Keeping it on the road: Vehicle maintenance for fun and profit

Economic doom and gloom might have you thinking differently about the vehicle sitting in your driveway. Keeping it alive a few extra years will head off increased expense, and cars are easily able to reach beyond 100,000 miles these days. Inveterate wrench-turners have long relished stretching their dollar by breaking out the tools. When you spend less than ten bucks to solder in a new set of regulator brushes in your alternator, you feel like you've won something; you've certainly saved a fistful of cash. So what do you spend time on repairing yourself versus going with remanufactured or new parts? Popular Mechanics has a quick guide that makes some good points about the repair versus replace conundrum. The general gist is that you'll be spending more time rebuilding calipers and rodding out radiator cores on your Fury III than you might on a Chevy Lumina, though both vehicles can be kept roadworthy for as long as you please with some savvy maintenance and repair without breaking the bank.

[Source: Popular Mechanics]