It's dead, Jim... Now what?

My 1999 Suzuki Swift has E36M3'd the bed.  The front main seal is leaking, it needs new front axle/CV boots, tires, brakes, muffler, and probably a new timing belt.  Short version is that it'll cost 2 or 3 times what it's worth to get it past the state safety inspection.

What do I do with it?  It was a California car (five years here in MO after Mom passed) with 73K miles.  I have to assume all the rubber hoses/seals are ticking time bombs.  

I fantasized about putting in a H motor from a Mazda or Probe but there probably isn't enough room.  Save it to try and build a Lemons racer?  Scrap it?  It's really hard to walk away from 40mpg on the highway but buying a replacement just doesn't make sense right now.

Ideas?

I vote fix it and keep enjoying it. 

What you spend can't buy you something comparable, and anything newer isn't going to be as cheap/fun.

*Googles Suzuki Swift* 

Scrap it.

In reply to stroker :

So what will it cost? $1500.....$5000?

Sounds like rollin' resto time if you like the mpg's.  The wording is a little confusing about the replacement vehicle costs in that last sentence; sounds like you would rather keep the money that a different car would cost you.

I would imaging parts are pretty cheap as long as decent quality stuff is still available for what you need. 

Sounds like it need $500 in parts and a weekend to me

stroker said:  Short version is that it'll cost 2 or 3 times what it's worth to get it past the state safety inspection.

A full tank of 93 octane costs 2 or 3 times what several of my cars were worth...

And I'd pay 10x to get one back.   Not encouraging hoarding but if you have the room- let's just say the car won't depreciate any further and someday you will want it back.  

As words of encouragements...

I see 3 jobs and one that you send out.

1. The front main seal is leaking, probably a new timing belt 

2. new front axle/CV boots, brakes,

3. muffler

4. tires, assuming you do not have a tire machine this is the job you send out.  But, being a Swift, the tires are small and you should be able of get a set of 4 mounted for right at $300

In reply to stroker :

Send it north to a state with no inspection?? But seriously, that is 2 weekends of work max so it's more of the mental thing. Just think what car you could buy better for $2K and I think it answers itself. 

How fast does it lose 1 quart of oil? If it's 1000 miles or more, that job can wait.

brakes are easy peasy and probably $150 in parts.

tires, like said above, drop it off with $300 and pick it up a couple hours later.

CV axles are probably $60 apiece and you can DIY in a couple hours each, just need a breaker bar and a cheater pipe for the breaker bar.

So you're under $600 and a weekend of your labor.

Then you flip a coin on DIY vs paying an indy shop to do the TB/WP kit and accessory drive belts while you're in there. Can't be more than 4 hrs labor and $200 in parts there. Call it another $600.

thats 4 car payments. With those jobs done, you'll get another 2 years of 40mpg goodness.

That's a value proposition in my book.

It's wounded and needs some love or you're going to put it out to pasture, others have spoken to the value prop.

Well, wrench bending is not one of my strengths.  I checked Ebay for axles and couldn't find much that wasn't shipped from Australia or Latvia.  I guess if I was true GRM I'd roll up my sleeves and give it the old college try but I'm 99% sure to berkeley it up beyond all hope.  I'm confident if I pay my shop to do the work it'll be at least three grand which I simply do not have due to medical expenses.   If I was a kid I'd probably start my own YT channel and let folks ridicule my efforts or yuk it up to try and make it funny.  

Don't get me started on that.  I've seen what my kids watch and I can't afford to lose those brain cells.  

The big problem is replacement parts.  The car is going on 25 years old and I'm finding that parts (like the air intake tunnel) are NLA.  

Olemiss540 said:

*Googles Suzuki Swift* 

 

Scrap it.

If you had to google what it was, you do not know enough about it to have an opinion worth listening to.

It may seem like a lot, but if the body is solid, fix the mechanicals.

stroker said:

Well, wrench bending is not one of my strengths. 
 I guess if I was true GRM I'd roll up my sleeves and give it the old college try but I'm 99% sure to berkeley it up beyond all hope.  I'm confident if I pay my shop to do the work it'll be at least three grand which I simply do not have due to medical expenses.  

The big problem is replacement parts.  The car is going on 25 years old and I'm finding that parts (like the air intake tunnel) are NLA.  

In that case, it's time to move on. Scrap it, post it on eBay so a Swift enthusiast can find it Or Craigslist. 

How is that multiple thousands of dollars of work?  The most expensive axles on Rock Auto were $66 each for Cardone remans.  It needs, what, a cat-back exhaust welded up and a timing belt + front main seal + usual stuff while there?  Is that $1k in costs having a shop do the work?

For me it would all be about how much rust the car has. Being in northeast PA, most cars of that vintage are starting to get lighter and lighter(tinworm at work), so if it were rusty, I wouldn't  spend too much $$$ on it. If the body is good and since it yields 40mpg, I would keep it long-term. With gas at $3.50/gallon, I would keep it as a DD and save a bunch of money by doing whatever work it needs since the list seems doable as DIY stuff.

I'll sell you a $4k Prius, but...

It will need struts and tires soon-ish. Maybe front brakes soon-ish. A better radio and speakers would be nice too.

All that to get 40 mpg. 

My pont being that your car may be worth only $500 but even if you buy something else for $4k, it too will need at least $1k added.  There's no promise that a new $4k car won't be an oil burner also.

Make the reinvestments into what you have (and know) and like, seems to be the smart path (as long as rust isn't and issue.)

Every part in question is stacked deep at Rockauto with a wide variety to choose from. There are no challenges to parts supply here.

Axles are 30-50 dollars

Crank seal is 5 bucks

Timing belt is less than 10 bucks

Brake rotors less than 20 each

Brake pads less than 20 dollars

All cars need tires at intervals. In my area we have Discount Tire and they'll slap you some new skins on there quick while you read car magazines in their waiting room.

It sounds like you've neglected the thing and allowed the car to get run down and now you're overwhelmed at needing some catch-up. If you replace the car with another used car, you're just spending money to buy another, unknown, set of car problems. 

I think everyone is correct here. None of us have ever bought a used car that someone else wasn't done with.  It's okay to be done with it.  Someone else has a different value prop and will fix it.

Sell it to someone with the inclination, and hopefully the wallet to fix it.

Since everyone else has covered the logic of what to do... 

Is it a 3cyl?  Asking for a friend.  

Obviously the posters want it fixed.  So sell here to the best offer.

If you decide to sell it, I would at least be interested in taking a look. Let me know.