Quote Originally Posted by petrified.rabbit View Post
It is almost always cheaper to keep a car than to buy one.. as poison ivy said all cars have certain required maintenance. You should see what a complete timing job costs on an 2005 audi S4.. plus like you said more gadgets more stuff to break. But more expensive cars also tends to mean more expensive parts..

my recommendation is if you put money into 3 months in a row, and are not broke, then you can afford the amount of those repairs as a payment on a new car... BUT:

I think you could be able to get the timing belt done for less than $500. Honestly. Ask how much of their quote is for labor and buy a kit yourself. Its a 3-4 hour job, I've seen the timing belt kit with a water pump for less than $50..

So estimating 4 hours at $100 an hour, + $50 for you to buy the kit, + shop costs, and tax should be less the $500..

If its a cheaper labor rate or only a 3 hour job (i think the belt is 3, and they add extra time for water pump though?) then it would be cheaper than that..

I usually do my own, you need someone who can do the turning of the water pump thing successfully, and even that is not hard.
This timing belt/water pump change is WAY over my head,and I want it done by a professional mech. Just not Chevy. They will bend me over and ...me! I have watched like 4 videos about changing it on my own,and i dont even own the right tools to do it. Let alone the knowledge to do it. I suppose i need to hunt for prices, and see if my regular mech. is just on the high side. But I basically wanted to know if a 9 year old car is worth keeping.? I know cars from the 50's ARE worth keeping, when they were made out of thick metal, had no computers. But is the Aveo worth it?. With only 33K miles on it, arent 'new cars' suppose to last 250K easily if taken care of? Even crappy cheap ones?