Topline? Plastic thermostat housing??

[AveoJunk]

Question for the OP. How many miles on the car and how old? It sounds like you said 6-7 years old and you expect to get another 6-7 after a rebuild. Won't the other componants start to fail over the next 6-7 years, such as transmission, shocks, struts, ball joints, bearings and all of that other stuff on the car? As a matter of fact my most recent failure on my Aveo was my brake light switch. so although you are saving the price of a new car, you are not really getting a new car. This one might nickle and dime you after you invest all of this money, but as you have ordered the parts, it might be too late.

[normburns]

Well, Aveojunk, does one ever really know? I mean, if you buy a new beemer, or Jag, you would expect great life for the money. You might, or might not get it. Everything else on the car is solid right now. Will I need to put struts on it at some point? Yeah. Is it possible that the transmission might go out? Well, yeah. BUT, for the money I am investing into the rebuild, I could not find a better car, with lower miles, that I would have a reasonable life expectancy from.

I just went through that little trial, looking for another car for my daughter. Settled on a 2001 Elantra. Not a bad little car. She would rather we fix her Nissan and give it back to her. I may fix it, and trade it to her for the Elantra. Her little 200SX has about 240k on it, and we wanted her in something a bit newer, AND the Nissan "died". It needs a starter, a new pair of tires, about 8 inches of fuel line, and paint on the hood.

I am taking a gamble here, that rebuilding the engine will be better than other choices. For the choice of finding another car for her, that she would feel safe driving, for under $2000... THAT is not going to happen. For the choice of buying her something newer, and taking on a car payment, we just do not want to do that right now.