Help with car purchase decision

[Optimiser]

My wife's current car is a 2001 Honda Civic with 236,000 miles on it. It has been a really good car, but for a while now the manual transmission has been making some noise. I believe it is a bearing in the transmission based on the fact that the noise increases and decreases with the speed of the engine while the car is in gear. I've thought about either having the transmission rebuilt (seems prohibitively expensive), or finding a used transmission to replace it. The problem is everything else in the car has really high miles too, so I don't want to sink money into the car that will never be recovered when the car is sold, or have to pay for another expensive repair in a few more months.

I've been looking for a replacement car and found a 1997 Maxima with 68,000 miles, owned by an elderly couple, with complete service records for $3,500. This seems like a really good deal to me, and I'm going to look at today. The car appears to be in amazing condition for its age, and 4th generation Maximas have a really good reliability reputation. The car is step up from the Civic in terms of size and luxury which my wife will appreciate too.

The only real downsize I see is that the Maxima will only get 23 MPG (according to Fuelly). Her current Civic averages 36 MPG. At 10,000 miles a year with $2.50/gallon gas that's about $400 per year more for gas than we are paying now. I'd really like to buy a low mile older Prius or Insight (4dr), but those would cost more than the Maxima, and more than I could currently afford without taking out a loan.

Am I over-analyzing this, or should I look for a more efficient replacement car? I'm nervous that her Civic won't last much longer and I'll be in a hurry to buy something and won't be able to find a low mileage gem like this Maxima. My car is 1990 Miata, so it wouldn't suffice as our only car if we needed to spend a few weeks with only one car while we founds something new.

[Monkey Uncle]

I'm with you on replacing the Honda.  I wouldn't put big bucks into fixing the transmission in a car that has 236k mi on it.  Even Civics have to die at some point.

Do you have any alternatives to which to compare the Maxima?  That's really the only way you're going to be able to get a handle on whether the low purchase price will make up for the greater gasoline expenditure.  You could set a rule that you won't spend any more than the cash you have on hand, which would make the comparison easier by taking interest expenses out of the equation.  Then compare the two (or three, or whatever) cars side by side - figure out how long you plan to own them, how much they would depreciate over that period, how much you would spend on gas, maintenance, property taxes, and insurance.  Lowest total cost wins.  Craigslist and Autotrader.com are good places to search for alternatives.

[Silrossi46]

My wife's current car is a 2001 Honda Civic with 236,000 miles on it. It has been a really good car, but for a while now the manual transmission has been making some noise. I believe it is a bearing in the transmission based on the fact that the noise increases and decreases with the speed of the engine while the car is in gear. I've thought about either having the transmission rebuilt (seems prohibitively expensive), or finding a used transmission to replace it. The problem is everything else in the car has really high miles too, so I don't want to sink money into the car that will never be recovered when the car is sold, or have to pay for another expensive repair in a few more months.

I've been looking for a replacement car and found a 1997 Maxima with 68,000 miles, owned by an elderly couple, with complete service records for $3,500. This seems like a really good deal to me, and I'm going to look at today. The car appears to be in amazing condition for its age, and 4th generation Maximas have a really good reliability reputation. The car is step up from the Civic in terms of size and luxury which my wife will appreciate too.

The only real downsize I see is that the Maxima will only get 23 MPG (according to Fuelly). Her current Civic averages 36 MPG. At 10,000 miles a year with $2.50/gallon gas that's about $400 per year more for gas than we are paying now. I'd really like to buy a low mile older Prius or Insight (4dr), but those would cost more than the Maxima, and more than I could currently afford without taking out a loan.

Am I over-analyzing this, or should I look for a more efficient replacement car? I'm nervous that her Civic won't last much longer and I'll be in a hurry to buy something and won't be able to find a low mileage gem like this Maxima. My car is 1990 Miata, so it wouldn't suffice as our only car if we needed to spend a few weeks with only one car while we founds something new.

If the maxima was maintained they are virtually bullet proof.   Especially the 95-99 4th GEN Maximas.   They require very little and run a long time if you take care of it.   My current 96 has 300k miles and i drive it daily.  Everything works on the car.  Dump the Honda and get in the Maxima.   

[NoStacheOhio]

The Maxima sounds good, and $3,500 is a good price for a reliable, low mileage car.

I would compare it to the other options at that price point first, then look at what you could get for your max budget. If it compares favorably, buy it and don't worry about it.

[hoosier]

Does the noise go away when you press the clutch?  If so, it probably just a throwout bearing which is much less expensive than a transmission rebuild.

[Optimiser]

Does the noise go away when you press the clutch?  If so, it probably just a throwout bearing which is much less expensive than a transmission rebuild.

I don't believe it is the throwout bearing. There is no noise when the car is in neutral and the clutch is out. In gear, while moving, the transmission makes noise with the clutch in or out.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[qval]

Assumption: you want this car to last for 10 years

Math: Prius $6000 + 10,000 / 45 mpg*$2.50 = $555/yr
         Maxima: $3500 +10000/23 mpg *2.50 = $1087/yr

Total cost to own for 10 years is $11550 for Prius, and $14,370 for the Maxima. Priuses are cheap now because gas prices are low. They are also pretty decent vehicles, size wise, but maximas are luxurious compared to both civic and prius (I'd say the civic is nicer than a prius).

Other note, I prius can be had for much less that $6000. They cost that much in Boise, but in the SF Bay Area, there are a dozen for less than that, with clean titles.

I'd also bet that a 2004-2009 prius will be waay more reliable than a 1997 Maxima. But maybe low miles for the Nissan will win out vs the inherent reliability of the Toyota. Both require maintenance, but the prius will be less (oil, tires, ATF, vs oil, tires, ATF, brakes, steering, and anything else that can break).

Good luck on your decision, I always like to say cars have paid for themselves when they've burned more in gas than they cost to buy initially. This threshold is much higher for high MPG cars, but for this prius it'd be 108k miles. The cheaper maxima would only have to last another 32k, although you're, in a way, pre paying for gas with the more expensive, more efficient prius.

[Optimiser]

Thanks for your help thinking through this decision. We ended up buying another Civic, but it's a slightly newer model with under 100K miles. And it's a hybrid with a manual transmission.

I'm looking forward to hypermiling it, and seeing how many MPGs I can squeeze out.

[Mississippi Mudstache]

Assumption: you want this car to last for 10 years

Math: Prius $6000 + 10,000 / 45 mpg*$2.50 = $555/yr
         Maxima: $3500 +10000/23 mpg *2.50 = $1087/yr

Total cost to own for 10 years is $11550 for Prius, and $14,370 for the Maxima. Priuses are cheap now because gas prices are low. They are also pretty decent vehicles, size wise, but maximas are luxurious compared to both civic and prius (I'd say the civic is nicer than a prius).

Other note, I prius can be had for much less that $6000. They cost that much in Boise, but in the SF Bay Area, there are a dozen for less than that, with clean titles.

I'd also bet that a 2004-2009 prius will be waay more reliable than a 1997 Maxima. But maybe low miles for the Nissan will win out vs the inherent reliability of the Toyota. Both require maintenance, but the prius will be less (oil, tires, ATF, vs oil, tires, ATF, brakes, steering, and anything else that can break).

Good analysis, but I would add a caveat: If you're looking at a 2nd gen Prius in the $6000 range, you should probably factor in the cost of a replacement battery. They will tend to give out in the 150K-250K range, or after 7-12 years. I paid $1800 for installation of a re-built battery last year in my 2007 Prius. Besides that, I've had nothing but routine maintenance (oil, tires, 12v battery) over 178,000 miles. It's a helluva car.