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To me they're both lemons. . . We bought this, our FOURTH Chrysler/Dodge van in the summer of '05. It was 4 years old at the time with only 35,000 miles on it and it great condition. This is a lesson for not judging a book by it's cover. If it looks good, it doesn't necessarily mean it's going to taste good, or run good as the case may be. We have had nothing but one repair after another with this van. We have changed auto mechanics several times thinking we're getting ripped off because we keep having so many problems. I'm pretty sure the place we've been going to for the past few years (because they seem honest and it's two buildings away from Mike's work, so he can just drop it off and walk to work and we don't have to hassle with dropping it off miles away and me having to go pick him up and take him to work) has been able to make their mortgage payments off us several times over. We made the mistake recently of adding up the costs of all the repairs over the years, and now we're really ticked. Maybe ignorance is bliss. It's a bummer that Mike doesn't have more time and know-how to figure out some of these repairs on his own (like he did recently with another mishap we had involving Jessica's car and his truck. More about that in a minute). Before I give the grand total of the money we've put into this van, let me first tell about when our car problems really began. While we lived in Arizona, we only had two little fender benders that weren't our fault. The trouble started when we moved to Utah. In January '98 while we were enjoying the country life in Millville (not) Mike was driving #2 van down the lane from the Griffins, and didn't notice a tractor coming down the road (because it blended into the country scenery so well) so got hit. It took 3 weeks to repair the front end of the van, and I'm surprised I lived to tell about it being stranded most days down a dirt lane (no escaping for a nice stroller ride) with two little boys. That was a dark time. Next came Mike rear-ending a car on some slick roads several years later and totalling his Mazda that he had just recently spent $3500 on fixing the transmission. We replaced that car with Sara's Honda accord and enjoyed having it paid off and thinking it would be the kids car for years to come. Then came Jessica's crash when she was 16, and that's another car totalled.
Now the fun begins. We replaced the Honda with the Chrysler (why?) Cirrus, and almost immediately got to part with $1500 on repairs. Since then it's not had too many problems. Mike's Ford Ranger that he bought two years ago has run well, he's just had a bit of bad luck with some dings. He slid on some ice in December (are you beginning to see a pattern here? Maybe he shouldn't drive on icy days. And I didn't even tell about a time he slid on some ice through an intersection in van #3 and got hit by an oncoming car) and hit a truck in front of him (only going about 15 mph) which caused his front fender to get smushed and the air bags to come out. Three weeks, and $3000 later, he was back in business (we ONLY had to pay our $750 decuctable). Then about a month later, someone did a hit and run with a dent on his back side, then on APRIL FOOLS DAY, Jessica backed her car out of the garage w/o looking carefully enough, and clipped his front headlight with her back tail light. This is the repair he saved us about $400 on by ordering the parts to the lights and installing them himself.OK- now I'm ready to tell about our current van. Do I have any readers with me still, or have I bored everyone to death? Lets not forget about the run-on with the deer that Jake had a few months ago in the van where the front fender had to be replaced and a small amount of body work had to be done. Once again, the $750 deductable was all we had to pay.
*Number of times we've taken it in with a problem: (not counting new tires or oil changes) 19
*Range of cost of repairs: $30-1,500
*Types of problems: Air conditioner (twice), electric window not rolling down, brakes, alternator, oil leak, check engine light, belts, battery, and werid noises.
*Total cost in repairs (not including oil changes): $7,563 AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
We could have bought a brand new automobile with that price added into the price we paid initially. We're definately going to rethink the whole buy used/new thing when we get rid of this lemon. But each time we pay a bunch of money to fix something, we think "now we can't sell it- we just paid to get it fixed. Surely nothing else can go wrong." Famous last words. The plan is to keep it another two years since Mike's truck just got paid off, so that amount will go to helping pay the kid car off in the next few months, then those two amounts will help pay the van off faster, then we'll save up all three amounts for a year or so to go towards a new family auto. . . and it WON'T be a van, or anything Chrysler/Dodge. Just for the record.
Can anyone top our auto woes?
8 comments:
I hate cars. I don't even want to think about the money we've put into old cars. Seriously, it gives me the shivers.
Every car we've ever owned has given it's last full measure of service before dying in our drive way and being towed to the junk grave yard.
The only car worth anything is the car I'm currently driving and I LOVE it. It's worth every dime we've paid and it's been extremely reliable. That's the #1 consideration ith me.
So the number one reason I will never own a minivan--especially not a dodge---is that my parent's van spontaneously combusted in the garage catching the house on fire--not sure what that cost 'em--but now I know their homeowners is wayyy more expensive than it used to be--not to mention the priceless items that were lost (do they win?) I think you just need to buy foreign. Cars are the WORST!
Good, I hate dodge anyway and their stupid logo. You should never get that brand of car. You should get a subaru or a jetta!! :) I just laugh now every time I hear that another one of your vehicles is in the shop. It's become quite ridiculous, and really, I feel pretty bad for you guys!
What a bummer. We've had a good share of car mishaps (mostly Ryan's fault) but the man is a fixer and has the time for it, so I can't complain. I will be sad when he is too busy to spend all afternoon or evening fixing our cars. I suggest buying a used car off of Annie. You know you're getting a good deal and that the car has been very mildly driven. That's our goal in life, just to wait for her "scraps." I do appreciate you not mentioning my "involvement" in Jessica totalling her car, it still haunts me.
I only buy new. Because I am a brat. And it is almost impossible to turn down a 0% interest loan. The only thing I had to take my 2001 Mazda in for was the trunk latch wouldn't work. Come to find out there is a valet switch. Drove that thing for years thinking it was broken. So I'm afraid I can't relate.
I love my Honda mini if you're in the market for vans.
Oh, that's awful. And sadly the resale price will be nothing. We've put some money into the Jimmy, which is money down the drain to me. That cars stinks. But Ryan has a brother who is a mechanic, so he helps us out a lot. That is pretty awful for you guys, and pretty Guinness Book of World Records, I bet.
For the record, of the 3 ice mishaps one of them was someone else sliding into me, totalling the Mazda. As for the other two, I was going so slow on the one that it didn't damage the other car at all, and on the other one I was going even slower and a normal size curb stopped me and made the back end of the van stick out in the intersection just enough to get clipped. What a deal!
P.S. Regarding the lemon van, don't forget the check engine light is still on, even after a couple of repair attempts. Who knows what that will lead to???
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