help - need to discuss DD replacement quickly

Good point Chaparral.

The good shop down the street will do it for $2599.55 with the same 3 yr, unlimited mileage warranty.

No, Pigeon, nothing in that range other than what we bought. Definitely not with the new lower price.

sucks to hear man :(...

$2600 with 3 year replacement sounds like the way to go... with a plan to sell it in 1 1/2 years... and then you can sell it with a "rebuilt trans" when you do sell it...

Looks like we may have a warranty claim success story here. I'll keep you posted.

YAY :)

tuna55 wrote: Looks like we may have a warranty claim success story here. I'll keep you posted.

man i hope so, all the other scenarios.blow

Hopefully, the warranty claim will work out. If not spend the $2600 and see what kind of money you can get for it want kind of trade into something else. You've got three years to find the best deal. As a side note, I hate CVT trannies! I had a friend's Murano fail at 15k and I know a few Sentras that failed with them as well.

If the warranty doesnt work out, I would let it sit, spend $3-4k (loan if needed) on a used Astro van or Tahoe/Suburban and drive that till you get the funds to buy a used trans in cash, swap it in or pay the corner shop $750 to swap a used trans, and unload it.

Is this vehicle paid off yet? If so, when you sell it you can pay off your Tahoe and be back to oweing nothing.

This is my math. Buy Tahoe (-$4000) Put trans in Freestyle (-$2000) Sell Freestyle (+$5500) Net loss (-$500) Sell Tahoe (if you don't like it) $4000

The reason I suggest a Tahoe/Suburban/Astro over all other kid haulers is twofold. First, nice late 90s ones have pretty much flatlined in value. You can drive it for a year or 2 and only take a few hundred dollar hit on value if you keep it nice. Second, they are stone reliable and if parts fail, they are cheap and readily available. For example, a complete transmission failure in a Tahoe will only cost you $500 or less for a junkyard unit, and a caveman can swap one in in a weekend with basic hand tools. The 'hoe may not be as good on gas as a Freestyle is, but you can buy an awful lot of gas for the cost difference in parts and the lack of depreciation.

I am hoping for your warranty deal to work. If not check out Copart. Often complete salvage cars sell for much less than the cost of that trans. Us po folks gots to be creative!

my vote is to get a replacement car now and fix it at your leisure so you can do it right and get money out of it, thne pay the loan off straight up.

There are 36 freestyles on Copart right now.

Oof. Sorry to hear that, hope the warranty claim works out. I just dumped $2100 into putting a rebuilt transmission into our backup kid hauler, so I know roughly how you feel. Mine was also on a ~$5000 car, our old Montero Sport. If the replacement gives me any trouble in the warranty period (3 yrs/ 36k miles), I’ll get it fixed and sell it. Tahoes/ Suburbans/ etc are our likely replacements, too, as our kids and dog sound to be about the same sizes as yours. Our “nice car” (the one my non-mechanically-inclined wife drives) is a TaurusX, too, though it’s a 5-speed auto instead of the CVT. I’m praying it holds up.

My math was that I couldn’t buy anything that wouldn’t require further/immediate repairs/maintenance for the $2000 I’d spend on a transmission, and that the car itself would be impossible to sell for more than $1500 or so without a properly-functioning transmission in it. So I bit the bullet and just got it fixed. Hard pill to swallow, unplanned $2000, but it was the only half-decent option.

Here’s what I’d do in your shoes:

1) Hammer on that warranty claim

2) If that doesn’t work, rebuild what’s in it

3) Then, if you can get along for a year or so (and pray that the warranty is transferable to whatever buyer, for a selling point) save up some cash and unload it in favor of something else.

To my mind, if a car has had the same major failure twice (in ~75k miles, no less), it’s not something I can put my wife and kids in in good conscience. Last thing I need is her calling me stuck on the side of the road with 3 kids under 6, she’d be a basket case (and I'd hear about it for YEARS...).

Also reminds me that I need to look into AAA…

Jake wrote: To my mind, if a car has had the same major failure twice (in ~75k miles, no less), it’s not something I can put my wife and kids in in good conscience. Last thing I need is her calling me stuck on the side of the road with 3 kids under 6, she’d be a basket case (and I'd hear about it for YEARS...). Also reminds me that I need to look into AAA…

agreed. Almost every car I've gotten rid of was because had lost confidence in it. I could have fixed the bmw, but I drive ALOT, 7 days a week, and I don't want to have to worry about it breaking anymore. That's why I was glad that the forte's radiator problem was due to a freak accident and not the car's fault (sucked a bolt which apparently came from nowhere into the fan and into and out of the radiator a dozen or so times. lol. massive water leak.)

Any update? Did the warranty pay?

They will, but they are having the shop go through a bunch of crap to confirm the diagnosis. It will take a week longer than normal, but it will be free. We were offered a free rental by the warranty co, up to, get this, $35/day.

Inconvenienced, but not ruined.

Free rental car but to rent the keys is $35/day.

I see what they did there.

failboat wrote: Free rental car but to rent the keys is $35/day. I see what they did there.

no no, we are offered $35/day to cover a rental. A rental which would convey five people, three of which are in massive car seats that don't fit in a sedan. That will cover about half of a minivan rental.

Talk to your local rental place. Often, these places have trouble renting the gas sucking pigs. See if they can work you up something like a Chevy Traverse. Often for travel, high demand will go to the good fuel economy cars.
Rent off site from the airport if possible. More fees and taxes added to airport rentals.

All things with the Jeep name seem to be in low demand. The rental places are always trying to push the "free upgrade" on these. In years past I would often rent what would typically be a 4 cyl Ford Fusion and be offered a Jeep at the same price. That beast, The Commander, from Jeep got terrible mpg.

We got a rental Altima. Barely fits three car seats in the back (they each touch and the outside ones touch the door). It was roughly $37 per day. We can handle that. Everything else bigger was double+.

Get this, the warranty company shipped the replacement tranny and I asked if the warranty would transfer over to the new unit. They said no, and that I had a 3 yr/36,000 mile on the old unit, and that the remainder would transfer. I then asked how many miles I had left on it.

1,800 or so. Seriously.

Dang.

Wow, looks like it crapped out just in time for you!

Looks like you'll have 1800 miles to sell it.

If you go the new car route, it is tough to match the space in the Freestyle. Your choices are Minivan, Ford Flex and Mazda5. Budget at least $20K to start for the 5, and you can spend up to almost $60,000 for a loaded Flex. (You can find a decent TaurusX for about the same $ as a new Mazda5, but it will have 50,000 miles on it and the same CVT.)

The smaller route would be the Nissan Cube, Kia Soul and Scion Xb in order of size from smallest to largest. They each seat 5...as long as three are pretty small. They each have some space for a small dog in the back. Start at $14K to $16K here new.

In between those sizes is the 5 or 7 passenger Kia Rondo, which is only available used, unless you are in Canada.

there should be something in the warranty legalese that covers it in the event that they replace one dud trans with another turd, and the warranty runs out in between. 1800 miles isn't enough time to be sure the new trans is not going to strand you someplace

Why go new? I bought an 06 Mazda5 for $9000 out the door with 70K miles. If you can afford $14K or so you can get an 08-09 with around 30-40K.

Cheap rental car + junkyard trans. IIRC AAA will help offset the cost of the rental.

Then, keep or sell based on the mileage and quality of the junkyard part.

pinchvalve wrote: If you go the new car route, it is tough to match the space in the Freestyle. Your choices are Minivan, Ford Flex and Mazda5. Budget at least $20K to start for the 5, and you can spend up to almost $60,000 for a loaded Flex. (You can find a decent TaurusX for about the same $ as a new Mazda5, but it will have 50,000 miles on it and the same CVT.) The smaller route would be the Nissan Cube, Kia Soul and Scion Xb in order of size from smallest to largest. They each seat 5...as long as three are pretty small. They each have some space for a small dog in the back. Start at $14K to $16K here new. In between those sizes is the 5 or 7 passenger Kia Rondo, which is only available used, unless you are in Canada.

With three kids and one dog (only one now) we really can't have much less space than the Freestyle. We cannot afford new, and could barely afford the 7K it took to buy the Freestyle. The Mazda5 is probably too small. The Flex is too expensive and the Minivan we could afford are also going to give us transmission fits. Looks like we're dealing with the Freestyle for a while and then going with a Taurus X.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Cheap rental car + junkyard trans. IIRC AAA will help offset the cost of the rental. Then, keep or sell based on the mileage and quality of the junkyard part.

You probably didn't read much of the thread. I am getting a replacement transmission installed for nothing under warranty. That rental cost for the Altima was the AAA rate, though, so no better there.