What is the most money you paid for service on your vehicle?

Sigarms · Oct 21, 2023

The Subaru thread made me think of this as I made a comment about a large invoice we paid for some service work for our 2008 Honda Piliot.

What is the most you've ever paid for a service invoice for your vehicle and at what point do you "throw in the towl"?

For myself, that Pilot was the biggest one, pushing over $5k (it was a lot of work head to toe, about 4 pages of service work, including 4 new tires which it needed). I know some people would think I'm crazy for that kind of money with a vehicle over 200k on it, but the reality is I look at what I paid for the vehicle vs what have I paid out so far for the maintence of the vehicle, and for ourselves, sometimes a high service bill (for appropriate work to be done) beats paying 15-20k in cash for another used car. Added the pilot is my wifes car so to speak, and she loves driving it.

I had a 98 Toyota Avalon with 399K on it before I junked it per wifes orders (I really wanted to hit 400K LOL). Got to be to the point where my wife refused to drive it due to all the nuances of driving it. Around the 300K mark, had a service bill for around 3.5K. My wife wasn't so certain about that one, but I really liked that car, and in hindsight, getting another 90K of mileage out of it was worth it to me.

Thing is, between my wife and I, we've never ever bought a new car through financing. Try to find the best deal on used, then keep track of maintence dollars vs mileage. That pilot was bought with 75K on it, paid a couple of grand for service over the years for the most part, the vehicle never nickled and dimed us to death, so when it we got with a big potential service bill, since my wife loves the car, and we figured if we ever financed a new car with a monthly payment, the high service invoice at over 200k in mileage has already paid for itself by not having to buy another vehicle.

Currently 4 personal vehicles not including company work truck, so if one vehicle needs work, we aren't in a pinch to get it done ASAP because we always have a ride. My viewpoint has always been to by high dollar ticket items when you don't need to vs an emergency and you HAVE to have it. I'd just rather save on the upfront money of a used vehicle vs a brand new vehicle where you lose money on it driving it off the lot, added both my wife and I have a philosophy of running the vehicle into the ground.

Generally local mechanics who we trust, not a dealership does the work.

I just know my one cousing had a new SUV with 100K on it and when they stopped in to visit, they were thinking of getting something new already due to the high mileage. Heck, all of our vehicles had over 100k on them and I was scratching my head about her comment.

When the boy ships out next month, he'll be leaving his car at home. Yet another reason why my wife not only wants to downsize the house and property, but only wants no more than two cars LMAO.

dodge man · Oct 21, 2023

I do most of my own work so it’s tough to say. I had some rust repaired on a 2004 Ram with a Cummins that was a few thousand dollars if that counts. Tires alone can be over $1000.

MoKelly · Oct 21, 2023

My Honda CRV has 175000 miles. I recently needed new tires, brakes and rotors. That cost me $825. Most I paid so far for that car at one time.

Sigarms · Oct 21, 2023

MoKelly said:
My Honda CRV has 175000 miles. I recently needed new tires, brakes and rotors. That cost me $825. Most I paid so far for that car at one time.

Generally when buying a used car with higher mileage, we look to see what has been done with the timing belt/chain per maintence and play that into the cost of a used vehicle.

You ever change the timing belt on that CRV? That's usually not cheap as if they're doing that, generally the water pump is added in since your halfway there.

Needless to say, on the expensive service bill, both the belt and pump were replaced on the Pilot.

Joel/ak · Oct 21, 2023

Besides tires, in the last couple decades I spent money only on alignments. I can get close with a tape measure but some things I can't do.

Hell, I got a spare engine, transmission, transfer case and a complete front end for my wife's f150.

The super duty I'm sure I'll have to pay a shop for in the future but we got the f150 as a back up if need be.

ultrarunner · Oct 21, 2023

$1300 for transmission rebuild for the truck with torque converter…

Had too many problems with exchange auto parts so had my trans rebuilt and so far so good…

MoKelly · Oct 21, 2023

Sigarms said:
Generally when buying a used car with higher mileage, we look to see what has been done with the timing belt/chain per maintence and play that into the cost of a used vehicle.

You ever change the timing belt on that CRV? That's usually not cheap as if they're doing that, generally the water pump is added in since your halfway there.

Needless to say, on the expensive service bill, both the belt and pump were replaced on the Pilot.

No - I haven’t had to replace the timing belt. Knock on wood!

2manyrocks · Oct 21, 2023

It used to be that there came a point when car repairs exceeded the resale value of the vehicle and they got scrapped. Now that new car prices are so high and used cars are so high mileage, I find myself willing to spend more to repair the cars we already have. The used cars I see for sale have high mileage and I suspect the owners are dumping them for as much as they can get while prices are still high. At least I know what I have with the cars we already own.

Some stuff I do at home to save the hassle of dropping a car off at the mechanic's shop and picking it up, not to mention it's less expensive. Timing belt/water pump replacement isn't the easiest job, but I have done it. I'd rather do it as scheduled maintenance at my choice of time, too.

Not sure how long we can all play this repair game because eventually cars do wear out. Some of that depends on how they are driven and how they are maintained. Evidently, the people in Cuba got pretty good at keeping cars on the road for decades.

If your son's car is good, I'd keep it in storage. No telling what the car market will be like when he needs a car again.

Sigarms · Oct 21, 2023

2manyrocks said:
It used to be that there came a point when car repairs exceeded the resale value of the vehicle and they got scrapped. Now that new car prices are so high and used cars are so high mileage, I find myself willing to spend more to repair the cars we already have. The used cars I see for sale have high mileage and I suspect the owners are dumping them for as much as they can get while prices are still high. At least I know what I have with the cars we already own.

Some stuff I do at home to save the hassle of dropping a car off at the mechanic's shop and picking it up, not to mention it's less expensive. Timing belt/water pump replacement isn't the easiest job, but I have done it. I'd rather do it as scheduled maintenance at my choice of time, too.

Not sure how long we can all play this repair game because eventually cars do wear out. Some of that depends on how they are driven and how they are maintained. Evidently, the people in Cuba got pretty good at keeping cars on the road for decades.

If your son's car is good, I'd keep it in storage. No telling what the car market will be like when he needs a car again.

I'm a lot like my parents and my wife is like her parents. A vehicle is a tool and you need to look to see which one best fits your needs. Other than going from point A to point B, that is all that matters.

Like my parents, I've ALWAYS bought used vehicles. No matter what the resale value is, you're losing money (perhaps different percentages due to the market) when you drive the car off the lot.

Other than in my youth and when I had time, oil and air filter change is the extent to my car mechanic skills.

When buying used, we look at what the car sold for the year it was made along with the same model in the current year (if still made which it generally is). Even though I spent over 5K on the service for the Pilot in question, if that Pilot was bought new in the same year it was made or later when we bought it, the overall maintence costs for owning the vehicle always comes in below the the actual cost of the vehicle at point in time of the sale of the used vehicle.

My son has 2009 Mercedes C300 he paid $7,500 for with 94K on it. Old lady actually moved to the US from Germany who owned it. Miles low for year, check. Original owner, check. Not driven hard, check. That said, after about 6 months, he got hit for a large service bill. As mentioned before, not the first car I'd buy in my youth, but since my son was spending his own money and all the boxes checked for a used car, he's better than me in that he trying to do ALL the work himself on the car other than taking it to third party Mercedes mechanic.

Came home Thursday night after a long drive to Pa for a funeral. He said he had some work done on his car he he wanted to show me (long story, but AMP's on a mercedes is a different animal). He worked out a deal on a AMP that had an issue and only paid labor for for what you see which was around $150 (he said he was "chill" talking to the stereo shop who did the work and they replied in kind because this AMP was nothing but a pain in the butt from the day he ordered it to be rebuilt). For $150 the sound system sounds beyond great, but I don't really see a market for a Mercedes owned by a 19 year old who did a crap load of work on the car by himself to make it EXACTLY like he wants. I told him it's the same thing with the gun market when I sell or buy guns LMAO....

My son told me both my wife and I had the same reaction when we saw it when he opened the trunk... "what the H E double toothpicks!!"