what should i do?

[DarknessofDeath]

here's the situation and i'll try to keep it short with the major points in it.

bought a 92 LS~L that wasnt' in great shape ->actually worse than what i thought it would be.only paid 3500$ after taxes.
owned the car for about a year and a half now . july 13 2005. only started driving the car end of august of 2005. spent 25000$ fixing the car up (roughly say - half on labour and half on parts {though i'm sure there is more on parts}). have changed out seized and badly worn parts with new parts or used parts and in some cases used parts and then new parts or upgraded parts. have had final invoice amounts costing more than double or triple the estimates which has racked the credit card. financially this car and take up all the money that i can make and faster than i make it.
the car just blew a headgasket on me a couple days ago. assuming it's going to be another 3000$ at least.
without this "love of the svx" thing and being realistic. what would you do or what is your advice?

[Beav]

Tough call. How much do you want the car? It's difficult to place a dollar value on enjoyment and entertainment. In other words, if you ain't smilin' you're dyin'.

My personal credo: If you're not happy, get happy! If the car doesn't make you happy, get rid of it.

[dannmarr]

Look at it this way: Can you buy another car for the price of fixing it? Or if you sell it, will it be enough to buy another car? Unless you buy a new car you will always need to put money into a used car. My personal opinion is to keep the car as a project car and fix it at your leisure. Buy a more reliable car for everyday. To sell it with a blown HG is like giving it away. keep it for now. Good luck!

[It's Just Eric]

Tha is ALOT of money for repairs...I'm quite suprised you haven't taken up mechanics yourself..I mean, a simple 150$ toolset saved me a few thousand in repairs already...and besides needing to fit your hands in some tight places, most repairs are fairly straightforward. \
When I got my car last year, I had like..six oil changes and a radiator under my belt from my first car. thus far I've swapped out entire interiors twice, swapped engines, fixed my starter,cam angle sensor, found and fixed a problem with a "Custom" intake nstalled by previous owner, fixed the power steering pump, brake pads..and not to mention the repairs I've done for / helped friends with.
The fact is, dont be afraid to dive into the ol' thing and fix it yourself. If something's broke, you pretymuch cant make it worse (Unless of course, you can) You have a great community here that'll help you figure out your busted stuff, and you'd be suprised just how gratifying it is to make something work again

I say..head gasket..meh, what's that, like 60$? 150$ toolkit? Weekend or two? Well worth it

[Glitz-n-Vette]

Well you apparently like the car.... You've poured enough into it already, kind of foolish to get rid of it at this point..... If you don't like the car, get rid of it.... But changing some things on cars is relatively simple. Even I can do some of it, and I am known as 'Car Illiterate' lol. Mechanics jack prices anyway.......

Though as a footnote, even my father hates changing HG(s).

[Beav]

New rule: No disparaging remarks about mechanics (or any other group) without first placing yourself in a group others can make jackass remarks about.

Here, let me get you started:

Schmuck...

[dcarrb]

Man, you've spent a TON of money on that car. The only way to recover even a fraction of your expenditure (notice I didn't type "investment") is to drive it 'til the wheels fall off.

But as Beav alluded, if you're sick of it, stop pouring money into it.

dcb

[SVXMAN2001]

I voted to drop a new engine in, you've spent a significant amount of money thus far and as others have said it would be a waste to get rid of it now. After all the parts you've replaced, what else could go wrong!!?

As a side note, get a good set of tools and the factory service manuals, the high costs of fixing this car have inspired me to do many jobs i have never even done before, its intimidating at first (i have very limited knowledge of auto mechanics), but with a bit of patience, the right tools, and instructions, anything is doable on this car...good luck!

[Budfreak]

You know my opinion Perry. You just let me know when your ready and we'll fix ya right up.

[Ira Davis]

Darkness, I can truly sympathize with you.

I was in the same position about two months ago... except my moneypit was an 88 XJ (Cherokee).

Four years ago I made a bad purchase, eliminated those problems by building a new jeep out of three not so good jeeps and 21K later I had one reliable rockcrawler (check out the pics in my locker). Drove it for a year and a half with a brand new drive line and had no problems. Until the horsepower and torque of my "built" motor french fried my crappy Dana 35 (a common problem). Since I haven't wheeled much since the birth of my youngest daughter (who is one and a half) I called it quits and am now in the process of parting it out. It hurt like hell to rip apart something (cool) that I had built with my own hands but realistically I am much happier with another Suby and the proceeds from my parts will completely pay for my SVX and several repairs.

My advice to you is determine how deep you want to dig this moneypit.

Next if you decide to keep your current SVX then like many others here I would suggest learning to work on it yourself.

If most of your mechanical problems stem from the engine but the rest of the car has been pretty reliable then yeah I would agree with Tom on this one... swap in a new(er) motor.

Just my opinion.

Ira

[DarknessofDeath]

thanks for the replies guys.

the guys at subaru just changed out the thermostat - going for the cheap fix. though i thought it was the thermostat that wasn't working properly. they said i'd know if it was the thermostat in about a week? (didn't understand that one).

[davew833]

$2000-3000 IS a ripoff to do a head gasket on an SVX, which is why I ended up doing it myself. Several shops I spoke to wouldn't even TOUCH the job when I told them what it was, how many miles on the car, etc., and EVERYONE told me the engine has to be pulled to do it, which I didn't believe. I did both head gaskets by myself with the engine in the car, had the heads checked and milled, replaced the front main seals, valve cover gaskets, etc., for about $400. It's been a year now and it hasn't overheated since.

[DarknessofDeath]

the car had 302k kms on it when i bought it.
it has 337 now.

[TomsSVX]

so the gates of hell run on the metric system?

Tom