Hi all

14year old Fiat Punto, 45k miles, MOT due mid Nov. Had a service done last year which involved oil change etc, but it cost half as much as the car’s worth along with the MOT. This leaves me with a choice next month; go for MOT sans service, or bite the bullet and stump up for both.

Car is generally problem free. Battery will fail the drop test (it did last year, not replaced it as it’s been fine bar one or two push starts and I’m cheap), some dashboard lights occasionally pop up and then disappear of their own accord, it’s idling slightly rough so may need new plugs but tbh I’ll probably do that if needs be, tyres fresh, clutch occasionally judders which apparently might point to the main hydraulic system needing bled (been like this for years, not bothered fixing it yet)…

Is it worth stumping up the cash for a service? We’ll be running this car into the ground, could do with it lasting a couple of years probably.

WWSTD?

Mini service yourself?

Service it. A £500 banger you’ve owned for a few years is a lot better than a £500 banger you’ll buy.

No wait.

Mot then if it fails decide.

I kniw mine is going to fail so i’m not touching until i get a lst of things that failed.

Supermarket oil, new oil filter, try hoovering the air filter before putting a new one in. Don’t skimp on the brakes though.

DIY oil and filter change. Very easy. Keep an eye out for cheap oil deals. Vacuum pump makes it even easier. Monitor the other fluids, check brakes etc and replace as needed.

Oil n filter, £30ish, Jobs a goodun. Not worth not doing, IMO.

Mot first – if it passes, do basic one at home with new oil/filter, new plugs and clean up or replace air filter.

I have a mate who does bangernomics big style, had a Vectra that was never washed or hoovered, I insisted on changing the oil for him as it had been 4 or 5 years without being done, it eventually died in a cloud of smoke after the oil light being on for a year (oil level was okay). Replaced with a mint low mileage Kia Magentis a year ago. No service history and he hasn’t changed the oil yet or washed it. It’s still running well.

He got £75 scrap for the vectra and the Kia cost £300. He hires a car when he does a long distance trip.

Matt oab +1

If the MOT bill is tolerable then quick home service of oil and filter. Make sure you check the brakes.

Cost vs value (to you).

I suspect the hassle of a breakdown, followed by having to find a replacement car (which will undoubtedly have an unknown number of issues) would be quite irritating. I don’t think one should compare the cost of buying the car second hand (not much) to the value of having a car that runs well.

So I definitely say service it. DIY if you want to save a few quid, but don’t skimp.

P.S. Although 14 years is kind of old, 45k miles is nothing. So it’s probably worth jollying along for a few more years.

A £500 banger you’ve owned for a few years is a lot better than a £500 banger you’ll buy.

Agreed, very good point.

Will do oil and filters etc ahead of MOT I think along with plugs and basic check over. Think I’ll avoid service from garage as far as possible. That being said I seem to remember him saying it’ll need the brakes doing this year.. will have a look on eurocarparts for deals

brakeparts.co.uk can be cheaper than europarts

Had a service done last year which involved oil change etc, but it cost half as much as the car’s worth

The value of the car is an irrelevance really. That’s what they cost to buy and sell. Servicing (and fuel and so on) are what they cost to drive. By that logic you’d only put £5 of fuel in because the cars only worth a 10th of what it was worth when it was new.

If you’re worried about the cost of servicing then I expect you’re less keen on having to pay to replace it

Could you replace it for the cost of getting it through an MOT? Also, if you’ve had it a wee while, you know what’s up with it. Compare against buying another banger that you don’t know and could cost the same again next time.

At 45K it’s about run in. Some of our field engineers do that sort of mileage in under two years. A few in one.

There really is no excuse for not home servicing that… Probably one of the easiest cars to work on. We had an 05 and you could pretty much get in and stand alongside the engine, theres that much working space around it.

If you have a regular garage that also sells cars, it’s in their interested to ramp up the maintenance costs as you may decide to buy a shiny new banger off their forecourt!

Will do oil and filters etc ahead of MOT I think along with plugs and basic check over.

Seriously. Leave it until after.

Its a waste of time if it fails on something major that forces a scrap.

Just put it through let it fail then get it ready for another year.

I’d leave it for now.
Check over what’s in the MOT so it doesn’t fail on something stupid, then oil and filter when you get to it.

Mot first.

As for servicing bangernomics.

If I was paying a garage I wouldn’t be bangernomicing.

For me it’s just an old car. It still gets serviced – still gets timing belts and waterpumps when it needs them.

Until rust takes hold I don’t see why I wouldn’t want to keep it reliable. A cars no good if you can’t rely on it.

Bangernonics is pointless if you’re just using a garage to do everything. I would get the garage to change the oil and filter for you if MOT is ok, then do rest of servicing yourself. The parts are very cheap and if you can build a bike you can service a car, including changing brakes etc. It’s really easy. You only need a basic socket set to do it all.

Oh and contrary to what’s said above oil may be the life blood of the car but i find the air filter makes a more marked difference on howtr car runs and it’s emissions.

Dirty air filter = strangled car.

Spark plugs too.

Worth spending a bit if it’s been reliable and you like it, whether you do it yourself or pay the garage doesn’t matter really.

We have a 10-year-old Fiesta that came to us with that kind of mileage – about 70k now and it still drives like a new car. As said above, running costs are distinct from the car’s value. It’s the cost of having a car.

A big bill when something fails on the other hand…

As mentioned MOT then assess any work. My £400 golf has got another years MOT for £60 of repairs so I’m now going to try and get the annoying oil pressure warning buzzer sorted as its now worth doing and spending the cost of an hour or two at the local mechanic to drop the sump etc.

Service it. We looked after our £800, 140-odd thousand mile Doblo for the two years we had it and I sold it on for £700 last month with a clear conscience. It was as reliable as tomorrow because we looked after it.

So get it through MOT first, then service it myself seems to be the consensus.

Sorry for the hijack but where is the best online place for parts?

Yes I’d MOT it first before spending anything just in case it’s not worth fixing. Home servicing a car like that at this end of the market is a no brainer money wise. It’ll be a piece of piss. As said 45k miles is nothing, it’s not always good but it doesn’t sound like a banger to me.

My £250 Jag gets treated well because I know I won’t get as good a car for the money tomorrow and I rely on it for my income. Also if it failed massively due to neglect it only takes a couple of days off work, buying a replacement and changing the insurance over to cost a lot more than the £500 I’ve spent getting it up to scratch over the last 18 months. I hate false economy.

Sorry for the hijack but where is the best online place for parts?

They vary so much it’s hard to say, my local factors is cheapest more than half the time so I always call them first. I also know they won’t sell me crap which I have got from ebay before, a pair of track rods that wore out in 3k miles for example..

To my mind part of the attraction of bangernomics is the savings made in owning a vehicle mean I can mostly afford to not get my hands dirty servicing the car. It’s a couple of hundred a year at most so well worth paying someone else TDATS.

it’s idling slightly rough

May not be spark plugs – Try cleaning the throttle body first

Sorry for the hijack but where is the best online place for parts?

https://www.carparts4less.co.uk/

Seem to be pretty good.

Deffo just put it through an MOT before doing anything. An oil + filter change isn’t likely to make a difference to pass/fail anyway.

Bear in mind if you ask a garage to *only* do an oil+filter change rather than a “service” (in reality, an oil + filter change plus lots of checks) it will be a lot cheaper.

Try ATS for a quote, if it’s an older car it might only cost 40 quid. Hardly worth the effort of doing it yourself IMO.

Oil n filter, £30ish, Jobs a goodun. Not worth not doing, IMO.

+1

Why on earth wouldn’t you do at least that yourself, it takes 30minutes if you have a tea break halfway through!

if it’s an older car it might only cost 40 quid. Hardly worth the effort of doing it yourself IMO.

Depends how much you hate the car, but the cheapest service options sometimes doesn’t even change the filter and will be based on 4l of the cheapest oil they have.

Personally I’d still do it myself just to save time rather than drive to a garage which inevitably ends up taking up the whole morning.

If it’s low milage I’d be even more inclined to do it as the oil absorbs moisture over time and turns to gunk if not regularly getting hot for a decent amount of time.

The car might not be worth much, but if it’s reliable and you aren’t needing/wanting a new car get it done.

My car is 15 years old and I’ve done the oil changes etc since I bought it when it was a year old. Bigger jobs I get the garage to do (e.g. rear pads as they need a special tool). Oil changes aren’t hard, just can sometimes be tricky where the filter is located. Brake bleeds aren’t difficult with a cheap bleed kit.

Wait for the MOT and see what needs doing. Then do the service yourself.

Forget the price of the car. It’s the running costs you need to be comfortable with.
for instance if it costs £200 to get MOT’d and another £100 to service, that’s still better than buying another car which may cost even more when it breaks.

Our 10 year old Micra does 4000 miles a year. Still get s annual service and mot. Cost £130ish all in including a couple of bulbs and a wiper blade.

Serving is the smallest bill after insurance, tax, depreciation, fuel. Not being a great mechanic I don’t grudge paying for one to look at it once a year.

Carparts4less is part of eurocarparts but generally a little cheaper. Delivered in a ECP van as well !

I rate either either of them as you generally have a choice of quaility/cost levels for most parts.

The only issue is the variable Planetx / On-One style discount code game