If you’ve been following The Peaceful Mom for a while, then you know that after being a one car family for almost a year, we were finally able to purchase a new-to-us van for cash. We were pretty excited and have enjoyed the luxury of having transportation available at a moment’s notice.
Unfortunately, the party came to an end this week. 🙁
We took the van in to a mechanic because of some noises we were hearing and discovered that we need $2000 worth of repairs. When we took it to another mechanic for a second opinion, he confirmed the $2000 worth of repairs, but added that the engine needed to be repaired or the van would stop running soon. Repairing the engine requires another $2000 because there are no after-market parts available for our model.
We drove the van home to give us some time to decide what to do, and when we tried to start it the next time, it was dead. The good news is, the mechanic was right. The bad news is that now we have a van that costs more to repair than it is worth.
So…we will be a one car family until we can save for another vehicle, and hopefully we can sell this one for a few hundred dollars. I am thankful for the time we have had it, and as our mechanic said, ALWAYS bring the vehicle in for a mechanical check before you purchase it. Lesson learned.
I feel your pain, we had a van this past yr that required a lot of repairs. But thankfully my hubby decided to teach himself how to fix many of the problems himself and has saved us thousands. We bought him a truck in cash and 2 months later the head gasket blew. That’s a 5k repair the same we paid for the truck. He decided to plunge in and learn to repair it himself, and even though everyone thought he was crazy it has paid off tremendously. He was able to repair it for 1k and learned so much from YouTube and books! It’s not that difficult just take things step by step. What we realized is this, cars take maintenance, and you either pay for the repairs or you pay for a car payment. We bought a nicer used van with a small payment this time around. Hubby knew exactly what problems to look for too after all the issues with our old one. We choose to keep buying the same models so he can become an expert in maintaining them rather than figure out a whole new car all over again. It has paid off for us. I would rather have the cash in the bank than all my money spent at once on a car that is going to be need work anyway. (if you drive it it will eventually need something! ) our interest payment is so low (under 3%) so its a great deal and spreads out the financial risk to us. But anyway what I an getting at is to learn your cars and take care of them, otherwise they will end up costing you.
When my father died and we sold all his things, I needed a car. I was pregnant and living on my mothers floor, so she had control of the money. I tried to get her to take me to a dealership, to get a nice vehicle, but she took the money and bought me a car off of craigslist. 1 week later my boyfriend put his foot on the gas and the car went nowhere. We needed a new transmission. $2500 fix after using $3000 to buy the car. A 96 Ford Taurus. I was so mad. I tried to get her to give me the number of the guy that sold it to us. I wanted to ask him how it felt to rip off a pregnant homeless girl. But my mom deleted him from her contacts and I never could find him. The car was an absolute nightmare until the day the head gasket cracked and we sold it to the junkyard 2 years later. I’m STILL mad at my mother for it.
I am soo glad my hubby is mecanically inclined. Even if he’s unsure he’ll usually find something on you tube that helps. We had a Chrysler mini van for a while. We bought it with low miles thinking it would last a while, I think the first month we had it some part fell OFF while we were parked at Sonic. Since then it’s been OK, small things here and there but then right around Christmas it’s been one thing after another and we just decided we weren’t going to put another dime into the vehicle (we did get around 3 years out of it). So we bought an ’05 Tahoe (thanks to our tax return). Anyway, if you know someone who is mechanically inclined you could probably fix it for a lot cheaper. You can also find parts at a junkyard (if you have any). Don’t know how far gone the van is but that’s another option. Good luck!
We bought a lemon! It was a used Dodge van. It had electrical problem after electrical problem. One would get fixed and it would cause something else to fail. That new problem would get fixed and then the old problem would pop back up! One time I was stuck in the car because the electrical locks locked–and wouldn’t unlock! I had to climb to the back and exit the rear hatch (which never locked!)!
We were a one car family for about 10 years. Our kids had bikes–as did I. We rode them whenever possible and I often drove my husband to work. We just purchased a new to us car so now we have two cars. With three soon to be driving teens, the new car is much needed.
Sorry about your lemon. Hope next time you are able to find something more reliable.
Wow Emily–that’s crazy. It’s like your car had a mind of it’s own!
Kimberlee, We once bought a beautiful car for $1500 cash knowing it would need some work. Looked cool, but we were never able to fix it fully kept getting stuck on the side of the road. Finally traded it in for a more reliable one. It happens to a lot of people. Used cars are tough. My daughter once bought a car for cash and it died on the way home never to be driven again. 🙂 Good luck!!
Terri
we became a one car family this year too…..& for a while we even went without an income…..I had no Idea of all the ways the Lord would bless us with money to make it but he has over & over again. Praying that the Lord Bless your Family with alll that you need to Thrive.
Thanks so much Maggie!
Ugh! Saying prayers for your families well being. I really understand. This has been a rough for us this last year. My transmission went out on my mini van and husband lost his job in the same week all while we are paying for oldest to attend college. I love pinching pennies. It has taught me I can live on a lot less. Love your posts.
I am so sorry that your husband lost his job. I hope things have turned around for you. Thanks for your prayers. 🙂
The whole lemon vehicle thing stinks! I’m sorry it happened to you. Don’t think that having a husband who has an associate’s degree in auto mechanics automatically voids him from having car issues, cause I’m here to tell you it doesn’t.
A few years ago we took a couple thousand and “bought” a truck from some people off Craigslist. Even had a written agreement about the title being acquired from a “family” member. Um, not! They skipped town, like they did when they stole the truck from their landlord in Reno. We did everything we could legally to find them, they had a warrant out here in IN. We ended up finding the original owner of the truck who sent someone out here to get it. We paid 2,000 of the idiot tax and were still without a vehicle. We had borrowed hubby’s aunt’s car for a year but a year later, the truck finally was gone from our possession and we were able to buy a “beater” with a title of course.
Two cars later, we are down to our SUV which is almost paid off– but it is working right now so we are trying to save for another vehicle. Once that is acquired and we paid our last payment on the SUV, we have get a few things that are needed on the SUV- ball joints, stabilizer links, a new serpentine (sp?) belt. I want to start saving for a replacement car as soon as we make the last payment, just in case.
Hope you can get another vehicle (without going in debt) soon!
That’s terrible Wende! I am so sorry that happened to you.
Oh good heavens! I bought a 2003 Nissan Altima at the end of 2011. While I did have payments on it, I got a very good deal, plus I was shown the Carfax report and the car had been taken care of very well. AND, I had always heard that Nissans last forever. Not mine! I have repaired ignition coil #3, the alternator, the catalytic converter and one motor mount. I’ve spent more in repairs than I did on the down payment! OIY! But now I should easily get another 100,000 miles out of it, fingers crossed!
Hubby and I also bought a used car. Almost took it to a mechanic but were ultimately just too excited about it and didn’t. We’ve had it in the shop two years in a row for several hundred dollar repairs and just had to replace the terrible tires. Found out after purchase that one of the heated seats doesn’t work and neither does the AC. I hope we’ve reached the end of the surprises. Sorry for your loss!
How long did you have the van before it died? I would check out your state’s lemon laws to see if you qualify to get your money back.
Ooh, good point Maureen. Thanks!
I believe that a used car is an “as is” sale unless a warranty is stated. Lemon law wouldn’t apply here.
Im thankful that we have never had a “lemon” experience. HOWEVER, I can totally relate to the one car thing, and its terrible. I hope you are able to get a second car very soon!
So sorry to hear that, I know how happy you were when you got them.
My father in Serbia always buys 4-5 years old car and drives it untill they turn 13-14 years. It works for him, since he is very skillfull and knows how to repair many things by himself.
Here in Germany we use the carsharing system named Flinkster. We need car only once-twice a week, for getting groceries and such (I commute with train and have a great bicycle). So there is a website that locates the nearest Flinkster car to us (they are usually about 5-10 minutes walking distance), I book it online and pay 2 euros per hour and 0,18 cents per km, gas is included. This makes our monthly car expense about 20-30 euros. Only insurance would cost us about 100 euros a month where we live.
Another thing that is very popular is that a couple of families living in the same area unite, have one car and share the costs for them. This requires a bit more trust and organizing, but it is doable if you need a car only a couple times a week, like with your second car.
Good luck with finding a solution! 🙂
I had not heard about those ideas before Jelena. Thanks for sharing them. 🙂
In US, it calls Zipcar. http://www.zipcar.com
We bought a used 2007 vehicle in 2011 and it came with our first ever car payment. In 20 months, and roughly 30k miles (total of 60k on the car now…) we have had a front wheel bearing go out (while on a road trip), a new transfer case, and the engine completely rebuilt. Thankfully it was all taken care of through the warranty as well as the kindness of our dealership! Transfer case would have cost 2-4k alone so, pricey stuff. I kick myself every month making our loan payment but the car has truly been a vehicle (pun intended) of God’s grace. He has provided for all of our needs.
So far I have been lucky with vehicles. My first was a very old Mazda truck stick shift. I couldn’t drive that due to my anxiety issues so my mom gave me her 1999 Chrysler 4 door. It looks a little worse for the wear but since my mom had purchesed it new and took good care of it the only problem we have had is a minor oil leak. We do just fine with one vehicle but we will be buying my husband a truck as soon as we save enough to pay cash.
I feel your pain, too! And actually I’m encouraged by all the posts that detail what others have experienced — makes me feel better. We purchased a van last year from a popular dealer and since then we have paid half as much to have several repairs done on it. Frustrating because the dealer was touted as being reputable and selling good cars, but our problems started almost immediately.
I must add tho, I am thankful that God provides and takes care of us even tho we make dumb choices (in my case with the scooter!!) It’s all a testimony to Him, that even tho we aren’t doing well, we can still pay our bills and be fed!
(not saying that your van was a dumb choice…but our scooter definitely was!!!)
Haha! I felt dumb when we got the news, but I know I can trust God no matter what. 🙂
My husband has a long commute to work, so we purchased a scooter for him to save money on gasoline during the warmer months. Well, within the first week it died, and we replaced the battery. It died again, and then we realized that the cause of dying was because he put the battery in wrong. We purchased this vehicle online, because it was cheaper, which makes servicing or returning hard. So we are a two car/one scooter that doesn’t work family! We realized after the fact that the scooter, altho it sounded like a good idea, wasn’t really, as now we are making payments on a scooter that sits in our driveway! Hoping and praying it sells this spring so at least we can pay down the loan!! And hubby is looking for a job closer to home, so maybe we can frugally be a one car family again, and pay down some more debts. 🙂
I totaled my little car a few months after I paid it off (ain’t that the way it goes?). So we bought a little used Volvo for a couple of thousand dollars, and while I was driving my brother to an out-of-town band thing, the car caught fire! Turns out, the previous owner had run it without oil so much that it destroyed the engine.
Whoa–that’s a serious lemon!
We were a one car family for the first couple years of parenthood, then we found what seemed to be a great deal on a minivan just before our 2nd child was born. It ended up smelling like a horse barn and having various other minor issues, but has served us well mechanically for about 2 years now.
It was one of those situations where you pray about it and do what you feel The Lord wants you to do, then accept whatever comes next as part of His plan! It had over 150,000 miles when we bought it to supplement our first car (a Honda) with over 250,000 miles. So it has been obvious that the only thing keeping us going has been the Lord’s hand on our family. Our Honda is now on its last leg, and with our tax return falling short of what we needed to pay cash for something else, we will be back to one car whenever the Honda finally dies. Just praying it lasts another year till my husband finishes school!
Sounds like you get everything you can out of your cars Lanette! Hopefully the Honda will make it another couple of years for you.
While pregnant with my son I bought a vehicle from an individual without getting it checked. That thing left me on the side of a hot road more times than I can remember.
I was able to trade it in and get another used car off a lot and it had a few problems. Sold that one quickly just for what I’d put into it and we’ve been a one car family for 7 years now.
Sure feel your pain and hope something comes through for you.
Thanks Holly. 🙂
You may be able to get some trade-in value if you take it to CarMax. We had to do that with our previous car. We are a one car family (by choice) and when our previous car began to experience troubles, we tried to have it fixed, but as soon as we fixed one issue, another one would crop up. We couldn’t manage to function without a car, so we took “old faithful” to CarMax and, even though it had some pretty substantial issues, we were able to trade-it in and obtain financing for a “new to us” car that was only a year old with very few miles. The only gripe we had (which we didn’t find out until later) was that the tires that were on the “new” car must have been traded out for old tires, because we had to replace them a year after purchasing the car. Other than that, it wasn’t too bad of an experience. Just food for thought. 🙂
Thanks Andrea. We bought a van from CarMax a few years ago and had a very good experience with them. (Maybe they’ll pay me for the free advertising. 🙂 )
Bought Town and Country 2 yrs ago for $4200, we have only got to drive it 6 months total. Replaced parts on tranny numerous times and now its getting a rebuilt one. We have spent way more than we paid for it. I feel your pain!!
Hey Kim,
Make sure you look at all options before making a decision on how to sell the van. There may be a home-mechanic nearby that fixes up used cars and sells them.
My husband was driving his brother’s 92 Corrolla for less than a year when a belt broke last month. He kept driving towards a highway exit until subsequently several parts blew and racked up $2,000 in labor and $1,000 in parts.
The highest estimate from a junk lot was $375 IF we paid for towing it. Finally a friend of a friend who worked on cars at his home wanted to look at it. We asked for $475 thinking it was more than scrapping it. We found out that he regularly buys old cars for pittance and sells them for thousands. It was too late to change our offer, but we learned our lesson to get several opinions before stating an offer.
After paying $175 in diagnosis and towing fees, and considering the new tires and battery that were on it, we may have about evened out to zero at best.
I feel sad to lose the car and am mourning my lost convenience! But God provides and there are a lot worse situations to be in for sure.
Thank you Suzanne for the wise advice. We might try to sell it on Craig’s List as a mechanic’s special.
I guess with your family it’s vehicle’s, with mine it’s dishwasher’s!!! There is always a lesson and I agree always have a vehicle checked out before buying. My husband and I differ on buying vehicles….he wants new and I want used. We have compromised and we buy the year going out so we know the blue book value and pay well below sticker. This works for us because we have never paid interest because we have good credit. We don’t mind making a monthly payment for the exchange of a dependable vehicle. All of our family is out of state so if we need to take off for family function or a family emergency we have no fear our vehicle will make. Praying you can sell this one for salvage to start a new car fund!!!
Thanks Kimberly. My best case scenario would be to buy a car that is two to three years old instead of ten. 🙂
Absolutely not alone. We went without a vehicle last year. Both my husband and I (with 5 kids) getting rides to work from friends. We used $6000 of our tax return to buy a used Honda Odyssey in March. Following that purchase, my van was hit by a suv (parked in a DMV parking lot while I was inside getting a new Driver’s license). Had that repaired. Two weeks into our summer break the van’s transmission gave out. So we spent all summer without a vehicle because it was in the shop and we couldn’t take care of the repairs. Our church helped us and we got the van back at the end of the summer. A week after getting it back, the night of my school’s open house, we were in an accident. We lost the van due to needing repairs again. I spent the entire first quarter of the school year commuting 2 1/2 hours on city transit to work with 5 children in tow, while my husband rode a bike and took a bus to get to work. Our church helped us out again with repairs after the damage from the accident. We were so frustrated over the vehicle situation and my husband not having transportation that we bought a new car for him to use. We had to buy new because we could not get financed for a used car. Now, we are trying to go back to one vehicle and we cannot because we owe more on the car than it is worth now. VERY Frustrating. Thanks for letting me vent. Feel better getting that out!! 🙂
Wow Anna, sounds like you have had a really rough time. Sorry about that!
Not as big as a car, but I purchased a speaker dock for my ipod on ebay for $100. They worked for about a week then stopped working… every time I turned them on they made awful noises.
But, my first car I ever bought was a lemon. I was so proud of it as I worked 2 jobs the summer before my senior year to pay cash for it. But it broke down ALL the time…. and I bought it from a mechanic! But it wasn’t a mechanic we knew, and when I took it into our family mechanic he found a lot of things wrong with it. One time it had to be towed 3 times in one week because it kept breaking down. I spent a lot of my grocery store checker salary to pay for the dumb car repairs. I learned the same lesson you did… always have a mechanic check out a used car, especially one from a private seller.
Well at least we have learned our lesson Julie. 🙂
I just had this same priblem last week! Two years ago the week before we got married my soon-to-be husband’s car died. We were desperate. We were desperate. We bought a car for 6000 cash. Yes it came out of the wedding budget. But it was a greater need than silly wedding extras. So last week it died. And it will cost 4000 to repair! The value of the car is only 2000, so it was not worth it to us. The mechanic says these problems had been around for a while. Prob only before we bought it. Lemon! So we put 500 into it to limp it till we find a replacement. 🙁 feel your pain and praying for you.
Thanks Karen. At least you paid cash for it, right? 🙂
We bought a vehicle off a dealer lot (with the lovely payments) that was a lemon. We ended up trading it in and getting a better vehicle and being upside down on the loan. It happens and it stinks. You are NOT alone. Don’t feel badly! 🙂
Thanks Jeanne. 🙂