No one really expects to buy a car for life nowadays - we all know that there will come a time when a breakdown or a change in need means we have to swap rides.
Like buying a new phone, though, there's a tense period when you try figure out the best time to sell a used car - before it has started to become unreliable, or after?
Well, YouTube mechanic Scotty Kilmer has posted a short video that gives one very easy answer to those wondering when to sell their cars.
In a 30-second YouTube Short, Kilmer explains that one surefire way to know that your car is on its way out is if the transmission occasionally gives you a major clank or clunk as you drive, while it changes gears for you.
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He says that even if the car has a "perfectly smooth-running engine", that big clunk from the transmission is an absolute no-no and suggests that the transmission might be starting to wear down.
As he explains, replacing or repairing an automatic transmission is almost always a really expensive job, even on modest cars, so if you're starting to notice that yours is a bit funky you should definitely consider selling and moving on.
Kilmer ends the video by telling viewers to "just make sure you let them know what they're getting into", raising a point that people address at length in the comments.
After all, if you're selling your car because you think it's becoming less reliable, the moral thing to do would probably be to tell the prospective buyer about the transmission trouble.
As one comment under the video wrote, though: "These days it's hard to find anyone that honest."
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Making their point for them, other comments are not convinced about the policy of honesty: "If selling to dealers don't tell them nothing because they don't tell us nothing when we are buying cars from them."
Interestingly, though, there are also plenty of people respectfully disagreeing with Kilmer himself in the comments. Kilmer's core point is that you're better off just getting a newer vehicle than you are repairing a transmission, but others don't think that's quite true.
One person said: "Honestly it’s probably cheaper to fix the transmission than get rid of the car… car prices are insane," while another agreed: "In this market? Id rather get a new transmission."
So, it looks like the ball is basically in your court if you start hearing crunches from your transmission - you could listen to Kilmer and get rid of your car as soon as possible, or you could look into transmission repairs. Either one seems like a fair play right now.