Son's car is kaputsky

[bernorange 8359]

My son says his car died yesterday.  Transmission went out while he was on the freeway.  He had the car towed (via AAA) to an auto shop.  They say it would be around $8K to fix the transmission.  It's not worth it for this car.  He's better off finding a cheap used car for now.

My question is, what do I do (the car is titled in my name) with the car?  I've never been in this position before.  I know I can't abandon the car to the auto shop, but I'm not sure what to do with a non-driveable car.  Help?

[Pato del Muerto 52489]

Donate it

[PhillyD 1257]

3 minutes ago, bernorange said:

My son says his car died yesterday.  Transmission went out while he was on the freeway.  He had the car towed (via AAA) to an auto shop.  They say it would be around $8K to fix the transmission.  It's not worth it for this car.  He's better off finding a cheap used car for now.

My question is, what do I do (the car is titled in my name) with the car?  I've never been in this position before.  I know I can't abandon the car to the auto shop, but I'm not sure what to do with a non-driveable car.  Help?

One option is to tow it to CarMax and take what they will pay for it.

[Da Fino 2779]

48 minutes ago, bernorange said:

My son says his car died yesterday.  Transmission went out while he was on the freeway.  He had the car towed (via AAA) to an auto shop.  They say it would be around $8K to fix the transmission.  It's not worth it for this car.  He's better off finding a cheap used car for now.

My question is, what do I do (the car is titled in my name) with the car?  I've never been in this position before.  I know I can't abandon the car to the auto shop, but I'm not sure what to do with a non-driveable car.  Help?

I was in the same position with a Volvo and donated it. They came and picked it up for me. 

[nolongerU2horn 763]

2 hours ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Donate it

DONATE TO JUNK FOR JOY! DONATE TO JUNK FOR JOY! DONATE YOUR CAR TODAY TO JUNK FOR JOYYYYY!!!

[Jerry Callo 8700]

See if anyone at the shop will offer you anything for it.

 

ETA:  whatever you do with it - remove the plates, remove the toll tag, and fill out the DMV form saying that you no longer own it.

Edited June 20, 2023 by Jerry Callo

[Gil Bang 25944]

WTF kind of car is it?  8 grand is a ton of dough. Most trannys can be replaced for much less.

Call a local trans shop and get a quote.

Edited June 20, 2023 by Gil Bang

[HRSchenker 2268]

Cars for kids. Write off the car, not the kid. 

[tbone_ 14115]

WTF kind of car is it?  8 grand is a ton of dough. Most trannys can be replaced for much less.
Call a local trans shop and get a quote.

This. 8 grand is nonsense unless it’s a McLaren or something.

[Hook1997 5354]

3 hours ago, Gil Bang said:

WTF kind of car is it?  8 grand is a ton of dough. Most trannys can be replaced for much less.

Call a local trans shop and get a quote.

 

19 minutes ago, tbone_ said:

This. 8 grand is nonsense unless it’s a McLaren or something.

I had a transmission go out on a dodge ram 15 years ago and the quote was close to 8k, not sure if y’all haven’t replaced transmissions before or me and bernorange just select bad repair shops.  

[Gil Bang 25944]

3 minutes ago, Hook1997 said:

 

I had a transmission go out on a dodge ram 15 years ago and the quote was close to 8k, not sure if y’all haven’t replaced transmissions before or me and bernorange just select bad repair shops.  

My BMW 5 series cost me $2,800 a few years back.  My buddy's Mazda was $2,200 last year.

[tx 3 putt 76905]

7 hours ago, bernorange said:

My son says his car died yesterday.  Transmission went out while he was on the freeway.  He had the car towed (via AAA) to an auto shop.  They say it would be around $8K to fix the transmission.  It's not worth it for this car.  He's better off finding a cheap used car for now.

My question is, what do I do (the car is titled in my name) with the car?  I've never been in this position before.  I know I can't abandon the car to the auto shop, but I'm not sure what to do with a non-driveable car.  Help?

 

mexican transmission shop. $8k is ridiculous 

[tx 3 putt 76905]

45 minutes ago, Gil Bang said:

My BMW 5 series cost me $2,800 a few years back.  My buddy's Mazda was $2,200 last year.

 

F150 cost me $2000 (cash) several years back. I don't have it, the truck is still going strong

what kind of car is it ?

I'm looking for something used and 'reliable' 

[Sam Lin 3555]

2 hours ago, tbone_ said:

This. 8 grand is nonsense unless it’s a McLaren or something.

Ha, Audi and Porsche laugh at you. Try 20k or more.

[HornOnTheBayou 8921]

Donate it. There are plenty of charities that will take it off your hands with no hassle.

[conVINCEd 21469]

$8k for a tranny is insane.  I paid $4k for a Land Rover.  Twice.

[pops 6983]

1 hour ago, conVINCEd said:

$8k for a tranny is insane.  I paid $4k for a Land Rover.  Twice.

It's a labor of love to own a rover. And I still love the fucking things. 

As to OP either donate it to whatever billboard advertises in your area, the local technical college, or see if the shop will pay you salvage value for it. 

8k does seem high. Maybe the shop is slammed and they just threw a number at you hoping.  2 to 3k is pretty standard for most cars but that may not even be worth it to you. 

[Mother mopar 3318]

I'd look at other places for a quote. I've got a built 48RE in my 07, 2500, 4x4 Dodge to handle 650 HP and 1500 lb-ft of torque and it only ran me $5k.

You're getting ripped off, not sure what kind of car it is or how mechanically inclined you are but it would make a great father/son project for a weekend. Not to mention life lessons, I enjoyed that time w/my dad doing those things.

[woohorn 1131]

What city you in? That price is probably too high.

[conVINCEd 21469]

38 minutes ago, pops said:

It's a labor of love to own a rover. And I still love the fucking things. 

As to OP either donate it to whatever billboard advertises in your area, the local technical college, or see if the shop will pay you salvage value for it. 

8k does seem high. Maybe the shop is slammed and they just threw a number at you hoping.  2 to 3k is pretty standard for most cars but that may not even be worth it to you. 

I’m done with the labor of love unless an old school Defender is involved.  

[Bevo 13576]

2 hours ago, conVINCEd said:

$8k for a tranny is insane.  I paid $4k for a Land Rover.  Twice.

Only twice, huh? You must have purchased the best land rover ever. Still, though 4+4=$8K so you really did pay $8K for your transmission anyway - they just charged in installments.

[bernorange 8359]

Appreciate the feedback everyone.

The car is a 2015 Honda Civic.  My son wrecked the car - totaled it actually - last November.  The front end was a total mess.  But my son contacted a friend of a friend that used to own an auto shop and operates a some kind of auto repair service out of his yard in Alvin and was he was able to get the car running again for a good guy deal (around $3K) - the car didn't look new/restored, but it worked. 

I'm assuming that the transmission failure 2 days ago is related to the November damage but I don't know shit - I'm just speculating that something didn't quite get addressed (or addressed correctly) when the car was repaired at that time.

I don't have a written estimate in hand from the auto shop, so I'm not sure what exactly is their justification for the quote.  I just got the bottom line number over the phone from my son.  I hope to get a copy of a written estimate today.

I've also called a local transmission shop to get a ballpark estimate on rebuilding a transmission for that model car.

Separately, I found out that there are a number of salvage yards around that will give cash offers for a car if I send them photos of the vehicle.  They will send a tow truck to pick it up.   Anyone ever do this?  The car has practically new tires (only ~5 months old) and was in decent shape as far as salvageable parts go, so extracting some value from the car to put towards a replacement used car would help my son tremendously.

 

[tx 3 putt 76905]

$8k for a Honda civic transmission is ridiculous 

[Sam Lin 3555]

Yes it likely had some internal damage from the wreck. And yes 8k is ridiculous for a Civic trans. Those cars are a dime a dozen, get a scrap pull with a warranty and pay a shop to swap it in, probably 10hrs labor. Should be 3-4k total out of pocket.

[Gil Bang 25944]

11 hours ago, conVINCEd said:

I’m done with the labor of love unless an old school Defender is involved.  

I was house/dog sitting last month for a very very rich guy down in the Florida Keys.  He had a Defender that was a frame-off professional restoration.  They located the vehicle somewhere in Europe, imported, and made it better than new. 

A crate corvette engine, etc. 

[ztejas 43418]

1 hour ago, timsteve1122 said:

I understand your concern about what to do with a non-drivable car. In this situation, you have a few options. Firstly, you can consider selling the car as-is for parts or scrap. There are salvage yards or online platforms where you can find potential buyers. Alternatively, you could donate the car to a charitable organization that accepts non-drivable vehicles. They may use it for parts or sell it to raise funds.

Whose shitty chatgpt experiment is this. 

[Bevo 13576]

2 hours ago, bernorange said:

Appreciate the feedback everyone.

The car is a 2015 Honda Civic.  My son wrecked the car - totaled it actually - last November.  The front end was a total mess.  But my son contacted a friend of a friend that used to own an auto shop and operates a some kind of auto repair service out of his yard in Alvin and was he was able to get the car running again for a good guy deal (around $3K) - the car didn't look new/restored, but it worked. 

I'm assuming that the transmission failure 2 days ago is related to the November damage but I don't know shit - I'm just speculating that something didn't quite get addressed (or addressed correctly) when the car was repaired at that time.

I don't have a written estimate in hand from the auto shop, so I'm not sure what exactly is their justification for the quote.  I just got the bottom line number over the phone from my son.  I hope to get a copy of a written estimate today.

I've also called a local transmission shop to get a ballpark estimate on rebuilding a transmission for that model car.

Separately, I found out that there are a number of salvage yards around that will give cash offers for a car if I send them photos of the vehicle.  They will send a tow truck to pick it up.   Anyone ever do this?  The car has practically new tires (only ~5 months old) and was in decent shape as far as salvageable parts go, so extracting some value from the car to put towards a replacement used car would help my son tremendously.

 

You worried about it more than me and quite frankly I don't remember the details. I just asked the repair shop if they had a place to dispose of the car and they gave us the number of a salvage yard and we got a little cash. It was very easy - my wife took care of it all.

Edited June 21, 2023 by Bevo

[Sam Lin 3555]

1 hour ago, ztejas said:

Whose shitty chatgpt experiment is this. 

You aren't wrong, look at his other posts, it's clearly an AI bot.

[Gil Bang 25944]

That's a $2500 transmission rebuild. 

[tx 3 putt 76905]

4 minutes ago, Gil Bang said:

That's a $2500 transmission rebuild. 

$1500 in the Mexican neighborhood 

[Gil Bang 25944]

when I did the tranny on the BMW, "Hans" gave me the highest estimate, "Pedro" gave me the lowest.   

I went with the middle estimate, from "Tony".

[fattyflattie 4639]

8k seems crazy high. Pick out out of junkyard, have someone put in one one weekend.   Think I paid $1800 for last one that went out on me. I took it out, had someone rebuild it, and I threw it back in the following week.  Was out maybe 2k total and a day and half of time.  
 

I do have a 6L80e that could use some love. Monitoring thread to see if @tx 3 putt drops a good shop in Mexican side of town.  

[tx 3 putt 76905]

7 hours ago, fattyflattie said:

8k seems crazy high. Pick out out of junkyard, have someone put in one one weekend.   Think I paid $1800 for last one that went out on me. I took it out, had someone rebuild it, and I threw it back in the following week.  Was out maybe 2k total and a day and half of time.  
 

I do have a 6L80e that could use some love. Monitoring thread to see if @tx 3 putt drops a good shop in Mexican side of town.  

6 shops within a mile of me 😂😂😂

[bernorange 8359]

Son's friend of a friend that fixed the car previously offered to replace the transmission for $3,800 (in four easy monthly payments of $950).  My son is going to have to tighten his belt a bit, but he'll be able to swing it, so that's the plan for now.

[bernorange 8359]

Forgot to mention, the auto shop's written estimate calls for a transmission replacement:

1 - Replace CVT transmission
Labor: R&R CVT transmissiom $1,344.00
Parts: CVT transmission assembly 1 $6,399.00
CVT fluid 4 $107.96
✘ Declined on 06/20/23 at 12:49 PM CDT Subtotal $7,850.96 + est. Tax $536.82 $8,387.78
 

[Felix 607]

$8000 is the "we don't want to do it" price.  I've been going to the same guy for years and when I call him with something and I can tell he doesn't want to do it I get the $1500 quote.  I then go to my back up shop and if they want to do it I get a decent price.

[blacklab 11926]

If you decide to total out the car just put an ad on craigslist and list it as totaled and price it at $500. You'll get 3-5 junkyards to answer the ad and they will all say if you don't sell it for $500 I'll give you $300. They will bring a wrecker and it will be gone in no time.

 

[bernorange 8359]

I called a salvage yard.  They said they would make me a cash offer if I sent them pics of the car.  So I did.  They offered me $2,000 (and they tow it) and said they could up the offer if I sent them the odometer mileage and the VIN #.  I gave them that info and they bumped the offer to $2,500 (car must have intact catalytic converter).  I told them we were still evaluating our options.  The next day they sent an email saying their boss/mgr had approved an offer of $3,500.  I'm guessing I could have negotiated a bit more from them if I had been so inclined.

[tigol 2395]

1 hour ago, bernorange said:

I called a salvage yard.  They said they would make me a cash offer if I sent them pics of the car.  So I did.  They offered me $2,000 (and they tow it) and said they could up the offer if I sent them the odometer mileage and the VIN #.  I gave them that info and they bumped the offer to $2,500 (car must have intact catalytic converter).  I told them we were still evaluating our options.  The next day they sent an email saying their boss/mgr had approved an offer of $3,500.  I'm guessing I could have negotiated a bit more from them if I had been so inclined.

Sell it to them.  $3500 is enough to put down on something you don't have to worry about for a while.