So, you say to yourself I’ll run this car in to the ground. Think I’ve just about got there with this one. What to do for the best?

Honda Stream, 1.7 petrol, needs brakes and more.

What’s the ‘more’ part of it?

It’s worn out. Tired engine, suspension, washer motor, crunched rear corner, interior in keeping with three kids, two dogs and a property repair business…

But it runs OK, starts first time, stops OK too(with a hefty right foot), but pads/discs at or beyond limit. Still carries 7 people or 2 with a big load area. Just know if I make it OK for next MOT(January) I could buy another banger for less. How much would I get from a scrapper I wonder?

How much are we talking?

Does everything else mechanically work fine?

I called an end on my Ford Puma when I was told the MOT failures were £500. The garage also added this MOT’s advisories will turn into failures at the next MOT. So it’d be another big bill.

I walked.

as above, brakes are just a consumable with any car. For a bangernomic car to be scrapper, something rather more dramatic needs to happen. Like someone tries to nick it and shear the steering column in the process, and just nicks the steering wheel instead.

Or something rather dramatic in the engine gives up.

keep it. what’s another going to cost you, one you don’t know?

brake pads – consumable item, discs the same to be honest.
Got a car that’s valued at £50 here, but annual service is manageable and certainly way less at the moment than the startup and ongoing costs of another car…

even brake pipes, hoses, bearings – just wear and tear as cars get older.

your mileage may vary 🙂

“I could buy another banger for less”

chances are your buying the same issues or worse though….

When repair cost is more than twice the value of the car (or something like that).

You can easily walk into another shiny/valetted/polished banger where the previous owner decided to px as there was a list of things that needed doing.

when the repair involves welding – as your follow that round the car like the painting the forth road bridge if your having it done at a garage and itll cost a bomb.

when the repair involves a major mechanical implosion such as gear box or engine.

when the repair is major electrical gremlins.

shocks , brakes , tires , bushes etc are all wear and tear.

When the repairs start costing more than the car’s worth bin it. It only gets worse from there.
Try to replace it with something not more than 5 years old but choose sensibly if cash is an issue.
Budget it out. It might cost you less with a loan and hassle free motoring as opposed to a string of expensive repairs with the same old duffer that is going to die one day.
Different if your a good mechanic with a workshop and can weld.

My old Vauxhall Astra went a similar way, it had surprisingly limped through the last few MOT’s but the latest was a test too far. Market value was around £200 (with full MOT) but was going to cost ~£500 to get it through.

It ended up here

They gave me almost twice as much as the local scrappies were offering (one actually said that his offer was so low because it was Christmas!?).

Collected bang on time and didn’t try to haggle me down, cash in envelope and no questions.

I miss the poor bugger though 🙁

The garage also added this MOT’s advisories will turn into failures at the next MOT

i had advisories come and go on my old golf. depended on who the tester was.

I sold it to a mate at 180,000 miles for £100.

+1 Jam bo, I had advisories that weren’t picked up by the same garage year on year.

Probably not the smartest of moves though!

It’s a bit of a myth to consider the market value of a car when deciding if it’s worth it.

Market value is determined by age and whim – the viability of a car is related to the actual mechanical condition. Say you have a decent old £500 car where the gearbox goes, you might need £500 to fix that. But if you know the car well, it might be the only issue. If you get rid of it and get another, you’ll be £500 worse off AND then you might have another gearbox failure, or worse.

Market value is not a true estimation of anything’s actual daily worth to you. My Orange 5 for example is 5 years old and was £3k’s worth when it was new. I could sell it for what, £700? But it’s still a £3k bike and rides and works like one. There’s absolutely no sense in selling it.

Likewise cars. If you know an old car’s in good condition it’s worth as much as any other reliable car, regardless of mileage or age, if you are only interested in reliability of course.

Market value is not a true estimation of anything’s actual daily worth to you.

plus a millon.

I don’t get this reference to X times the market value and you should replace…

“Market value” as in how much I’d possibly get if I’d decided to sell it.

Value to me is a different thing entirely, I’m not confusing the two 🙂

£145 a tonne driven into a scrap yard today..

to maximise cash, whip off the front rear light clusters and part them out on ebay on one of the free listings weekends ( usually one a month) £200 quid on any car is achievable with little effort

ebay is a good place, got £400 for my Beemer (with knackered autobox) – guy travelled 200 miles.