After Wal-Mart put new tires on the TrailBlazer, it was really loud. Tire noise was severe, and after a recent tire rotation, the noise became more noticeable when turning.
Out of balance tires? Just loud tires?
No. It turns out that one of the front hubs was loose, and needed to be replaced (about $700). Considering that we have 118,000 miles on it, I guess a repair like this isn't too startling or disappointing.
You can't recognize that sound instantly? You must have had the good fortune to only drive fairly new cars. I've replaced a good number of hubs over the years.
ReplyDeletePerhaps it shows how much the economy has collapsed over the last few years. The last time that I drove a car with more than 100,000 miles before the current economic disaster was when I was growing up fairly poor. I am convinced that very used cars cause poverty at least as much as poverty causes very used cars.
ReplyDeleteI'd disagree with used cars causing poverty. Most of the used cars I've dealt with have had lower net repair bills than car payments. And I have 3 cars with more than 100K miles on them now, so I've come to the conclusion that high mileage cars are far more reliable than even 20 years ago.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is usually that people who own used cars don't keep enough of a buffer in their bank account to pay off the big bills that come in periodically, and the cascade effects from that (job loss due to not showing up, etc) are catastrophic. So the problem is more behavioral than anything else. But trouble with managing money is almost synonymous with poverty, and schools do a terrible job of teaching even the fundamentals of managing money. Instead, we have popular culture teaching consumerism and debt accumulation and driving folks into debt slavery with financial illiteracy.
PhaseMargin: You are probably right. There was a time in my life when a $700 repair bill would have been a catastrophic problem. Now, it is nothing -- less than two car payments on a new car. As long as this doesn't happen more than three or four times a year, it is cheaper than buying a new car.
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