Cars. Do you change yours frequently or run them until they die?

Until they die or I kill them. A manifestation of my characteristic indolence.

Have historically rolled them frequently but latest 2 are keepers – 08 Legacy estate owned from new (tax and gst evasion strategy while self employed) which is MrsNzCols now , has been thumped in car parks, dented and I monstered it into a bank as well whoops. 08 Rs4 Avant which is mine and is the best car ever owned, fast , practical, fun to drive, drive to track fang round drive home. Well keep that until new RS4 arrives and will see what that is like. Have only lost money on 1 car I have sold !

I bought my Peugeot when President Mitterrand was running around in the same model.

I run them until I think they are going to cost money. Last 10 years motoring history,

Saab 9-5 145,000 miles – turbo, head gasket, tryes

Ford Ranger 23,000 miles – drank too much diesel and was way to happy to do 360’s

Ford Mondeo 154,000 miles, air bag light on, clutch going, 4 tyres needed

Skoda Octavia 48,000 miles, it was a bag of crap, visited the dealer 3 times for 4 engine light related issues in the last 3 months of ownership and was seen by no less than 6 RAC men in those last three months too. Secondary water pump, exhaust gas sensor, throttle sensor, blower in cabin for air, tyre pressure sensor. DON@T BELIEVE THE HYPE. SKODA’S ARE AS UNRELIABLE AS EVER.

DON@T BELIEVE THE HYPE. SKODA’S ARE AS UNRELIABLE AS EVER.

Hundreds if not thousands of Madrid taxi drivers would be inclined to disagree, I’m not sure they’d be spending their own money on dogs that they have to depend on for earning a living.

Maybe Don but I know at least 4 people with the 170BHP diesel engine who have had problem after problem.

Mechanically sound but electrically? not so sure.

Guessing Madrid Taxi drivers don’t normally go for the 170BHP motor.

Fair enough, I missed the bit about the problem being specific to the 170bhp model rather than the whole range. 😳

12.5yo with 152k (I’ve owned it for 11 and done 130k) – a supposedly unreliable Pug 406. Keep thinking about getting rid, but I suspect I’ll keep it until something really expensive breaks (or a multitude of things – had a variety of advisories last MOT, none of which I’ve done anything about 😳 ).

Have owned 4 previous cars – got rid of 2 because I wanted to upgrade – one after 3 years, the other after only 18 months, but that was because it was my first car and a complete heap and I got something better as soon as I could afford it. The other 2 got written off (only one my fault 😳 )

I don’t beleive the Skoda stats on reliability surveys. I wonder what post-3yr old owners would say about them. After all they have the exact same ECU, turbo, EGR, DPF’s etc etc on the VW’s that DO fail.

Get a new one every 3-6 months, or whenever my Demonstrator gets sold..!!!

Till they die.

Bought an ’03 plate Seat Ibiza ex demo. Still got it 96,000 miles later. Think the total bill for non-scheduled repairs has been approx £100 (to replace a temperature sensor that was falsely giving a “check engine” light).

Until they die or are very close. Currently running a 2005 renault Megane with 125k on the clock, that will be kept until at least next summer and possibly longer depending on what breaks in the next few months.

Mrs lunge has just got shot of a Y reg Fiat Punto as the repair bill for the head gasket is twice what the car is worth.

Till they die. I’ve no real interest in buying new. I’m handy with spanners and enjoy the mechanical challenges in keeping them running.

My old Shogun off to the scrappies. They paid me £600 for it, it will either be dismantled for parts or shipped as is to Africa. Lots of running still in it, but just too much chassis welding to be worthwhile for me.

I’ve had three cars in eighteen years.

51 Mazda 323, owned for 5 years, the rust is terrible, arches, inner wings, had a hole neat the front shock mount that you could put your fist through!

Running gear has been solid mind, shame the rust worm likes it so much

Expect to see just and engine and gearbox and a pile of rust dust on the drive one day soon!

Plus a 53 Golf estate, both will be run into the ground and sold for scrap one day.

What is the going rate from a scrap yard for a mid sized car now?

Used to be £50 and a nip off a Rottie 😉

ski, we got offered about £100 for a Punto which I thought was not bad. They did say it depends on how much of it is useable/sellable.

Aye, colleague just got £125 for an ancient rust Corsa 🙂

Generally keep them until they feel like they’re about to die

55 plate honda accord tourer bought new
51 plate puegeot 307 xsi bought 1 year old
1987 citroen 2cv bought 1 year old (now completely rebuilt)

All done just under 90,000 miles.

Till they die

Currently have a 19year old Hilux, with about 120K on it that I’ve had for the last 8 years, gone through every MOT and the only repairs needed have been things I’ve broken while offroad.

Other car is a 12 year old VW we bought for two grand about three years ago, now sitting at 91K, will replace when it decides to die…

Meant to say ‘this is the cars I currently have’ with no plans to change any of them.

My old Shogun off to the scrappies. They paid me £600 for it, it will either be dismantled for parts or shipped as is to Africa. Lots of running still in it, but just too much chassis welding to be worthwhile for me.

That’s pretty much the only reason I get shot, it’s rare to get mechanical issues that can’t be sorted reasonably these days. HGF or a DMF clutch going seems the aorts case, but a DMF clutch is not found on my ancient Nissan, cost £180 to replace last time all in – for that it was worth risking it failing on a welding issues for another year (1995 Almera, 135,000 on it – don’t really bother with pleasantries like oil changes either :-))

i’ve only ever sold one car in this country (mx5 that I had for 18 months and sold for a 15% profit). all other cars have been run to the grave or so close that they were given away. Currently on a 1999 mondeo with 185,000 miles

Always had company cars until recently so changed them every 3years. I put 200k on my last Beemer 530D Sport Tourer and it was simply the best car ever.
No I’ve my “own” and will run the Prius until 3 years then chop it in, the SMART I’m about to chop in for another, the van I’ll keep until it dies or I die first.

So far I’ve only replaced them when they get written off. Buy them at about the 10 year stage, bits and bobs need doing but nothing much, and still plenty of miles in them and parts cost buttons.

Always until they are almost dead, still get a few hundred quid for them (or have given them to relatives to kill off).
This time its different though – going to get rid of the Saab before it’s old cos I just don’t want a diesel anymore (or need one). Had it 3 years though, which isn’t bad.

Until they seem unwell.
Cars:
1st – 1989: Renault 14, gave up on it when it felt like I was driving a rotting shed around.
2nd – 1995: Nissan Micra (1st type), kept patching it up but when the gear box went thought time to get the new car I’d been thinking about
3rd – 2001: Ford Puma, bought from new and kept until it looked a bit battered from bike transporting and being kept on the street, needed a new exhaust system and I needed more space anyway.
4th – 2011: Skoda Roomster, so far so great.

Why would you not believe reliability surveys?