Ahmed is the actual mechanic for my 2013 Sienna SE. It's an hour and 15 minute drive to his shop, but it's worth it. He's just as thorough in person as he appears in his videos. The only problem is that he's booked a long way out. I went to him the first time because my suspension was creaking. I booked an oil change and full inspection and found that I needed both front suspension mounts replaced. He gave me a detailed estimate, but it would be 6 weeks before he would have a time slot to do it.The Car Care Nut is your friend: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imafmy3Ycew
I had a short road trip coming up so I called my local dealer and asked for an estimate for the same job. Somehow it came out to literally double what TCCN quoted even though Ahmed only uses Toyota parts and the shop hourly rates are nearly the same. I ended up renting for the trip and had him do the work.
BTW, I purchased the car new. I was planning on paying cash but after we settled on the price (those were the days of paying a few percent over invoice) they asked if I wanted a $0 down, 0% loan instead. I figured there had to be a catch, but after reading over everything I couldn't find any problems or hidden costs. So they rolled the full cost, including taxes, into a 5 year loan and I drove the car home. The first payment of 1/60th of the total price was due 60 days later. I'm still amazed that this happened.
It also anchored the monthly purchase cost of a car for me at $586. So my answer to the initial question is that when maintenance costs go over that per month, it will be time to look for a new car. I guess it would make more sense to use the monthly lease price for a new car as my base, but I suspect it's not all that much less.
Statistics: Posted by Alex Frakt — Mon Nov 04, 2024 12:27 am