What Is It Worth ?

[Johnch]

I got some BAD News the other day

I am driving a 2010 Ford Escape
4 cylinder with a factory Turbo charger
200,000 miles

Some rust on the rear hatch but it runs great

Bad news was it had rust 3 other places
As I took it in to get a price to fix a exhaust leak ..... But they found 3 other problems
The passenger side front suspension sub frame has a hole rusted through , that you can stick 3 fingers through
Above both rear tires in the sub frame there is also holes rusted through
One side 2 fingers will fit and the other at least a 3 finger sized hole

The local repair shop said they could fix the front suspension sub frame
But suggested I have a body shop give me a price to fix the 2 holes in the rear sub frame and the front sub frame

They told me they could
But they felt between fixing the front and rear
I might be spending about as much or more than the Escape was worth

So I am going to get a new or good used truck
S10 or Ranger sized

If I buy from a dealer , I will trade the Escape in
That is if they will offer me something

If not , I was thinking the rest of the Escape is worth something
For parts or to someone that wants to take the time and money to fix the rust holes

What would you sell the Escape for , as is ?


Thanks
John

[Dave W.]

Sounds like you are basically selling a motor and transmission. I would be happy to get $1000.00 for it, but would take $500.00.

Do not hang on to it, the cost of insurance and plates will quickly eat into the profits.

[Winger Ed.]

If it's safe to drive, at best it's a 'winter beater'.
Otherwise- You basically have a rolling total.

Not sure about where you are, but a engine & trans with 200,000 miles on it here is a disposal problem.

Negociate the price for your new truck first! Then ask what they'll give you for the trade in.
Whatever a dealer gives, take it.
If you ask the trade in value first---- you'll end up paying them to take it.
Whenever they get cars like that----
they go straight to the crusher with a brief stop off at the wrecked car/salvage yard where they pick over their bones.

Your used car market may be different there, but check out how many similar cars are on the dealer's used car lot.

[Handloader109]

Yep, pretty much worth just a few dollars, and it is unsafe , get rid of it

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[Land Owner]

Without pictures it is more difficult to diagnose.

Know a good welder? Weld a plate or channel or two or three over and beyond the holes to strengthen the remaining steel and drive it another 50K to 100K-miles maybe? Holes large enough to put two and three fingers through already and not fail is a testament to the inherent Strength of Materials.

[Johnch]

Yes I thought about pictures
BUT I was a bit mad
As I the place I had do work I didn't want to do
They had all 4 wheels off not 4 weeks ago and didn't see ANY PROBLEMS

I am just going to clean it up and HOPE the dealer gives me something

John

[MaryB]

Check with your local high schools and see if any have a body shop program. They often will fix a car cheap so the kids get experience. Could find a wrecked one and cut out the sub frame parts to use as patch panels on yours... I helped a friend fix similar damage and we cut the patch piece in half the long way to narrow it to fit inside the original. Ground off all the rust so we had clean metal to work with, laid the patch piece inside the old one and welded it in. He put another 100k miles on that car before the engine blew up.

[metricmonkeywrench]

My son had an older Jeep Cherokee that failed state inspections for the same reasons, this is one of the reasons i dislike the unibody construction, what looks good today may just be a good coat of paint holding things together. As suggested above you could probably throw the money into it just to turn around and have the same issue next year. With that mileage its probably a better to cut your losses and look for something else.

The Cherokee got sold off for pennies to a gentleman who now uses it as an unregisterd hunting/firewood backwoods vehicle til it dies.

[MaryB]

My son had an older Jeep Cherokee that failed state inspections for the same reasons, this is one of the reasons i dislike the unibody construction, what looks good today may just be a good coat of paint holding things together. As suggested above you could probably throw the money into it just to turn around and have the same issue next year. With that mileage its probably a better to cut your losses and look for something else.

The Cherokee got sold off for pennies to a gentleman who now uses it as an unregisterd hunting/firewood backwoods vehicle til it dies.

We had a beater of a Tracker we used for our deer hunting rig... if you hit a bump to hard the body threatened to fold in half from the rust. The fiberglass top was the only thing holding it together LOL But for us to jump into covered in mud and toss a bloody deer in the back to haul up to the farmhouse where we parked it was great. No inspections here but the prior owner said he was afraid to drive it anymore! The rust holes in the floor made cleanup easy, just hose it out! It had a 2 mile drive from the house to where we had a hunting lease.

[wv109323]

Welding patches over the rusted places is not that big of a deal if the vehicle has a full frame.

[Bazoo]

Sorry for your troubles. Thank god there ain’t no inspection here. All my vehicles are beaters.

[Finster101]

Welding patches over the rusted places is not that big of a deal if the vehicle has a full frame.

It is a unibody design. No full frame. About the only full frame vehicles left are pickup trucks. Most SUV's are unibody as well.

[Geezer in NH]

Around 250 bucks for iron on a good day at the bone yard. Don't feel bad wife's 2004 Subaru went that way last January.

[Bazoo]

If ya ain’t got inspection where you’re at, I’d say it has value.