Joeln

My wagon has a variety of problems and several things going for it.
I need to either fix it up or dump it for a Scion Xb.

There seems to be tons of expertise on this board so hopefully some of you can give me an idea what the car needs and roughly what it will cost.
I'm a half-assed mechanic, I worked on small bikes when I used to drive them (RD 350), I replaced the head gasket on my Nissan PU 2 years ago.
I'd probably have the local shop do most/all of the work depending on how busy I am.

My goal is to get it back to easy starting and good MPG so that I can get 5 or 8 more years out of it.

The good:
Tires, brakes, engine power, no awful noises, most of the accessories work.

The bad:
Mpg is down from what it used to get, some bad oil leaks, Sometimes hard to shift into first when stopped, frequent smell of gas, cold starting and idling are messed up, hatch doesn't close or open good, some rust on body.

The ugly:
The shop we've used for years doesn't want to go near the carb on this thing.

Thanks - Joel
ETA: we just passed 200k miles last year.

Bkkfarang

its worth it if you like the car . new or rebuilt carb and a good tune up could help a few of your problems . the oil leaks and hard shifting tranny are fixable but not usally cheap if you can't doi it your self I say fix it and keep it going a complet rebuilt motor tranny and some paint and body works gonna be alot cheaper than a new car

Slow&Delirious

split the diffrence, make it a project car & buy a used car to drive while u fix it

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Joeln

I'm guessing, rebuilt carb will solve the gas smell problems - is that likely to be leaks at the accelerator pump?

How much will a rebuilt carb do for erratic cold idle: Sometimes it takes 3 or 5 starts before it gets going on the fast idle cam. Sometimes it takes way too long to come back off of fast idle.

The car starts reliably, my typical drill is pump 3 times, crank with foot off, 90% of the time it starts up. Problem is it usually dies in a few seconds cause it's not on the fast idle cam. So I repeat...

Once in a great while it will flood, then starts beautifully with the pedal held down. Still won't idle at first though...

Thanks!