Some Assembly is Required

KARNUT · May 21

Some people love their vehicles. My wife says unless I can find a low mileage replica. A new engine, transmission or paint job is going to happen with her car if necessary. It’s a high mileage cream puff worth about 6K. The new replacement is about 60K. So a 10K engine and transmission replacement, no problem.

Grumpy Bear · May 22

4 hours ago, asilverblazer said:

As an example, Grumpy, If, someone hit your truck and caved in the driver's door to the point it won't open and close. Repair estimate in the 4-5K maybe as high as 10K range. What would your course of action be?

Fix it.

Cost tells me what someone else want's. Worth is what others will pay. I don't pay much attention to worth. Worth retail? Wholesale? Private sale? Auction? Salvage? Insured total? All are different but it's same vehicle. They exist to make someone other than me money on that trade/purchase. :idiot: Value? That is mine to determine.

Value is personal and her value to me is more than her worth to anyone else. Value isn't shared experience like the market is. Part of that value is in knowing that each time I put the key in her she will cost me money and that number is far lower than anything currently being build that would be a direct replacement if there were such a thing. There isn't. But that's just part of it.

I bought that truck for about 50 cents on the dollar with thirteen hundred miles on it. It was headed to auction. "Nobody" wanted it. YUCK A 6!! RCSB with a 300 hp V6. My best current dealer offer was recently a few thousand more than it listed for. "Somebody" wants in now but not beat to crap and worn out. She's not for sale. But tell ya what. If she got bumped for a $10K, that cost and what I paid for it is still less than that offer. As impressive as that is....I don't care about that.

She is reliable, economical in every sense of the word, sharp and fun to drive. What are they selling now that would tempt me? Nothing. They don't build this truck anymore. I can add another but not replace her. Priceless.

And still, if it were compacted between to Semi trucks, unfixable. She already owns me nothing. I'm not out a penny. That sir is value. IMHO.

Edited May 22 by Grumpy Bear

garagerog · May 22

Local Chev dealer sent me an e-mail with their featured vehicles. Every single one of them was an $80K+ p/u truck and sure enough when we drove by there this am on the way to an early am med procedure for my wife, same ones were lined up front row. I would dehydrate so I wouldn't have to pee for a good while, buy a base Stingray C8, drive the snot out of it and have some fun before they had to use an engine hoist to get my old bones out. I'd rather take the depreciation on a "lightly used" life long dream than pay $80k for a gussied up utilitarian vehicle.

KARNUT · May 22

I let my family members buy them now days. They come over to let me drive them all proud. I thrash on them for a few minutes. Hand them back and happily drive my payment free old stuff.

asilverblazer · May 22

17 hours ago, Grumpy Bear said:

Fix it. ...

...And still, if it were compacted between to Semi trucks, unfixable. She already owns me nothing.

Not faulting your opinion, the problem I have with 'fixing it' is that they are never the same afterwards.

I factor repairability in there somewhere. Watching crash test videos, seeing the impact literally ripple from bumper to bumper, it'll never be 'straight' again. It becomes a sad story of "it was such a great truck..." I worked hard on it, took care, of it, maintained it well, it looked great...

I suppose that's when you land at your last point. To me it's hard to walk away from a certain level of 'investment', whether it's taking time to fix, maintain and repair an otherwise 'unseemly' vehicle. I've had several experiences finding myself with vehicles that I put quite a bit into, time, repairs, maintenance, effort, improvements, $. For various reasons, they're no longer around, some I made money on, some I lost, some I broke even. Some I'm glad are gone, some I wish I'd kept, none of them I HAD to get rid of. Circumstances at the time just didn't warrant keeping them in the driveway. I've found that regardless, most of them aren't in my driveway much past 5 years. My favorite and best was around for about 15 years.

However, the current fleet, the Yukon my wife drives, and the Silverado look like they'll surpass the average, nothing new is compelling enough.

The Yukon though is starting to show some age, door dings, fading plastics, more rattles, wear on the interior surfaces all cosmetic, but soon will follow drivetrain wear, wheel bearings, cv-boots/shafts, ball joints, tie-rods and bushings, many non-serviceable, 170k miles, 10 years old, close to the point where the maintenance tab is going to go up, marketable value is about to go off a cliff. To me, its end of life soon, the minor cosmetic issues will start becoming eyesores. Minor complaints will become major annoyances with no practical resolution. Finding interior rattles, nope. Recovering arm rests, new steering wheel cover, polishing or replacing plastics, fix all the door dings for a new one tomorrow. (Things a new one would be subject to, too.) Death by a thousand annoyances or one major item (a locked-up engine from poor maintenance :lol: ).

Just lease one.

Grumpy Bear · May 23

5 hours ago, asilverblazer said:

Not faulting your opinion, the problem I have with 'fixing it' is that they are never the same afterwards.

There are a few situations where I walk away. Flood or fire damage and major hail damage. The afore mentioned trapped between two semi trucks and rolled into a ball of tin foil. Tornado and flipped on her top. :crackup:

But those are also salvage situations. Have an uncle that bought a 36 Ford with a 60 horse flathead that transplanted the motor/trans into numerous vehicles eventually logging a million on the power train. Valves were lapped about 300K miles. Eventually it ended up as a working display for the Anamosa School district's auto shop program. Finally laid to rest when he was. It was his first ride. 36 C cab.