JFSinIL2.0 Posted March 23, 2019 Share Posted March 23, 2019 Hubby hit a deep pothole and a few blocks later car died...loose ball bearing wrecked engine. Insurance ( thank heavens for extended warranty) would cover part of replacement cost of engine BUT even a rebuilt is worth more than the car, a ten year old VW Passet with almost 100,000 miles on it. So they totaled the car, sent a check for $5,950. Now, we got this car, used, a couple years ago for about $12,000 or so ( we always by used and pay cash so don,t have to pay off a loan) We can't get another car for much less than $17,000 now. We have to decide whether to come up with the money to add to the insurance check and find hubby a car with 30-40,000 miles on it.....or just add another $3,000 to the insurance check and get a rebuilt engine put in the Passet. Money is tight here... Hubby is leaning towards repairing the Passet, but is it worth it? Aaargh pardon typos. I can only log on and actually post on iPad, which I detest. I read the boards daily on my actual computer, but have never been able to post since the boards changed. Had over 10,000 posts before the change, too. boar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scholastica Posted March 23, 2019 Share Posted March 23, 2019 That’s a tough one. How long is the transmission expected to last? You could get the rebuilt engine put in and have the transmission quit on you on a ten year old car. When were you planning to replace it? We had the transmission go on a 13 year old car recently. It was more than the car was worth to put a rebuilt one in. We had planned to replace it a little over a year out from when it died. We went ahead and replaced it early. Paying that much, knowing that other things could go wrong, and still having to replace it in a year or two weren’t worth it to us to do the rebuilt. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WendyLady Posted March 23, 2019 Share Posted March 23, 2019 My dh would want to repair it and would probably try to do it himself. A challenge! New tools!! Then over the next 3 years everything else will also need repaired - belts and hoses and pumps, etc. and he would also do those repairs, meaning the costs are low, but all weekends are full of car messes. i would let it be totaled and buy a newer car. Which should not start to need those little (and big) repairs for 5-7 years. I would feel thrilled to have the insurance money to use toward a newer car because it is likely more than your older car could have been traded in for. (At least for our older cars) We are in an old car situation and I’m feeling really bitter. My dh is the car guy and he loves to tinker and hates to buy newer cars. He is deployed. I now have 3 older cars (two teen drivers) that all require constant fluid checks (even when temps are below zero). I do not have a single car that I don’t have to worry about stranding us on the side of the road... I don’t mind an old car, I just wish we had one newer reliable car. (And we are in no way struggling financially - possibly because we never have car payments, etc) Cant wait to hear what you decide!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bootsie Posted March 23, 2019 Share Posted March 23, 2019 Because the extended warranty insurer totalled the car, does that mean that nothing else will be covered on that car under the extended warranty? I would look at it from the viewpoint of the total cost to drive the car. Would the existing car and any new car purchase have any significant differences in ownership costs--gasoline, car insurance, state taxes?? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenmom5 Posted March 23, 2019 Share Posted March 23, 2019 my understanding is if you repair a totaled car - the title will be "salvaged" that may affect insurance rates, and what is covered. does that negate your warranty? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
City Mouse Posted March 23, 2019 Share Posted March 23, 2019 Any time I have had a car "totaled" by an insurance company, they took possession of the car we had to sign the title over. If the company did not do this, than I would guess that it is not "totalled" and they paid their estimate to fix it, but I could be wrong. when my dad had a car totaled, his insurance company gave him the option of buying the car back from them which would have been subtracypted from what the company paid him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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