What to do with car/What's it worth?

[Firestrike87]

Well guys, I'm kinda in a dilema. I'm a full time college student with little to no money. I've been driving this car in Michigan since October and it is a fun car to drive and I do enjoy driving it when it works fine. The problem starts that when I purchased the car I bought it knowing the Air Bag light was on and there is a noise from the rear axle. Know one really knew what the noise was so I'm just driving it until it breaks and I'll get it fixed. Anyways, a week after I purchased it for about $3500, I had to spend $1000 because it needed a starter, motor mounts, radiator, and power steering line and I just replaced the tie rod. So I've got about $4500 into it and now the abs light came on and there is a clunking noise still from the front of the car. That's not so bad but I don't plan on keeping this car for a long time because I don't know if I can afford the maintance for it anymore. The car does have 150,000 miles and the engine seems great, but the car is going to need tires and a bunch of other little things and I could easily spend another $1000 - $1500 on just maintance and tires before next fall. I do have another car to drive and I don't want to spend all this money on the Mustang because I don't know if I can get my money back out of it know. Do you guys think I could sell the car for $4500-$5000? The car is fully loaded with every option and is all stock minus the exhaust and Cobra hood but I just don't know what to do anymore.

 

[GREG@SN95]

The car ain't worth 3 grand... However, alot of people spend thousands over value just to have a mustang.

Put it out for sale, list it for 5,500 OBO. See what ya get.

 

[GREG@SN95]

oh, and the hood isn't stock, its a cobra hood.

 

[Firestrike87]

Oh woops, I forgot to add that.

 

[Lightning Struck]

The car ain't worth 3 grand... However, alot of people spend thousands over value just to have a mustang.

Put it out for sale, list it for 5,500 OBO. See what ya get.

are you from up north or Alabama????? Dont you know that isin't a real word? :hammer: :hammer: :hammer:

 

[jfor441]

The car ain't worth 3 grand... However, alot of people spend thousands over value just to have a mustang.

Put it out for sale, list it for 5,500 OBO. See what ya get.

are you from up north or Alabama????? Dont you know that isin't a real word? :hammer: :hammer: :hammer:

You mean like isin't ain't a real word :hammer:

 

[Whistler98]

You can't buy an older car for $3500 and not expect to have to do maintenance on it. Also you can't count every dollar for maintenance and expect to get that back out of it. Cars are not a good investment.

 

[realitygt]

You can't buy an older car for $3500 and not expect to have to do maintenance on it. Also you can't count every dollar for maintenance and expect to get that back out of it. Cars are not a good investment.

very true. clunking could be the uppertie rods. or maybe the shocks bottoming out. hard to say

 

[Firestrike87]

I know that cars aren't a good investment but I test drove the car 3 times and had it checked out by a mechanic and none of us noticed any of this stuff that I am running into now. The car was amazing during the test drive and it is all going to hell fast. Maybe I'm just overreacting and I should just take this one step at a time.

 

[GREG@SN95]

You can't buy an older car for $3500 and not expect to have to do maintenance on it. Also you can't count every dollar for maintenance and expect to get that back out of it. Cars are not a good investment.

ha ha... I bought a 94 GT vert w/ 70k for 3200 had had no problems.

I bought a 93 lx, bent a valve @217k cause I drove it through the woods like a baha truck.

His car, was probably beat on. Theres no way to tell if a cars been beat on unless you can just tell by looking at / talking to the previous owner.

 

[jfor441]

If you want to save money on repairs I would recommend getting a Chilton's manual and learning to do it yourself.

I had to spend $1000 because it needed a starter, motor mounts, radiator, and power steering line and I just replaced the tie rod

You could have done all that in your driveway with a jack and jackstands and a set of hand tools. Yes getting your car to it is like you want is expensive but if you can do 90% of the work yourself you will save yourself a ton of money. Plus, when you start hearing a noise or your car is doing something funny it is easier to troubleshoot it because you are intimately familiar with your car.

 

[Firestrike87]

I usually will do my own work if I have the time and it's not freezing out. Those were things that I HAD to have done and I didn't have the time to do it. I'm hoping if the car can hold out until college is out I'll have a lot of time to work on it and get things straightned out. And about the car being beat on, it may have been but it runs great for 150,000 miles, it just seems like it needs some suspension work.

 

[Kornnut]

Rarely do you ever get your money back on a car. If you can afford the car sell it. If you want to keep it and have another car like you said then park it. You won't get $4500-5500 out of the car. I bought my car last year with about the same miles with a new clutch, gear, tob, and rear main seal for $3000. My friend just picked up a 94 gt with a few more miles on it for $2500. The value in these cars isn't there right now.

 

[Firestrike87]

Well, I actually bought this car to daily drive so I can park my Silverado and not put all the miles on it because it is lifted and sucks gas. So this car isn't my toy, I plan on leaving in mostly stock to hopefully keep the reliability good on it. I think I'll just take this car one step at a time and see how it goes.

 

[rick focks]

hhhmmm

 

[Whistler98]

you can expect to have to do some maintenance. The suspension will prob need attention with high miles like new tie rods and ball joints. These are things that ware out on any vehicle.