Dying vehicle - Rant

[Tinner]

My younger brother borrowed my pickup today to move some brush.
My wife's car is currently in the shop getting the brakes repaired and a muffler fixed, so we're a one car family right now.
Still, no big deal, family is family, so I loaned him the truck, and he swapped his car with us.

He just called me to tell me that the truck has stalled out on him a dozen times, and the oil light is on.

Now this isn't a huge surprise to me. The truck in question is a 1994 Ford Ranger XLT with 250,000 miles on it, it was also rolled once (by the dealer ... the day I bought it!)
I've had the brakes replaced three times, it needs four new tires & rims, the steering wheel fell off once and has been replaced with a crappy after-market "pimp-wheel"

Suffice it to say, I know the truck isn't gonna be around much longer. It's a heap.
I was just hoping it would last me through the winter.
I'm in the process of losing my job and other assorted financial garbage that is going to make replacing this truck a real challenge.

Sigh ...

 

[Blue_Kryptonite]

Sorry to hear that. We lost our only vehicle one winter when I was on Disability. If that situation occurs again, I'll sell an organ to get something that runs.

 

[Tewligan]

Ugh. I just recently made my last payment on my car. Literally within a week of sending off the last check, the "Service Engine" light came on. Oh, I'm terribly pleased.

 

[DarrenGMiller]

I almost posted a "car trouble" rant this past week. We are a one car family. It is inconvenient sometimes, but all we can afford. Over the summer, our car developed some "interesting" shifting patterns, so I had the transmission serviced. It got better for a time, then came back again. The service was almost $400 with everything I had done. Then, two weekends ago, the blower fan stopped running. Thankfully, my wife's brother, a mechanic, was in town and he found the wire that had burned out. The next day, it stopped idling and the accelerator plate started sticking. I went to a mechanic that I had never been to, who was recommended to me as being honest. He replaced a minor transmission-related part (that tells the engine what gear the transmission is using) and the DPFE sensor (not sure what it is). It was again close to $400 and money is now becoming an issue.

We only have 7 more payments to go on it. We almost traded it in for another car today (for slightly lower payments, but higher insurance), but balked because of the EXTREMELY high pressure salesman who took our keys for a time and brought the "manager" out (a HUGE hitman looking guy name Tony) and they basically threatened us to buy a car. That is when we balked, asked for our keys back and went on our way. Now, we will probably hope our car holds out until the 2006's are being priced to make way for the 2007's a year from now. We have 135,5xx miles on our beautiful 1999 Ford Contour, that is now running nicely (knock on wood). Our previous car, a 1991 Chevy Cavalier served us for over 300,000 miles. We try to take care of vehicles and make them last.

So, consider this a rant on vehicular problems, repair and replacement expenses and high pressure car salesmen.

DM