Car Advice

[EastTNHunter]

I’ll say one last thing about this scenario that I feel rhymes. Sometimes you have a vehicle that is worth more to you than it is on paper. It may be ugly or imperfect, but it’s reliable. Like the ‘14 Subaru Outback with 335k miles that my daughter has that was rear ended by another college student driving a Hummer H3. We were adamant with the insurance comp that we wanted to do everything possible to keep from totaling that vehicle because we would be hard pressed to find something similar to it in as good of shape cosmetically and mechanically despite the miles. We knew its history (I replaced the motor myself at 300k with a low mileage used motor).

Thankfully they and the body shop obliged. If not then we would have been out of pocket quite a bit for another vehicle that we had less history on it’s maintenance and condition.

 

[elkantlers]

I should have added that the 1,200 is for both sides to be completely redone and my mechanic said that for some reason these come with the wheel bearings as well? I looked up the parts and it does appear to be a larger assembly with bearings included.

I would call and get a quote for just the brake cylinder. Why replace the wheel bearings if they aren't bad?

Or better yet, do as suggested and buy the part and learn how to do it from YouTube. I know for a fact that YT has saved me many thousands of dollars.

 

[Greyman]

Your car has a unibody instead of a frame. If it's a rust bucket, then eventually it will be unsafe to drive. It will be worthless then. I would be hesitant to put much money into that vehicle. If it were me, I would find someone that will fix the one brake (or do it yourself if you feel comfortable with doing that) and sell it while it's still running.

 

[accubond]

Well, I appreciate all the feedback and in the end, I went with the "I can't replace it for $1,200" philosophy and told my mechanic to go ahead with the repair. This very well could be a big mistake, but this is the first gamble I've taken on this car in 15+ years, so I rolled the dice.

 

[Letthemgrow]

You should feel very lucky to get 300k out of a focus.
We bought 6 of them as fleet vehicles years ago and they all started detonating at 200k.
It was just one thing after another.
Great MPG though.

 

[buckbull]

Average car payment is now $750 on a new car. $1200 isn't even 2 months. I would have done the work myself but paying the $1200 wasn't a mistake.

 

[accubond]

You should feel very lucky to get 300k out of a focus.
We bought 6 of them as fleet vehicles years ago and they all started detonating at 200k.
It was just one thing after another.
Great MPG though.

I think this car would have been long if it weren't for the manual transmission. I've been driving a manual my whole life and if I would have bought this car with an automatic I believe I would have had one of the early versions of their CVT which seems to be the bulk of their problems.