Death of the Camry (UPDATED)
Beth laying flowers on the Camry's grave. RIP
Yesterday I made a post about how Beth and I have cut our costs and are living simply. In what can only be described as cruel irony, that same day we got word back that our Camry’s engine was blown and would require $1,200+ to put a new one in. [UPDATE: Because Cash for Clunkers intentionally ruined so many working engines, the cost has gone up substantially. The cheapest engine we could find is $1,900 with a total cost of $2,300. Equally disappointing is the fact that we would only get between $100-200 if we tried to scrap it] While we are certainly disappointed (read: pissed) it hasn’t been overly stressful because we have some options. The problem is, no option clearly seems to make the most sense.
Last month my parents gave me an old Chevy S-10 they had not been using. It has low miles (for a ’95) and is great for moving things around. We can fit the whole family in it if we need to, but it is super tight. Also, it is a stick shift, which Beth hates driving.
We also have my Saturn (which 2 weeks ago I was trying to sell and then informally abandoned that idea after the interior somehow became filled with junk after a road trip to Chicago). This car is also a stick shift and is beat to crap. It runs great (with 153K on it) but doesn’t have A/C and the interior is all torn up. Again, the whole family can fit in there but no one is happy.
And then there is the Camry. Camries are supposed to be good cars… what happened? (In case you are wondering… Yes… Beth had made sure there was oil in it). It also has 153K on it and the tranny has some quirks. Oh… and the engine doesn’t work. But, it was a great traveling car, got good gas mileage and the A/C worked.
So what do we do? Here are the options we see:
- Scrap out the Camry and go with what we have – Let’s face it, we are extremely fortunately to have an extra car. Beth can drive the Saturn and I can drive the truck and we pocket the few hundred dollars that the junk yard would give us. By far the cheapest option, but Beth hates driving a stick and then we have no car good for traveling.
- Scrap out the Camry and buy something else – We could take what little money the Camry brings and perhaps sell the Saturn too and then buy Beth a new car. We save the repair costs, but selling both cars will probably bring in less than $1,500 and then we have to find a reliable vehicle for a decent price. Sometimes the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know.
- Bite the bullet and fix the Camry – We sink $1,200 into a car that is 11 years old and has a quirky tranny. We could sell the Saturn to help pay these costs. We like the Camry and it meets our needs, but I am hesitant to put this much money into a car that is so old. At some point it costs more to upkeep a cheap car than to buy an expensive car. If we do this and then the tranny goes, we are up the creek.
Any of these options would work and we don’t need a long term solution. We are planning on getting rid of all of our vehicles in 2 years when we move to Swaziland. All we need is something to get us up to that time without being a money pit.
So, we need your help. What would you do in this situation? Is it worth fixing the Camry or should we count our blessings and move on?