Originally Posted by
nickels
Just rolled over 50,000km, was doing some quick math on what I've spent on the car so far. This is all maintenance costs, not including upgrades or anything along those lines. Curious to see what others are following for a service schedule on these things. The following is a mix of full price dealership, cost to do by myself, and some stuff done at employee rates.
7 oil changes (1k 8k 16k 24k 32k 40k 48k) at an average of $50 each :$343 (self for 4, dealer for 3)
Hammering 3 rims round again due to potholes :$45 (all dealer)
2 four wheel brake services (no parts replaced) :$105 (1 at dealer 1 at home)
Manual Transmission Fluid Change (at 48,000 service) :$61 (dealer)
4 front wiper blades, 2 rear rubber refills :$79 (all dealer)
Brake Fluid Flush (at 40,000 service) :$66 (dealer)
2 Engine Air Filters, 1 Cabin Air Filter :$52 (dealer)
E-Brake adjustment (38,000km) :$0
Occasional Rust Paint and Fluid Film work for salt control... :$20
$801, $0.016 per km.
And that's it. The next few years will see new summer and winter tires, another brake fluid done at 80,000, brake service at 72,000 and then the gear oil and coolant flush at 96,000km service with another brake service. It's safe to say that I take advantage of my employee rates. At the current pace, brakes will easily cruise past 100,000...
Ignoring the factory service recommendations, what has everybody else tackled so far? Does anybody else believe in fluid changes similar to oil changes, or is that just me with my skewed view of the vehicles I see on a daily basis?
$300 in almost 6 years of Mirage ownership since new. That's my contribution to Mitsubishi replacing the starter and the flywheel. They said they spent over 3k but I am not sure if that is true.
All other costs: $49-53.00 an oil change and basic inspection at Ford every 4 months. Mitsubishi oil changes are almost $110 with longer waits. so I did that the first 5 years to keep the warranty zero questions. That was $1500 total. At the local Ford dealer this will be around $750 in 5 years' time.
Tires I have replaced once. Technically. Bridgestone Potenzas at the Mitsu dealer were around $600 bucks installed, about $135 a piece.
Two rear wiper blades at the dealer at 39.99 a piece. I don't replace them now.
1 set of 14" rims from a 2016 Mirage (barely rode rubbers and se alloys, and 2016 is what the guy said when I got the tires at a timmies parking lot in TO). Anyway barely used Dunlops and rims and I paid almost nothing for them. Like $100 bucks. Great used find, only shifty area in Toronto I didn't know, and it was wintertime last year with that 1 clear day.
So overall a cheap car to run, when something doesn't go wrong, best to have the warranty but it took a lot of legwork to get the dealership to fix stuff, and now they won't return my calls. They changed owners and location, so I think only 1 of the old people is still there. The car doesn't owe me much so I think for $2900 bucks I owe on my Mirage I am good for a while, minor issues notwithstanding.
My Mirage is pretty good in the winter, in some ways, though I'm leaning toward something bigger like a used Challenger maybe.. if I can find a good one with cloth seats.
I believe in fluid changes in all combustible engines, your motor will get gunked up eventually. Especially with older cars you have to do it more frequently. Not electric ones, on old etrucks you add water to and that's another conversation. I have ran my 1.2 Mirage up to around 9500 km's before an oil change but I felt this is pushing it and the desert sand brown oil was black.
That's an xperiement you can only do once, so you might as well change the oil for keeping things running A1 sauce.
I forgot that I had the front discs replaced at around 50k. This is normal wear and tear, though I'm sure the dealership didn't wait long to replace them. I think that was over $500, and that was the week I had the RVR rental because they put my discs on another car.
Now my check engine light is on (and off) and on again from an evap leak. The dealer did a smoke test and then said it was a loose evap hose, then the light came on 2 weeks later. I think it's half fixed, but some extent of fumes are escaping. So I live with it, I don't think the gas tank is leaking, my car has been oil sprayed at Krown since day 1 so it's mint. Still not perfect. My car has had interior rattles since day 1 practically. The gear shifter rattles in different gears and speeds from day 1.
Last edited by dspace9; 02-04-2020 at 07:47 PM.
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View my fuel log 2014 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 42.2 mpg (US) ... 17.9 km/L ... 5.6 L/100 km ... 50.7 mpg (Imp)