Neil4Speed

I was just curious, I am very much interested in getting one due to the reason that they are quite reasonably priced, and a truely amazing car, however, being a student, the cost effectiveness is reletively important.

About how much do you spend on Maintance and Repair on your SC400 montly (or extrapolate to give me a yearly figure). I figure that I would have around $1400 CDN to use on Maintance and Repair per yer, is this a reasonable figure?

Edit. I should also mention that I intend on picking up an SC with around 130k Miles, and only would be putting on about 7k Miles a year.

cdvmagic

I don;t recomend it.I bought My sc400 with a 106k miles and after a month and a half the head gasket started leaking and normally that will cost around 1000 bucks for the labor but i did it my self so I didn't pay that much.I still have to buy a new O2 sensor that's about$120 for the part.and I had to recharge my a/c because it has a leak.And when I removed the battery for a few days to work on the car and put it back half of my interior lights didn't work anymore.I am not gettinh rid of my car anytime soon but i'm saying if your on a budget you should settle for something that'a cheaper.For the cost of a new Sc(around$10000)You can buy a brand new Toyota Yaris)It;s new so it;s a more peace of mind worry free car.For a student I think that's the way to go

4evDev

iTrader: (1)

Hey buddy,

Being from Alberta as well, I can give you some maintenance costs. I take my car to the dealership for everything, as I can't be bothered to do it myself, so these would be your maximum costs.

Oil Change:

- Mobile 1 Synthetic changed at dealership is $120 with tax
- I think its around $70 for normal oil, but I always use synthetic

Tranny/Diff Fluid Change:

-$100 every 24,000 km

Brake Fluid:

-$90 every 48,000 km

Coolant:

-Change every 48,000 km, can't remember how much, probably around the same as brake fluid.

Timing Belt, Water Pump, Plugs, Wires, etc.

-That one will set you back around $2000 - I do it every 100,000 km, but you could stretch that out longer. If it had Variable Valve Timing, I'd do it on time though.

Gas Mileage:

I've been getting around 30 MPG on the highway, but thats driving fairly nice. ie) 115-120 kph

If nothing went wrong you could probably get by on the $1400 per year maintenance, but one thing wrong and you'll be way over. I had to replace the heater control valve and it was $600 for just the part. I also had a bad 02 sensor that was around $400 to change.

If you happened to buy one with bad control arm bushings or a bad powersteering pump, which are common, you'd be waaaaaaaaaay over.

These cars are cheap to own, but very expensive to maintain. I've spent $3000 just on maintenance in the last 6 months. ( I did the timing belt service in there)

They are also not a good winter car at all, even with Blitzy's. I'm getting a SUV for winter.

If you only have a couple years of school to go, I'd hold off and get a really good SC when you're finished. They're awesome cars, but they can become really expensive in a hurry. Plus, you'll get it and you'll start throwing money into rims, stereo, etc.

Hope that helps out! There is nothing worse than being strapped for cash when your in school!
Take some trips and have some fun with that money, school is pretty much the best time of your life!

Devin