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

[Yander]

How much for the light pole?

I didn't ask, insurance company took care of it though.

 

[Jstpssng]

I can't break it down by repair bill but in 1999 I bought a '93 Dakota from a dealer which should have been sold to a junkyard. It had about 75k miles on it but apparently had never had any maintenance done including oil changes. They cleaned it up using a method known as "putting lipstick on a pig", I was taken in by their "warranty" which was only as good as the shysters who wrote it. When the transmission started slipping they said it was "normal" to take your foot off the gas for it to shift into 3rd gear.
I paid $7500 for it and over the next 18 months spent that much again in repairs. I got so that if I was leaving town I would check with the garage to make sure they would be available if I needed to be towed in. Over the time I owned it the truck averaged 8 hours per week getting worked on. When I traded they stopped working on Saturdays.

Repairs included 2 new, not rebuilt Mopar transmissions; the pump failed in the first one just after it came off the 12,000 mile warranty.

 

[sd455dan]

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.

Yep, Tires has been my biggest expense across the board.

oh wait there was this one Civic DX I bought after a gal took it off roading after having a bit much to drink.

paid $650 for a less than 2 year old car with well under 30 K miles on it, and then spent 2k back when that was real money in parts and paint materials and a month in after work labor. Proceeded to put way over 100k miles on that little DX and sold it with over 180K miles.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

$3500 used to be for new tires for my old Mercedes SL55, but now it is more for new tires for my Payloader.

 

[paulsharvey]

Not long ago, an ABS module un 2012 Dodge Durango, no longer in production, had to be shipped to 'a guy in Canada who can rebuild them, but we can't warranty the work'. Think it was $1200. Funny part, go to pay, they give me the bill, they ask how I'll be paying "money", and they acted like they didn't know what to do with cash.

 

[sd455dan]

I would guess a newer "but out of warranty" diesel with a CP 4 that self destructs would be right up there when first seeing the bill.

 

[oosik]

I've never had anything really break on any vehicle I've owned. So..... $100 to $150 for oil and antifreeze change.

OH - you might consider new tires. $1400 for new tires on the Taco Wagon.

When building our log cabin in Alaska. Went thru three DieHard - Sears batteries. The Warn winch was really hard on batteries. Sears replaced them free - each time.

 

[Sigarms]

I paid $7500 for it and over the next 18 months spent that much again in repairs.

Having always bought used cars my entire life, that is the tricky part on what to expect after you get the vehicle.

I won't say I was burned, but when our boys got old enough to learn to drive, honestly didn't trust them with our primary vehicles. Bought a used 2001 Honda 4 door accord for like $4,500 with 91K on the odometer that we bought at a dealership in Roanoke Va (1 owner vehicle, actually found the woman who owned it and litterally the little old lady who seldom drove the car).

After about 20k put on the car, had to have some engine and head gasket work done. About $3,500 which included new tires.

That bill hit me last year and 2022 was a bad year in car expenses when I totaled everything up with the pilot.

That said, although last year was a bad year, over the 20 years in NC, spent about 46k for 4 used vehicles with a total of 306K on on all the odometers when purchased. Looking at the sticker price at the time the car was made, if we would have bought everything new, total would have been 97K.

The way my warped mind works is even though last year was a bad year in service work, overall if I would have bought the vehicles new at the time, even with all the service work paid out, we still made out on the price difference of 51K between new and used.

Btween my supervisors new F150 and that Kia, he's over 100k for 2 new vehicles.

For anyone who has bought a new vehicle, if you've had no major repair bills, exactly what is the mileage on the vehicle? Way I see it, anything mechanical is going to wear down over time and sooner or later something is going to give. Perhaps I can be convinced new is the way to buy a vehicle

 

[Tomtint]

We typically rotate vehicles out just before they are out of warranty. I do have an old 1999 F150 that has 190K on it. ..I bought it from a friend who had it since new in Fla so it has zero rust. I paid 2k for it and another 600 to get it shipped up about 6 years ago.. Today Im into it for something like 16/17K with repairs... In hindsight..I should have parted it out and made 2k when I first got it. It had 140K on it when I got it..If i get it to 250K... Ill call it a wash.

 

[Sigarms]

We typically rotate vehicles out just before they are out of warranty. I do have an old 1999 F150 that has 190K on it. ..I bought it from a friend who had it since new in Fla so it has zero rust. I paid 2k for it and another 600 to get it shipped up about 6 years ago.. Today Im into it for something like 16/17K with repairs... In hindsight..I should have parted it out and made 2k when I first got it. It had 140K on it when I got it..If i get it to 250K... Ill call it a wash.

Off topic, but you haven't moved to a "rust free zone" yet?

I'm still trying to figure out how my T100 has rust. It was a one person vehicle per the title, and the person lived in NC, Florida and then moved back to NC. 1998 model, bought around 2004, and I still have it.

When I took my son up to the finger lakes last year, he finally noticed what my wife and I talked about how cars take a beating up North per rust.