LITTLE ROCK — DEAR TOM AND RAY:
I have a 1999 BMW 323i that I love. My husband wants to trade it in because it has 207,100 miles on it. He’s afraid of racking up big repair bills. I say if we keep up with maintenance and repairs, who knows how long we can go? And we should think of any repair bills as car payments. At least it’s paid off. So far, I’ve managed to “hide” the last three repairs from him. Now I’m hearing a clicking noise, and the steering wheel is shuddering when I drive. The longer I drive, the worse the shaking gets. It is similar to the feeling of a tire going flat. In fact, last night I thought maybe it was that, and I pulled over to look. The tires are fine. Have any ideas? Is this going to be a pricey fix that I’m going to have trouble hiding from my spousal unit?
- Arleen
TOM:
Well, let’s deal with your issues one at a time, Arleen. First, and most importantly, you have to take care of that front-end shaking immediately. Seriously, right now.
RAY:
It sounds like a ball joint is failing. When it breaks, the wheel’s going to fall off. And then there won’t be any more questions about whether to repair this car - it’ll be wrapped around a tree. The question will be about how to repair Arleen - if you’re lucky.
TOM:
So that’s Step 1. And it’s urgent.
RAY:
Then, while the car is in the shop, ask your mechanic to look it over from stem to stern. Have him inspect it as if you were thinking of buying it from someone as a used car. Tell him you want to know everything that’s wrong with it. Ask him what he thinks needs to be fixed now, and what’ll need to be fixed in the next six months.
TOM:
If it gets a relatively clean bill of health, I think you can make a good case for keeping it.
RAY:
Here’s the case youmake to your husband. He’s afraid of big repair bills. So let’s look at a bad-case scenario. Let’s say the car costs you an average of $300 a month to repair from now on. That’s $3,600 a year.
TOM:
If you replace the car with the most bare-bones new 3 Series BMW (and you’re a good negotiator), that’ll run you about $31,000. Add in the taxes, destination charges, dealer prep and fuzzy dice, subtract $4,000 for your tradein, and if you were to take a four-year car loan at 6.5 percent interest, you’d be paying $775 a month, or $8,100 a year!
RAY:
Maybe your husband would rather spend that extra $4,500 a year on something else? A Hawaiian vacation? A home-theater system?
TOM:
On the other hand, you have to realize that at 200,000-plus miles, you’re on the far end of the bell curve. One of these days, you’re going to have to let go - if that wheel doesn’t let go first, Arleen.
DEAR TOM AND RAY:
I’ve got a Buick - a geezer car because I’m a geezer. It’s wonderful at eliminating road rage, because it is completely incompetent at driving aggressively. The ride is mushy, and the mileage is mediocre. In other words, it’s absolutely perfect. Except for one thing: When it is cold, the normally speedy electric window creeps up and down.It moves so slowly that I have to start lowering the window a half-mile before a highway toll. So my question is: What can I plug into the cigarettelighter slot that will boost the power to the window motor?A cattle prod? A Tazer? I don’t want a whole second battery. I’d like a more elegant solution, and hopefully a less expensive one.
- Bill
TOM:
Well, inexpensive might be tough in this case, Bill. And you definitely came to the wrong guys if you want elegant!
RAY:
The two things I’d suspect would be the window motor and the window regulator.
TOM:
Me, too. And since you want to shoot for a thrifty solution, start by asking a mechanic to remove the driver’sdoor panel and lubricate the window regulator for you.
RAY:
The window regulator is the mostly metal contraption inside the door that holds the glass in place and physically moves it up and down when the window motor runs. Window regulators often get old and dried out and bound up. Kind of like my brother.
TOM:
Sometimes just giving them a good cleaning and lubrication will make a tremendous difference.
RAY:
Just like my brother!
TOM:
If lubricating the regulator doesn’t improve the window’s performance, you may need a whole new regulator, a new window motor or both. And that’s going to run you a bit more than a second battery (which won’t help anyway, Bill).
RAY:
You say that this Buick is a geezer car, Bill. But we don’t know whether you mean it’s a car for a geezer, or that the car itself is a geezer. If the car itself is really old, you may want to fix this sooner rather than later, before they stop making parts for it. Good luck!
Click & Clack (Tom and Ray Magliozzi) dispense advice about cars in Car Talk every Saturday. Email Click & Clack by visiting the Car Talk section of
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HomeStyle, Pages 43 on 10/30/2010