Car troubles: advice please?

[xiphias]

So, the garage just told us that we likely need a new oil pump in our car. They're estimating somewhere around $2,000 in work.

It's a 2000 Toyota Camry with around 110,000 miles on it.

We're trying to figure out whether it's worth repairing, or if it's time to get a new (to us) car.

Usually, this would be a no-brainer -- Camrys are really reliable, usually, and 110,000 isn't a whole lot of miles on a Toyota. And this one has a new transmission because we replaced it last year. And brand-new tires which were just put in last week.

But, see -- new transmission, new tires -- if we do this work, it'll mean we've put $6,000 in the car in the past year. Given that we paid $6000 for the car to start with, that seems . . . well, it's time to ask whether we want to repair it or not.

As my mother pointed out, that's two major things in the four years we've owned it. As reliable as Camrys usually, are, it suggests that there may be something off with THIS one. . .

Any advice from y'all?

Comments

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

...I don't know about Consumer Reports, anymore. I don't trust them when it comes to reviewing cars. I know this makes me sound like a crank, but they gush so much about Hondas and Toyotas, and slag GM products so much, that I've suspected editorial bias on their part for years. I don't think they've ever fully forgiven GM for the Corvair, nor Ford for the Pinto. It seems that stuff that GM and Ford get raked over the coals for, gets a pass when Honda or Toyota does it.

[lietya.livejournal.com]

You may be right. I've noticed the same thing, although I also have noticed that Honda and Toyota DO have fewer problems overall (so I wonder if it's not specifically a bias towards *them* as towards vehicles which "cause them less trouble" in terms of having fewer issues).

(On the other hand, I'll take sludge over vehicles which randomly burst into flames, a problem Ford has recently re-developed. :) )

I cited them only because they're a recognizable name; most other sources appear to agree that it's a problem from 1996/7-2001 and that it's not something which crops up with great frequency. I *do* at least trust their data, with the usual caveat that it relies on self-reporting.

I do think we're coming to the same conclusion here, though : this car's probably not as reliable as its brand and age would suggest.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Are you referring to the Crown Vics that explode when struck in the rear, or the Fords that catch fire while parked due to a faulty ignition switch? :-) (The annoying thing was that when the police officers' unions complained about the exploding Crown Vics, Ford retrofitted the police-service cars with a gas tank shield, but not the civilian cars. Bleh!)

With the huge number of Camrys in the road fleet (they've been the #1 most popular car in the US for some time, in a 3-way race with the Accord and the Taurus), even a 1% incidence of oil sludge means a lot of vehicles, and a lot of complaining vehicle owners.

And yes, the number of problems with this car really suggests it's either a "Monday car", was abused in its previous life, or was in an accident.

[lietya.livejournal.com]

I was thinking of that most recent ignition-switch issue, but the Crown Vic problem was a memorable one too. (I didn't know that about the civilian cars - good grief, you'd think exploding customers would eventually be a problem!)

It's true, even a low-occurrence problem is going to inconvenience and distress a lot of people when we're talking the kind of numbers Toyota puts on the road.

I guess we got lucky that our two Camrys neatly bracket the problem years - 1993 and 2004, respectively. :)

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Ford's position is that vehicles in police service are a lot more likely to be involved in a high-speed collision.

[lietya.livejournal.com]

Which is doubtless true, but a bit.... cold-blooded.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Insert Fight Club quote. :-/

[felis-sidus.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth... The way Consumer Reports comes up with their reliability ratings is to survey their subscribers regarding actual frequency of repair on cars the subscribers actually own. It's a pretty basic numbers game as opposed to an opinion poll. Overall, I've noticed that the more expensive models tend to be rated lower in reliability. I suspect this may be because they have more "bells and whistles", and therefore more opportunity to have things go wrong.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

There's also a difference between an electrical fault that means the light in the ashtray goes out, and an alternator that fries at 21,000 miles and leaves you in a shopping mall parking lot waiting for the tow truck. Both of those get filed under "electrical" without regard to severity. I'd really love to see them rate cars according to "show-stopper" problems: ones that result in the car needing a tow, or failing inspection, or lighting the "CHECK ENGINE" lamp on the dashboard. Those kind of problems are a lot more serious.