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What to do with a car that's falling apart (sell/trade)?

crazyquik

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Originally Posted by ms244
Craigslist is your best choice to sell the car. Dealer will give you almost nothing for it, car will go straight to auction. There it might bring a grand.

The cat noise is probably the CV joints, about $80 a side in parts, if you have a wrench/socket set and some jackstands it should take you an hour or so per side to change over.

The transmission stuff maybe a little more complicated, the rest I wouldn't care about if it passes inspection.


I was thinking power steering pump.
 

indesertum

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i have a 96 camry with maybe same mileage and mine does the cat bag noise too when i turn the wheel too much. i'm pretty sure it's the power steering. i also have problems with really squeaky breaks, but **** costs too much to fix. i'm looking at sinking a grand plus into a car that cost maybe 3 grand when i got it like 6 years ago. i've already sunk quite a bit into it over the years.
 

bigbris1

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Then there's always this:

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uhurit

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Get rid of it by trading it at a dealer: the car is worth about $500-700, or so. They'll show you a "car allowance" of about $1k, and make you feel better. The dealer will not keep it, but most likely will unload it to a "wholesaler"

Or else: donate it and take a tax-deduct, if possible
 

fkl118

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A couple of years ago I needed to get rid of an old Acura Integra that was barely road worthy.

I was planning to donate it to charity through http://www.charitycar.ca/
They come and tow away your car then recycle and sell off what they can and donate the value to one of the participating charities of your choice. You then get a tax receipt from that charity.

In the end I just sold the car to some kid for $1000.
 

The Deacon

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Originally Posted by Davidko19
nothing sounds unsafe, but Im no mechanic.

At this point I'd drive it until it was literally dead or had a major repair issue. Delay that car payment as much as possible and save up the cash for a nice down payment. Im not sure what the specifics are, but cant you donate it to charity or something for a nice tax write off? Dont know if thats better than private seller though.


That's the advice that I received for my similar situation-2000 Lexus LS 400 with 341,000 plus miles. Mechanic said drive it till it drops at this point and he will not perform another timing belt service. It still drives well but you never know when that'll change.
 

BP348

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I would think a trip to a decent Mechanic is in order. Once you know whats wrong and have a good idea on how much it will cost to fix you can make a decision. Right now you're just guessing.

I would think if it's $1000 or less and you can get another year+ out of it it would be worth it to fix. During that time you can save all you can and then trade it in or sell it and use the money from the car and what you've saved as a good down payment.
 

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