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

[unquietsoul5.livejournal.com]

Well I'm no an expert on cars, and the person I used to depend on for information about such has been gone for some time now (My grandfather was a professional mechanic for many many years).

That said, I know that he often said that if you had to put as much into the car as you bought it for in repairs, and it's less than a decade old, then it wasn't a bargain.

Either that particular make, model and year was a bad one, or this one has been thru something that you don't know about before you bought it. Either way, it may be time to look elsewhere for transport.

With transmission and fuel pump problems both showing up, one has to ask how the electrics are acting, whether it's ever had some 'odd smells' and whether it's gas milage is up to snuff. Could be it's got a lot more miles on it than you believe, and is suffering from a lot of wear, or it could be water/flood damage that's been covered up. (Not impossible in FL to say the least).

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Yeah. It really sounds like someone put lipstick and a prom dress on a pig.

Generally, two year old cars don't make it to auction, unless they're part of an estate sale or something. If this car got traded to a Toyota dealer, he'd have it detailed, do any needed repairs to it, and put it on his lot with a warranty or "Certified Pre-Owned" or summat. If it got traded in at, say, a Chevy dealer, he'd sell it at wholesale to his buddy across town who runs a Toyota dealership, perhaps in part exchange for this very nice two year old Chevy SUV that just got traded in. Or he might just try to sell it himself, out of the "used" end of the lot.

The exception to this is "fleet sale" cars like rentals. It's why a 2yo Crown Vic is worth less than half of a new one--it's because so many ex-rentals hit the used-car market at that age. And ex-rentals or ex-corporate-fleet cars generally get sold at auction.

So for this car to go to auction, it'd' almost have to have been something with a bad history. Anyone with access to CarFax want to run the VIN through it? I had a Carfax account when I was car-shopping back in december but I let it expire.

Assumptions

[(Anonymous)]

FWIW this was a fleet sale, and vehicles sell at Florida auction for anywhere from 2 - 4,000 less than the same vehicle up north. Gotta know how to buy em.