Book Value For Used Car

Q.My friend lost his transmission on his '95 Windstar. A rebuilt transmission with labor will run about $1,800. Is the best advice to just instead go get a *used* tranny and have it put in, then sell it?

A.NO - there's a LOT of variables he should consider first! One of the most important ones is that if you get the used tranny from a shop that routinely does this work, they have relationships with the local wreckers and these people have long experience in recognizing what the cream of the crop is when it comes in. Your friend could spend $600 on this type of deal and end up with a Windstar that has another 100K miles in it. I've gone this route with a used tranny myself twice now, for my own cars, where I've done the R&R on the tranny myself. Both times the used tranny I sourced came from the wrecker with rebuilders tags attached to them - the trannys had been rebuilt about 10K miles before the cars they were in were smashed up. I then put another 60K miles on one of these vehicles before selling it and the second one I'm still driving with 30K miles on the tranny and no problems. The idea that just because it comes from a wrecking yard it's trash is really stupid and shows a total ignorance of how wreckers operate. The wrecking yard business is very competitive and the best yards out there have a lot of experience in determining whether stuff coming in the door should be parted out and saved or sent to the smelter. Anyway, what this boils down to is how much risk does your friend want to take. while it may seem less risky to get a rebuilt tranny it could be more risky if the engine is high mileage - the engine could throw a rod within a year and now he's $5-6K in the hole on this, and by then the book value of the car is nowhere near that. Or an even better scenario that happened to a friend of mine last year - he gets the tranny fixed then a month later he smashes his car up and the insurance company totals it out and he loses the cost of the tranny because the insurance company only gives him Blue Book, and that is based on mileage and doesen't reflect the added value of the rebuilt tranny. it also matters if he even has the money. If he doesen't then consider that he might end up borrowing it on a credit line at 10% interest - where alternatively he chould just sell it now, as is, possibly for $1K then get a used car loan for 5.9% for a newer used vehicle. Does he even want to stay with a van for the forseeable future?

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