Time to say Goodbye?

I'd just patch it until I could afford to put it too rest.

My '95 Concord has 125K kms, runs like new and I'll just patch it until something is made that turns my fancy.

If you don't need the car, then it's only function is a pleasure car. If you don't enjoy driving it anymore then sell it.

If it was mine I'd sell it, I've read many times that these years Neons were disposable cars that were thrashed to death. I also understand these are very popular cars with the young and stupid 20 somethings to "pimp out" which means if you did sell it, your going to get more for it than it's worth. On the other hand, I'm riding a motorcycle nowadays and having a lot more fun doing that than I ever had driving around my small cars (all of which are sold, now)

It's been said before by a lot of folks and it's not bad advice, that if you are going to own a "spare" car, that a truck is a pretty smart thing to have for a spare.

Now, I've gone through rebuilds on both transmission and engine on my past and current cars. Here's some things I've learned that you might want to chew on:

1) You can usually find wrecking yard engines that are in lots better condition and are way cheaper than having your engine rebuilt - unless your engine is a known weak design. For example, any 3.0L Chrysler Mitsubishi engine you find in a wrecking yard is going to be no better than what you have. But, the yards are full of 3.3L and 3.8L Chrysler engines in great condition. 2) If you sink the money into a rebuild on the engine then the transmission is guarenteed to die while there's still plenty of mileage left in the rebuild, so when you make the decision to put the money into a rebuilt engine, your also making the decision to put the money into a rebuilt transmission whether you realize it or not 3) A rebuilt engine will have plenty of longevity unless the rebuilder botches it, and no matter how good the rebuilder is, they are not as good as the factory when the engine rolled off the assembly line. (unless of course the engine is a known weak design) In other words, you are assuming more risk when you buy a rebuild on an engine than when you buy the engine new in the new car. Warranties can take care of this, look carefully. 4) If a tree falls on the car the day after it comes back from the rebuilder, will the insurance company pay you what you put into the car? Talk to your agent. 5) You will NEVER get the money out of the vehicle that you put into the rebuild if you ever sell it before it just completely conks out. So plan on owning this vehicle for a LONG time. If you really like it a lot, great. If your just looking at it for economic reasons, if there's any small niggling annoyances on the car, those annoyances will become major annoyances long before you have recovered what you put into the powertrain rebuild. 6) The older the vehicle body the harder it is to get parts for it. A 10 year old vehicle is still easy enough to find body parts out of the wrecking yards, a 20 year old vehicle is completely different. If your vehicle is 10 years old now and you do an engine rebuild, by the time the rebuilt engine is ready to die, you will have a 20 year old vehicle. 7) It is usually wiser to rebuild a vehicle that started life out with a high dollar value.

Engine rebuilds work great for commerical vehicles that see a lot of yearly mileage, like in the 20K miles a year or above. The reason is that what you got going is a practically new body with a worn out engine. A rebuild is a nobrainer.

But a 10 year old vehicle with borderline paint, that is different, a rebuild is more difficult to justify economically. Your taking a lot higher risk, and you need to weigh things carefully. If you can do your own work, then it will probably work out - but it will only be a good deal, not a fantastic deal.

Ted

Do you enjoy driving the car? If yes, do some work to keep it going. If it is just another appliance, get rid of it and get another replacement appliance.

-------------- Alex