My son got slammed today :(

If I could buy him a 2011 I'd do it in a heartbeat but it's simply not possible.

IDK, this seems like the best solution for right now but this is more than likely the start of more serious problems.

 

it took me 5 years to buy my 2012 but belive it or not it was only 4800 with a 5 year warenty, but I have to agree on the start of potential problems

 

I know; believe me, the mood here is pretty quiet. He's leaving for college in one year. A good car just isn't possible.

I need to leave as I'm picking up a used freshwater system for my elderly friend. Please feel free to add additional comments. I'll be back later.

Thanks for your input.

 

A coworker's husband is a retired certified mechanic. Tomorrow he's going to look around for a used engine and if it's in decent shape we're going to get it. He's willing to tow Jordan's car to his house at no charge and start working on it, and, he's only going to charge $400.00 which IMO is a great deal.

His suggestion is to get this engine in and then sell the car.

 

The car is certainly worth a lot more with an engine of course. Sounds like a good plan of attack. Good luck!

 

Thank you marshall. I think it sounds like a good plan and the mechanic said he'll help us find a different car if and when we can sell the Stratus.

I hope this works out for my son's sake.

 

good to see all the help. My 2cents as was already mentioned... with that car getting up there on mileage the chances of a transmission failure are going to go up. I would highly encourage him to set anything possible aside to either drop a new trani in when it comes time or simply opt for a down payment on a newer model. Another thing would be to ensure that he keeps up on the maintenance, doesn't matter if he got a new car or not... letting the oil changes slip is highly detrimental to a cars health. Not saying this was the problem but i've seen it happen all to often.

 

Honestly, a Dodge with 200K on the transmission is amazing considering how awful their trannies are. You might have one of the 10 good ones they ever produced! ;D Transmission rebuilds can be done cost efficiently as well, assuming you can find a good transmission mechanic.

 

I had a mechanic who said Toyotas were the best cars out there. I hear too many stories about used Toyotas having costly problems with either transmission or engine. I would never buy a Toyota. My parents in-law gave me there with 90,000 miles Rav 4 and I drive it to 140,000 miles. Started having problems and I decided to not invest in fixing it. Once you start you have to continue fixing unfortunately. There is no real way to win. Lucklily I saved enough money to buy a 2008 Jetta last year with only 18,000 on it. Good Luck

 

Two cents is always appreciated. As I stated earlier, our plan is to get this fixed and then sell it. I do agree with putting some money aside, but you need to understand this is a kid who just turned 17 the other day. He's got a crap load of college classes (an average of 3 hours of homework every night) and obviously he only works part-time. He also teaches Tae Kwon Do when he has time and is playing football this year.

He's leaving in one year to a college that has a tuition of 40K a year. No more car loans, especially since college freshmen are strongly discouraged to even have cars. You can do the math-----> car loan payment for a decent one that has to paid off in 12 months. Yeah, right, especially since we're currently paying off his new computer. And, he did pay off his loan 5 months early---how many 16 year old kids would even do that? Basically, he got screwed and surely didn't deserve it but this is the gamble when buying an old car.

He got the Stratus at the end of February and had the oil changed at the end of May. He hadn't even put on 3k miles yet. Before he bought this car I spoke with him at length about how important maintenance is, especially on a vehicle with high mileage. There wasn't even time to do a whole lot more maintenance but it surely is a very valid point.