Dropped my car off this evening for it’s MOT tomorrow. It’s 9 year old vectra estate with 140k on the clock. Whilst it drives well with no knocks or known issues, I am a bit paranoid that the MOT will find something expensive to fix which may make the car uneconomic to fix.

Tonight I’m perusing Autotrader for a potential replacement and wondering what are the key items to check for. My car does not get treated kindly – it gets wet sailing kit, camping stuff & muddy bikes thrown in, bumped up kerbs regularly and occasionally cleaned. Ergo, I am not a car person – they are distinct tools.

Budget of around £2k and could go for something “silly” like a small convertable, provided I can fit a bike rack and it has a boot I can get a tent into / or onto a rack. Aternatively considering a small van (Pugeot Expert sized) frovided I could sleep in the back – I’m 6’4″.

What sort of things should I be looking for? – FSH etc

ta

Minefield, but for your question, I always looked for quality or matching tyres.

How much is too much to get it through its mot?
With it driving well with no knocks or issues it may be better the devil you know.

You may well be surprised too. My 14 year old, 149,000 mile passat estate that cost me £100, got a new mot a month ago, needing just a new exhaust centre section, and with only advisories for tyres approaching replacement time.

£2000’s too high for bangernomics, you’re in the value trap there.

^ He’s right you know.

It’s almost always worth fixing cars, unless the body is rusty.

A car is not a single item it’s a collection of individual things, most of which are not related to each other. So if a MAF fails one month it doesn’t mean anything else is going to fail another day. So an old car with most of the failable bits replaced is better than a slightly newer one that has had none of it.

Don’t be fooled into spending £2000 to save a £200 bill.

PS cars may be tools, but like all tools they need looking after. Don’t bump it up kerbs, it’s not good for the suspension components.

It looks like the car, with full MOT may be worth around the £1,500 mark so hopefully the MOT is a lot less than that – I could really do without a big bill this month!

£2000 is not bangernomics – it’s a no-mans land. Not cheap, but not enough to get clear of the dross.

Get yourself to an auction, spend as little as possible and recognise that you may need to leave the car at the side of the road at any time. Holding that thought in your mind is what keeps you focused on spending an amount of money that you may need to effectively kiss goodbye to.

That said, I am on my third banger in five years and wouldn’t dream of going back to spending big on cars (i.e. north of £1k) unless there was a lotto win. Cars are money pits and we get suckered into seeing them as means of “self expression” or some pish like that by marketers.

Also, read The Rules – I’m sure there is one that says your bike MUST cost more than your car. And if it’s not in the rules it should be as it is a wise maxim to live by.

If it’s any comfort we have two bigish milers – both cleanly through last mot tests at 125000 and nearly 160000 miles respectively. In fact neither has had a monstrous mot in quite a while. If I lose a turbo or dmf or injectors on mine that might do it for me but only because it is of an age and mileage where you could fix one and not get the value back before one of the other things went. Even then I would be tempted to fix. They do get treated nicely though, I have a maintain it well keep it for ages mentality. Over ten years old and better maintained / condition than many far newer cars I see.

My car’s 8 years old and I still consider it new.

nairnster – Member

You may well be surprised too. My 14 year old, 149,000 mile passat estate that cost me £100, got a new mot a month ago, needing just a new exhaust centre section, and with only advisories for tyres approaching replacement time.

There aren’t that many people out there who are willing to sell their car for less than its scrap value… 💡

It looks like the car, with full MOT may be worth around the £1,500 mark so hopefully the MOT is a lot less than tha

Don’t get caught up thinking about the market value of a car. All that matters is the monthly cost to you. Even if your bill was £500 it’s cheaper than another £1500 on an identical car with no guarantees of passing its MOT.

If you have to replace X then you have a car with a brand new X which is then not going to go wrong probably ever again.

If it’s any comfort we have two bigish milers – both cleanly through last mot tests at 125000 and nearly 160000 miles respectively

Pfffft mine is on 208000 It will fail but shouldn be anything major.

@sbob

Scrap value here isnt that great. I got £80 for a civic two days before buying the vw. It would have been 60 if it had steel wheels

Scraps **** all at the moment.

Bangernomics is buying a car for £550, running it for 6 months, paying £hundred-odd for a couple of tyres & MOT in the meantime, then selling for £650 😀
Net cost to me, other than petrol/tax/insurance has been about £20. Had I bought a £20k+ brand new car, I reckon I’d be easily £5k down already.

£1000 is the magic number. Once you’re below £1000 you should be able to drive what you want and never make a profit or loss more than around £100, unless you either wreck it or drive it into the ground. Stretch to £1200-1300 if you want but be prepared to write that £2-300 off. Once you’re in the heady heights of £2k territory, you’re risking a £1k loss from the minute you sign the V5C.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/ive-joined-the-bangernomics-brigade

I’m a happy near bangernomics driver 🙂

molgrips – Member

Don’t get caught up thinking about the market value of a car. All that matters is the monthly cost to you.

Assuming that when you’re done with it, you set it on fire.

MoTs are not always terrible and sometimes you get a pleasant surprise. I’d only start worrying when/if it happens.

takes me 6 months to fully trust any car i buy…..

i tend to hover around the 1500 quid mark as with a keen eye you can pick up a looked after old motor as opposed to at the 500 quid mark your picking up someone elses bangernomics experiment.

I like reliability.

and as molgrips says – so long as no rust on the structure and a strong engine/ gear box i have no qualms in replacing brakes or suspension componants – but i wouldnt be paying a garage to do any of it labour strips the value out of bangernomics and you might as well pay the 250 quid a month to own a new car given the cost of a garage to do brakes /suspension / servicing.

The notion of just running it into the ground kills many good servicable cars through ignorance.

so long as no rust on the structure and a strong engine/ gear box i have no qualms in replacing brakes or suspension componants

Agree – rust is the killer, most older cars have a clutch that is economic to repair. suspension bits are usually cheap.

but i wouldnt be paying a garage to do any of it labour strips the value out of bangernomics and you might as well pay the 250 quid a month to own a new car given the cost of a garage to do brakes /suspension / servicing.

You really don’t have too, though you will of course save a bit more. Had brakes sorted all round for £300 without getting my hands dirty, and won’t get that bill again. As nothing else needed dong to pass, that was my cost for the year (plus oil + filter, which I’m struggling to find economic to do at home too once the hassle is costed in).

£250 / month = £3K a year, I’ve kept even the worst of my bangers on the road, safe and legal for under £500 a year, and most for under £200. You lose the indefinable ‘having a nice car’ of course. £1500 is my top end, but to quantify I’m looking at small 4 seaters (206/Polo size).

you might as well pay the 250 quid a month to own a new car given the cost of a garage to do brakes /suspension / servicing.

Rubbish. £250/mo that’s three grand a year. A decent old car should never need that much.

I’m going for the middle option – buy decent cars then run them into the ground. 15 years is my target, unless I start making lots more money before then :P)

plus oil + filter, which I’m struggling to find economic to do at home too once the hassle is costed in).

I struggle to hand over the cash to do something i can do in 30 minutes with quality components as oppose to the cheapest bargain basement filters and oils….

but i buy 8-10 year old cars for buttons and aim to keep them for 5 years

the 250 month was tongue in cheek – as thats the cost of my colleagues new car.

but at 300 quid for a brake job – ill keep doing mine at home for 80 quid and 20 minutes a corner , my hourly rate is good but not that good.

rust isn’t always the killer – the 900 was remarkably free of rust – but what one garage will view as acceptable wear and tear in a drivetrain is a fail in another, as I have found out. Not sure what happened, think there was some wishful thinking going on with previous garage (Saab specialist and tame MOT) but my local guys got onto it and all the niggles I had worried about were found to be a succession of wheel linkage and steering column fails.

Taken as parts, it wasn’t much, but work involved was just not worth it for a car which was sold for £80 as near scrap. Shame. Should have off-loaded it about a couple of years before it failed..

That said, I am on my third banger in five years and wouldn’t dream of going back to spending big on cars (i.e. north of £1k)

Conversely my car cost me £5k (and that was paying over the odds as I pretty much walked into the dealer with an envelope of cash and said “I need a car today”). So far in 5 years it’s cost me a couple of bulbs, and a fuel filler cap in repairs.

No idea what it’s worth, it’s pretty beaten up inside, and the service history is a wadge of receipts and an oil stain on my driveway rather than stamps. But even if it’s only worth £2k it’s better surely than buying 3 £1k cars and having the faff of having to buy them in the same period.

Having said that, I’m pretty bored of it, a change would be nice!

thats why picking your cars carefully is key Kcal – knowing saabs – theres an easy way – a hardway and the SAAB way to design and build something.

Im confident that i could fully rebuild the front end on both the cars in our house for absolute buttons and next to no time.

I can understand your hesitancy as doing the same on a saab 😀 although i suspect your mechanics probably done it before selling on.

“But even if it’s only worth £2k it’s better surely than buying 3 £1k cars and having the faff of having to buy them in the same period.”

sort of my point -id rather fix up my car and know its fully reliable than be stuck with someone elses problems at the side of the a72. every time you buy another 500 quid banger its the risk you take.

same with people that say “its not worth doing the timing belt it will cost more than the cars worth” – which is absolute utter tosh.

Taken as parts, it wasn’t much, but work involved was just not worth it for a car which was sold for £80 as near scrap.

Again, don’t get fooled into considering the market value. A known good car that you like is worth a lot to you, regardless of what others will pay for it. All sorts of things will affect the resale value of a used car, but not its actual worth.

but at 300 quid for a brake job – ill keep doing mine at home for 80 quid and 20 minutes a corner , my hourly rate is good but not that good.

Mine is, YMMV. If you saw the state of them you’d see why it wasn’t going to be 20 mins a corner mind 🙂

molgrips, I understand your point fully – we kept the car going pretty well all things considered for many years, but really it was an 18 year old car, obsolete, difficult to insure, and with a growing list of stuff that had stopped working (A/C).

But you’re right about the trading a car with known problems for one with unkind own ones.

t_r – you’re right about the Saab way 🙂 great cars when they go, bomb proof in the snow, I thought it was a great looking car to boot, but I’d go back to my Mk II Golf with only some hesitation 🙂

Did it pass the mot scruff??

Kcal – of course, extenuating circumstances gonna extenuate.

Had to fix the steering lock on the Passat last week. £350, but then I remembered that I used to pay £220 every month and I’ve saved that by not replacing it. Could’ve changed it for a similar aged car but that steering lock could’ve failed just the same. At least now I have a new steering lock, which was a known dodgy part.

It failed sadly. However the mechanic was a good friend of a good friend. He gave the car a good going over for his honest opinion on whether the car was worth repairing.

He gave the car a mechanically excellent report and the failure was the brake lines, which I suspected were on their way out. I had a seized caliper a couple of months ago. The mechanic at the time pointed out they were not critical, but would be needing done within the next 2 years. I know someone how just paid £1,200+vat for these to be replaced this year (thus my post)

Got full brake lines front to back for under £300 and hopefully a few more years of motoring ahead. Happy days

1200 quid – what do they drive ?

Surely 1200 quid is full new disks , pads , flexies , brake lines , abs rings etc etc etc ….. (A whole new brakinsystem surely)

If it was just for lines the garage saw them coming. Fiddly job many garages dont want but being methodical its not a hard job.

Sounds like You did right thing scruff. My mate likes to buy mot failure scrappers where tey need brake lines – for little above scrap value , changes out the lines puts it for retest and flogs em on for a pretty nice profit. > 1k for an mot’d motor.

Got full brake lines front to back for under £300 and hopefully a few more years of motoring ahead. Happy days

Brilliant result!

I remember reading that most brake pipes these days are made from steel and preformed, so they don’t last, and replacement can require major components to be moved out of the way (costly in terms of labour). Apparently it’s cheaper to replace them with copper brake lines – they’re less prone to corrosion, and can be formed as you’re installing them, and you can route them around other components etc..

Not copper , dont use copper .

Cupronickle or cunifer. But not copper – which are actually outlawed as brake pipes in many countries .

Nowt wrong with steel pipes either if you look after them – grease the exposed parts yearly.