This tip comes from my husband. A week or so ago he was trying to shift the older Ford pickup in to 4 wheel drive. Some part of the shifter lever broke. How convenient with winter coming, right?
He called the parts dealer and was quoted $425 for a new shifter. Greaaattt. Make room for that in the budget! Then he talked to a friend who talked to a friend who had the same problem awhile back and managed to make his own shifter replacement. Brian sent ours over to the guy because that would cost a lot less than $425.
In the meantime he started calling junkyards just for the heck of it. Guess what!? He found that shifter for $25!! That is even cheaper than that guy could make one so we’re getting ours back and replacing it with the $25 one. In this case I think Brian can do the repair himself. I doubt that a dealership would use junkyard parts for repairs but I know the little hometown mechanics around here don’t have any objections about using those parts.
Sometimes it is hard to find certain parts. If it is a part that tends to break a lot there might not be many left at the junkyard. Also, most junkyards in our area only stock older vehicles but there are newer ones out there if you look hard enough. It is worth a try – who knows – you might save $400 like us!
Get many more tips from this week’s Frugal Fridays.
my husband has very often did this very same thing great tip