2006 Honda CRV - trade or fix???

My wife has an 06 CRV with close to 170,000 miles on it. It's in fairly good shape, no major issues but the A/C just quit working and it's always had a shudder/vibration any time she accelerates. I looked it up on Kelly blue book and she probably wouldn't get more than maybe $6000 for a trade from a dealer and she still has 12 months of payments left.

I'm taking it in to a mechanic next week to get it looked at but from what I've been reading the repair could be anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. If it's only worth $6000 I don't think it would make sense to fix the a/c if it's going to cost more than $1000.

Thoughts and opinions on what you'd do? She drives a LOT, in 4 years she's put about 100,000 miles on it so it's getting to the point where I'm starting to think we need to get her something else with low miles before things start breaking on the honda.

 

That’s a ton of miles. I think you’ve gotten your use out of her. Getting 6k would be a godsend. I guess it depends on how much you love the wifey? Haha….Does she have something else she wants in mind? Or is this an upgrade for you as well?

 

While I agree that it wouldn't be worth spending a few (as in 3) thousand dollars to fix I wouldn't consider $1000 a deal breaker in this case. Is the $6k you could get for trade in taking into consideration that the AC needs repair? Wait for the repair estimate and then decide but if at all possible keep it, pay it off and drive it until the wheels fall off. Stay out of debt, live a happy life. The "paid for" years of ownership are the best years. A $400 per month car payment = $4800 yr, even if you have to throw $1000 at it twice a year you will come out $2800 ahead. Save that money and take the wife on a vacation instead.

 

Yeah, I know I can't really know anything until I get the estimate. With a broken AC I'm probably looking at a max of maybe $4000 trade in if I'm lucky. It's entirely my wifes car, I drive it every now and then but not much. She doesn't like any of the new honda's or toyota's, doesn't like Hyundai, so I'm kind of pushing her toward either a Subaru forester or tribeca.

 

My wife's 05 CRV has a similar shudder since new, tho only momentarily, around 40mph, on a smooth road...I suspected a bad half-shaft, but 2 dealers couldn't find anything wrong. If not for your AC issue, I'd say keep it

 

Question: How far does she drive routinely?

I say what others have, get your estimate first and all. But if she's really worried about a breakdown and drives far away that's also a factor to consider.

My friend's mother put 250K on her CR-V so it is capable of that for sure.

 

She's a coach so during the fall she is about an hour from home, winter she's usually about 30-40 mins from home. I was just looking at her loan and we really f$&cked up when we bought her crv. I don't know how but we screwed up buying this crv and she owes more now than the trade in value, depending on how much the trade in would be she might be around $3000 upside down.

 

damn...still paying on an '06? Sorry dude

 

I'd say if you can try and grit your teeth and pay it off first. At least you're not in the red that way.

In part at least, your problem is the miles went up so fast on it. My father used to do about 25k a year, but he was such a miser he'd buy something cheap he could pay for outright and just drive the wheels off it.

 

So for better or worse we made a decision and traded the honda. A day after I posted it threw a check engine light and started making a knocking sound in the engine. I couldn't narrow down the area, it just sounded bad. We figured what the hell, let's see what a dealer will give us for trade and got an offer of $5500 from a subaru dealer. They had a nice 2013 black forester with only 30,000 miles for $22000 so we just went ahead and did it. I really don't think the thing was worth $5500, maybe $3000 or $4000 in the shape it was in.

If we'd kept the honda I know it would have been well over a $1000 repair bill, the entire ac system needed replaced, estimated about $2000. I never got the knocking sound looked at so whatever that was would have been a hell of a lot more. I couldn't see putting $2000+ into an 8 year old car with 170,000 miles.

It means another 5 years of car payments but with the low miles it should last easily. Not the ideal situation but I feel better with her driving something more reliable now. Thanks for all the suggestions

 

Knowing that additional issue I think you made a wise choice, my guess is all in all you may easily have hit $1500 or more.

 

What happened to the A/C? Quit blowing cold air? Didn't work when you tried to turn it on? Did someone actually give ya a diagnosis of what was wrong?