Poor Girl's Car
 

A friend of mine has a '99 Mazda Protege LX Auto with 138,000 miles. The transmission has died, and the cheapest quote she found to get it replaced is $1,500. It averages about 27 MPG when running properly.

Timing belt, fluids, battery are all relatively new. Everything works great on the car, except the transmission.

What do you think she could get for the car "as is" listing it on Craigs List?

Is it worth having the work done to fix it if it has a private party value of $1,900 when working?

I'm teaching the girl how to drive a manual, and she has about $1000 cash on hand.

What would you recommend this poor girl do? She needs a reliable and safe car to transport the kids she nannys.

Dump the car and pick up a '95-'99 Nissan Sentra with a manual (not the SE). If she can't drive a manual, learn. Automatics in small cars are, in general, not very good.

Relatively low maintenance (timing chain, not belt), reliable, boring, good fuel economy (rated up to 40mpg).

I often see them for about a grand in acceptable condition on CL.

She probably won't get more than $500-600 for the broken Mazda, but try for more. Maybe have her offer to trade straight across for a running car if she literally has no available cash.

The Sentra wasn't even on my radar, thanks for the suggestion. I'll take a look at those. I have been looking at the Chevy Prizm and Toyota Corolla since they should be reliable and economical. She has close to $1,000, and I'm teaching her how to drive a manual.

I'd like to get something '96 or newer so I can use my diagnostic equipment and maybe someday get her an UG. I really want something that will go another 5 years without any major problems. She has had nothing but terrible luck with cars; blown head gasket on a Forester, 2 not at fault accidents in other cars, and now this Mazda.

Head gasket failures are very common in certain Subarus. No surprise there.

Hopefully her luck improves.

I hate to say it, but it ain't worth much, as Darcane stated. $500 if she's lucky as is, or a $400 return on spending $1500 to fix the transmission. So it's pretty much a matter of whether or not she'd want to keep it once the transmission was fixed. I personally would dump it, add whatever she gets for it to the $1000, and buy the oldest Honda Civic with airbags and a 5 speed in the best shape she can find. Usually I wouldn't care about airbags, but if she is hauling kids around then it would be the way to go. The Sentra is also a good choice, as would be a Tercel/Corolla, I am just biased to Hondas. :snail:

Seems like a wash on fixing it or selling it. Could possibly profit $500 by spending $1,500 on a transmission and sell it, or I could sell it as is for $500.

The perfect scenario would be to find a trashed Protege with a blown motor and buy it for $500. Then pay a shade tree mechanic to swap the transmissions. Then I could sell the trashed car to a junk yard for a couple hundred. Still, there is risk of a bad tranny in the junk car too.

Really looking forward to getting her into a manually shifted car so she can start saving some gas money and can forget about transmission issues.

Ya unfortunately in a situation like this, you are pretty much swapping diseases instead of fixing the problem. If she needs a car tomorrow and time is the priority, and the rest of the car is in good shape, then it might be worth just scrounging up the difference and fixing it. But if she can get by for a while without it while you see if you can find a $500 buyer for it, or a parts car, or a cheap Civic etc, then that route is better. There is no way to really come out ahead, it's more a matter of how valuable the downtime is.

You don't get much in the way of a 1000$ car. Unless you have time and patience at least you know this car. Would this car other than the trans last the 5 years? Can't you find a junkyard trans for 500$ or so and it might have a 6 month guarantee. You might find a sweet deal on something or you might get a horrible lemon. Just problem after problem. Civics are always good but priced right go fast.

Check Inventory - Pull-A-Part

Pull it yourself if a 96 is compatible trans is 60$ 25$ core 15$ for 30 day warranty. 150$ and a good friend car fixed. Sorry your not close.

I'm having my fiance drive my Jeep Liberty while the friend drives a POS 1998 Pontiac Grand Prix. Long term, I really want to sell the Jeep, Grand Prix, and Protege and get 2 good cars. I can do a zero-interest loan for the friend, so I don't mind buying the car and getting paid back later. Still need to get the future wife something better (more fuel efficient, reliable, safe). I'm considering an electric since we will be a 2+ car family and I might be able to charge at work for free.

No way to replace it if she(you) think the car's good for 12+ months after replacing the tranny for less money. $150 per month is pretty cheap car, if she makes it to 15 month, that's 100$ month, 3 dollars per day. I'd say replace it (trannY), a 99 isn't that old, 27 mpg isn't that bad if she's not doing 150 miles per day. Get her thinking about a 40 mpg replacment like a Cobalt, and finish teaching her how to drive a manual so she has the ability to choose what tranny she wants.

I have a 250,000 malibu, 262,000 stratus, neither worth $500 to anyone else if I'm lucky, but I couldn't replace them for with as trustworthy cars for $2500. Dang $1200 Altima isn't paying off quite so well until I can get it's fuel consumption figured out.

The 2000-2006 Sentra, with the 1.8L engine, is also a good option. It's often pointed out as one of the less pollutant vehicles of its class :thumbup:

Soooo....you are interested in buying some eco cars, and are within driving distance of Vancouver?? Ah, step into my office and have a cigar, do I ever have some deals for you!! ha ha :snail:

I actually live in Vancouver... Washington. When I tell people I work in Vancouver, they assume BC. Just shows how lame the U.S. city is when people assume you work in the Vancouver that is 300 miles away instead of the one that is 15 miles away.

If fuel prices and exchange rates are any indication, I'm guessing there are no deals to be had in BC. Besides, I wouldn't wish this difficult buyer on any friend of Ecomodder. I'm also a forum member of Slickdeals and Fatwallet.

EDIT: LOL, just saw your Tracker CEL post.

Well, the same friend needs another car again.

As a quick update, I sold her Mazda, My Jeep Liberty, and my wife's Pontiac Grand Prix many years ago.

This friend was given a 1999 Lexus EX300, but today it was rear-ended and pushed under a truck. It was showing signs of transmission wear and she described the final shift as "hard".

She follows people too close in traffic and uses the pedals as on/off switches. Even when nobody is on the road, she'll alternate between heavy acceleration and backing completely off the throttle, often causing a downshift and then an upshift.

So she's hard on transmissions.

Assuming she has $4,000 to work with, what car would you recommend? A manual would hold up better, right? I'd be concerned about syncros and clutch though as she is an aggressive shifter. You think a Prius drivetrain would hold up to constant on/off acceleration?

I do think a Prius trans would hold up well. Everything is 'buffered' by the motors, so there is no shock loading that can go on. MPG will surely suffer quite a bit with on/off type driving. But, at least you're starting with a higher bar than most. The 2nd gens are notorious for being reliable too.

She should ride a Hardley- sounds like she'd be a natural for that. :rolleyes:

She hates loud noises. Maybe riding a Hardley would cure her inability to maintain a steady throttle position.

I know of a high mileage Prius that uses quite a lot of oil like a quart every 500 miles. I think it is an 07 or 08 and it has 200k miles. Just saying my 200k mile Saturn doesn’t use any.

For that money I would buy a second generation Prius. I've had 2. The 2005 I sold when it was 12 years old with 145K miles. The 2009 was 10 years old and had 116K miles. Both were boring but dead reliable. Neither burned oil between 10K mile changes. Both returned 45 mpg in mixed driving.

The only thing require besides routine maintenance was changing the valve for the thermos. It costs less than $100 to do yourself and is technically easy just unplug a connector and loosen the hose clamps. No need to drain the coolant per the service manual. (It helps to have small hands though) The dealer will want $400.

The taxi guys get 300 - 350K miles on them with the original battery.

The Prius "eCVT" is just a single planetary gear set that connects the motor to the wheels. To accelerate the electric motors feeds in torque as required.

For $4000 she should be able to get a clean example with less than 150K miles.

If it's a manual do you think she will work on holding throttle? Since she would be having to shift up and down all the time.

I've heard this before, which makes me think it's not uncommon. Where is the oil escaping from?

No.

Someone mentioned that one model year had issues with burning oil. I think it was 07 but I am not 100% sure. My 04 has no oil issues at all with 150k on it.

She's getting $4200 for her 1999 Lexus ES300 with 150k miles on the odometer, which I think is a good deal for her.

Ford Fusion Hybrid/energi has a similar planetary gearset to the Prius, right? What other cars have such a design, or something equally indestructible by constant accel/decel?

I'm looking at the following hybrids:

Altima
C-max
Fusion
Prius
Camry
Highlander
Escape

In your price range the Ford Escape Hybrid and Toyota Highlander Hybrid.

The 2008-2011 Altima Hybrid used a licensed version of Toyota's HSD.

Nissans new hybrids just put the electric motor between the engine and traditional transmission like Honda's old system.

Yep, Ford hybrids are pretty similar to Toyota's. My parents own the '06 Escape hybrid I had. It has over 200k miles now with few issues.

Any way you could convince her to drive better?

Probably not. I already told her the reason her Mazda and now her Lexus has failing transmissions isn't because they were poorly built, but because she isn't a smooth driver. I've got another friend who drives exactly the same way, and he's gone though at least 4 transmissions that I know of, always saying his cars have bad transmissions. He also once told me to take the car off cruise control when it started raining, and was surprised when I told him I hadn't had it on at all during the past 2 hours.

She's got a bit of a "what can you do?", in a rhetorical sense, type of personality. As if we're all caught up in the currents of life, with nothing to do about it.

Very smart girl, just too focused on the negative things to realize she's got it pretty good, and it could even be better.

Are these friends of yours doing the scheduled maintenance for their cars? Most automatic transmissions require servicing. My VW is every 40K and my Chevy every 50K miles.

If not, that is another point for the Prius. The transaxle does not require fluid changes.

Not sure...

I know one of them has taken the car in several times for a Jiffy Lube flush (don't know what that entails). I've never actually done ATF service on a car and I've never had any problems, even on cars at 230,000 miles. I have dropped the pan several times on my truck, drained the fluid, and changed the filter. The truck will actually burn the ATF since it's capable of pulling heavy loads up steep hills.

Cars have no reason to burn ATF, and my theory is that people who have failing auto transmissions are probably just hard on them by making them shift constantly, and under hard acceleration.

Anyhow, broke girl now has a $4,200 check, so this weekend we'll be looking at the cars below. I think hybrid is the way to go considering her constant accel/decel method of driving. Any cars I should add or remove from the list?

Do any of these have timing belts instead of timing chain? I'd like to avoid that maintenance item too.

Altima
C-max
Fusion
Prius
Camry
Highlander
Escape

Looks like a pretty good list to me.

A fluid and filter change is all that is required. However it is critical as ATF fluid breaks down over time. It is also important to put in the correct type of fluid per the manufacturer’s spec.

Agreed, but the common thread is that transmissions die under the operation of these 2 individuals. Plenty of other people I know drive older cars, and similarly neglect maintenance, and don't have dying transmissions. I know it's anecdotal, but I also see the similarities in the way the 2 people drive.

Give me a Camry and I'll drive it 300,000 miles without a single ATF change. Not saying neglecting maintenance is fine, only saying that many (most?) people don't keep up on these things and they don't have problems. BTW, the Camry manual only says to check the fluid every 30k miles, and says nothing about a change interval. Other cars specify an interval of 100k to 150k miles.

Uber

DAD! Is that you?? :D

Found a 2013 C-Max hybrid SEL with all options, a reconstructed title, and 44,000 miles on the odometer. Talked the Russian down to $7k on it. Sending the poor girl to get it this morning.

It had been rear ended but I see no frame damage, the repair was made with OEM parts, and everything functions properly.

Sounds like a nice find to me. I'd be all over that haha.

Yeah, I'm jealous now because it's a nicer car than anything I have, and I paid $13k for a branded title Prius Plug-in that was 2 years old, and $17k for my TSX when it was 4 years old.

The silly thing is, our friend kept having me look at ads for things like a Jeep Compass AWD, and other SUV/CUV with automatic transmissions. She'll blow the tranny for sure, especially in something as shoddy as a Jeep. That rubbish heap has a meager 155 hp motor that gets 23 MPG. Edmunds comment was why would you buy the Compass when everything else in the class is better.

There was controversy when it came out because Ford rated them at 47 MPG, but it turns out they are more like 40 MPG in the average owners hands. I'm hoping our friend can crack 40 MPG and get addicted to saving money at the pump.

Congratulations from Ford C-max hybrid :) Question how does sheet metal look like? no rust? Because in Europe, Ford knows that after 2 years, rust eats the whole car :(

No rust. We don\'t use salt in Oregon, so rust is hardly ever an issue.

The friend is headed to the DMV as we speak. Hoping this car serves her well despite her driving style.