Last week we talked about our 1991 Alfa Romeo Spider S4. It needs a new top, which will cost around $2,000.
Well, that was just the tip of the used-car repair iceberg.
About a year ago, my teenage son Bradley acquired a Volvo V70.
I had started him out with a 1982 Corvette Collector Edition when he turned 16. (Wouldn’t you secretly want to do the same?) From there he also put miles on our 1971 Jaguar E-type V12 coupe and the Alfa S4.
But those were not his choices either. He found the Alfa old-fashioned and slow, and the Jag too big and heavy.
His favorite car was actually our 1971 Mercedes-Benz 250C, which was perfect for his gang of four to take to the beach and back.
When SCM Editor-in-Chief Jeff Sabatini mentioned that he would be selling his automatic 1998 Volvo V70 T5 wagon, I saw Bradley’s eyes light up. A little florid for a Volvo, it is red with factory mags.
Jeff had put about 3,000 miles on it in his 18 months of ownership. He had given the car a tune-up and made some other minor repairs, although it had not really had a thorough going over by an expert. But it had been reliable and seemed fundamentally sound.
A price of $3,000 was agreed upon, and Bradley had the perfect car to take to Lane Community College in Eugene, OR, about 100 miles south of Portland. The first thing he did was “invest” every penny saved from his summer working at AutoZone into a $2,000 stereo, with amps, subwoofers, and speakers. Now he had a classic Volvo with tunes.
Over the next year, he put 12,000 miles on the car without spending another penny on it. Of course, all good things must come to an end.
Finally, when the front wheels began to whine and growl like a pair of unhappy banshees, Bradley took it to the local Volvo specialists, Vol-Tech.
Vol-tek sent an estimate, and you check off “yes” or “no” on the things they find and the repair cost. You won’t be surprised that I agreed to all of it.
The total was just over $3,500. The big-ticket items were a new driver-side axle for $640 and the passenger-side wheel hub at $744. By comparison, the $10 driver’s low beam bulb and $20 for new wiper blades were bargains. There were numerous other minor repairs, and we also got an oil change ($156), had the transmission serviced ($369) and flushed the brake fluid ($193).
Have we fixed everything now? What will it need next?
This brings my repair investment in two of our used cars to well over $5,000 in the last month. It’s only money.
Would you have put that much money into a 28-year-old Volvo that had already covered 250,000 miles?
I look forward to reading your answers below.
Read my previous blog posts here.
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