Hello again, well, I had gotten my monte about a year ago (a year in march to be exact) and I had to get a few things done (wheel alignment, tie rod and ball joint, tires etc...). So, my brakes have been acting funny lately so I took it to R & S Strauss to get them checked (for free naturally haha). And boy oh boy was I in for a surprise. I need a tie rod and ball joint for the right side, engine mounts, new breaks, new shocks/struts, and then a wheel alignment after all that is said and done. All in all, they said with labor its going to be like $2100, and my jaw hit the ground. I had only paid $3000 for the car, and spend like already $2000 on fixing it as soon as i got it. I'm in a pickle where I don't know if I should spend another 2K or save it and use it for a downpayment on something else. I was hoping to get a better job and sell this one to get the 07 SS, but so far, I still have the shame $hitty part time job, while being in school. Any advice or support (or parts for that matter) would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

Tory

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i would use the 2 grand for a down payment on the other car, its too bad you dont have friends that can do the work either because it would save over half of that price probably..and all you would have to pay for is the parts and you'd still have to have an alignment done..but it would save youa bunch of money...

i can't see all that stuff going @ the same time though...wierd

if you want shoot me a message and i can price everything out for you...mind you it will be cdn dollars so you'd have to change that to us dollars (so it will be cheaper..but i can't see it costing that much money for all those parts)...and usually when you go to some places they tell you they're putton on good parts and only put on cheap parts..

and definetly take it for a second opinion..can't see that much stuff going @ once

 

is this all just front parts that your needing done..and what year is your monte??

 

as far as i know the front struts ar elike the shocks shove down on the car and get it to bounce it should recover from it in like 1-1/2 bounces.

Basically the fast teh better.

as far as the rest of it i would defnetly get a second mech. to look at it . I dont trust any f them at face value. i guess im not trusting when it comes to my car . (i do my own work)
But the thing is i would have ti cehckd out and make sure that they didnt give you the wrong info.

 

and not to mean anything bad about this, but your a girl and they may be thinking that they can take advantage of you because they may think you dont know what your talking about...you see it all the time up here..mechanics trying to rip off women saying their car needs stuff that it doesn't...i dont mean anything bad about this..but thats the way it is

 

go in and ask them to look it over for you. when they start namign everything off on you say kool thanks i will let my father know he ownes his own mech, shop and he can do the work i will just have to drive up there to him.
make it sound like he is just far enough away that it would be a weekend trip but not close enough to have them look at it for ya.

thsi will normally scare them enough they will change thier tune for you and if they start back peddling then you know it was B.S.

 

Yea I'm aware of the "boys love to screw girls over" thing. I had my boyfriend meet me there in hopes that they don't do that. They also showed me all the problems. I knew about the one tie rod and ball joint cause I had first fixed one side, and never the other. And like I said the breaks were acting funny and stuff, so I don't know. And now i'm starting to hear the boat sound from the struts which drives me insane (speed bumps at school do not help my insanity haha). The mechanic my father goes to I don't trust at all, cause he always gives cheap parts but charges as if they were top shelf material. It's hard to find a trust-worthy mechanic (if there exists such a person) and I would love to do the work myself, I have the space and I could find the time to, but the tools I just don't have. Thanks for your input guys, I really appreciate it. I don't think these things all happened at once, I treat my baby real good, but the guy that had it before me (a mechanic naturally) covered up these problems pretty well. I have a second interview on friday so hopefully I'll be getting that better job to get that 07 SS, but it'll still take awhile.

 

We wish you all the best on your interview, Monte_Baby. Good luck with the car.