In 2013, my husband and I bought a used 2011 VW Routan (rebadged Chrysler Town & Country) minivan to replace my then failing 14 year old car. In anticipation of me quitting my job to stay home last year, we paid it off with stock option money.
The car has been an absolute maintenance nightmare. It's been in the shop every 2-4 months consistently with major issues (endless battery and electrical issues, starter issues, new brakes so often it's ridiculous) and minor problems that are annoying enough they have to be fixed immediately (sliding door stopped working, drivers side window came off the track and slipped into the door twice in a month, drivers side exterior door handle broke twice in a month--while I was 9 months pregnant). So many I cant keep track anymore. The local (wonderful) auto shop knows me and the car quite well now. It's such a pain in the butt to be without a car suddenly, too. Luckily I have family nearby to help me out, but with my husband's residency schedule, it's usually me jumping through hoops to make it all work. We have spent $2700 since January of this year in repair bills alone. The total since we bought the car is about $6000--granted some of that would include regular maintenance, but the majority is not.
At any rate, the plan was to keep it until my husband was done with residency/fellowship in 2020 (potentially a few years beyond if it was still reliable) and then buy a 1-3 year old Odyssey from the newest model that was just released and keep that for the next 8-10 years.
Yesterday the check engine light came on again and the code implies transmission issues. It might be a simple ($300ish) fix or it might be a "you need to rebuild or get a new transmission fix." If it's the latter, I'm not dumping $3-5k into a car barely worth $5k that has this many issues.
So if it is another $300, what would you do? It's worth about $5k fixed. Do we keep dumping money in it and hope we can make it last another 1-3 years? Do we sell it and buy something almost as used, but more reliable before it breaks again? (Probably a 2011-2014 Odyssey) We could swing a $200/month car payment for the next year with moonlighting money, but I'm not excited about that. In 1-2 years he will be able to make "big" moonlighting money and we could probably buy the car we want (the 2-3 year old new model Odyssey) and keep that for a very long time.
I will never ever ever own another VW or Chrysler again.
The car has been an absolute maintenance nightmare. It's been in the shop every 2-4 months consistently with major issues (endless battery and electrical issues, starter issues, new brakes so often it's ridiculous) and minor problems that are annoying enough they have to be fixed immediately (sliding door stopped working, drivers side window came off the track and slipped into the door twice in a month, drivers side exterior door handle broke twice in a month--while I was 9 months pregnant). So many I cant keep track anymore. The local (wonderful) auto shop knows me and the car quite well now. It's such a pain in the butt to be without a car suddenly, too. Luckily I have family nearby to help me out, but with my husband's residency schedule, it's usually me jumping through hoops to make it all work. We have spent $2700 since January of this year in repair bills alone. The total since we bought the car is about $6000--granted some of that would include regular maintenance, but the majority is not.
At any rate, the plan was to keep it until my husband was done with residency/fellowship in 2020 (potentially a few years beyond if it was still reliable) and then buy a 1-3 year old Odyssey from the newest model that was just released and keep that for the next 8-10 years.
Yesterday the check engine light came on again and the code implies transmission issues. It might be a simple ($300ish) fix or it might be a "you need to rebuild or get a new transmission fix." If it's the latter, I'm not dumping $3-5k into a car barely worth $5k that has this many issues.
So if it is another $300, what would you do? It's worth about $5k fixed. Do we keep dumping money in it and hope we can make it last another 1-3 years? Do we sell it and buy something almost as used, but more reliable before it breaks again? (Probably a 2011-2014 Odyssey) We could swing a $200/month car payment for the next year with moonlighting money, but I'm not excited about that. In 1-2 years he will be able to make "big" moonlighting money and we could probably buy the car we want (the 2-3 year old new model Odyssey) and keep that for a very long time.
I will never ever ever own another VW or Chrysler again.
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