[ds968]

My son's 2000 Nissan Altima's transmission suddenly ( no prior warning signs / symptoms of any kind so just all of a sudden this afternoon ) started to slip..and severly so.. Also noticed trannie fluid under tne car . I'm guessing there's no easy fix that and a rebuilt trannie is probably the only solution, which with parts and labor should come to arounud $ 1,500. . The car has 125 K miles on it, and market value is , at best, $ 3,000. So what to do, if indeed that's tne cost of repair ? Just give it away to a junk yard and buy another car or spend the money and give it another couple of years life before discarding it ?

He drives only about 25 miles a week, and he likes tne car but it seems crazy to spend half the price of the car's value for one repair. Only 968s warrant that , LOL !

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[Cloud9...68]

Well, I may be in the minority here, but if the question in your mind is purely an economic one, I like to adhere to the old saying, "The cheapest car in the world is the one you're driving now." I'd fix the transmission, or have a rebuilt one put it, which may actually end up being cheaper. Some places might even offer a lifetime warrantee. The alternative of buying a newer car is almost always going to be more expensive, because he's probably going to be looking at monthly payments, plus insurance is likely to be higher on a newer car, not to mention that the Altima is worthless in its current state. Just my 2 cents...

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[craigawoodman]

I am in the other camp of thought. If the car is more than 19 years old, junk it and get something newer. Most new cars are only designed to last around 10 years, then everything needs to be replaced. This is just the start of everything starting to fail. First it will be the transmission, then the suspension, then the electrics, dash, steering, wheel bearings, driveshafts, etc.



The only old car worth keeping is the one you are sentimental about. Friend of mine has a car he has had for 12 years, only reason he is going to keep it (and even in his words, it will be out the back on blocks) is that all of his kids came home in it when born.



Do you repair your old computer when it fails a power supply, etc after 3 years?



Welcome to the throw away society.

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[Chris Vais]

Having owned a Toyota Celica at one point in my life I would say that if you got 13 years and 125,000 miles out of it, you done good. No whining, just junk it and buy something to replace it. I'll wager, based on my experience, that you'll be looking at an engine overhaul before it gets to 150,000. Just for the heck of it I went out and drove a new Fiat 500 Abarth. Now that is a fun ride!!! And at $22K more or less, what is not to like?

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[Rap]

Can you buy another car for $1500 or $3000?

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[ds968]

I would not buy him a new car just maybe a newer one than his 2000, and you'd be surprised how many mid-2000s cars one can find for under 5k. But of course those will come with their own problems, as used cars. I looked up rebuilt transmissions for his car and they can be found for 350 to 500. Not sure what the labor would cost but if it's around 500 , it might just be worth spending 1k repairing it and avoid the hassle of searching and driving here and there, testing this and that, deal with used car salesmen , LOL, until he finds something he likes..and then hoping that won't turn into a mechanical headache after a short while. But then again his car also has a small leak ( not the tranny ) which will eventually get bigger and need morerepairs, yada, yada, yada . At this level the cost is not a big concern, it's the value for the price and which of the two options areblikely to bring a better return for the next 4 or 5 years.. oh, I made a mistake on the mileage : it's 155k . Thanks for the input guys, I'll have to come to some conclusion today or he ends up with the Mercedes and I convert the 968 back into my DD, which I do not want to do- bumper to bumper for 45 min to 1 hr each way, with a stick shift - no way :-(. Did that for the first 5 years and it was a PITA. So I may just leave him the MBZ and look for another DD for myself - where the heck is that elusive 968 coupe TIP with < 75k mi and not in red white or black ( or amethyst ) that I'm looking for ?!

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[Cloud9...68]

I disagree with the assessment that new cars don't last. Manufacturing methods and materials have vastly improved over the last couple of decades as consumers have gotten more demanding (when was the last time anybody heard of a coworker who was running late to work because of "car trouble"? - I remember it being a fairly common occurrence early in my career, including to me, but I can't remember the last time I've heard of it happening), so getting 250,000 out of a modern car, especially a Japanese one, is almost a given. I would view this transmission failure as a freak incident, fix it, and expect many more years of life out of the car. Now, if a bunch of other things start to fail, I would conclude the car is an outlier, and get rid of it then. But assuming the car has been reliable up till now, I would view this incident as a mulligen.

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[MB968]

I tend to agree with Cloud's comments. Many years ago you were lucky to get 100k out of a car without some major issue. My Ford/Mazda was almost 20 years old, and other than a few common items for that model I had almost no issues. Fixed those items and it was highly reliable. And it lives on; sold it to a jet engine mechanic who works for the Navy in Wa. state. Yes you can expect a few items as cars get older but generally a lot cheaper than owning a newer car if you don't mind the occasional issue. I'd say if the car has generally been reliable, and if you've done a reasonable job of maintaining it, stay with it. If rebuilt units are as inexpensive as mentioned above, get one from a dependable supplier, get it installed, and move on.



A little off subject, but my biggest dissapointment with the Porsche is the electrical/connectors. I've seen on this forum comments that failures of these could be expected on a 20 year old car. Not so, knowing a little about plastics (we were the largest domestic supplier of plastics machinery in the 80's & 90's), if the proper combination of materials are put into the connectors they will last for many many decades with little to no real degradation. Assuming the Nissan doesn't have any major cronic issues like this I'd spend the money on it.

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[ds968]

As an example, my wife simply refuses to consider changing her 1998 Nissan Pathfinder to a newer car ; we can afford to replace it with just about anything else she might want , but after 160 k miles on it without one single problem ( and I mean absolutely not one issue- never required repair or even preventive maintenance replacement of any part , except the brake pads.and oil change ) and since it still runs like a Swiss clock everytime you turn on the key and just go.. there's something to be said about Japanese cars of that era... Same with my son's Altima : until this single incident, it's been incredibly reliable. So the peace of mind that comes with that reliability speaks volumes, at least for those that don't care about the car's looks, or brand, or performance and are simply satisfied with something on 4 wheels that takes them from point A to point B. That describes both my wife AND my son. So if the tranny repair cost is more than 50% of the car's market value, I will probably just get him another Japanese car ( maybe even the same make and model ) and take my chances with whatever

problems that may have eventually, but givennthe history of both our other cars there is a decent

confidence level any similar one will be fairly reliable as well .. But if I can get the tranny fixed for around $ 1 k, what the heck, I suppose he can drive the current car for a bit more time until the next " major " issue surfaces, and then we,ll get another...

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[gbarrier]

Before I did anything else I would check the fluid and fill it back to the proper level. It is surely low since there is some on the ground under it. That may just solve the slipping problem. If so then clean it off and see if you can see where it is leaking. He could have hit something and punctured the pan or something simple to change. If not then perhaps it is serious and one mega buck route or the other is in order, A tranny low on fluid will slip.

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[Cloud9...68]

gbarrier is correct - if the car has a dip stick for the tranny (and not all cars do - I know BMW's don't), definitely check the fluid level, and top it up if necessary. If nothing else, this may buy you some time.

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[lbpesq]

I disagree that cars only last 10 years





My last few cars:



1985 Mazda RX-7 GSLSE - sold around 2000 with 220,000 miles

1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee - sold around 2008 with 220,000 miles

1991 Nissan 300ZX 2+2 - sold around 2008 with 220,000 miles

current- 2001 Toyoya Highlander - 172,000 and still going strong



Cars these days last far more than 100,000 miles.



And how about looking for a used tranny at the junk (oops, I meant "recycling") yard?

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[ds968]

Yup, filled it up, but leaking out like crazy - there's a huge gap somewhere, so he might have hit something underneath the car and cracked something.. so towing it to a shop at no cost , getting a review and estimate of repair at no cost, so nothing to lose...

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[Cloud9...68]

Great! With any luck for a relatively small investment, your son could have the car back on the road soon. Let us know how it turns out.

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[tamathumper]

I'd go the used tranny route, or buy another beater.

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[craigawoodman]

Whilst manufacturing tolerances, etc have all improved, so has the ability to design items to operate right "on the limit". What car makers tender out components, every cent is critical to them. So it is a double edged sword.



It is a bit like being in the military - "I go off to battle, with the best weapons that the lowest bidder could provide".



I agree that cars are more reliable, but anything that moves, turns or switches will fail. I had a Toyota Prado that had a "sealed for life" automatic transmission - you supposedly never had to change the oil. When towing the car, it was in and out of torque converter all of the time, which effectively "shears" the oil. Longer oil change intervals, higher compression and ignition temps/advance to meet emissions, cheap castings (Porsche 911 water cooled engines anyone), etc.



There are lots of stories about many cars all having problems. Jump on any bulletin board to read the tales of woe.



So, I agree that cars tend to be reliable during their warranty period, but at around the 10 year mark, better get your wallet out, things are going to start to break.

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[Cloud9...68]

There are definitely a lot of ways to look at this. I work for a semiconductor chip manufacturer, and we're a major supplier to the auto industry. Automotive specs on our products are the toughest in the business - even tougher than the military, which forces us to apply very strict statistical process controls around all of our manufacturing processes. If the auto makers apply the same standards to all their supplier (and I would have to assume they do), I'd be pretty confident a modern car is a very robust device overall. Yes, it's still a mechanical device, and no matter how well it's put together, things will wear out and break. But the major, expensive components should last upwards of 20 years.



BMW 3 Series, certainly not the most reliable cars on the planet, are a case in point. They tend to do pretty well up to around 100K miles, but then a large number of things start breaking, as Craig points out - the entire cooling system, struts, control arm bushings, steering shaft joint, to name a few. But once you go through replacing these things (admittedly not a cheap proposition unless you do the work yourself), you're generally good to go another 100K miles.



To me, the decision to buy a new car is seldom a case of, "Well, the old one just wore out," - it seems to be more driven by a desire to have that shiny new(er) model that looks so cool.

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[Rap]

Cloud , mulligen?

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[ds968]

Update - soon as the car was lifted up a massive dent to the bottom of tne pan clearly pointed to what caused all of this.. About two weeks ago my son did mention that he ran over a curb or some other concrete " obstacle " coming out out of a parking space, but since the car drove just fine after that I figured at the time the was no need to investigate further..or be concerned. Oops ! Gradually, all the fluid seeped out from the edges of the pan which warped from the hit. So well see of nothing else was damaged in tne process and replacing the pan is sufficient, or, if I'm back to my original dilemma ( buy new devil or fix amd stick with the devil you know ? )

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[Cloud9...68]

My guess is it will be OK once you get a new pan and fill it up, since it doesn't sound like your son drove it much once it started slipping.

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