More Car (Auto) Advice

[Russ Bellinis]

If you see rust on the car, put it up on blocks and look carefully at the underside of the car particularly around the suspension parts. Most cars built prior to 1960 had frames made of massive steel channel, and the body was just sheet metal that mounted to the massive frame. In the 1960s the manufacturers started going to unit body designs where the body was the frame. By boxing and triangulating the sheet metal they could build a stronger, lighter frame with the unit body design or as the Europeans call it a "monocoque." The problem is that being sheet metal, it will rust out. What you want to look carefully at are the points where the front suspension mounts to the unit body. If you see rust there, poke at it with a screw driver to see if it is just surface rust or if it is rotted through. My son in law had a Suzuki that he brought out from Chicago. He thought it was in pretty good shape, but the tires were worn out. I started to change the tires and we discovered that as I jacked the car up, it would "sink" back down. My hydraulic jack was holding, but the unit body had rusted out at the point where the front suspension was mounted to the car body, and the "frame" was bending under the weight of the car. The next thing to go would have been a catastrophic failure of the front suspension! If the front suspension mounting points are good and solid, there is no reason to just trade the car off.

I think it is a good idea when you are making car payments, and the car is paid off, keep making those same car payments into your savings account. That way, you have a "car fund" to cover repairs and when it is time to replace the car, the money is there to either pay cash or make a large down payment, and lower your monthly payments. That car fund can also reduce the "sticker shock" of the new car prices.