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

[Sigarms]

We've almost always had a pair and a spare when it comes to cars.

Comes in handy some times. Not just for us, but if family flies in to visit, we can loan them a car. If someone else in the family needs to have their car in the shop for a few days, we can loan them one of ours.

And it's kinda nice sometimes to just say, "Which car do you want to take today?"

My supervisor knocks me for having so many cars. Always tells me "it must be nice" to have so much money.

Thing is, he and his wife has two vehicles. For what we paid for all of our vehicles, we are still substantially lower in overall buy price vs his two vehicles.

He just bought his wife and family and new Kia Telluride. Sticker was 62k and he paid over 55k. He was proud of that. Other than our house, the most I ever spent on a vehicle of some sort was John Thomas's F mower, (well under 20K) and even with shipping, thought I got a deal on it for what that mower does out back.

 

[Sigarms]

Maybe that Mercedes isn't so bad in costs after all?

Honestly, no clue. I was never a German kind of car guy other than my dream 911. That said, at the car show my son when to the other week, Nissan has a 400z that might be my retirement car.

 

[MossRoad]

My supervisor knocks me for having so many cars. Always tells me "it must be nice" to have so much money.

Thing is, he and his wife has two vehicles. For what we paid for all of our vehicles, we are still substantially lower in overall buy price vs his two vehicles.

He just bought his wife and family and new Kia Telluride. Sticker was 62k and he paid over 55k. He was proud of that. Other than our house, the most I ever spent on a vehicle of some sort was John Thomas's F mower, (well under 20K) and even with shipping, thought I got a deal on it for what that mower does out back.

We just spent $30K on a used Subaru. That was the 2nd largest amount of money we've ever spent in one lump since 1985! The 1st was this house. And that was less than a the $62K Telluride you mentioned.

 

[MoKelly]

My sons Kia Soul’s engine died a few weeks ago. Kia replaced 100% with no cost and gave him a rental for the weeks it took to get the engine and install.

Kia was not being nice - they settled a class action lawsuit by agreeing to replace bad engines due to manufacturing defects.

Good thing my sons engine went out after the settlement!

 

[Omega Woods]

In 2013, our 2007 Honda Civic Hybrid's battery gave out. We had approximately 80k on the car at that time. We were out of town at the time attending my eldest son's wedding with the car. We took it to the dealership and paid full freight (including freight) for a new battery installed. It was 3k which I was highly upset about at the time (3k was more money then than it is now), but the car was good otherwise and I couldn't get it home the way it was so I bit the bullet and paid the bill.

Fast forward 10 years. My middle son still has the car (we sold it to them in 2016ish) and drives it 100 miles per day back and forth to work and it's pushing 250k and still on that same battery pack. Sure glad I didn't trade it or sell it for no money ten years ago.

 

[ericm979]

$2500 for bodywork after I hit a deer. I only had liability insurance on that car since it only cost me $2500. But it was a clean one owner low mile first gen Eclipse I'd bought from a friend, and it was a lot of fun to drive.

 

[ponytug]

Not counting bodywork, it would have to be replacing the ECM for the Cat 3126 on our big truck. Just rolled over and died on us overnight on a big trip. Part of the price tag was the diagnostics to figure out that it was actually a dead ECM, and then the repair which required getting it towed to one shop to do the initial work and then towed to another to reprogram the ECM to get it running. $3,500? Definitely in the "stuff happens" category. At the time I recall looking into it and discovering that certain models of some cars are especially prone to blowing their ECMs, one of which we owned before a deer totaled it. Sigh.

Bodywork would go to my former mechanic (you will see why he is a former mechanic in a sec). He worked on the suspension and drove the car down the street to get it aligned, and had someone fly out of a McDonalds and move the whole front end forward of the front wheels over about two inches on a heavy duty unibody vehicle. That was more like $7k. The former mechanic folded his arms and said "it is your problem, I was just driving under your authorization and your insurance." My insurer at the time wasn't much better, and I ended up having to have the state Attorney General threaten them to get the insurer to settle. It transpired later that this particular insurer had been dragging out reimbursements and getting kickbacks from body shops and mechanics for storage fees. A few adjuster were convicted and the company had its hand slapped, mildly, in my opinion.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Yander]

Ok, I'll be that guy that has the WTH story that my wife still makes fun of me for. We just finished doing a refinance of our home and we were the last ones in the building of the mortgage company. It was raining and dark and I was running out to get the car so my wife wouldn't have to walk in the rain.

Since I was hurrying, because it was cold rainy and wife was outside under an awning, I didn't bother to flip on my lights. It was 5pm ish in November so pretty dark. I was just going through the parking lot and BAMB, I hit something HARD. I still didn't know what I hit but my head hit the ceiling of the car since I hadn't buckled up yet either.

A few seconds after impact, I see a parking light pole very slowly (like in slow motion) falling to the ground in front of my car. Not kidding. I had smacked a parking light pole, in the parking lot of this multi office building. A lady stopped because she saw it and asked if I was ok, which I was.

Still gives my wife a good laugh as she watched it happen. $4k in repairs to my car.

 

[ultrarunner]

How much for the light pole?

 

[paulsharvey]

2005 Chevy 2500HD, gas, 4x4 extended cab; flipped it over (airborne, backwards, bounced on cap, and landed on tires). Insurance totaled it, or I could get the truck and $10,800. I took the truck, and spent around $6500 for junkyard cab, glass, 3 doors; left the bed and paint alone. Drove it for probably 3 or 4 more years, but took a beating when I sold it. It had transfer case problems (the steel pump eats through the magnesium housing), out put seal, and speed sensor. I think I got $3500 when I sold it. Always wondered if something was just ever so slightly not straight led to those issues? Needed the money more than a pretty truck at the time.

 

[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.