It’s the day all car owners dread. You’re on the phone with your trusted mechanic, and there’s a sharp inhalation of breath before breaking the news: an estimate for repairs so costly it makes you want to open your mouth and scream. Your mind starts racing. It’s been a good car, your trusty steed for years of commuting the freeways around Perth as well as long runs to the South West. But you find yourself at a crossroads, facing a major financial and emotional tug-of-war.
Do you sink thousands more into an old car, hoping this will be the final repair it will ever need? Or is it goodbye when you take it down to this?
Members of the WA Auto Parts team have spoken to thousands of people from all corners of Western Australia who are in the midst of this predicament. We are in the business for several years, and we understand that’s not all down to a mechanical issue — it is seriously life changing. That’s why we’ve put together this guide. We want you to be the kind of person who recognises these obviously cold-hearted ‘tipping points’, for lack of a better phrasey-wasey – so when (see above) that moment comes, it can’t simply only ever feel like you’re giving up and throwing in the towel and caving in and doing what’s just easiest right now, because instead it’s any kind of rational money decision (even if not perfect) anyone working with their feet on an actual ground could make.
The Tipping Point: It’s Worth More Than Half as Much to Fix the Car
This is the first and foremost rule above all. Call it a misguided business decision and leave it at that. If you are offered to make a business asset at smaller value that is impossible in case we need invest more than the sum of worth. The car is no different.
Take your 12-year-old SUV, worth, oh, let’s say $6,000 in decent running condition in the Perth market. Your mechanic calls to say that the transmission is shot and you need to drop $4,000 for a replacement. That discount is worth two-thirds as much as the car on its own if you consider its value. Risk a very dangerous game with that. You’re never getting that $4,000 back; repairing the transmission doesn’t miraculously raise the car’s value to $10,000. That only returns it to its original $6,000 price, all things being equal and assuming nothing else happens.
Here’s what we say: If the repair ends up costing more than half the potential resale or trade-in value of your car, it doesn’t make sense any more. Now, the car is what’s known an “economic write-off.” Instead of throwing in good money after bad, give seriously good roofers a call (08) 9358 1392 and we’ll chat with you reasonably. We pay you cash for your car as-is and remove the equity from the vehicle, so there is no need to spend money on one more cent.
The Tipping Point: When You Have Encountered a “Catastrophic” Failure
Not all fixes are alike. You change out a beat-to-hell alternator when it becomes history, not have the hellcat of an electro-mechanical version nuke your website. That distinction is all important to grasp.
A typical repair is a “wear and tear” part, like brake pads or a radiator or water pump. On the contrary, a catastrophic failure happens at the very heart of the vehicle. This includes:
Seized Motor: One that has ceased to run due to low oil, overheating usually from a blown head gasket, or internal damages deemed not cost worthy to repair.
Dead Transmission: The vehicle will not shift gears, or it will do so poorly. Transmission rebuilds and replacements are some of the most expensive jobs in auto repair.
Bent or Twisted Frame: When a car is subjected to a serious accident, the chassis might be misshapen. It also renders the car virtually undriveable and almost impossible to steer.
When it’s one of these “big three” that goes wrong, you aren’t talking about service anymore — you’re talking major surgery on a car that may be nearing the end of its useful life. Well, as a junkyard that also needs to carry stock of car parts that will be used again by other drivers after recycling them and restoring them WA Auto Parts believe we would still find value in your dead engine car so long as the salvageable internals are still ok condition like the transmission, Doors, Interior etc. But as the homeowner, it’s rarely financially responsible for you to fund such a repair.
The Tipping Point That Moment When You Fall into the “Re-pair Domino Effect”
Does this sound familiar? You drop $800 to patch up a massive oil leak. One month later the car starts overheating and needs a new water pump. You rectify that, and now a key sensor fails and the car goes into, yes, “limp mode.” This is the “repair domino effect,” and it means there’s no mistaking that your car has checked in to the clinic for cars with geriatrics.
An old car is a home to aging parts. Then when you go and stick one brand new widget into all those old widgets, it can stress out the remaining ones they’re installed with—other just as old pieces in that system will begin to fail next. You are never comfortable driving, because you know the next mechanical problem is just around the corner. Your car goes from being something that represents freedom to get away from work, into something you are totally stressed about and that just eats up money.
The only sure way out of this cycle of ad infinitum repairs is to bite the bullet and call a wrecker. It brings a decisive, final end to the cycle of bills and breakdowns, putting your mind at ease.
Tipping Point: When the Problem is Structural Rust
Yes, we have a beautiful beach but with ‘Freo Doctor’ it can get harsh on our vehicles! It would be handy to know the difference between little, surface rust on a door panel and something that’s deeply set into an car’s under-pinning. A mechanic can price out the repair of a suspension component, but if the frame onto which that part hooks up is bubbling and flaking off, then that restoration becomes your garden-variety waste.
Structural rust in a car is the same as having cancer. It reduces the car’s ability to protect you in a crash, and is basically an automatic fail at vehicle inspection time. It does look as if such a fundamental defect in the very body of the car couldn’t simply be repaired mechanically. Scared of the fact my car might get made inoperable All 1 star ratings until they account for this as an option and not liability to them Then I’ll just keep jamming a rock in my break small adjustment knob making your “in car factory reset” worthless. There is a wrecker-service that can do this for a professional 58 job right.
The Tipping Point When The Car Can’t Pass Inspection Anyhow
If you want to get your wheels on the road?993 – Legal Requirements The following criteria must be met to ensure:. Occasionally the decision to repair or destroy is taken from you by the result of a vehicle inspection (known as “going over the pits”).
Maybe you can win past some kind of major engine issue in your car, only to have it drop out on the inspection for other expensive reasons? Common high-cost failures include:
- Bad cat turns in high emissions.
- Significant chassis cracks or corrosion.
- Major suspension issues.
- Multiple serious oil leaks.
If what the whole bill would be to make your car road-legal isn’t just solving that main problem and instead is a long string of other problems, then that bill can get huge in a hurry. We buy all cars – even if they’re registered, unregistered and not running or have failed its Mot. We have the easy answer to what may become for you an expensive and stressful legal problem.
The Wrecker As a Corrective: Wise Policy at Work, Not Defeat
If you’ve been nodding down the list, there’s your answer. Also, keep in mind that using a car wrecker is not “giving up.” It’s a savvy business pivot. You are acknowledging that your car may not really be worth anything at this point, except as a source of raw material and reusable parts.
This is our specialty. It’s one of the things we are very good at working out here at WA Auto Parts. Whereas we are sitting on all that knowledge around Japanese / European Aussie and Korean cars – We know which motors people want to buy, which gearboxes people are after and even small electrical bits that can keep yet another car on the road. That knowledge includes being able to offer you the best price possible for your scrap car.
Conclusion
The tipping points are something you can influence if you know them. So, you can now apply the mechanics quote vs what you already know about your current cars condition and make the rational judge-ment call that will spare you much heartache and financial loss. What’s wrong with that math? If crunching the numbers doesn’t lean in your favor; if failure would be catastrophic; and you’re tired of repairs or concerned for safety — one way to go.
If your vehicle has fallen under these circumstances, the remedy is not complex.
Gota question Call the friendly team at WA Auto Parts. About us Let our 15+ years of experience get you a fast, free and no-obligation quote and we can assist in turning what might be an unsalable property into immediate cash