Entropy Claims My Darling Jetta - Car Trading/Buying Advice Sought

No Toyota love from this crowd?

My first two cars were ANCIENT Toyotas, and they were rock-solid reliable. My 10-year old Corolla started up every day in the dead of Boston winter - I sometimes had to jumpstart my brother's new Subaru from it! It cost me $700 in 1986, and I sold it for $500 in 1989 (with almost 200,000 miles on it).

Our current Prius has 170,000 miles and not a single failure (other than standard maintenance).

The reported problems with sticking accelerators haven't changed my opinion ... Audi had similar issues, which all turned out to be due to drivers being idiots. I've had zero problems with my three Toyotas, and I'd definitely buy one again. (And because of the controversy over the acceleration issues, you can get them cheaper than ever.)

Bears, how much are you looking to spend?

 

*ahem* I cited my very-good-experience owning my '98 Rav4, thank you very much.

 

My sister's beat to hell, poorly mantained 2002 Camry, upon which she's put 200k miles of absolute sadism, still runs great. All she's dealt with is a minor oil leak that cost her a few hundred bucks to fix.

So typical of my sister and I. I take care of my braces, I have to wear them an extra year. She doesn't even brush her teeth when she gets braces, she gets them off 6 months early. She abuses her car, it runs and runs, I take great care of my car, it farts out on me at 125K miles...

Toyota was offering new Corollas with 0% APR for a while after the big sticking pedal controversy happened, but the promotion no longer seems to be running I'm not too spooked by the publicized accelerator incidents, especially when independent study found driver error was responsible for the majority of the reported cases.

As for what I'm willing to spend, at the top of my budget, I'm willing to put up to 12K down, and I don't wish to pay more than $300/mo for 24 months afterward. Ideally, I'd like to pay up to 10K cash out the door for a decent used car, and not bother with payments at all. I HATE monthly payments.

May I ask if your routine mantainence on your Prius has been more expensive than the gas-powered cars you've owned?

 

http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/Kia_Forte/

http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/Nissan_Versa/

http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/Mazda_Mazda3/

 

Not at all ... in fact, the brakes and tires have held up better and haven't had to be replaced as often as our other cars (that's partly due to the fact that we're consciously trying to drive more gently with the Prius to get better mileage, though - it's like a game to see if we can get each tank over 50 mpg).

 

OK resurrecting this thread so you all can laugh at me. Hard. Go ahead, yuk it up.

Shortly after discovering that the car was marooned in my carport because it wouldn't read my foot depressing the brake pedal to release it from Park into gear, my battery died again.

Well this was frustrating. One more freaking issue to deal with. I didn't want to replace the battery, doubting I could recoup even the relatively low cost of the battery on trade in with this gremlin-infested hell machine, I was DONE putting any sort of money into the car. Pissed off and at my wits end, I said fuck it, I'll just take the bus while I decide what to do.

Meanwhile, the car sat in the car port, totally dead, not turning over at all, not responding to anything, collecting dust. LOTS of dust. My carport is a dirty place, but with no access to a spigot, no garden hose, and no way to get it to a car wash, oh well.

I came down this morning to do laundry, and to my absolute surprise, someone washed the car for me. That's right, whoever it was took it upon themselves to break into the locked gate where the spigots are & hit my dead car with a garden hose and knock off the 1/4 inch of black dust that had accumulated all over it.

Now instead of having a broken down, filthy car, I now had a broken down, shiny and clean car!

I have no idea who did this (probably a pissed off neighbor tired of brushing against it on the way to the laundry room and coming away blackened), but I christen them the Car Wash Fairy. Thank you, Car Wash Fairy!



Feeling inspired by Car Wash Fairy's generosity, I said, you know, its been sitting like this for weeks, I should just call AAA and replace the damned battery, it will be one less excuse for whoever buys this car from me to knock the selling price even lower than its already abysmal prospects. So I bit the bullet and paid $125 for a new battery, figuring it would be one less thing to fret over if nothing else.

Well, lo and behold.

The moment the AAA guy says, "ok, try to start the car..." and I turn it over, the idle pops back up to normal, the A/C cranks gloriously frigid air full blast in my face, so hold my breath, press the break, and say wakkala...the shifter moves effortlessly out of Park and into gear.

HAAAlejulah!

The freakin' battery has been slowly dying over the course of several months, delivering ever sporatic, reduced voltages to my various systems, causing them to malfunction. New battery, almost everything went back to normal immediately.

I did a triumphant cruise around the neighborhood, playing "Chariots of Fire" in my head the whole trip.



The alarm is still not responding, but I'm not really carin', and I'm am SO relieved that I dragged my feet and bitched and moaned and took the bus instead of rushing out and dropping 10K+ on another car right away. I'm also more than a little embarrassed that such an obvious, simple solution to these frustrating problems was staring me in the face this whole time yet didn't occur to me despite my knowing that the battery was well past its natural life, and more than a little pissed that my mechanic chased after all this crap and took my money without saying to me, 'y'know, maybe we should test the battery as our first step in the process of elimination...' I'm a bit of an idiot and he's a bit of an asshole. I guess we're a match made in rip-off heaven.

Haven't ruled out buying another car, but I hope I've bought a few more months at least with the Darling Jetta. No doubt more mechanical issues are on the horizon, but I drive the car so infrequently that I hope I can put some serious distance between myself and them for now.

 

^ bloody epic man. great that you got it working. although electrical problems with the bora's are quite common.
had a similar encounter when some jerk shoved a screwdriver through the gas tank of my car. i had even removed the entire freaking engine by the time i realized the problem.

 

That's great, Bears! Like the old saying, "for want a nail ..."

 

Car electrical systems are weird. Battery shorts make them doubly so...

I had a car once, driving down the road, and then suddenly at night, next thing dark, engine dies, nothing. I start looking for the ufo.

After coasting to the side of the road, I take the key from the ignition and try hazard flashers; the interior light started blinking. Like you I thought, "This car is toast..." I took out the battery, replaced it, and everything was fine. The guy at the store said that battery shorts do weird thing. Go figure.

Glad your good to go, drive well...

 

Arrgh I spoke and celebrated too soon.

Car's back to sticking in Park.

 

Well at least it gave you one last good drive.

 

Shoulda immediately driven it to be traded in. Let the dealer think the car is in better shape than it is.

 

I'd hardly call 'around the block' and '2 miles to Aaron Brothers' an epic good drive.

Hindsight 20/20. What can I say, I was relieved about NOT having to hand over savings intended to get me out my current job & help me through school. I thought, 'thank god, that's 10K + I get to keep."

The relief was premature.

 

Something to think about..

This switch has also been linked to Shifter lock issues with the same models of cars..

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?2292493

 

Thanks! I was googling on my lunch break, trying to find this exact information. I found the recall, but couldn't find if there was a connection between it and the issue with the shifter. The second quote on diagnosis and repair I searched for but couldn't find. My google-fu is weak.

 

Hey guys I'm wondering how good these Volkswagen Jetta's are. A friend of mine is near retirement, his 401k died, his bank savings died but he still has some money he is looking to invest some savings, in some kind of chauffeurs town car service in Hyderabad India. I am already suspicious because I heard bureaucracy in India is crazy and so is the traffic, but it's a good business deal and the Volkswagen Jetta's are selling cheap. Maybe too good to be true?