My 1999 VW Jetta, which was purchased new and has served me for 12 years, has decided on a career/personality change of sorts. It's gradually gone from sweet reliable transportation to a surly 4 door money pit of Sarlacc-like proportions.
I consider myself pretty lucky, actually, as 10 of those 12 years were almost free of mechanical and electrical issues. I took very good care of the car, kept the oil changes/routine maintence up, and was rewarded with 0 problems outside of a failed cadallitic converter when the car was already 8 years old. Apparently, if one goes by the myriad of VW hate sites out there, this particular model and vintage typically did in their owner's sanity and bank accounts many years before my car did in mine.
Mi carro, when she was younger, prettier and not a fussy BITCH.
Alas, the universe tends toward disorder, and my car is not exempt. The big problems started two years ago, when the cooling system failed a part at a time over a period of 3 months. I shelled out almost 3K over the summer to replace it. At the time, I still pretty fresh out of school, paying high rent with a low wage, and didn't have enough money to buy another car, even a junker. Gee, I wonder why:
Then, the radio, cassette deck and CD player went batshit insane. CD player ate the cartridge (I still haven't pried free it and the discs that are still in there), the radio turns itself on and off at random, and the cassette deck also turns itself on and off, constantly flipping and searching for a ghost tape, and shredding any real cassette unfortunate enough to be fed to its electronic maw. I haven't even bothered to attempt to fix it.
Then, the A/C compressor clutch inexplicably sheared off and the car made a screaming banshee death wail on the freeway that almost made me lose bladder control, and I found myself stranded, at 11 pm, in South LA. Not a safe place to land. I would have just gone without A/C, except the mechanic informed me that the compressor clutch was attached to a chain that turned this wheel that moved that belt which regulated this other chain that would Fuck. My. Shit. Up if I didn't fix it.
Another 1K to replace the compressor and prop up the system. Less than 6 months later, the A/C stopped blowing cold, and the fan won't shut off while the car is running. God dammit.
In the course of replacing the compressor, the alarm system/keyless entry stopped working. Two mechanics and 1 dealership counting, no one can figure out why it stopped working or how to fix it. The pros told me that they see this very occasionally, and if I was just patient, it would come back...eventually.
Which it did, uh sorta. Came back 2 months later by spontaneously locking and alarming the car, refusing to disarm, and disabling the ignition. Disconnecting the battery worked once or twice, and then didn't after that. The fucking alarm would intermittently hold my damned car hostage.
At this point, I said, um, maybe I should take the bus a lot more? I was already a transit rider for my commute, but I began to concentrate my savings for a newer, better car. Gas, parking costs, oil changes, etc - all calculated and tossed into savings.
Then, a slick began to accumulate in my car port, and the car almost ran dry twice, well within the 3000 mile oil change parameters. I was barely driving the thing, but running out of oil every thousand miles or so. Ruh Roh. I took it in, hoping that I had a simple broken seal or something like that, and wound up sinking a grand in it to fix:
*2 major oil leaks;
*Transmission oil pan leak, which was causing my transmission to slip out of gear when cold then kick violently back in, throwing me into my steering wheel on more than one occasion;
*Major leak in the differential;
*Leak in my front axle, which was dripping corrosive acid onto my brake pads.
Lovely.
I got the car back, only to find that the idle had been reset below stall speed. Fan-fucking-tastic. Hoped I could just adjust a screw or something, but nooooooo, it's controlled by the CPU and has to be reset with special equipment. Took the car back to the mechanic, who fixed it for free.
The battery went dead because at this point I would go weeks without driving it, and on one stint I just went too long without starting the car. I jumped the battery, only to find that not only was my idle back down below stall, but my cruise control was disabled, my door locks and alarm disabled again, my ABS disabled (chances are my airbags are disabled as well, but I'm in no hurry to find out!), and my favorite: the sensor that reads the brake being depressed, that gives permission to release the car from park and put it in gear - Disabled.
All other frustrations aside, the car is currently sitting useless in my carport downstairs, because I can't get it out of Park. It's been less than 2 months since I put that 1000 dollars in it to fix those leaks.
I think the car's CPU brain has gone senile, because when hooked up to a diagnostic machine, everything looks peachy, even though this dysfunctional, demon-possessed thing flails and bitches before our very eyes. Autohiemers disease or something.
fuck fuck fuckity-fuck fuck it all I'm over it I'm trading it in. 
If I planned to stay in LA for much longer, I'd stick with the bus and not bother, but I want out of here, which in SoCal, means moving into a transit desert. I'm also job hunting, which may take me to places where the bus won't cut it. I'll need a car for my next phase in life.
I've never traded a car in. My dad bought this car for me when I was 16 (spare the entitled princess comments please) and while I accompanied him through the process, it's been a very, very long time and I have forgotten the particulars of car shopping. My dad is no longer around to give me advice or a pushy salesman the stink-eye.
I already have a plan for buying the car, I have enough saved that I could theoretically pay cash for an OK used car, but I've had too many rainy days in the past few years to want to do that. I'm paranoid of possibly pending catastrophes so I want to keep my savings cushion largely intact. I'm thinking a large down payment with a reasonable APR.
I'm looking for a gas-sipper with long term reliability, in the market for a certified used car, because I'd rather have some other chump take the depreciation hit lol. My Jetta has 125K miles on it; I'm disappointed that I have to make this decision now instead of another 125K miles from now.
So, any advice on unburdening myself of this car and getting a newer, more reliable one? Advice both in a good car to buy and the finer points of negotiating and purchasing would be greatly appreciated.
I consider myself pretty lucky, actually, as 10 of those 12 years were almost free of mechanical and electrical issues. I took very good care of the car, kept the oil changes/routine maintence up, and was rewarded with 0 problems outside of a failed cadallitic converter when the car was already 8 years old. Apparently, if one goes by the myriad of VW hate sites out there, this particular model and vintage typically did in their owner's sanity and bank accounts many years before my car did in mine.
Mi carro, when she was younger, prettier and not a fussy BITCH.
Alas, the universe tends toward disorder, and my car is not exempt. The big problems started two years ago, when the cooling system failed a part at a time over a period of 3 months. I shelled out almost 3K over the summer to replace it. At the time, I still pretty fresh out of school, paying high rent with a low wage, and didn't have enough money to buy another car, even a junker. Gee, I wonder why:
Then, the radio, cassette deck and CD player went batshit insane. CD player ate the cartridge (I still haven't pried free it and the discs that are still in there), the radio turns itself on and off at random, and the cassette deck also turns itself on and off, constantly flipping and searching for a ghost tape, and shredding any real cassette unfortunate enough to be fed to its electronic maw. I haven't even bothered to attempt to fix it.
Then, the A/C compressor clutch inexplicably sheared off and the car made a screaming banshee death wail on the freeway that almost made me lose bladder control, and I found myself stranded, at 11 pm, in South LA. Not a safe place to land. I would have just gone without A/C, except the mechanic informed me that the compressor clutch was attached to a chain that turned this wheel that moved that belt which regulated this other chain that would Fuck. My. Shit. Up if I didn't fix it.
Another 1K to replace the compressor and prop up the system. Less than 6 months later, the A/C stopped blowing cold, and the fan won't shut off while the car is running. God dammit.
In the course of replacing the compressor, the alarm system/keyless entry stopped working. Two mechanics and 1 dealership counting, no one can figure out why it stopped working or how to fix it. The pros told me that they see this very occasionally, and if I was just patient, it would come back...eventually.
Which it did, uh sorta. Came back 2 months later by spontaneously locking and alarming the car, refusing to disarm, and disabling the ignition. Disconnecting the battery worked once or twice, and then didn't after that. The fucking alarm would intermittently hold my damned car hostage.
At this point, I said, um, maybe I should take the bus a lot more? I was already a transit rider for my commute, but I began to concentrate my savings for a newer, better car. Gas, parking costs, oil changes, etc - all calculated and tossed into savings.
Then, a slick began to accumulate in my car port, and the car almost ran dry twice, well within the 3000 mile oil change parameters. I was barely driving the thing, but running out of oil every thousand miles or so. Ruh Roh. I took it in, hoping that I had a simple broken seal or something like that, and wound up sinking a grand in it to fix:
*2 major oil leaks;
*Transmission oil pan leak, which was causing my transmission to slip out of gear when cold then kick violently back in, throwing me into my steering wheel on more than one occasion;
*Major leak in the differential;
*Leak in my front axle, which was dripping corrosive acid onto my brake pads.
Lovely.
I got the car back, only to find that the idle had been reset below stall speed. Fan-fucking-tastic. Hoped I could just adjust a screw or something, but nooooooo, it's controlled by the CPU and has to be reset with special equipment. Took the car back to the mechanic, who fixed it for free.
The battery went dead because at this point I would go weeks without driving it, and on one stint I just went too long without starting the car. I jumped the battery, only to find that not only was my idle back down below stall, but my cruise control was disabled, my door locks and alarm disabled again, my ABS disabled (chances are my airbags are disabled as well, but I'm in no hurry to find out!), and my favorite: the sensor that reads the brake being depressed, that gives permission to release the car from park and put it in gear - Disabled.
All other frustrations aside, the car is currently sitting useless in my carport downstairs, because I can't get it out of Park. It's been less than 2 months since I put that 1000 dollars in it to fix those leaks.
I think the car's CPU brain has gone senile, because when hooked up to a diagnostic machine, everything looks peachy, even though this dysfunctional, demon-possessed thing flails and bitches before our very eyes. Autohiemers disease or something.
fuck fuck fuckity-fuck fuck it all I'm over it I'm trading it in. If I planned to stay in LA for much longer, I'd stick with the bus and not bother, but I want out of here, which in SoCal, means moving into a transit desert. I'm also job hunting, which may take me to places where the bus won't cut it. I'll need a car for my next phase in life.
I've never traded a car in. My dad bought this car for me when I was 16 (spare the entitled princess comments please) and while I accompanied him through the process, it's been a very, very long time and I have forgotten the particulars of car shopping. My dad is no longer around to give me advice or a pushy salesman the stink-eye.
I already have a plan for buying the car, I have enough saved that I could theoretically pay cash for an OK used car, but I've had too many rainy days in the past few years to want to do that. I'm paranoid of possibly pending catastrophes so I want to keep my savings cushion largely intact. I'm thinking a large down payment with a reasonable APR.
I'm looking for a gas-sipper with long term reliability, in the market for a certified used car, because I'd rather have some other chump take the depreciation hit lol. My Jetta has 125K miles on it; I'm disappointed that I have to make this decision now instead of another 125K miles from now.
So, any advice on unburdening myself of this car and getting a newer, more reliable one? Advice both in a good car to buy and the finer points of negotiating and purchasing would be greatly appreciated.
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Your Jetta sounds like a right clusterfuck, Bears. A certified used car sounds like the way to go. As long as it's got low miles and has been inspected and all known issues fixed, you should be OK. Get an impartial mechanic to look at any car you intend to buy, too, just to make sure nothing gets missed.
I feel your pain.
