If the repair is a done deal its to late now.Would have been better to dump it and put the money toward something different.Old cars can be a money pit.

Whats the source of the oil that is soaking the timing belt? Oil seal on the cam shaft or crank shaft? Is this included in the repair?

Dump the POS! I worked with a guy who had a 95 Neon with about 90K miles on it ,he got $900 for it on a trade in for a Hyundai Sonata and THAT was two years ago! No problems with the Hyundai so far.

Put down the egg nog and post again:)

What gasket? Has this thing been fixed yet or not? If the money hasn't been spent yet, junk it.

If he's already spent $1700 on it, what's left to repair and what will that cost?

Many garages are averse to repairing a car when the bottom line bill exceeds the vehicles worth.

This is a awful amount of money, does this include a complete paint job ??? (I think not...)
Forget about the two gages- these are far from essential..and the paint of course - not necessary in a beater car.
The important thing thing is the oil leak, and where it is.
The belt and the pump are service jobs for maybe $200 each..still very hard to get used to these huge prices for car repairs...

junk it. 1700.00 wil buy a nice used car in this area. and if your willing to take a chance a real nice one at the auction.

We really need some more info on this than what's been provided. But here goes and this holds true for most any car.

The failed waterpump is normal wear and tear, the leaking oil on this Neon could be a failed headgasket, quite common on this engine. There's an updated headgasket that cures this problem. With the cyl head off the tech/shop should also replace the cam shaft seal. A new timing belt should be installed with this job IMHO along with a new crank seal. That should take care of most of the oil leaks.

Now on to "Is this car worth it"?

Why yes it can be. So what if we put more into a car than we can sell it for? If we are going to sell it why bother in the first place? Now, if we repair this car and drive it for another 3 years this $1700 bill is less than $48 a month. Nice cost per mile driven huh? Seems this car doesn't see a lot of use anyway so buying a new car or even a newer car doesn't make much economic sense now does it? Buy a new car and you've lost thousands the instant you've driven it off the lot. Trading in this Neon will most likely cost you money to have them take it. Buy a 3 year old car and let it sit costing you $500 a month in payments plus extra ins isn't real smart. Say you bought a $12,000 used car, interest will bring the price closer to 15k and at the end of those 3 years the car might be worth $4k so for 3 years you've spent 15k or $416 a month and have $4k left over at the end. Now if you drive the neon for those same 3 years then walk away from it what have you got left? Nothing right? Wrong. You have that $15,000 in the bank plus interest and what you saved on the extra ins. Guess what? Now you can go pay CASH for the next used car. We have to remember that cars are a tool that we use in our daily lives, some just carry that over into a status symbol and lose sight of the fact the car is a tool.

Please, it's a 10 year old car with an awful reputation for reliability and a repair bill which exceeds it's value,not to mention the paint peeling off of it!And if the car is not going to have a lot of mileage put on it there are lease deals on new cars for under $200 a month.Even if you view a car as basic transportation,you at least want a car that runs when you need it and isn't always in the repair shop and a 95 Neon by it's very reputation fails that test.Maybe this guy is just tired of driving a piece of junk and isn't a tightwad.

I'm with mastertech on this one. The Neon is no paragon of quality, but we're talking a car that's driven 67 miles a day, on average, two days a week. Buying a new car for that kind of service is ludicrous. Even if something else happens to the Neon (beyond what's already been discussed), you'd have a week to fix whatever it is. None of the problems mentioned so far keep the car from running 67 miles. So if the bill comes out to be twice mastertech's estimate of $48/month, you're still way ahead just fixing this until you get to the transmission rebuild or some other truly expensive catastrophe. In the meantime, save up for something more reliable.

While I'm always in favor of dumping a money pit,after re-reading the original post I'd have to agree on keeping the car,at least for now.It might as well have said,since my brother just put more money into his car than it is worth,should he sell it? I really don't see the point of that post at all.

IMO, the point is that selling or fixing is very debatable.
I do not exactly know of the Neon's weaknesses and strengths.
Will the automatic transmission go south next year ??
It is said to be unreliable, but exactly in what manner ?
That $1,700 estimate strikes me as too high, are these cars that hard to work on ??? Or is the auto repair business that lucrative ??

To quote Gary...:..Put down the egg nog and post again:)

I hope you did not spill any nog on your keyboard......lol...

He should have bought a Cavalier and avoided that Peon Neon to start with.Or any other Mopar as far as that goes.

now j.d. you know he should buy a toyota or a honda, how long you been on this site. hahaha

Keep the car .. build a garage, it won't depreciate like a car will and it'll up the value of his home.

Have the car painted. Keep it in that garage another ten yrs then maybe buy a shiny new Cadillac or Lincoln & drive down to florida & retire.

He'll then have a summer home with car waiting for him or family for vacation getaways & for those times when he needs to get away from it all, from his retired activities for some much needed rest.

Thank you for responding everyone. I changed job and this place has pretty tight security so I cannot post as much as I would like to.

My bro decided not to fix it. He figured the head gasket would go next, the car needs new tires and it needs a tune up and there is no telling what will go wrong next due to the age so it is not worth it to fix it.

The service advisor told me three things were leaking and the water pump and crank shift and one other place. The cost is $1125 to fix the leak and change the timing belt. The speedomter and gas gauge is another $600. Someone had pointed out that it was pointless to post this since the repair cost exceeds the value of the vehicle. I should have asked if it the repair cost is reasonable. Sorry!

Mastertech said that it will cost money to trade it in. Are there places that buy scrap metal? It is a pain to negotiate when bring in a trade. This is where they usually try to make up the loss if they give you a 'good' deal on the new car.

Happy New Year!!!

The best bet is to put it in the front yard with a sign saying 95 Neon,70k miles,needs some work,$1200/best offer(depending on overall vehicle condition of course).You won't get jack squat on a trade in and first you might try a couple more estimates from private repair shops as water pump/timing belt replacements aren't major repair jobs and the first place is definately ripping him off!

Lexie : Someone had pointed out that it was pointless to post this since the repair cost exceeds the value of the vehicle. I should have asked if it the repair cost is reasonable. Sorry!

No No, It is good, very good, that you posted this ,Lexie

This is a borderline situation..
I think it is better to sell to Mr fix-it for $600, possibly with a win-win result..

My mom got a tax write-off for $1000 when she donated my 1978 Firebird to the Kidney Foundation several years ago. Which was about $900 more than the car was actually worth. No way she could have gotten more than a couple hundred bucks for the thing (if that), so it worked out well.

My mom got a tax write-off for $1000 when she donated my 1978 Firebird to the Kidney Foundation several years ago. Which was about $900 more than the car was actually worth.

The IRS is scrutinizing donations like this much more closely than they used to because the real market value of donated cars was often much lower than what was claimed as the deduction. If you donate, be very realistic about the value of the car unless you want to risk an audit.

That said, this car might be a very good candidate for donation, especially to an organization which would use it to train people in how to fix cars. If the primary cost is labor, they will be able to make some good money on that car.

The thing about donating a car is,you'll get a tax deduction for the minimum value of the car.Probably about $600 tops. Since your brother is a blue collar working man(like me) that probably won't matter too much at all at tax time ,especially if he is claiming 0 on his W-2.Putting it out in the front yard for $1200-$1000 and getting $800 dollars for it from some mechanically inclined person ,looking for a cheap first car for a kid or a cheap commuter car would be best.People donate cars ,thinking that they are going to the poor,when nothing could be further from the truth.The $600 or so is donated to some charity and that car is wholesaled to some used car dealer who will fix it himself and most likely roll back the odometer to 50K and sell that car for around $2200!Don't laugh,I used to work with a guy who sold used cars on the side and that's exactly what he did!

I live on a highway and when I've put out decent cars with nothing wrong with them with 75K avg milage for $2500 it has taken a couple of months to sell them. But a total POS needing work for less than 1K will sell within a week and sometimes have people(savages) fighting over it! Go figure!

nine7xbam

thanks for the suggestion. If no one buys it we can donate it to National Public Radio.

My dad called an independent repair shop and the guy said it is not worth it to get it fixed. He also said the car is so old that he would not attempt to fix it.

I am going to sell my little bro my 2005 Accord for $2K less than KBB value and get the 2006 Accord. He will loan me $10K for down and charge me 0% interest and I have infinite amount of time to pay it off :)

If you do not drive over 10k miles annually, an older classic car could be a good investment. There will be repair bills. I've never lost a lot of money doing this. The worst deal, was trading in my old Chevy for a newer model. I drove an old Lincoln for six years and sold it for $200.00 more than I paid for it. Obviously, this cannot work for everyone, as I mentioned my annual mileage is relatively low, and I have garage storage.

How funny, I saw this post and laughed. If you listened HALF as much as you SHOOT OFF YOUR PIE-HOLE, maybe you wouldn't be making an ass out of yourself all the time ! You must have taken lessons from that EARTHWORM guy.

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Posted by nine7xbam (My Page)

While I'm always in favor of dumping a money pit,after re-reading the original post I'd have to agree on keeping the car,at least for now.It might as well have said,since my brother just put more money into his car than it is worth,should he sell it? I really don't see the point of that post at

well this can be fix. there's a lot of auto repair shops that you can visit to for repairs. you could probably get more on that. much lower price.

Exactly if unable to fix it you can buy a new car by replacing the older one. There are many companies that buys or puts your car on sale and they presents you a second hand car or the new car.

Here is a link that might be useful: Used Toyota