You cannot ask your doctor what it will cost to make you feel better until the problem is diagnosed. The car is no different. Many reputable new-car dealers will have someone pop in a new fuse for you for free. If that gets a function or circuit working, great, but if that fuse blows again later, they have to diagnose the problem, and charge for the time, then they can figure out a repair estimate. Repairing a wire rubbed through and grounding to the body could take a half hour. Repairing the many broken or frayed wires between the door hinges could take two to four hours, at $100.00 per hour. A rebuilt computer can easily cost over $1,000.00.
What I can suggest is I suspect you are buying this car from a private party, because no dealer would sell a car that needed repairs. What you need to be aware of is when the seller says, "all it needs is, ... ", you can be sure it does not. They are selling the car because they tried to repair the problem, and could not, or they know now that the proper repair is very expensive. Every day here someone posts the same thing. I was told it needed this, I replaced it, and it did not solve the problem. If the repair really was that easy, the seller would have done it and kept the car, or they would have done it to make it more valuable when selling it.
There are legitimate circumstances where a car is being sold by a person who is not equipped to make the needed repairs, and they just want it gone. For that situation, ask if you can take the car for a few hours to have your mechanic diagnose the problems. The seller will be agreeable if they are confident in what they told you. They are likely to balk if they know they are going to be caught in a lie. They might also fear a younger driver will abuse the car. As an alternative, have the seller drive it to the repair shop. That would also be a good time to pay for a safety inspection to include the steering, suspension, charging, and brake systems.
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Monday, September 25th, 2017 AT 7:16 PM
