My beloved R-reg Volvo V70 is a bit sick, so I took it into the garage. CV covers, mass air sensor, intercooler + pipes and turbo intake all need doing at a total cost of £1600.

The car was only £1500 when I bought it 8 years ago. It’s been a great runner, loads of space for bikes even if it is a bit thirsty. But at this point, is it time to bite the bullet and retire it in favour of something new?

What would you do – get rid, or fix it up and hope for another few years of service? My head is saying the former, my heart is saying the latter… 🙁

Normally if the cost is more than value, but if it looks realistically like it might do some more years once fixed then do it. It’s a volvo so probably good for a while – if it was a Citroen for instance, then no!

I’d get a second opinion first. CV boots is pretty common and standard ongoing maintenance. The airflow stuff just sounds like they are changing everything to attempt to solve the issue.

If it really does need that much spent then it gets a bit trickier. At the end you’ll have a car you know whereas chopping it in you are back to square 1. For bangernomics to work properly you really need to be able to fix a few things yourself and use 2nd hand parts if possible. That would significantly reduce the bill. Changing hoses is easy as is the sensor most likely, then just get them to do the CV boot

Have to balance up if £1600 spent on a replacement, (probably another Volvo by the sounds of it) will get you better, longer reliability than fixing the existing one.

Now, I wouldn’t pay a bill like that to fix a car worth a few hundred pounds. Put the money into another Volvo that someone else has spent loads of money on.

nickjb: Sadly this is the second opinion! The first place I went I definitely got the impression they were taking the “change everything” option; the second garage has run a smoke test through the system to actually try and find the leaks etc.

For example – I’m pretty sure they’re right on the turbo pipe, ‘cos you can feel a little bit of a power drop (not turbo lag) when the turbo kicks in (around 3k RPM) that didn’t used to be there.

tthew: I guess that’s the question, do I spend £1600 now and hope I’ll be problem-free for a couple more years, or do I spend £4-6k on something newer and take the risk of a new car and a new set of potential unknown issues.

Just changing turbo pipes could impact other areas of the intake system.

And normally I’d say repair, but this sounds like better to put the money towards a newer one and ebay the old one (from 99p) listing all faults.

“but if it looks realistically like it might do some more years once fixed then do it. It’s a volvo so probably good for a while – if it was a Citroen for instance, then no!”

Its your money but that humours me. volvo is no more likely to last any longer than a citroen.

For me it depends on how you have looked after it .

I spent 300 quid replacing the axle on my van because i knew the rest of it was solid as i keep on top of the regular mainatainance…. ie it had new tires , brakes , wheel bearings and other suspension componants over the years + it was always serviced on the money and generally in good nick despite its many miles.

If it was something i bought 8 years ago and had done nothing too or nothing more than the basic what the garage told me to in 8 years id expect more big bills to come id move it on.

equally if i wasnt doing it my self it would have been gone long ago…..

Could you not do the work yourself, none of those bits are particularly difficult to a reasonably competent home mechanic.
Although I did pay a local garage £50 to replace a CV boot as I couldn’t be bothered with the hassle of undoing the driveshaft only to find I couldn’t then get it out of the hub.
Everything else is basically jubilee clips.
The MAF shouldn’t be difficult at all to do.
Given the car is a known entity and if you can sort these issues then it should be fine.
Our 11 yo Scenic needed a new electronic handbrake module, which was £450. But we only paid £750 for a £1300 car at the time, plus I’ve done quite a bit to get it up to scratch, mostly sorting out electrical gremlins. I debated whether it was worth spending that much on it, but decided to go ahead. Most of its problems are behind it now and they were mainly due to neglect on the previous owners part.

Usually the problem with DIYing stuff when you don’t lnow that much about it is that it’s easy to end up using the parts-cannon to diagnose, and wasting money. But it kind of feels like they’re doing that anyway.

Trouble with boost can be a load of different things, and cheap sensors ime are often a waste of money but stuff like intercoolers and pipework- there’s often lots of aftermarket and it can be a lot cheaper (silicon hoses for my mondingo are cheaper than OEM, used intercoolers cost nothing, upgraded aftermarket intercooler I put in it was less than OEM too… I don’t know what your engine bay’s like but swapping this stuff around is usually like meccano. Seized fasteners and hoseclips aside!

Bangernomics basically doesn’t work if you’re depending on professionals ime but it’s really pretty much impossible to know exactly when to call time of death- you could put a load of money into it today and have the clutch go tomorrow, or the car could run flawlessly for years. Mine has hovered around the “maybe best shoot it in the head” point a couple of times but I like the car so I’ve stuck with it and so far it’s worked out.

id have binned your car long ago northwind 😀

I know! I nearly did… But the gamble paid off pretty well. It’s just holding the DMF or clutch slave in reserve to **** me one day when I least expect it though.

What would you do – get rid

I would, £1600 is a lot to spend on a car that’s worth a few hundred quid.

The clutch went on my 51 plate Peugeot 307 last year, it was also due a cambelt change, service, brake discs. It was a 2litre petrol so fun to drive but it wasn’t worth spending about £700 on. Fine if you can do the work yourself but I can’t.

I stuck it on eBay and sold for about £300 to a mechanic.

I would tend to get rid — that’s ongoing costs.

I was caught by creeping repairs – nothing major, little stuff – ongoing on my P reg Saab, not helped by the garage that used to do the work getting a tame MOT I think. Moved garages / testers, and a slew of problems got thrown up.

What I wished I’d done, part way through the year or before major work, was to get a dry run MOT done – to flag up upcoming problems.

I more or less gave it to a mechanic, whose brother brought it back to like.

Just scrapped my 02 plate fucus after 12 years of pretty fault free ownership but I knew a bad MOT was long over due, the advisory box was full, tyres were required and the wipers stopped, the original reason for going to the garage.

Just got a 12 plate focus titanium with loads of toys for £7.5k
You get a lot for your money so go find a new car.

Argh, I think this is heading the way that I don’t want it to 🙁

On the home spannering front – I probably could do all the pipework (and probably the CV boots) myself, the only problem is I live in that London so don’t have a garage to do any of the work in. I also don’t have ramps or axle stands, so it’s not like I can just crack on and fix it, or leave it halfway-done overnight.

I think it might be retiring time – there are a potential fee other issues (ignition barrel and maybe the propshaft, but I won’t be able to check till tomorrow). If those all need doing as well then to put it all completely right with zero issues I’m looking at nearer 3.5k, and then I think ditching is a no-brainer. I’ll just be very sad to see it go!

The issue is not what it costs per se, but what you get back for your money. Do you think you’re likely to get 2-3y of trouble-free motoring? If so, it might be worth it. If not, bin it. Sounds like you’re in the latter camp though.

I would get shot – once the big bills start coming, they just don’t seem to stop!