Timing belt: the interval that is genuinely due
The cost of timing belt replacement runs from $367 to over $3,000 depending who you ask — and the first question is whether your car has a belt at all.
Due, at the manual's figure · Repair or replace
Tag
High Mileage
Wheel bearing replacement: what it costs and how urgent it is
Wheel bearing replacement cost at one wheel, from two published sources that agree for once — and the sentence one of them prints that saves you the other side.
Yes, now · Repair or replace
When a repair costs more than the car is worth
Car repair cost against the car's own value: why the percentage rule answers an insurer's question, and the per-month sum that answers the owner's.
Per month, not per cent · Repair or replace
Synthetic against conventional, priced over a year of driving
Synthetic vs conventional oil, priced by the year not the visit: on KBB's own figures synthetic costs less annually at every mileage, to a price ceiling.
Synthetic, under $133 · Oil and fluids
Conventional, blend or full synthetic: what the upgrade buys
Conventional oil change cost against synthetic, priced per visit and then per 1,000 miles — where the gap nearly doubles, and then very nearly closes.
Per mile, a wash · Oil and fluids
Brake booster repair, and the symptom that precedes it
Brake booster repair costs $965–$1,108 by the national estimate — and the cheaper vacuum fault that produces the same hard pedal and should be ruled out first.
Test vacuum first · Brakes