Who knows about cars? under the hood

[dallasfan]

Mechanics fees are ridiculous now a days. I was quoted by a dealer $450 to change out the front rotors, $300 to change out two belts and $560 to change out spark plugs.

Ended up going to some forums and looking up some DIY and youtube clips and paid less than $100 to do all three. Took me about 5 hours of reading and studying youtube clips but the actual tasks took less than 2 hours.

Driving slow could be a lot of things or a combination of things....Some of which can be very expensive. Better to get something you won't have to throw too much money into.

[Seductive Skyy]

What if I have a mechanic who will do the labor free of charge. Will it be a good or bad deal?

[bored@home]

Kbb.com
Weigh the value of the car against the cost of the part and future repairs.
If they even out then yes, if upside down then no.
As far as the value of the deal...you may be able to make a buck or two if your mech friend will part it out for free: wheels, bumpers, glass, fenders, engine could all be worth than double the 600 but won't happen overnight.

If you are looking for cheap transport I would look elsewhere. I was browsing CL auto today, it is worth a look.
Factor a lot of hourly workers are missing multiple days pay and the holidays fast approaching there some good deals to be had from people in need of quick cash.

[BLM69]

Originally Posted by Seductive Skyy

What if I have a mechanic who will do the labor free of charge. Will it be a good or bad deal?

Free is always great but nothing is free in eccie land lol, make sure he knows what he's doing.

[Seductive Skyy]

Lol you are right about that.. I'll make sure he hits it right.. I mean get it right..hehe

[Look-at-Stupid]

Originally Posted by Seductive Skyy

Lol you are right about that.. I'll make sure he hits it right.. I mean get it right..hehe

a word of advice from someone who buys and sells cars. Visit the Car at Auction in Arlington at Texas Can Academy. For around what u payed for the car u got, u can get one running with papers and all. Stick with something with a Chevy 350 short block engine, they are almost indestructable

[skirtchaser79411]

The only thing besides a bad used car that you can dump cash into is a boat dont walk away from this girl fucking run and get a decent running car

[YohannG]

Originally Posted by biglatinmale

Premium gas lol? It's a 99 Acura not a Ferrari. The issue might be something simple, You need to find a experienced mechanic to diagnose the problem.

All Acuras have a higher compression ratio and are tuned to run on premium. It is NOT worth it to try and put cheap gas in it. The car will literally get worse mileage with regular gas and end up costing as much as the premium. I tried it once with my Acura, I lost about 2 mpg. The Honda versions of the V-6 are tuned to run on regular though and there is NO benefit to running premium in them, they will not make any more power. The Acura loses a noticeable amount of power on regular.

[YohannG]

Almost all the advice given is good, especially by Manslut. I am a former ASE certified Master Tech and I can tell you that a transmission will easily cost 2-5K to repair or replace. One thing you could do, is borrow the car and take it to a well established transmission shop(assuming the issue is a transmission) and pay the fee for a diagnostic check and estimate. Sure you may lose some money of you don't buy the car, but this thing could be a money pit.

Also, what let you to believe the transmission is bad? Did the seller indicate something or are there symptoms? The transmission will likely not cause the car to just go "slow". The fuel, exhaust or computer/ignition would be more likely, as others had indicated.

You might want to consider buying an entry level Kia, it's the end of the year and dealers are itching to move product, weather or not they make a profit(the sales numbers matter more). You could easily pick up a 2013 model for a song and even with moderate interest you could get payments just over $ 200 a month. With a new car you will not have to worry about repairs, just oil changes and such. It's a burden lifted in exchange for a monthly payment.

[oleguy]

Mechanics can be expensive that's why when you find a good one, you keep him. I had a friend recently that had relatively new tires on her Camry. It started making a noise when she was driving it. It sounded like a front end problem to me so I asked my mechanic what he thought. He said it sounded like a tire problem but said take it back to the tire dealer and have them check it. I will add at this point that it was a certified Firestone store. They looked put it up on a lift and looked at it for about an hour. Came back and told her the struts were bad, needed new ball joints and even needed new motor mounts and maybe even something else. She was distraught when she called me. She drove it away and told them that she wanted to get another opinion. I told my mechanic and he said to take it to an independent tire shop. That's where she headed the next day. This place checked her tires and said all she needed was a front end alignment for like $79. She was relieved and they did that the next day. No problems at all and the car has driven fine ever since. I told my mechanic the story and he laughed. Most of these big box stores love to run up the price on everything on an unsuspecting woman. They get a percent of any new parts besides their labor. I suspect they would have said they did all the work and charged her according and she would have paid without having the problem solved. Then when she went back still complaining about the original problem they would tell her that something else had broken and she now needed that also.

[skirtchaser79411]

END OF YEAR PUT DOWN 1000 AND WALK OUT WITH A NEW CAR LIKE A CHEVY CRUZE AT MAYBE 250 PAYMENT WITH FULL WARRANTY

[RACE4GIRLS]

Originally Posted by skirtchaser79411

END OF YEAR PUT DOWN 1000 AND WALK OUT WITH A NEW CAR LIKE A CHEVY CRUZE AT MAYBE 250 PAYMENT WITH FULL WARRANTY

that is if you have the credit. they are plenty of people like Your Car Co and other large tot the note corporate stores that will bend you over for a weekly payment. and some times this is just what people with out credit have to do. on the other hand I have seen plenty of older big cars go for inexpensive , if you are not driving a lot of miles then a big old gas hog will fit the bill, and are practically worthless at the auctions.

if you have good credit you will be dollars ahead to go and get something like a Hyundai , 100,000 warrantee The Chevy Cruze is another example. the diesel version will get close to 50 MPG and had a 50,000 warrantee


If you need a little advice PM me, I will point you in the right direction free of charge and even go and look for you

[Remote]

+1 on the Can academy. The 4.3 Chevy/GMC is just a V6 version of the 5.7 (350) Chevy/GMC. It will run 200,000 to 250, 000 or more if cared for. It was put in some cars, small vans, Blazers, S10/S15 and 1500 pickups. Good moter and better mileage than a 5.7 liter (350) small block.

[YohannG]

That is just fricken criminal, and it's not the first time I have heard that from a Firestone. When I get an inspection they always tell me I need an oil change. How the hell would they know? I use full synthetic and do it myself, so they have no idea how long the oil has been in there or what kind.

Originally Posted by oleguy

Mechanics can be expensive that's why when you find a good one, you keep him. I had a friend recently that had relatively new tires on her Camry. It started making a noise when she was driving it. It sounded like a front end problem to me so I asked my mechanic what he thought. He said it sounded like a tire problem but said take it back to the tire dealer and have them check it. I will add at this point that it was a certified Firestone store. They looked put it up on a lift and looked at it for about an hour. Came back and told her the struts were bad, needed new ball joints and even needed new motor mounts and maybe even something else. She was distraught when she called me. She drove it away and told them that she wanted to get another opinion. I told my mechanic and he said to take it to an independent tire shop. That's where she headed the next day. This place checked her tires and said all she needed was a front end alignment for like $79. She was relieved and they did that the next day. No problems at all and the car has driven fine ever since. I told my mechanic the story and he laughed. Most of these big box stores love to run up the price on everything on an unsuspecting woman. They get a percent of any new parts besides their labor. I suspect they would have said they did all the work and charged her according and she would have paid without having the problem solved. Then when she went back still complaining about the original problem they would tell her that something else had broken and she now needed that also.

[Seductive Skyy]

Just wanted to Thank everyone for helping me out with my decision. I got a car just NOT that Acura.

For those of you who reached out to me through PM...I have specials for you!!

XOXO