[Santa]

Anyone with an older car in good cosmetic condition may face a situation where the maintenance or repair bill exceeds the car's value.

When I was a fleet manager, we had a policy of selling cars straight after their first MOT. Up to that point, maintenance costs, even with high mileage, were fairly predictable. A private owner is in a different situation. They only have one car, which represents the second largest investment they have.

I would be interested to know what other car owners think.

[TC1474]

I have had my Jag from new in 2009. My plan was to keep it for 3 or 4 years and then replace it with the XE which was the direct replacement for mine.

When the time came, I saw little point as my car was paid for, it still drove perfectly and had been super reliable and had cost me nothing other than consumables such as fuel, servicing and tyres. I saw little point in taking out further finance for a car that although a little more modern (well quite a bit more modern if truth be known) it really did not do anything better than the car I already had an knew, other than it would have given me a further 3 years of manufacturers warranty.

I have now owned the same car approaching 17 years. The amount it has cost me over the years has been negligible pro rata given its mileage (140,000 miles) and age. It still looks good, is still super comfortable, and my most recent cost was having the air conditioning recharged, a whole £70.

I have had the same results with other cars. I had a 2.5 Omega Elite, planned to keep it a couple of years, kept it for 10 and sold it for about £500. 2.9 Granada Ghia, Brought it at 18 months old, got rid of 14 years later when it started leaking through the windscreen when it rained and only 1 radio channel worked 😉 but body wise and mechanically it was sound. Sold it for £250 with 6 months MOT and 3 months tax.

So it is only now that I am starting to look for my replacement as the body (my body) is making it more difficult for me to get in and out of the car so I am looking at an SUV, but I will be sorry to see the Jag go as she has been so good and it still looks the part. My daughter cannot wait to take it over.

On top of that, Her indoors has my old company C-Max 2.0 Ghia which I had from new. When I left the company I asked if I could buy the Ford. Give us £3,000 said the Transport manager for an 18 month old top of the range which I had know from day one. I have never written out a cheque for a car as quickly as I did that day.

We still have that car 20 years on and it still performs perectly.

We have said we will keep it going until it fails its MOT big time, suffers a catastrophic failure or becomes too expensive to maintain. It only does about 2,500 miles a year so little point in forking out a lot of money for a car we don't know to sit at the front of the house and do no miles.

So whilst the principle of changing my cars regularly is appealing (which I did regularly when I was young and single), these days I am happy to keep with a car until signs of problems or issues show and then it depends on costs.

The Jag is now worth sod all, so if it were to go pear shaped big time now, I would simply scrap it as I have had my money's worth out of it, but it is still driving beautifully.

[Santa]

There is a certain amount of luck involved with cars. The "Friday afternoon car" is not a myth. The way cars are assembled is supposed to eliminate errors, but a tired fitter, missing a couple of bolts, or just not fully tightening them, can create problems a couple of years down the line.

If it reaches the first MOT without any problems, it's probably a keeper IMO. I have also favoured cars with big engines, as I believe that they won't have been thrashed.

It goes without saying that money spent on maintenance is never wasted.

[TC1474]

Originally Posted by Santa

I have also favoured cars with big engines, as I believe that they won't have been thrashed.

I would agree with you on that.

I have always tended to have cars with big engines. More relaxed, less strain, smooth effortless power usually wrapped up in total comfort with similar performance to a lets say a sportier model.

This was evident in my service days. Panda cars (ranging from 1.1 Mk1 Escorts when I started in the 70's through to Astra 1.6 Diesels) were often knackered within a couple of years or 45 - 50,000 miles, whereas our Traffic cars (Granada's, Jags, Senators, Omega's but excluding the SD1 Rover) would easily cover 150,000 miles plus before they were taken out of service despite having being driven hard.

Even now, I think that still rings true regarding engine sized, despite the fact that my next car is likely to have a 1.5 turbo, but then technology, especially engine technology, has moved on somewhat over the past few years

[Drivingforfun]

I might be wrong, but I think in America the done thing is to get quite a generous warranty (compared with UK / EU standards) but it only applies to the engine and drivetrain

Over there people do more miles, and big engines are more common

Maybe that says something!

[NMNeil]

Assuming the car is paid for it makes more economic sense to keep the old one; within reason.
Older car
No finance payments
No or minimal depreciation
Lower insurance premiums
No recalls
And everything that has gone wrong already has gone wrong, and the junkyards will have plenty of cheap spare parts.

New car.
Finance payments
Massive depreciation the moment you drive it off the showroom floor
High insurance rates
lots of recalls
And in all probability it's going to be less reliable than an old one, and for some makes there's a long wait time for replacement warranty parts.

[Santa]

Before I bought my current car I had a Ford Sierra. It had done 50k+ when I got it and I put quite a few more on. This was a model with a V6 engine and my mechanic visibly winced when I took it in for a service.

The steering pump started leaking, and then the flexible connection between the exhaust manifold and the exhaust broke. They replaced it, but it was very difficult, and when it was due for an MOT, I decided to dispose of it.

I spent a month looking for a replacement and found my Mondeo (Fusion in the US) as an ex-Ford manager's car, six months old and £10k cheaper than the new equivalent. It has proved to be an excellent buy.