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I'm sorry I'm not more familiar with the history of your car; I'm sort of new 'round here. I read your post yesterday and have been thinking about it some today as I wrestle through my head gasket job, so I thought I'd throw my opinion in. This is probably more for me to convince myself to keep mine! Hahaha kidding. Mostly.
*Are the 'rust issues' that bad?
-If body work and welding are out of your command, hire someone. There still are good people out there, who are experts in their craft, that are willing to work hard and do a great job, for good old fashioned CA$H. Especially now given the global economic climate. I found a reliable, well spoken, trustworthy, ex-SAAB mechanic through CL that is willing to make house-calls for the critical steps of my HG repair as I've not done one yet. I'm paying him a reasonable sum for his time, while he teaches me. I know that site also has many bodywork/welding people needing money. At the end of the day, it's just metal.
*Can you get the pieces you need from the junkyard?
-There are plenty of donor 9000’s available at junkyards (at least around here, northeast MA) and a battery powered sawz-all will get you what you need. Bring along some strong tin snips, mallet and cold chisel. Cut off more than you need so you can trim it later. If your car is not in danger of falling apart or becoming a safety issue, you can take your time and get the right, rust free pieces, potentially from multiple vehicles. Google searching turns up bonafide lists of bone yards, state by state.
*Do you have the space at home or elsewhere to temporarily house a donor parts car?
-If you had the space at your home or somewhere else, you could pick up a parts car so you're not in a rush getting what you need off of it.
*A newer vehicle will bring with it higher insurance, and potentially a car payment? Not to mention the agonizing first 6-9 months of waiting for all the gremlins to pop out. If you are buying a "new" used vehicle, no matter what you're still buying someone's problems. If you already know exactly what your car needs, and can tolerate the SAAB quirks & oddities, I would not be in a rush at all to get out from under it.
*Even brand spanking new cars can suck.
- I bought a brand new VW GTI in '02 and it left me stranded twice with less than 10,000 miles on the clock. And a little salt for the wound was the windows dropping to the bottom of the door in the winter. Nice. Newer and fancier may just land you with something that’s even more difficult to work on, or having more problems in the end compared to what you're dealing with now.
*If you’re throwing sentimentality to the wind, decide based on annual cost of operation.
- If you need data, calculate your current annual cost of operation and compare that number to the cost of what it takes to get a new or newer vehicle on the road and all that comes with it, down to the penny if you can. Usually, it’s in your favor to keep what you have. But you have to go with your gut.
Car's have not changed since they were invented somewhere around the turn of Last century, if you think about it...We replaced the horse and carriage with 4 rubber wheels, a chassis, a motor, seat and steering wheel.
Car's serve the same function today, as they did back then. Certainly a bit more fancy, but transportation none the less.
You need a car.
If you still love yours, don't get rid of it.
Don't stop driving it either. The worse thing for a car is to not use it (pending proper storage conditions).
No matter what you end up with, it’s still going to require your time, energy, and cash.
, Fri, 21 Sep 2012 09:39:22, Fri, 21 Sep 2012 18:02:22
, Fri, 21 Sep 2012 22:49:10
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