Why You Should Repair Old Cars

I overheard a conversation between a group of guys and what one of them brought up was a little bit ridiculous and a true show of a throw-away culture. He said there is no point whatsoever to do big repairs like the timing belt on cheap cars like the Lexus LS400. His reasoning was that it is cheaper or at least costs the same to buy a new car.

And you can also buy a new TV when the remote breaks. What was dumbfounding to me was that most people there agreed, except one lonely individual in their group. I pose a question.

Why should you spend the money to do all of the repairs around the 200k mile marker and further after that?

Isn't it about time for the car to die? Absolutely not!

Some cars should be trashed, there is no doubt about it. Maybe even most cars around 200-300k. However there are those stand-out cars that, if maintained properly, will make it to 500,000 miles and more. I'm talking about cars like the Volvo 240/740/850, Lexus LS400, certain 90s Mercedes said to never die (except electronically haha... sorry, not funny).

These cars each have their own peculiar fault and it's important to take care of that before it fails. Kind of like doing the timing belt at 80k miles on your 32v Northstar engine so it doesn't snap and destroy your engine at 90k except more sane. It's equally important to actually give the car a tune-up every once in a while and keep the fluids fresh. Anything small that comes up, fix it. Oil changes and tune-ups keep an engine from damage over time.

It seems like a pain when you're at this precipice, I know. But once you put in some money (for a car that would have cost $90,000 today, like  a Mercedes 320 or Lexus LS400), you can drive it without worrying about anything for miles and miles. That's when you really fall in love with your car. Get it to a state where flooring it won't kill the motor, you know? I've gotten out of accidents by just flooring it. Just don't do that a lot because that, too, will eventually kill something on your car.

I learned the hard way.

Listen (read?), I have something to say about newer cars. Nevermind the styling (most new cars look like crap to me), new cars are literally built to last about 2-300k miles at the maximum, are full of useless electronics that fail, and are often made with parts that require special keys that only the dealership has. When manufacturers made cars in the 90s and before, they built them to last. That's why there's an 800,000 mile Mercedes 300SEL (80s car) and Matt Farah's Lexus LS400 (90s car) that is about to reach 1,000,000. That's semi-truck mileage. Besides normal maintenance and minor things, the worst that happened is that the car blew the tranny around 750,000. That was the Lexus. I'll take that.

Are you going to really tell me that it's not worth spending $3,000 on a car that sells for $1,500 now?

I want to beat this point into your head. Yesterday someone told me his friend recently bought a new car, a 2017 although I forget what brand it was. Three weeks into his ownership, the front brake assembly broke and fell off while he was driving. Yes, both sides. My parents bought a 2015 Ford Focus... About a month later, they go on a road trip in their obviously road worthy car (right? they had just got it and it was inspected). They spent it in a small town where the transmission blew. From what I heard, the third and fourth gear got stuck together.

Thank God but my 1996 car with over 200,000 miles has the original transmission that doesn't show any signs of giving out soon. I paid under $2,000, they paid five times that with the transmission. For a Ford Focus.

I've noticed something else too that kind of bothers me. You can pull up in the sickest car and the young man over there will look at a NEW car that's right there aswell over yours. To a lot of people, old car means piece of dookie.

See this Volvo 240? It's a pretty rare car (740s are so much more common that these are almost rare). The interior was immaculate and when I say that, I mean it. A 16 or 17 year old kid was driving it and the car is for sale, I noticed. I assume his father had that thing since it was new. I asked him why he's selling it?

It's too old, it's a piece of doodoo, and I want something that looks nicer.

I understand; opinions - everybody has them. I feel like I'm old and I'm just complaining.

But really, there are so many good cars constantly showing up at the junkyard like an immaculate black-on-black 1990 Lexus LS400. Whatever the problem was, I'm sure it was worth more than the $200 you get for scrapping it.

Knowing this, I tried something. Whenever I would be in a neighborhood cruising and I'd see an older nice car - and ESPECIALLY if I see it a few times and it's not being used - I would leave a business card offering to buy it. I was broke at the time so this was a test I did and man did I get a couple amazing offers. Older people in general will sometimes park a Cadillac or even a Lexus or something, not worrying about getting rid of it but also they might not be driving anymore either - well that's your chance to get a great deal. Show up with some cash and just give them an offer. People's senses are strongly based on sight and when they see the money, it becomes real. Trust me. Only asking them, they might and probably will still not want to bother. But if you have them good pieces of paper, they might just grab the title.

To be honest, neither I nor the rest of my family ever thought buying a car brand new is a good idea. In just a year, you're losing thousands of dollars in value. Is it the convenience of having a warranty for a few years?

You wait five years and a $22,000 car is $10,000. That's just how it works. So maybe think about that as another option. You can get some great deals, like when the Pontiac GTO came out (a great car) and then Pontiac gave it like 50 more horsepower a couple years later. Those first cars were cheap. And it's only the whopping difference of 400 hp versus 450. The newer ones quickly lost resale value too.

Oh, you guys want to hear about how I "wasted" a couple grand on an old car? It was the first Lexus LS400 I had, the black '95. All was good for a year. I bought it for $300, changed out the PS pump, radiator, and some other things. Except the pump, I did everything myself. Part of the reason I bought this car was because I wanted to really learn to work on cars. I knew basics but that's it.

The car was in a minor front end crash right before I bought it. Like I said, it ran great for about a year when I fixed it initially then things starting going bad. I forget the order in which these problems occurred but by the end, I had replaced maybe 5-6 parts (nothing major), had learned a LOT in the process of figuring out how to diagnose problems and doing everything I could myself. In retrospect, the ECU was probably going out because when I junked it, the car would barely make it to 30 mph with both the tranny and motor struggling.

The story has a good ending because I ended up with the white '96, Lexy 2. However I spent $3,000 on that first car. By the end, it had a couple bad problems at the same time and I would've spent a lot more so I had the good sense to get a different one.

(Editor's note: Do not buy a Geo Metro please.)

Let me say, however, that the money I spent was less than the tuition I paid to go to a mechanic school for a year or so and I learned way more working on my own car than I did at that school! I learned every damn system on that car. Now that I have this new one, if something comes up, I already have an idea of what it might be.

Now, if learning wasn't a big part of this, I would've let the car go earlier and would have spent only about $1,500. That's good for a year of good driving.

I got rid of it because it was a salvage rebuilt title, it was one car made out of two, and was a serious lemon because of whatever mechanic worked on it before. My suspicions were confirmed when I got the newer car. Now, I'm going to do the water pump, timing belt, and some other things. Because of all that I learned, I can tell this car is not a dud and is totally worth repairing. I'm not going to spend nearly that much but $1,500 would basically give me another 100k+ miles worry-free.

Get that project car. Fix that hooptie. What is money? Life is short, just never neglect your needs. Put those first.