So I'm grabbing my bags for a fast-connect through Houston (IAH) on Sunday morning when a voice mail comes in from my better half. "Call me" she says.

Coming from her, those two words chilled me. I called home and she said: "My car won't start and it sounds funny". She has a 2004 Suzuki XL-7 V-6 with 40,000 gentle miles, impeccably maintained by yours truly.

So as I'm huffing it from terminal C to E, I've got the neighbor on the phone testing voltage and so forth. No Joy.

I get home last night around midnight and I went outside to take a peek. Twist the key.... BZZZZZZiiizzzzzzzzz, wahawah.

There is no compression, the engine has blown completely. Wow!

So now comes the decision point... The dealer is still looking into it, not sure if warranty will apply or not. Either way my wife is not comfortable with the car anymore after a major tear down.

We still owe 2 more years on the loan and we have to decide what to do.

A. Rebuild the car and hope it doesn't happen again.

B. Pull her 1994 Volvo out of mothballs. (Project car for when the kids learn to drive)

C. Dump this one and buy a new hybrid. It's a lot of money and she really hates car notes.

I dunno... faced with this, what would you guys do?

 

If it falls under warranty, I'd rebuild it and then flip it to finance the new hybrid or at least to pay off the rest of the loan. You are in the tough spot Tom. I hope it works out.

 

To begin with you should have never bought a SUZUKI (also rembmer to stay away from MITSUBISHI)... well try to rebuild it and if it is a lot of money try to get rid off it fast and buy you a nice TOYOTA... (suggestion: the new 2007/2008 Camry Hybrid) ... good luck...

 

What model Volvo is that? The older ones last forever. We have an '88 240 GL that keeps rolling and rolling and rolling...

If you're on a budget, there are lots of fuel efficient cars that aren't hybrids, but still get good gas mileage, especially if you hypermile cleanMPG.com-style.

You can pick up a new Chevy Cobalt or Nissan Versa (manual), warranty and all, for $12K after incentives. If you want a midsizer, you can get a new 4-cylinder Pontiac G6 auto for $15K.

 

Well, the Volvo is a 1994 940 NA sedan. My wife is a bit old-school with cars. For years and years, if it wasn't RWD and if it weighed less than 4,000 pounds, she wasn't interested. It was only 3 years ago I got her to accept a small SUV for hauling the kids. Believe me... If I thought I could get away with a Cobalt or Versa, I'd have bought one yesterday.

As for the Volvo... once upon a time I was employed by a Volvo dealership as a technician. So that car has been maintained like an F-18 under a 'D' check. Except the climate control cluster quit working ($$$) so we mothballed it so the kids could do their drivers training one day in a tank. Right now it is 2 years out of registration, needs a smog check, etc. And no A/C, which is super-important here.

I can hardly wait to hear from the Suzuki dealer on this. The nearest one is 25 miles away and they are a new franchise attached to an existing dealership. The Service Writer on the phone yesterday: "Umm, yeah, our guys are still kind of learning about Suzuki's." They had a bulletin in 2001 for a timing belt idler going bad leading to the destruction of the engine. that was supposedly fixed by 2003. I'll tell you... it sure sounds like that is what happened.

 

I was just going to ask if it was perhaps a timing belt ... is the Suzuki an interferance engine?

 

I would fix the Suzuki if it is fixable.

Then, plan on not keeping that car too long and take wife out for test drives to see what she thinks she wants next.

Or

give wife your car and you drive either the Suzuki or get a new one?

Decisions are always tough.

Make lists of possible pluses and minuses of each choice!

 

FWIW, technology has come a long way, arguably enough to offset the weight of a "tank".

Link: Fifth Gear - Volvo 940 vs. Renault Modus Crash

 

If your wife doesn't like car notes, then make the 1994 Volvo road-worthy, and let her drive it. Sell the Suzuki if you can, and pay down the loan as much as you can. When the loan is paid off, go buy another car. That's what I'd do - ymmv.

 

That always makes you feel good, huh?


I would definitely sell the Suzuki (hopefully you can!). Before I drove the TCH, I wouldn't drive anything smaller than a 4runner (that's what happens when your first car is a 2-door Hyundai accent, incidentally I know all about unreliable "cheap"(?) cars)... but as soon as I drove the TCH I thought to myself "so this is what I've been missing out on all these years!"

This is coming from a car-picky woman. I'd definitely go for a hybrid if you can sell your Suzuki for a fair price.