Season 23, Episode 1 of the Great Super-Dooper Trooper Saga: When Do You "Just Let Go?"

[BonzaiDuck]

Since last year with a HO2 sensor replacement along with a couple others, I've reached the "light at the end of the tunnel" and believe I'm standing in bright sunlight there.

But annual repair and replacement expenses for a continued restoration still leave me with questions.

I had, for several years, figured that paying out $1,000 annually to keep up the Trooper with repairs and replacements is a reasonable expectation.

This year -- not for damaged wheels or similar disasters -- I decided that I MUST swap out my wheel bearings (first for the front wheels). It's going to cost me that $1,000.

The front ones had not been repacked with grease since 70,000 miles previous: We're at 207,000 on the odometer, and the record shows the attention to bearings occurred at 136,000. These are the original wheel bearings! They also have endured for 207,000 miles! But, as of today, they don't make any grinding or other noises, and this only seems to be "preventive maintenance" overdue.

The Tranny was replaced with a Reman unit in 2004, now with an accumulated 85,000 miles. The engine with the full 207,000 miles takes a licking, keeps on ticking, with no valve-lifters sticking. Doesn't use a drop of oil, and now runs quiet and smooth. It still gets me 19 mpg HWY.

I read in the AAA Vehicle Purchase Guide of some 135 pages that there is a breakeven point where annual repairs equal or surpass resale value, but I come away thinking this is a good thing: the annual maintenance expense is just an ongoing periodic cost of having an "almost Free Ride". I was never planning to sell my orphaned ISUZU, so resale value has little tangible meaning other than -- possibly! -- this concept in the AAA guide.

Am I correct in all this? I derive a non-pecuniary benefit just in the sense of accomplishment committed over 23 years . . . My Trooper is B-b-b-BAD! I'M B-b-b-b BAD! It's GOOD!

Other than what's been done so far, the two big items -- Tranny and Engine -- don't have me worrying about any breakdowns in the near future -- as many as 5 years hence. By that time, I may just pay for any rebuilds or re-mans.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

My break point is when the cost of repair becomes a down payment on a replacement vehicle.

Until a couple years ago I was driving a 2000 Lexus ES300 that was basically held together by stop leak and duct tape but the engine was good, tranny was good, and the breaks worked so I just kept driving it.

One day smoke starts coming out the air vents and lo a cracked exhaust manifold. Performance and gas mileage were still there but I knew the car's time was near. Kept driving it but with the air recycled so smoke didn't come through the vents. Then one day smoke from under the hood, manifold had complete failed and now I was on the hook for a couple thousand.

Almost 300K on the odometer on that sucker.

Donated the car to my local public radio station and took what I'd need for a repair and put it down on a new car and I'll drive that till it's falling apart.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Right away, your descriptions call to mind a scene from an old Clint Eastwood Crime Drama: Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. Which scene?

The bit-part actor may have been Bill McKinney. He was driving this black Ford Galaxy with Eastwood and some of his crew as passengers. They discover he had hooked up his exhaust so it was ported to the closed trunk door.

He was trying to poison a whole bunch of white rabbits, and he was so intoxicated by the monoxide that his behavior was quite a spectacle.

I would likely not have continued to repair -- sorry, but call that "restore" -- if I'd had any problem with the engine or the tranny. But the engine runs like brand-new-plus-30,000-miles. The tranny doesn't leak or slip. It was replaced with the reman unit 80,000 miles past.

Even so -- what is "a down payment on a new car"? When I window-shop CARMAX, I specify a "down-payment" of $20,000. I'm still short about $15K to $20K to pay for the new car outright, so I continue to shop.

I'm determined to "feel good" about the wheel bearing swap-out. My outlay this year should only be about 20% of annual car-payment total for 6 years on a new ride. So whether I pay cash or sign a car mortgage, I think my strategy is still a good one.

Anyway, you mention a parallel strategy: buy a new or low-miles-Preowned vehicle, and drive it till it drops. My problem, whether or not it's a dilemma you adopt as your own, is a hesitance to invest in new technology while it is still in flux. Should I get an ICE SUV like a Bronco Sport? Or should I get an EV -- a "BEV" if you will? Or should I get a Hybrid, or PHEV?

All my vehicles run tip-top, so I tell myself not to hurry. I offer that I've spent maybe $28,000
on the Trooper since I bought it in 2002 -- the total including the $8,500 price I paid for it then. Right away, some might exclaim that it seems like a lot of money, but that's nominal dollars spread over 23 years. 23 years is almost four 72-month car-loan cycles, so start with a vehicle of some price -- say, $30,000 -- and assume a trade-in value of $10,000 after each six years. Would you have spent $120,000 minus (4 x $10,000) = $80,000 nominal dollars?

This is all just "new territory" for me -- keeping up a restoration and maintenance over 23 years, going out on a limb with assumptions that the engine will live forever -- all the anxieties one might have.

But! I can buy a new or lo-miles pre-owned when I really NEED to do it! Cash on the barrel-head, with more personal saving and some better stock indices in future months and years.

 

[Greenman]

Since last year with a HO2 sensor replacement along with a couple others, I've reached the "light at the end of the tunnel" and believe I'm standing in bright sunlight there.

But annual repair and replacement expenses for a continued restoration still leave me with questions.

I had, for several years, figured that paying out $1,000 annually to keep up the Trooper with repairs and replacements is a reasonable expectation.

This year -- not for damaged wheels or similar disasters -- I decided that I MUST swap out my wheel bearings (first for the front wheels). It's going to cost me that $1,000.

The front ones had not been repacked with grease since 70,000 miles previous: We're at 207,000 on the odometer, and the record shows the attention to bearings occurred at 136,000. These are the original wheel bearings! They also have endured for 207,000 miles! But, as of today, they don't make any grinding or other noises, and this only seems to be "preventive maintenance" overdue.

The Tranny was replaced with a Reman unit in 2004, now with an accumulated 85,000 miles. The engine with the full 207,000 miles takes a licking, keeps on ticking, with no valve-lifters sticking. Doesn't use a drop of oil, and now runs quiet and smooth. It still gets me 19 mpg HWY.

I read in the AAA Vehicle Purchase Guide of some 135 pages that there is a breakeven point where annual repairs equal or surpass resale value, but I come away thinking this is a good thing: the annual maintenance expense is just an ongoing periodic cost of having an "almost Free Ride". I was never planning to sell my orphaned ISUZU, so resale value has little tangible meaning other than -- possibly! -- this concept in the AAA guide.

Am I correct in all this? I derive a non-pecuniary benefit just in the sense of accomplishment committed over 23 years . . . My Trooper is B-b-b-BAD! I'M B-b-b-b BAD! It's GOOD!

Other than what's been done so far, the two big items -- Tranny and Engine -- don't have me worrying about any breakdowns in the near future -- as many as 5 years hence. By that time, I may just pay for any rebuilds or re-mans.

207k is in no way exceptional. I expect 250k reasonably trouble free miles out of every vehicle I own. Past that is when I start thinking it's a good vehicle.
If cost is the only factor you almost can't go wrong keeping the Trooper running. That said, you need to look at your own reality. You're old and have no heir's. If you have a pile of money laying around why not buy a new rig? Give the Trooper to someone that's in a tough spot and buy something that makes you smile.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

207k is in no way exceptional. I expect 250k reasonably trouble free miles out of every vehicle I own. Past that is when I start thinking it's a good vehicle.
If cost is the only factor you almost can't go wrong keeping the Trooper running. That said, you need to look at your own reality. You're old and have no heir's. If you have a pile of money laying around why not buy a new rig? Give the Trooper to someone that's in a tough spot and buy something that makes you smile.

I agree almost 100%. The money is definitely "there". I'm just still reticent because there doesn't seem to be a single sure-shot direction to the developing technology. That's "first-of-all".

Second, I'm not deluding myself or making excuses, but the Trooper makes me smile a lot. I'll go out today to the park to make my 1-mile walk, and I'm going to love every minute of the drive to get there.

 

[Greenman]

If you enjoy driving it and it's reasonably reliable, why bother with something new?

 

[BonzaiDuck]

If you enjoy driving it and it's reasonably reliable, why bother with something new?

"Price of gasoline?" "Eventual famine for old-car parts?" "The pussy-chase factor?" "Make my neighbors stop giving me the (imagined) jaundiced eye, for nursing a 30-year-old ride?"

I think you have a point with that. It's now a "habit". I've been "planning" or "thinking" of buying a new vehicle for 15 years. It was almost the primary reason I started boosting my saving account before 2009.

At least, if I'm as old as Clint Eastwood's Walt Kowalski of "Gran Torino", I don't have any Hmong neighbors, and if I did, they wouldn't want an old Trooper. And -- especially -- I don't have those signs of cancer with the bloody expectorations . . . SOMEBODY might want an Old Trooper, but I'm in no hurry to find out who they are.

But, like you may have thought with your earlier remarks, some friends or relatives suggest that I might want a new ride when I'm getting ready to punch my ticket for the next life -- so I won't "miss something" that I can probably afford. Somehow, that possible prospect doesn't make me all sechsually excited and eager to make all the preparations and do the truly profound shopping by arranging test-drives for myself.

 

[Greenman]

Consumerism is short term excitement. The excitement of a cool new car goes away with the first dent. Then life sucks.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Greenman! GREEE-N MAN!! CHECK THIS OUT! Am I one of the Early Visitors to stumble on this? Nobody ever EFF-ing said a thing to me! It may still be fully unknown by the auto-enthusiast public!

Or -- is this some fantasy my mind has concocted? Am I having INTERNET HALLUCINATIONS? I DID take a gummi with breakfast . . . Maybe I stepped into an alternative universe:

2025 ISUZU TROOPER -- YouTube video

 

[Fenixgoon]

My break point is when the cost of repair becomes a down payment on a replacement vehicle.

Until a couple years ago I was driving a 2000 Lexus ES300 that was basically held together by stop leak and duct tape but the engine was good, tranny was good, and the breaks worked so I just kept driving it.

One day smoke starts coming out the air vents and lo a cracked exhaust manifold. Performance and gas mileage were still there but I knew the car's time was near. Kept driving it but with the air recycled so smoke didn't come through the vents. Then one day smoke from under the hood, manifold had complete failed and now I was on the hook for a couple thousand.

Almost 300K on the odometer on that sucker.

Donated the car to my local public radio station and took what I'd need for a repair and put it down on a new car and I'll drive that till it's falling apart.

I agree with this, with the added condition that maintenance must not impede your ability to get to work for income purposes.

I think OP is retired, so that is not as big a deal.

 

[bbhaag]

Consumerism is short term excitement. The excitement of a cool new car goes away with the first dent. Then life sucks.

This seems to be a pessimistic approach of looking at a new purchase. I've made several new purchases over the past few years and each one still brings a smile to my face when I use them.

 

[bbhaag]

Greenman! GREEE-N MAN!! CHECK THIS OUT! Am I one of the Early Visitors to stumble on this? Nobody ever EFF-ing said a thing to me! It may still be fully unknown by the auto-enthusiast public!

Or -- is this some fantasy my mind has concocted? Am I having INTERNET HALLUCINATIONS? I DID take a gummi with breakfast . . . Maybe I stepped into an alternative universe:

2025 ISUZU TROOPER -- YouTube video

You should not get your hopes up about Isuzu entering back into the North American market. I'm going to be blunt. It won't happen.

 

[Greenman]

This seems to be a pessimistic approach of looking at a new purchase. I've made several new purchases over the past few years and each one still brings a smile to my face when I use them.

I'm just not a fan of buying for the sake of buying. It's a short term thrill for me. My house was brand new when I bought it 2.5 years ago. The day we moved in it was "this place is freaking awesome!". Today it's just another house, even after substantial customization, it's still just a house. I like it, but the thrill is long gone.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I'm just not a fan of buying for the sake of buying. It's a short term thrill for me. My house was brand new when I bought it 2.5 years ago. The day we moved in it was "this place is freaking awesome!". Today it's just another house, even after substantial customization, it's still just a house. I like it, but the thrill is long gone.

I've been through that thrill-cycle enough times to side with you on the issue. I was always advised that the two most important consumer investments a person can make are the purchase of a home and buying a car. For almost two decades, I managed this delicate balance in my life -- also "investing" in graduate school tuition, and I developed habits. A vehicle had a high set of priorities and a low set -- most important was to maintain it in good running condition, and after that economizing on long-term outlays (translated into short-run stocks and flows) and saving additionally on the insurance. It's just a habit that took precedence over having a shiny new toy to show off in challenges at stop-lights.