A4AdMan

After taking my car to the local Ford dealer for an oil change and to have them look into why it would hang on to first gear longer than it should before changing gears I have just been told that my 6 1/2 year old Explorer needs a new transmission.

I guess I shouldn't be suprised that at 115K miles that this type of work is needed. The last 3 1/2 years this car has been a virtual money pit for maintenence with between $1,400 and $2,000 spent on various problems. Now I am faced with forking over $3,300 for a new transmission on a car that frankly I can't stand anymore.

I was hoping to get another year or so out of this ride before replacing it but now I am wondering if I should cut bait and just get a new car or a low mileage CPO of some sort.

My wife really likes driving the SUV (It makes her feel secure being in something that large and above the road) so an Avant (Audi content)is out of the question. Plus the versatility of the SUV is actually very nice.

The other thing that kills me is that with a failing transmission that any trade-in value that the car had is probably gone down the drain.

Arghh...what would you do if you were in my shoes? Repair it and wait for the next think to go wrong or cut bait and get a new/used car?

And all of this also means that I'd better get use to having my A4 the way it is for a while since I'll be in no position to do any new mods to it for a while.

(BD need not respond as I know what your thinking is on the matter. Thanks for your thoughts).

ScottJ

Are you carrying a note on the Explorer?

If it's paid in full the new tranny may be your best bet unless you can talk her into something other than a lemmingmobile.

How about a Subaru Forrester?

allroad'Ed now

for reliability. Both were V8 Eddie Bauers. The '00 had close to 80K on it when we traded for the '04. And it was used to pull a 5000 lb race car trailer too. Only problem we ever had was the throttle body twice but both covered under the emissions warranty. But we also changed our trans fluid and filter assy at 50K.

Wish all our a Audis were as trouble free as our Explorers.

nanotech

Tauruses had horrible transmissions. Windstars, same deal. Explorers, same deal.

Any way you can trade it without them knowing about the issue? Lot of dealers are just auctioning the car anyways so they won't really care about hidden problems, they'll be someone else's problem soon enough. The last trade-in I watched, they didn't even drive the car, just started it and revved it a bit.

How badly does it hang?