Rep Power: 0

Sat, Feb 19:
* been doing some car shopping, most cars a bit out of price range and too high mileage. Finally ran into one by freak accident. 1995 Integra LS, 69,000KM (not miles), for a decent price ($8800CDN after taxes) Not the cheapest available, but definitely one with the lowest mileage. Put a deposit on it.

Sat, Feb 26:
* went and picked up the car. Paid in full, and now the bank owns the car.
* drove it straight to my audio guy (cloppy) and got an alarm ($230)
* since it's actually for my sister, I took her out for driving practice at night.
* after driving for about 1 hr, we traded seats and, wanting to see how the Integra compares to my 2002 Civic hatch, I floored it TO CATCH UP TO TRAFFIC IN FRONT. Pulled over by a cop within 3 minutes. 91km/hr in a 60km/hr zone.
* after pleading with the cop, he let us off. No ticket and no points. LUCKY.

Mon, Feb 28:
* called around for service records (from dealerships where the previous owner did services). Found out that I need to have timing belt done even though the car has only 69,000 KM on it... apparently it's recommended every 5 years. Decided to go all out and dropped off the car. Timing belt ($509), brake/clutch fluid flush (($140), brake job ($300). Hurts but important.

Tue, Mar 1:
* service guy at dealership called me. Oil pan gasket leak ($250+tax), cam seal leak ($30), CV boot leak? ($60). Apparently, when you put a car in storage for a long time, the oil pan gasket hardens and leaks oil????? I definitely didn't know about that... holy **** is all I could say. $1458CDN after taxes.

So I'm pushing the grand total of the car cost to about $10,500CDN... damn... much, much more than I had expected to pay... I was planning something like, $8-9000CDN... but I guess
1) low mileage
2) major maintenance jobs (timing belt, oil pan gasket, brake/clutch fluid flush)

Man, that's expensive...

 
Rep Power: 293

Cars are expensive of course. A depreciating asset. Do you have any plans?

 
Rep Power: 0

Nope, no plans for mods... it's really meant as a grocery getter for my sister... I was kinda torn between civic, spectra, echo/tercel, etc... but then she liked the styling of the integra, and this one came with all the features she wanted (AC, pw, pl, p-sunroof, abs, etc etc) and all the features I liked (low mileage, 5-spd, good condition).

I'm just surprised at how much the initial maintenance cost turned out to be... i was thinking about $4-500, + new tires and maybe new brakes... turned out to be much much more than I expected, mostly because of the timing belt and oil pan gasket... that's $800+tax right there.

 
Rep Power: 0

So,

Is this true? Anyone? I know there were a couple of responses in General Rambling... saying possible but not likely... considering that the car is 10 years old and barely driven (69K KM), is it actually expected to leak oil as a result of the oil pan gasket??

 
Rep Power: 302

Yeah, cars rot away when not properly stored. They need to be run on a regular basis to keep oil on everything. In either case, many people sell their car just before all the major stuff has to be done. Now since you did it, it should be a good car for a long time to come.