Ziggy*

Blown tire, Serpentine belt broke, fuses blowing....Who knows with a 25 year old car...I got AAA, But, It's your baby....You trust a 22year old technician to work on it?????? not......Your thoughts

crowz

I trust the older vehicles more than I trust the newer ones honestly.

3JsVette

Bad luck or mathematical odds? Your choice. I see brand new and almost new low mileage cars on the hook everyday. Stay on top of things and try to keep the odds in your favor. The frustration level isn't quite so high when your driving something you want to and like to drive.

loopydodo

Put a dollar amount in a monthly expense jar, do not spend more than that amount per month or for the year

Save for a car dolly or a trailer with a wench

If your not mechanical and the jar remains empty for more than X amount of time and you have yet to find competent local mechanic , , ,

Keep in mind the longer the car sits the worse it will get, the more hands under the hood the more things have the potential to be done wrong and where you park it, how you leave it may only unknowingly make things worse (sun on dash, mice-rats)

A busted belt and tire not that bad but beware of the bird nest builder or anything fixed with a quick splice or covered with electrical tape. Patching is not fixing and have the mechanic show you the difference

Politely ask how will you or get a real clear understanding about price and fix verses patch before you leave the keys

Paul Workman

Ziggy* et al;

Paraphrasing Forest Gump: (Buying an old Corvette) is like a box of chocolates...you never know what your going to get!!

Two gems I've come to appreciate over 5 decades of sometimes professional wrenching and lots of hobby hot-rodding I can share w/ anybody, especially someone just getting into the "hobby":

Parts have a life expectancy (Mean Time Between Failure or MTBF) Exceed it...and you should expect failure to happen ever sooner, the longer you wait on replacing* it!

Two repair philosophies:

1. TROUBLESHOOTING: "Don't fix what ain't broke(!)" vs.
2. PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE: "A stitch in time saves NINE!"

FACT: (Statistical MTBF studies clearly shows two periods of high failure rates, and the most critical period in a new devices life is when it is initially put into service. Statisticians call it "INFANT MORTALITY"

This is why it is especially important to avoid temptation when solving a problem (i.e., troubleshooting) by changing parts until the problem goes away. Not only is it more expensive, but with every part installed, the chance of something failing increases with every part (either the part fails due to infant mortality, or there is a problem with the installation) and the problem grows!

On the other hand, strictly clinging to "fixing what's broke" leads to chaos and uncertain reliability. Certain parts, tires (for example) have an established service life. So, only replacing tires one at a time due to wear leaves you knowing you're going to endure the "fun" of being in inconvenienced 3 more times in short order. Further 'down the road' as result all the tires will have different amounts of wear: replacement intervals become chaotic. Multiply this by all the other wear parts and pretty soon you have a car that is always breaking down and is untrustworthy for any kind of long distance or daily use! (Been there, DONE THAT!!) Preventive maintenance, based on a part's typical life expectancy, is essential to maximizing reliability and overall enjoyment!

Keeping and maintaining a repair logbook and doing preventive maintenance (with the best parts available!!) is essential to my "grin factor"! Do it not, and it's chaos for certain! Very discouraging and frustrating!!

Nowhere Man

I daily drive my 94. its 22 years old with 160K and counting. its my only ride. in the 9 years I owned it I have replaced a lot of regular maintenance items, and replaced things because of age and to prevent me from being stranded. I had 10 dollar hose take out a 400 dollar opti. crap happens. its old and its a chevy. good news its fairly easy to work with, and parts are not all that expensive

skullandbones

Ziggy,

I feel your pain. I haven't even gotten to the point where I would be thinking of having a technician touch my vette, yet. I've driven it about 25 times. I looked at the odometer yesterday and I have added about 900 miles to it. The problem is trust. You have to find a trust worthy shop and technicians that know their stuff and won't rip you off. I know about very competent shops but their rates are so far "out there" they might as well be on Mars. I know a guy who spent over 4K having his Weber carbs cleaned and adjusted (yeah! It's in Scottsdale, AZ). That's almost as much as I have in my car. So if you must, pick a shop like you would pick a sitter to take care of your young child. You're on the forum so be the care giver for your "baby". That's the most secure method of protecting it. Perhaps there are good examples of exceptions like computer work, or putting in a custom exhaust that requires some expert welding. You see where I'm going with this. If detailing is not your strength, a great detailer might be a good investment for you.

I don't see how it's possible to get so attached to a vehicle so fast but it does seem to happen. There is something special about these cars which makes you feel more protective than usual. That's just one of the pitfalls of owning a specialty car.

Good luck in your search,

WEK.

cv67

^^^this
Yrs ago used to be the opposite
Cars are designed to be throw aways WAY too many electronics in them
To compound the problem most replacement parts are junk so you replace them every yr it seems never used to be like that either

mike100

It takes 6 months to a year to sort out a C4 that had cheap owner... or cases where the car sat in storage- you have a lot of special failures there too.

whalepirot

Old car guys love this pic of our 50's era (1955) American econo-car (Nash Rambler) rescuing our 21st century German-engineered "ultimate driving machine". Baahhhh!

As Rodney Dangerfield said, the perfect 2nd car (for the 7-series BMW) is a tow truck.

This day, sadly, became more the norm than the exception in this $1000/month experience over 10 years.

I run a spreadsheet for some of my cars that calculates the outlay/month of ownership, which clarifies any decisoins about keeping or replacing the automobile

I've bought my last German car.

crowz

The early e46 models are actually good cars but that was before bmw's decision to make the cars cheap and complicated.

At the same time I don't think word reliable and the 7 series ever went hand in hand for any year.

cv67

My other half has a '00 E320 with over 200k on it got very lucky very few issues. Problem is she thinks it will go another 200k. A trans is 4k car is worth 1500 on a good day. Solenoids (or modules? car is full of them) can be up to $500 ea. Youll hear "dealer only part" a lot

crowz

My 2000 323i has over 300k on it and the wifes 1997 528i has over 300k on it. I converted the 323i from automatic to manual a year ago but the automatic still worked but it was getting time to rebuild it so I just swapped it over to a 5speed.

The wifes 528i had its first break down last Friday. The fuel pump failed and I will have that replaced this Monday if the part comes in. Not bad for over 300k usage.

I purchased all the coding software for bmw's so I can do all the work myself so the bmw's are actually the cheapest cars I own to keep on the road.

cuengineer

I don't trust anyone with any of my cars, including Mercedes, Jaguar, Chrysler, Camaro,Trans Am, or the C4 Corvette. The only exception in years has been getting the U-joints replaced after I took the driveshaft out of my Avalanche, a couple of auto transmissions being overhauled and a few oil changes that were done under warranty. It seems like almost every other time I have to get someone to help, there has been an issue with the repair. Regarding the repairs mentioned in the OP, those are all pretty simple excpet maybe the diagnosis of the fuse issue. The blown tire and serpentine belt could occur with any car and would be minimized with routine maintenance, i.e., checking and replacing belt as appropriate. When my boys were growing up, they learned to drive on older cars AND gained an understanding of how to make basic repairs and what to watch out for, i.e., some things like the serpentine belt will leave you stranded. It might be worth noting that most things that might cause a car to need a tow truck do not happen without some prior symptoms.

DinoBob

To paraphrase the late great Lieutenant Col. Henry Blake:


Rule # 1) Cars break.
Rule # 2) Mechanics can't fix rule # 1.

The OP's issues are things that happen to all cars. And, as callous as it sounds when people say this, if you are going to buy a 20-30 year old car, you either need at least some basic wrenching skills or deep pockets. Both are a real plus. I have the former, and it has saved me tens of thousands of dollars over the last 30 years of owning old cars.

thunder1951

I am a firm believer in preventive maintenance for the things that require it and over time that is a lot but small if taken care of on a regular schedule. I have an 01 import SUV with a 169k miles a daily driver and I do not neglect the maintenance. I am the 4th owner of my 94 vette and I am playing catch up on the maintenance of it but I want it where it feels good to me which means dropping 3-4k in it. I am not looking to get all my money out of it when I sell it but knowing how I have treated it is what its about to me. Same for me I only trust a handful of mechanics to touch my vehicles, I work at a friends automotive shop on Saturday mornings and have know him for 20 years so this does help with stretching the dollar.

trilkb

The only car that has beaten me is a 1992 3000gt VR4 with 32k miles I bought 2(?) years ago. I did tons of work to it, timing belt and water pump, turbo back exhaust, Cam Angle Sensor, Knock Sensor, Bought a datalogger. Bought other various parts...Car never ran right. Some days you would drive it and it would drive awesome, other days it would drive like complete crap. Then suspension knocking noises came, I replaced heim joints and other various bushings...nothing. So then I sold it at a loss of 3-4k$. I cant sell a messed up car at a high price, its against my morals I guess lol. I had a 92 stealth tiwn turbo with upgraded turbos that I drove at the same time so it kept me entertained.

I guess the point that I stop is the point that im legitimately beaten, dont know what to even do next, and dont feel like spending another dime on the car. Lt1's haven't done it to me yet out of the 3 ive owned. Only 2 have, that 3000gt Vr4, and a 79 Suzuki GS1000.

FASTAZU

I don't have a cut off point..

If I don't have the time or money to fix it I can always let it sit until I do

crowz

Actually I just figured out what the cutoff point is. When you don't enjoy working on or owning the car anymore

mcguirjf

I would gage the cut off point by how far I throw the wrench. If I strain my shoulder, or cause more damage than I know I've have enough fun with said vehicle.