To trade in, or not...???

[Tom Rutledge]

I have my son driving a '95 V-6 (3.8) and it has 128k. I have had to work on the water pump, the idler pulley, the power window motor, clutch and U-joints.

All of this is fairly typical once you start to get miles on a car. Keep the maintenance up on it and you can expect this kind of upkeep. It's still better than the high monthly car payments.

I currently have seven (7) cars. I drive a 4-Runner, my wife drives a Concorde, my daughter drives a Mazda 626, my older son drives a Chevrolet Silverado, and my oldest son drives a Mustang. I keep a Dodge Stealth in the garage and I am currently doing maintenance on my "94 4-Runner (168k). With the exception of my new 4-Runner and the Stealth, all of my cars have over 125k miles. The key is routine maintenance and I use Castrol Syntek oil.

By the way, the car with the least amount of repairs is the 4-Runner. The worst is the Mazda.