20yr old car = money pit.

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phillip.weston, Jan 23, 8:28pm
what is the car in question shyann2!

richardmayes, Jan 23, 9:28pm
$1770 in repairs over 18 months is a bad run. But with old cars, problems tend to hunt in packs!

What mileage has the car done! If you exclude tyres, rust and body issues, most of the big mechanical items are more about the distance the car has travelled rather than the number of years it has been standing around. If your car has been to the moon and back, you may be facing ever-escalating costs. If its done under 200,000 km, then unless you have fatal issues like body rust then maybe you should hang in there!

And what have you fixed! As Jazz said, for all we know maybe you'll now have thousands of km of trouble-free motoring in front of you, now you've addressed those problems.

If do decide to get out and buy a cheap car, look for that low-km one little old lady owner car.

My missus is driving a little 1985 Ford Laser, and it feels like a new car as it's only done about 70,000km. Only maintenance it has needed in two years has been a set of tyres and getting a split in the exhaust welded up for about $200. It's not worth anything and you don't get any admiring glances from the crowd when you drive it, but it's been a great little town car so far, it's also surprisingly fun to drive too and I'm (almost) jealous of her for owning it.

(My first car was a Triumph 2500 that was about 23 years old when I bought it, and I owned it until it was 28.I had an incredibly good run out of that car, all it ever needed was its oil changes. Another little old lady's last car. My second car was another Triumph, it was 35 years old when I bought it, and it was a nightmare. Probably because it was the high-performance model so it's probably had a sustained raping from the day it was new.)

I hope these comments are of some help.

cocabowla, Jan 23, 9:55pm
yes mostly done at garage but where i could i've saved a $ or 2, they wanted $120 for rear pads where i sourced for $40, bought aftermarket hinges on here for just under half nissan retail and between my brother & i had those done in good time. tyre wise it originally had wrong profile slipprier than a bag of eels chinese no name so found some used import bridgestones for $275 a set of 5 .

heres hoping it is the worst of it is over now.

scoobeey, Jan 23, 9:59pm
Lucky dip for sure. Mates dads NEW mitsy sigma wagon spat gbox at 5k. Who knows aye.

scoobeey, Jan 23, 10:00pm
By saying that in your position coca hope she keeps goin for ya :)

elect70, Jan 24, 1:55am
Is that all VL commie2 cracked headslast 1 brand newwreckers had sold out of used4cam angle sensorsfirst 1 cost $600 2nd 250& last 2 used dizys for $!50 eachall up around $4000in 5 years . Who said they were great engine !

shyann2, Jan 24, 4:40am
Its a toyota fx gt, approx 86.

shyann2, Jan 24, 4:42am
lol I know il get shit for this but you should of bought a ford hehe

cocabowla, Jan 26, 9:22am
grrrr, latest repair estimate told between $140 to $200, final result $265 !

this makes 2 wofs in a row cost me over $300

pandai, Jan 26, 9:28am
What broke!

welshdude, Jan 26, 9:37am
You never know what you'll get! I have a 97 Toyota Corsa I bought at 70k now 180k. Engine and box haven't missed a beat but heaps of strange little things eg sun visor wouldn't stay up (quoted $250 from Toyota), boot would pop open unexpectedly, hood doesn't like to open, CV joints, one seatbelt wouldn't unreel, overdrive light not working, squealing belts etc

cocabowla, Jan 26, 9:57am
broken lower engine mount. would have got one myself and had my brother help out but i cant lay down to help and he currently has a buggered shoulder & some broken ribs ( 48 yr old trying to relive his 20's trail riding ). lol

heres hoping the list ends now !

pandai, Jan 26, 10:04am
Hmm, that was a bummer.

Here's to another while of trouble free motoring then!

by_hdt, Jan 26, 10:15am
Ive run VL commodores for nearly 8 years now, all have been perfect.

elect70, Jan 26, 11:58pm
Ha had an xd before that wasnt bad but didnt like CNG conversion, started using lots oil . After the VL got a MItsubishi V300 , 360000 knever let me down, unlike those poxy sensors in Vl s that would clap out when miles from home . when soldwas using 1/2 l oil /1000 k . & they say mitsi is crap !

shyann2, Jan 27, 2:50am
Ive got an xd ute i put a 302 cleveland in. Had a mitsi i think was v3000! v6 motor & drank petrol. Wee toyota hatch for my run around at the moment but love my girl racer yet even if i am over 40yr old ;-)

shyann2, Jan 27, 4:44am
oops ute not yet

gunhand, Jan 27, 5:06am
I had a 1988 toyota celica for 2 years, cost me a cv joint, cam belt, warrents, regos, oil change and petrol. Itran quiter than some late model cars. and it ran perfectly up untill its new owner wrote it off.
So, money pit! not that one.

johnf_456, Jan 23, 7:10pm
+1 Should be set for a while, been there down that with cars. You do go through bad patches only to find if you got another car you would start all over again. Has that was not up to you're standard.