Arg!

Most of my life I have made a conscience choice to keep my vehicles for as long as I reasonably could. I have been quite content putting money into a vehicle to keep it on the road for as long as I can. My logic is with new car prices what they are today a few thousand in maintenance is only a few months of car payments. Replacing a car is usually a result of an accident and subsequent write off, or the body rusting out excessively.

Generally I am content with this strategy. The last couple years have been trying though. All three of our vehicles have at one time or another been in the shop to repair rodent damage. Rural living and no garage comes with certain risks. Thankfully these are covered by insurance but there is still that deductible.

This year we have been chasing recurring issues with both the Subaru and the Silverado. The Subaru has a fuel leak somewhere. Twice we have had fuel line clamp issues. Still smells of gas. The problem with it now is the smell has gone away by the time I get it to the shop and they can’t find the issue. It needs to be there overnight so they can find it on a cold start. We did have that booked in but life got in the way and I had to cancel it. Need to get it rebooked soon.

First I need to get the Silverado highway trustworthy. Its recurring issue the a throttle position sensor error that keeps dumping me into limp mode. It is an intermittent error that has eluded pinpointing so far. Today I am back in the shop getting the harness replaced. We already did connectors at both ends and so now we’ll do the whole thing.

Over the past year I have put several thousand dollars into the truck fixing leaks. Rad hoses, seals and gaskets, broken engine mounts, new throttle body. Add to this brakes and tires and it has been an expensive vehicle year.

It is tempting to say sell them all and get a new(er) one. That thought goes through my head at least once a week. At the moment I am not ready to do that. The bodies on all the vehicles are still in very good condition. They run well (present truck issue aside). The chassis are in good shape. each of them could very well give us years of service still. Now that I’m not working the need for a daily drive truck is removed. All I need now is an occasional trip to the landfill or the lumberyard or the greenhouse. The truck will become the winter driver, as the BMW goes into storage in October each year. Too low to drive in snow, and hate leaving a ragtop out in the days and days of rain.

So I will for now continue to spend money to extend their life. My original plan was to try to get another three or four years out of the truck then look at replacing it. Perhaps by then the newer battery technologies will be mainstream and the issue with ferries and lithium batteries will be resolved so I could actually get an EV to the dealer if it needed to be towed there.