Transmission woes.

TehSpectre

My girlfriend and I have lived together for 2 years now and we work different shifts and whatnot, so there has been a need for 2 cars for jobs to work out. This is her 2nd car now to die out on us.....it is a '94 Ford Taurus which seemed to be in great working condition until it stopped shifting into anything past 1st gear. We took it in to get it checked out and lo & behold....it needs a transmission overhaul.
This would cost us around $1400 to $2100 to get it fixed up. I am tired of spending $ on cars so my question is this:

Is the transmission overhaul worth it, at this point I am wondering if I should buy a new "used" car....maybe with 6k to 8k miles on it for around $8000 and just have a nice working car for a good amount of years. The Taurus has 150k miles on it.

Should I buy a new-ish car, or stick to the one I have and get the transmission overhauled?

FyreWulff

I'd say get a new-ish car for that money. Plus that's a helluva lot of miles on that car, and you wouldn't be able to sell it for anywhere near as much as you put in it (cars aren't an investment in the first place, but this would be just throwing money away)

powerss

Get a new car my friend.

Zeon

Dont sink 2k into a taurus. Youll never get it back, and other shit will just keep breaking, especially if youre over 150k.

Hell for 2k you could probably get another used 1994 taurus and rip the transmission out of it.

Fats

Fuck no, get rid of that car. My Mom has had two of the things, and 150k is pretty much the end of them.

ViolentChemistry

Get a not-Taurus.

Ruckus

Second'd.

I like Nissan, my dad has been driving Toyota for 10+ years now. Both make excellent cars for commuting (sp?). My sister has my dad's first (1997) Tercel, which now has over 350,000km on it (about 250,000 miles I thinks). I drove it two weeks ago and it feels exactly the same as it did when I drove it during highschool five years ago. And that's in here, in Manitoba Canada, where we're just coming out of nearly two months of -20 celcius or colder weather.

My first care was a '92 Nissan Sentra which I took from 150,000 to 300,000 before I had to upgrade to a 4x4 (the sentra ran fine, but didn't have the ground clearance I needed just to get to work). I ended up buying a '98 Pathfinder, which I've gotten up to 220,000 now. It needs a bit more maintenance due to being 4 wheel and a slightly bigger/badder engine/drivetrain, but overall I've had to spend way less than I originally budgeted.

Grundlterror

Hondas have always done me right. I had a Nissan and it had a plethora of problems (although I had used it for pizza delivery, as I did the Honda and all I needed to replace on that was the radiator). But yeah, don't fix the Taurus just ditch it.

DaySleeper

I've had few complaints from my Toyota Echo (apart from tires which are pretty unavoidable). I tend to shy away from Fords as they tend to do well for the first little while and then everything kind of falls apart at once. I heard from a former Ford owner that they stop stocking the parts after about 10 years as well, though I cannot attest to the validity of that statement.

Jimmy King

DaySleeper wrote: »

I've had few complaints from my Toyota Echo (apart from tires which are pretty unavoidable). I tend to shy away from Fords as they tend to do well for the first little while and then everything kind of falls apart at once. I heard from a former Ford owner that they stop stocking the parts after about 10 years as well, though I cannot attest to the validity of that statement.

The 10 year thing is probably true although probably varies depending on the car and the part. I had a '94 Taurus SHO and as early as 01-02 there were parts for it that were unavailable from Ford

As far as the reliability, yeah more or less true. I've owned all Fords and as a general rule I've found that the motors are reliable as hell as long as you do your maintenance (except in the v6 SHO and that motor was designed and built by Yamaha) but everything else is questionable.

saltiness

You can probably spend $4k on a Honda or Toyota that will be 100x nicer than that Taurus ever was.

Spackle

You can take the money you plan to put into the car as a downpayment on something much nicer with a lot less miles.

yea, this means you'll have a car payment every month but the benefit of reliable transportation is totally worth it.

oniian

Values for a 1994 Ford Taurus GL Sedan 4D with 150,000 miles in *******
on 02/20/2007
Vehicle Condition: Fair Good Excellent
Trade-In Value: N/A N/A $2,155
Private Party Value: $1,450 $1,855 $2,155



Judging from what cars.com is saying about the value of your car privately held, the ROI of the transmission doesn't justify the purchase. It could all depend on how well kept the engine is and whether it was replaced at some point and how tight your financial situation is currently. But assuming that the engine is the original and car was less than rigorously maintained then it probably is best you go with finding a new vehicle.

EggyToast

If you plan on driving the car for a long period of time, get a Japanese car. That Taurus is essentially worthless, as even with the transmission you couldn't sell it for $1400, all put together!

My coworker owns a mercury something, from 99, and his car had $2000 of work, just routine stuff, last year. His car is worth under $1000, I believe. Another friend had a 97 Taurus and in 2004 his steering column went, costing him $2000. My car, a 98 corolla, has had some problems but even with the cosmetic dings is valued at $3000! And we've never had problems with the engine (just the occasional sparkplug issue, and I think we're due for a new battery before next winter). Whenever we've taken in it, it's preventative (as in, we think the serpentine should be replaced, or we really need new brakes) not critical.

A lot of american cars are just junk if you plan to get any sort of long-term use out of them.

Oden

The thing with the Ford Taurus is that you either get an abosolute tank that never dies, or you get the complete opposite in which your transmission goes to shit.

You got one of those.
Get another car.