4EverEver

I am new to the forum, believe it or not this is one of the first forums that I’ve signed up for in over 20 years. I’ve always been into the idea of DIY but in regards to motor-vehicles I assumed that by late 30s the idea that I would ever be able to repair my own car was unrealistic. Then I met a friend a few days after I purchased my 2002 Camry back in January 2019. He was so enthusiastic about Toyota’s, specially 4 cylinder Camrys. When he popped the hood and said “oh my god” I prepared for a laundry list of problems because to me it looked like a messy old dirty rust ball… I definitely wasn’t expecting him to say what he said… he was jovial like a kid in a candy store looking at what he claimed was his “favorite engine to work on…” He then proceeded to explain that if I needed any repairs on this car that he’d be willing to do it for a fraction of the cost I’d have to pay at a mechanic’s shop. I thought it was a joke… well, not only was he serious but for the next 4 years no one touched my car but him aside from a few repairs that required a machine or device of some kind that he didn’t own. In January of 2023 the car began to overheat. I called my buddy and he explained that I could blow a head gasket (as well as several other problems) if I didn’t diagnose and repair what was causing the engine to run hot. So, we replaced the radiator, still overheating. Then we replaced fans, I thought that fixed it but after driving it for a day it began to overheat again. He warned me that I really needed to avoid driving the car until we could fix this. Unfortunately, I took that as him saying once I get it home that I shouldn’t drive it… that’s when I lost my 02 Camry, sure enough the head gasket blew. The car at that point was only worth about $1,700 and even though my buddy was interested in working one replacing the engine over the span of a few weekends I made the choice to sell it for $500 and try to buy a reasonably priced vehicle in February 2023 during one of the largest shortages of cars since the Industrial Revolution due to issues with supply chain that was having a major impact on many goods including food supply, computers and tech and even new car inventory which caused a surge in used car purchases and inevitably resulting in car prices higher than the value as well as unexpected unethical and illegal fees being charged by dealers. In a one month period I had 4 different deals that were so close to finalizing that I had insurance set up on the car but at the very last minute the dealer would demand another $1,000 or the bank would reject the price after agreeing to a smaller amount and then receiving a much higher price with hidden fees. We originally had went to the dealership with our own financing but all the dirty tricks and generally hostile salesman put us in a place where we made the choice to just go to a small local buy here pay here and buy a 2014 Toyota Camry SE Sport after a 10 min test drive. We were over sitting at dealerships for hours, being lied to, being treated as if we were the problem due to our expectations… which was just requesting transparency. All we wanted was to be given an honest price then negotiate and finally purchase as opposed to a quote that we’d negotiate then having $4,000 in fees added or being told that they only use their financing knowing damn well that we were clear about our choice to use our credit union. These were used cars that we’re going from 12 to 18 grand before tax,tag and title were added. It was a game that I had never experienced and was shocked by the way the dealers would each hear our horror stories about the previous dealers just to pull a similar tactic leaving hours wasted and more money spent to get us home via Uber. Did I mention we have a 22 month old little girl who we just didn’t feel comfortable bringing the car seat in an Uber and dragging the poor thing along for these 2023 Car Dealership Olympic Games. Eventually we decided that my wife would stay with the baby so that we weren’t stressing about getting back to the babysitter on time. Finally at the end of April my wife and I were driving back from an appointment and her father allowed us to use his car. That’s when we found the Camry and an hour later drove off the lot. I’ve never explained this entire 3 month ordeal before and honestly I’m drained just from explaining it. The point is that i stood by my buddy learning as much as I possibly could while he repaired it. Four years later I’ve learned more about cars (specifically Camrys) than I ever expected to know and I get a sense of accomplishment from repairing my car on my own… add that to the money I save and the confidence that I used quality materials and didn’t skimp on anything and I plan on doing every repair I possibly can… of course my buddy still advises me and I had him install my amp and subwoofer because I didn’t feel confident in piercing the firewall or tapping the speaker so that I could still use my stock head unit/infotainment system. I didn’t intend to explain everything when I began to write this but I promise to keep future posts brief and to the point. Because I don’t want to be rude to everyone that takes time out of their day to provide input and advice… thank you!