership and get some quotes elsewhere. Having only 56,000 miles on a 2003 is a real plus. Save the Honda!!
I am absolutely in love with my Prius C. It is small, and gets the most amazing mileage. I went from paying about $65 a week in gas, to paying about $55 a month.
@conandlibrarian Never any problems and they seems to aggravate Jeremy Clarksons hemorrhoids.
700miles a week for $30
@Cranky1950 @conandlibrarian I love my prius. Downside is the ridiculously expensive hybrid battery replacement.
@RiotDemon Have you had to do it yet? Everything I have read leads me to believe I will be getting rid of the car before I will need to replace it.
@RiotDemon Not yet, It’s coming though 180000 MI on this battery
@Cranky1950 BatteriesPlus is advertising batteries rebuilt with ew Panasonic cells for 2000 installed
@mossygreen @conandlibrarian Bought a used, low-mileage 2012 Prius last spring; love it. More roomy & more storage (hatch/trunk) than you might think.
@RiotDemon My understanding: Don’t ever replace the whole battery pack. Know 2 people with Prius’ from late 90s. One still seems to be going strong (interior getting little ratty). Other discovered that they could replace individual battery ‘modules’ as required. There’s a bunch of them, and they never all go bad at once. I think 3 modules were swapped out (can’t remember $$) and the car was ‘good as new’.
@compunaut @Cranky1950 @conandlibrarian Yeah, I had to fix mine. 2005 with over 150k. Cost me 3k for a refurbished pack from Toyota. I looked into having just the cells fixed, but the places that would do it here, got shit reviews. Most of the reviews said the battery would fail again within 6 months, and the companies would not honor the one year warranty. They wanted 2k to do it. With Toyota I got a two year, unlimited mileage warranty, and peace of mind that every single cell was refurbished.
Trade in value was around 1k, and selling it would of yielded me less.
It was my dad’s car that I inherited when he passed. I guess I wasn’t ready to let go of it yet. My brother thought I was an idiot for fixing it.
@RiotDemon But a 2005 with a good battery and in reasonably good shape sells for about 4500
@conandlibrarian Prius owners are the bane of my driving existence. Every single day, at some point during my 75 mile round trip to and from work, I say to myself, “Fucking Prius driver.” What is it with Prius drivers insisting they get the absolute best gas mileage and therefore crawling along in every damn lane? I’d say about 70% of the time when there’s one car ahead slowing down traffic, it’s a Prius. The rest are usually old women in Foresters. Jesus, I know that car has guts, God forbid the owners should actually step on the accelerator once in a while. Please, please tell me you’re not one of ‘them.’
@cinoclav hahahaha nah nah nah
I find that if you drive the speed limit in the right hand lane multiple assholes per minute try to ride your ass thinking they can intimidate the cruise control.
@Cranky1950 Driving the speed limit in any lane during my commute is not acceptable. Just about everyone exceeds it by 10 mph or more. It’s honestly safer to go with the flow of traffic than to be the one person who sets the cruise control right at the posted speed limit. Most of my drive is 55 mph, some of it hits 65 mph. I’m usually doing anywhere from 70 - 80 and not really passing anyone.
@cinoclav Mine could be that way too but 80 is pushing things in that car. There’s no tach.
@conandlibrarian What the hell were you driving before that you were only getting around 10 MPG?
Or did the purchase also coincide with falling gas prices to help increase savings?
@Cranky1950 now that I fixed it, I’ll probably drive it until it is no longer drivable. I really didn’t want car payments, which is what my brother thought I should of done.
@cinoclav the problem with the prius is you get better mileage in city because it relies on the battery a lot. You have to accelerate at lights slowly and not drive crazy on the highway. When my dad was driving it, he would average around 45mpg on a tank of gas that was mixed highway and city driving. I average around 38mpg because I don’t like to drive slow. When it was newer, I hated to borrow it because he would look at the average and complain that I made it worse. It resets on every refill of gas, so sometimes I would refill the gas and drive more sensibly before bringing it back home.
On the highway, I drive 80+ frequently. The car can definitely do it. At those speeds it sucks at accelerating to jump in and out of traffic. Whenever I road trip with my brother we call it the mouse mobile.
@MrMark My 2500HD gets 14 dead weight, 10-11 towing the travel trailer.
@RiotDemon Oh it can do it and I do do it at times, but there’s only one speed in the trans and 80 is getting in the 80%ish range of the car and most mechanical things last longest when used in the 50- 75%ish range.
@cinoclav Not at all. I was never one to speed in my truck, but in my Prius I am always flying down the highway. I tend to go 70-75 throughout my commute each morning.
@conandlibrarian The newer ones are geared different and have an 1800cc engine more oomph than the 1500
@MrMark I was driving a Ranger. Most people would think that it would get decent mileage, but mine sucked. I still have it, can always use a truck for something.
@conandlibrarian Proud of you for being one of the few.
@conandlibrarian
Gad. You got worse mileage in the Ranger than I did in an E150.
@conandlibrarian I accidentally rented a Prius C in June. Never again. A tiny tin can. The regular Prius is not much more money, and a far nicer car.
@gglockner I test drove both and preferred the C. We all have our own preferences, and the C was the clear winner for me.
@cinoclav Interesting. Before my Crosstrek, i had two Prius, never had that issue. you sure you’re not behind the little old lady from somewhere (not Pasadena) who would drive that way no matter what car they had?
@Cerridwyn Nope. I was behind another one this evening on my way home. Funny, I used to tease a friend who had a Prius about the same thing. She consistently denied it. Until she got rid of it… One day I got a message from her telling me how right I was and how she’s constantly stuck behind slow Prius drivers.
Subaru Crosstrek ❤️
This is my second one. I recommend not getting the first model year, unless you like adding a quart of oil on a regular basis.
@heartny My parents each have a Subaru; Mom has Legacy (or is it an Outback?) & Dad has Impreza. Sis-in-law family has 4 of them; yes they live in CO (it might be state-mandated or something - sorta like the pickups in TX).
@compunaut I’m on my fifth Subaru. Had three Foresters and I’m on my second Crosstrek. They’ve all gotten me through the worst of snowstorms, so I’m good with that.
@heartny What part of the country?
@heartny Why crosstrek over a forester?
@heartny Yep… Subaru and blown head gaskets.
@compunaut I think Colorado and Vermont residents drive 90% of the Subarus in the country.
@Kidsandliz While I actually like the Forester better than the Crosstrek, as it seems to be a more solid build, when it was restyled it got a bit bigger than what I needed. And I couldn’t reach the snow on top of the roof to clean it off. I’m one of the few who actually does that
@compunaut New York, more specifically Long Island.
@heartny Hmm I usually brush it off too when I am in the snow belt. The rest of the people seem to just let the snow blow off the roof on to the windshield of the person behind them
I totally get your gripe about visibility. However, that’s the price we pay for improved safety in design. (Supposedly
)
We need more to go on - what do you love/hate about your Honda? Are you looking for another compact?
@Thumperchick I love that I don’t have to take care of it. I have a super-short commute, pretty much everything I do is within 10 miles of my home, and I mostly want something reliable and low maintenance. I like small cars. I mean, I like the idea of a big car that hauls stuff, but I mostly don’t need to haul stuff and I would resent the gas mileage. I like the idea of the Fit because it’s tiny, but apparently you can stuff an amazing amount of stuff into it if you need/want to.
Buy yourself something fun. I’m daily driving a 2003 Z06 Corvette and I consider it one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
@Sabre99 How far is your commute? I don’t have far to go and find I just don’t have much chance for ‘fun driving’ anymore.
@compunaut I have about an 80 mile roundtrip commute each day. The route isn’t a fun one, but I try to make the most of it.
@Sabre99 I’m with ya’!
When our (almost new) Honda CR-Z was totaled a couple of years ago by a hit’n’run I took the insurance money and bought a used Porsche 911 convertible for less money than a replacement (new) Honda.
Granted, I did then spend a couple thou’ at the mechanic’s to go thru, bumper-to-bumper, and make sure 100% of everything was 100% good-to-go.
It’s my daily driver and there is not one single day I don’t get behind the wheel and have a big ol’ smile on my face.
Life is way too short to drive a Fit.
@Sabre99 Had a commute like that many years ago - drove a Fiero w/ V-6 & manual.
Now I have a 7mi commute. Round trip. I tell people it takes longer to walk from the parking lot to my office (cubicle) than it does to drive from my house to the lot.
2016 subaru outback checking in. love the visibility and the ground clearance. my main gripe is the positioning of the paddle shifters on the steering wheel. too easy to hit them on accident.
my much smaller gripe is the trunk button on the key fob doesn’t actually open the trunk, it just unlocks it.
As others have said 58,000 miles is nothing. I had a grad caravan for 25 years until it blew an engine bearing (yeah I know, would have been cheaper to get a better car to the 25 year mark). Replaced it with a 10 year old (now 12 year old) Honda Element that has around 170,000 on it. Except for when I bought it, no repairs just routine maintenance. Now given a choice I would have started with new and seen how long I could own it instead of a high mileage car, but I didn’t have a choice and this one was well maintained. With like I will join the half a million mile club with it. The guy who owns the independent honda shop who repairs them says he has about 20 regulars who are well over 500,000 miles, mostly routine stuff or things that died due to age, original motors in all cases.
What factored in to my decision with the ghetto van with the repair/replace issue: Am I paying less a year for repairs than what I would be paying for car payments. If the answer is no then keep. The answer to that question with the ghetto van was “no” up until about 2 mo before the engine bearing blew - which it did right after I fixed some stuff and the credit card bill hadn’t even come yet. That thing looked like a pit. Light blue. Roof had surface rust, Sanded it. Used gray rustolium spray paint, from a can, on it. Couldn’t really tell I had spray painted it as the blue was so faded and the finish was gone. LOL On the other hand when my kid backed into a street light in an empty mall parking lot I wasn’t too bothered about it. And she was embarrassed to be seen in it so didn’t want to borrow it all the time. Even better.
I’d suggest looking at the repair bill from that point of view. If you are getting rust now, you will get rust in the future so either way your old and new car will get some rust. That is a wash. Hondas routinely go 200,000+ miles. Or more. If you maintain them that is.
I love my 2007 Accord sedan. It has 175,000 miles on it and has never let me down. I just put another set of front and rear brakes on it (approx. $750 at the dealer) and plan to keep it until these brakes are kaput.
I’m a Honda guy. My ‘13 Fit is my seventh or eighth Honda. My second Fit. Yes it can hold a lot. I brought home a 9’ long stair rail last week - all inside, not hanging out. I may move to something larger next time for better old-people comfort. It is getting hard to find something that does not have a CVT.
I think most new-car choices are based on emotion, and then rationalized. Good luck.
Yes, visibility in new cars is bad with the airbags stuffed into huge A pillars. You could get hit by a pickup truck you couldn’t even see behind that pillar.
The Fit is a pleasant car. The people I know that have them seem to like them a lot, and I haven’t heard of any particular problems out of them.
I like my Focus, but it is a manual transmission. The Focus automatics are junk. Think class-action suits galore.
Subarus are pleasant.
The Corolla is pleasant, but maybe a touch bland.
Apparently you need to buy Irk’s car, @mossygreen.
Expect to pay a lot.
@curtise @mossygreen Yeah! Way to get mentioned in the daily Teaser!
If you’re absolutely stuck/intent on buying another Honda, personally I’d consider the HR-V. Little bigger and sportier than the Fit. But there are so many factors relevant to your decision that none of us truly know.
I drive a Mazda CX-5 GT AWD and absolutely love it. Traded a Subaru Tribeca for it. I admit, that thing got me through the worst of weather, but it was my second and last Subaru. Both had mechanical issues. My gf has a Mazda 3 coupe, though I tried to talk her into the hatchback. Great looking cars, incredibly fun to drive and more than sufficient gas mileage.
@cinoclav Great suggestion. Mazdas are said to be fun to drive. I’d consider a 6 if a dealer were nearby.
@sligett I’ve been saying that I may finally break down after this and revert back to a car after owning numerous SUV’s. Having AWD is a bonus for skiing and to help get to work but I do miss the extra performance. If so, I’d likely buy a 6. I think it’s a stunning vehicle and absolutely fun to drive. My gf’s sister has a 2007 6 and it’s been rock solid, and that was from the days before Mazda got better.
I wa in a bad crash in a honda accord this week. I truly believe I am alive due to side window airbags. Safety features matter.
@CaptAmehrican
Hope you and everyone are pretty much ok and not hurting too badly?
@CaptAmehrican Glad you’re still here to tell us about it. As far as I know, side airbags aren’t federally mandated but every manufacturer is using them. It would be pretty hard to say your cars don’t have them if everyone else does.
@CaptAmehrican Side curtain air bags in back were part of why I chose my Honda. My dog needs protection too.
@moondrake Are you confident your dog weighs enough to trigger the airbags if needed? (Not sure whether your car has seat sensors.)
@RedOak Good point and thanks for the concern, but when I bought the car he was at 165, and in his old age he’s lost a lot of muscle mass, so he’s down to only 130.
@moondrake Hah! So the sensor might not be a problem.
@moondrake nice looking pup
@moondrake I bought our current Toyota Highlander (Hybrid) specifically for traveling with our 65lb heeler mix. He wears a safety harness & sits/lays in the rear cargo area latched to the child seat anchor. Highlanders have a removable middle seat for rear passengers; we leave it out so the dog can peek his head thru the gap to receive all his well-deserved (?) attention from the kids.
I drove my first Honda Civic for 15 years and spent less than $500 on non-maintenance or non-injury related repairs (the cv joints went out). It was still running great when I sold it but it couldn’t pass an emissions test and no one could figure out what was wrong so I sold it in neighboring NM which has no state inspections for cash for 25% of the original purchase price. Then I went through a few other cars, including a cursed Cavalier and a gorgeous hypochondriac Eclipse none of which lasted more than a couple of years before coming back home to Honda. I’m now 8 years into my second Honda Civic, no money so far spent on non-maintenance or non-injury related repairs and loving it. It’s amazing all the bells and whistles it has compared to my first Civic; power steering, power brakes, power windows, air conditioning, cruise control (a pleasant surprise in a stick), air bags all around, and even cup holders! The first one didn’t have any. I read where Honda was stunned when in a survey of owners the #1 complaint was the lack of a cup holder. I guess people don’t cruise around Japan with their grande latte or Big Gulp at hand. But they put a really good cup holder in my Civic, adaptable and steady for almost any cup size. I’m very loyal to Civic.
I add my voice to those urging you to get a second opinion. Poll your circle of friends and look for a local mechanic that does good work. Not too long ago I backed into a parking lot car stopper and broke my main motor mount (kind of a freak accident). The dealership said it would be a minimum of $500 and a week or so to repair it. My friend’s (and now my) mechanic did it for $180 while I waited and as a free bonus found and entered my radio’s code to get it working again.
@moondrake
Americans now lead the universe in cupholder technology.
And in Big Gulp technology.
@moondrake I’m loyal to Honda and wish I could afford a newer Civic. Since the early 80’s Honda stared to manufacture their cars in Marysville, Ohio and in Canada, so besides reaping in the profits I don’t think Honda Japan has much to do with the engineering of their vehicles. Awhile back I heard that the U.S. was actually exporting vehicles to Asia.
I loved my Chrysler 300. Roomy, drove beautifully, I did not have hemi and got about 27mpg. I put so many miles on it and we traded it in and got a jeep cherokee, 6cyl. And I like the jeep but I really miss the 300. May go back to it. Like you said… you’ll prob have it 10 yrs, get what you like. My daughter loved her Honda but was offered a gread deal on a BMW 5k series and now drives that but she really misses her Honda. I’m older now and I prefer comfort and reliability the most.
Ugh… gread-great. Also, I had an Impala ltd which was a great car too. Never had a prob with it but that’s when I started wanting a 300 and the credit guy at the dealership bought my Impala for his son. It had 87,000 miles and was running like a top.
I echo everyone else saying get another opinion. Dealerships exist for one reason only: to sell you a new car. Every time you take your new car in for repair, they will try to sell you a new one. An independent mechanic doesn’t have the same conflict of interest, and will quite often be cheaper, because they aren’t trying to nudge you in the direction of the sales staff. Unless mine is warranty covered (because I am willing to let them work on it if they are paying) my latest repair is DEFINITELY going to an independent. And if you find a good one, you don’t have to be trapped into a single brand in the future.
Tesla Model S! Bought mine used and love every minute of it.
@racampbell1
Ok, you win, you’re coolest.
Now go own the future or something.
@f00l They’ve come down in price a ton, I got mine for the same price a 2 year old explorer would have cost me
@racampbell1 You win for worst reply. Of course the Tesla Model S is a great car, but it’s well beyond the price range of the OP.
@gglockner A wins a win.
@gglockner Well, here’s a 2016 Model X 90D on Ebay with less than 5,000 miles on it, you could start off the bidding with the minimum of $500 just to say you did.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2016-Tesla-Model-X-90D-/182396247111?forcerrptr=true&hash=item2a77a9dc47:g:hfIAAOSw-0xYWvpz&item=182396247111
@moondrake eBay isn’t inefficient. Someone will pay the market rate for it by the auction close.
@gglockner They have a reserve, so they won’t sell it if they don’t. Sometimes it’s fun to bid on these crazy low starters just for fun.
54,000 miles is at most 1/3 of the way to what would normally should be the end of that car. Still young even if the years have flown by.
Guessing it has not been garaged most of its life. Three things kill a car prematurely: (The “beings” and “not beings”)
@RedOak This old lady used to autocross. Possibly not the best recommendation.
@OldCatLady then you would be a young old lady. Age is in the soul right?
Place of service (For out of warranty cars)
Was lucky enough to find a dealer Service Writer (who later got promoted to Service Manager) who actually competed fairly well on price with my previous independent shop. Some dealers will negotiate service, but not many. But he was trapped by the following:
So I spent way too many $ chasing a very irritating suspension noise with them over probably a year and 3-5 visits. Went to a highly rated independent and they identified the problem in a single visit. Haven’t been back to the new car dealer.
PS: Especially at Dealerships, when you get your car serviced, it is often assigned to the same mechanic (for troubleshooting continuity). If they are having difficulty getting rid of a problem, ask if your Service Writer can assign it to a different mechanic.
Mechanic compensation
Can’t speak for all areas, but in our region, if work doesn’t get done, the mechanic gets squat - that’s right, $0. This applies at both Dealerships and Independents.
That incentive to find something or exaggerate something is a major tug on honesty and integrity.
If you have no clue how cars work, take someone with you who does. Otherwise you’re playing with fire. And ask “what happens if I don’t do the work?”
Certainly not all shops are dishonest but those incentives are tough to get around. We definitely have some honest shops and we reward them with loyalty, positive word of mouth, and Yelp/Angie’s List/etc… reviews.
Keep it vs. Replace it
Its a crap shoot.
2000 Honda Odyssey - it was the minivan to have when that generation was released in 1999. We bought one and my brother bought one. Identical, even down to the color and within a month of each other.
My brother finally retired his at almost 300,000 miles with nothing other than routine maintenance and tires and brakes. Even his transmission never needed replacing (it was what finally just wore out).
We still have ours as a third car and sacrificial offering to our teens. It has 145,000 miles. And we’ve put a lot more $ into it in the last 20,000 miles than it was worth at 125,000 miles. We wouldn’t have do so if we could look forward. The sunk cost fallacy ($ spent are gone and don’t guarantee the future) might tell us to dump it. But now so much is new on it that it is worth more to us than anybody else - we know it is reliable.
Learnings: my brother’s van was in a garage for the first 1/3 of its life in the Midwest (in an area where they use sand more than salt in the winter) and outside, but in NC for the remainder. Our van has lived outside its entire life - in the (salty) Midwest.
So if your car has been a gem thru 75,000, normally that would mean keeping it might be a good bet. But if it has been even a bit of a lemon, caution dictates. Sometimes you’re lucky and other times…
@jbartus I was pleasantly surprised when I did a test drive to get a Starbucks tumbler preloaded with $20 recently.
Wasn’t the crude lawnmower-sounding engine experience I recalled. Although a bit of that aural input survives.
@RedOak I don’t really relate to the lawnmower thing, I’m on my second Subaru and my parents are on their first (I’m an evangelist what can I say?) and none of them sounds anything like a lawnmower to me.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@jbartus
Had a Subaru wagon I loved 20 years ago. A friend wrecked it for me.
You got a mention in the daily email!
@looseneck I went back to read that part. Fuuuny!!
Keep the car, get an independent cost estimate, and get it fixed. Start a replacement car fund by setting aside what you would normally pay monthly. When the car really needs to be replaced, you will be able to pay cash for it.