I have an old 1.9Tdi Audi saloon. It has been a belter of a car until this week, it was needing a bit of work done on it including the brakes so i put it in the garage today only for them to call me and list about 10 things wrong with the car.

Now i trust this garage as i have been going to them for a long time and as far as i know have never pulled a swift one on me.

Im just gonna get the brakes and service done but bloody hell sometimes its not very economical to keep the old beast running.

Who else runs an older car and do you think its economically worth it??

Do the work yourself. I always have cars over 10 years old. Unfortunately I am getting close to cars run by computers that get a lot trickier to tinker with.

When you say old how old is it?

We are just about to put the missus V reg corsa to bed.

Very sad as she’s had it over 7 years and it’s only done 60k miles, however we are estimating it needs a good £500 worth of work to get through it’s next MOT in 6 months and even the best examples only resell for £750ish. .

We’re looking to go down to one car and get one of the new focus tdi’s. £30 to tax and over 60mpg should make for some seriously cheap (and probably boring…) motoring.

Old cars need money spent on them to repair them.

New cars need money spent on them to buy them.

The former is still usually cheaper unless it’s severe rust, pretty much I’d say.

We’re looking to go down to one car and get one of the new focus tdi’s. £30 to tax and over 60mpg should make for some seriously cheap motoring

Cheap motoring, at a cost of only £15,000!

Its a P Plate, and as the problems are both electrical and corrosion on the chassis there is no way im doing that work myself.

Just gonna get it roadworthy then sell it on. As long as i get what the repairs cost ill be happy enough. 😥

Old cars need money spent on them to repair them.

New cars need money spent on them to buy them.

The former is still usually cheaper unless it’s severe rust, pretty much

The middle ground is often the best – I find

ahhh if its corrosion you are pretty much at the garages will.

As long as i get what the repairs cost ill be happy enough

why not just save yourself the time & effort & bin it now?

I got rid of my perfectly serviceable junker though for a new(er) car. Mainly because I wanted 5 star safety and comfort, which the old Passat didn’t really offer.

Cheap motoring, at a cost of only £15,000!

When I said ‘new’ I meant 08 plate 🙂

Should be able to get a decent one for £7.5k, as a couple I’ve guestimated it will save us around £1k a year, which is not to be sniffed at!

I’ve just got rid of my crippled Punto W reg after close to a grand on repairs over the last year and needing £400 for the thing on the engine reboring??(head something) The car was becoming a money pit and it seemed to be the break even point between anual repair bills over cost of replacement. Against my initial decision to get a cheap second hand car i’m getting a “new” ex demo Panda takes two bikes in the back (that’s what test drives are for) and will be £30 road tax.

So the time to get rid for me is when it looks like your repair bill plus the cost of the worry and hastle out weighs the cost of replacement.

Very sad as she’s had it over 7 years and it’s only done 60k miles, however we are estimating it needs a good £500 worth of work to get through it’s next MOT in 6 months and even the best examples only resell for £750ish. .

But that £500 would probably get you a years’ motoring, so really not so expensive – compared to the depreciation (and probably comp insurance) of a new(ish) car.

That Focus will give you more like 50ish MPG overall as well.

as a couple I’ve guestimated it will save us around £1k a year

How’d you work that out?

I’ve never liked the middle ground.
Had a £200 car, got 12k miles form it before head gasket went, scrapped it and got a new one. Easy decision. Next car was £500, got 14k miles, still working but shortly requiring work when sold it for £300 (saw it the scrappy 4 months later, good timing!)
Next one was £750. Is it worth spending £3-400 fixing? Where do you draw the line? Scrapped it when cambelt went after I’d done 50k miles (£600 engine rebuild)

I say, either go super-cheap (sub £300 say), proper disposable car, or spend a bit and get one that will last (probably £3k plus), the middle ground cars tend to have the repair costs of cheap ones without the option to just get another

My W reg A4 left me a year or so ago for a 12 month old car.

2 drive shafts Breaks. ABS sensors all in a 6 month period left me thinking for the money I am throwing at this I could make payments on a used approved one.

Cam belt was coming up for second change as well and was promising a big bill.

Old cars are fine if you go mega cheap and treat them as disposable as andrewh says. I had a polo in disco gold colour that cost me £200 that ran for 12 months passed an MOT and was sold for £100 to run on for another year without any problems. Cant even service a car for £100 a year.

Depends if vanity is an issue really.

Depends if vanity is an issue really.

Or comfort and crash safety.

Vanity – while not a major issue is still quite important, i dont particularly want to be driving around a 200 quid rust bucket banger but for 3-5000 quid you really can get a decent motor.

Anyhoo anyone want an old audi?? 😆

I’ve never liked the middle ground.

by ‘middle ground’ I meant £6-8K

i.e. in between new & budget

mpg is quoted as 62.8 so I would hope it’s closish to it (neither of us rag cars anymore)

How’d you work that out?

[b]

Well majority of savings will be from 2 v reg cars to one newer one to be honest, but also cheaper tax, insurance, fuel bills and (hopefully) annual repair bills. I have a spreadsheet….

To be honest I’d also like one car that we know won’t cost us £500 come MOT time. It’s harder to find ad-hoc lumps of money like that. Or strand us when the car sets fire to itself…

My R reg corsa is in the last chance saloon.
MOT fail on
Horn, Window washer need replacing, Emisions too high and Fuel tank leaking. OOF.
Did all the work for that, less than £150 then still failed emisions test. Needed a diagnostic check which showed lambda sensor was buggered. This is now replaced also and if it fails emmissions tomorrow then it is bye bye little red corsa. Which is a shame as after the work it is the first time in about a year that has stopped going clunk when you go over a bump.
To be fair it’s had a good shift and done over 105000 miles but If it gets through the MOT it will still be new car time very very soon. £200+ to get it through versus £549+ the garage was wanting.

i have never spent more than a grand on a car. the key is to pick wisely. i personally avoid anything italian, and old fords. older pugs are good, as are older mercs bmws etc.

get over the fact that some cars use more fuel. so what. you are only paying a grand for it.

find someone you know who is selling their car, or someones dad etc. always keep an ear open, you never know. i have had several cars that have refused to fail the MOT and i just gave away because i fancied a change or needed something bigger.

current car is an volvo 850 estate T5 auto. 2 owners, full history, mint, and everyone else was terrified about the running costs. a grand. it actually does 30mpg on a run. 3 mtbs in the boot (not with seats down) with wheels out. and it goes like stink. and i own it. and if it gets pinched, i’ll just buy another. and 100% reliable so far.

by ‘middle ground’ I meant £6-8K

You could have a bike for that!
Seriously.

A6? How many miles has it done? our 1995 A6 has done 256k, -80k for the engine, still seems fairly economical to run.

I’ve ran bangers for years, I never spend more than £500 and buy whatever has the most MOT. I’m currently on the second year of a toyota carina that I got for £300 and its only got 58k on the clock. I’ve spend less on cars im my whole life than my mate lost on a vectra he bought for 8 grand. If it looks like its going to cost more than £300 – £400 to fix it i’ll scrap it or sell it.

You can have the best of both – I bought my 51 reg Saab 9-3 TiD 14 months ago for £1.5K with 119K miles. Great car – quick, 45mpg, fun to drive, up to 3 bikes……….then 10 days ago at 145K miles the diesel turbo blows, enough smoke to bring the A14 to a standstill.

What should I do? Repair or replace? No brainer really without spare wads in the bank – if I don’t repair, car is worth buttons as a non-runner,and I still have to find at least another £1.5-2K for a ‘new’ car, but paying £740 for new turbo (a painful and possibly bike-selling sum) means I can drive it until next summer over another 20K miles and still sell it for about £750 then. Job done and it goes like a dream.

But with an older higher milage car, ALWAYS change the oil on schedule and if you notice something starting to go, get it fixed early before it becomes a big problem (I knew in July my turbo was seeping oil past the seals and if I’d changed it then I could have saved £3-400 – NEVER cross your fingers and hope, if it can go wrong it will go wrong!)

I’m on my first car as I’m learning to drive, it cost me nothing as I swopped it for some artwork. I needed a new part for it so scoured eBay and realised when it’s time for it to go I will consider getting to tool box out and selling parts off on eBay. I’ve seen some of the parts sell for more value than the car as a whole. A friend of my Dad will take what’s left for scrappage. I’d sooner money for bikes/holiday/savings than spend it on a car, plus the older the car the more soul it’s got.

Got a Y reg Ford Galaxy, about 110k miles now.

Last time around at the MOT/service it had about £800 spent on it to get it through. Seems to be just bits wearing out (shocks, brake pipes, etc). I’m not going to get into doing it myself though.

The choice is always – do I spend that sort of money and get another year’s motoring, or give up and get a new car? A new(ish) Galaxy with any kind of warranty would be £15k+. A year’s depreciation and interest on that is still a lot more than I’m paying on repairs.

Or I could buy one that’s a few years old, for several thousand pounds, and have the engine explode after a week and be faced with similar sized bills.

So for now it’s staying.

I’ve always been into Banger-nomics. Buying new cars to me seems a total waste of money (having said that, just bought a new campervan, but that’s different!)

We’ve had mostly good luck, had a golf MK2 driver paid a grand for it used it for 3 years then sold for £500. VW Polo, paid a grand for it, used for 3 years and sold for £500 (see a pattern here?) However with Mrs BS spending more time on motorways these days we bought a Golf MK4 GT TDI for £3k, but it’s such a lot of car for the money, Cruise, elec, climate control etc. can’t see why anyone would spend £15k on a new one??? If it lasts 3 years without anything other than routine servicing then I’ll be happy to sell it for peanuts.

Always assume that any 2nd hand vehicle is going to need at least £500 spent on it. Then it’s a bonus if you’re wrong.

I have a P reg Volvo V70 – faced this dilemma last MOT – including and since when I’ve spent about £1K on the air sensor and bits ABS bits as well as the usual annual service MoT costs. The car is worth about £1.5K but would probably cost me £5K to get a reasonable replacement so am gambling on this keeping the car going at lowish cost for a few more years. I could have done a scrappage as my wife bought a new car last year but again the v70 is worth more than £2k to me (and new car prices were quite “soft” back then).

can’t see why anyone would spend £15k on a new one?

Thats because you’d need about 22K these days I reckon

can’t see why anyone would spend £15k on a new one?

Thats because you’d need about 22K these days I reckon

Even more of a mystery then! seriously, ours is a 2001 with 79k on clock with full VWSH with every receipt from new to prove it, 1 careful old guy owner and mint cond. Sure, just because it’s been well looked after is no guarantee it’s going to be OK but it’s a good start.

I’m baffled as to why anyone would buy a brand new car, ever. From the figures above, A Focus is £15k, a two year old model is £8k? Wow. Seven GRAND gone in two years with nothing to show for it!

Last car I bought cost me £300, as it was a stop-gap whilst I was out of work. Lasted me six months, then I had it taken out and shot (failed its MOT due to a leak on the PAS which would’ve cost more to fix than the car did). For six months’ reliable motoring, it owed me nothing.

I think the most I’ve ever paid for a car was £6k, and I loved it to little mint balls. Having spent an amount of time driving company cars in recent years though, I think if I was buying a car again now I’d be looking seriously at managed lease prices. Hassle-free motoring, can’t beat it.

Yeah, I’m faced with this right now. My missus wants me to update the S80, and all I can see is drive out of the showroom and I’ve just burnt say £10k.

I’m thinking of buying an old classic instead. Something that doesn’t need hooking up to a computer to get fixed. Also means I have the option of doing it myself.

Anyone got an Armstrong-Siddeley Hurricane?

I’m baffled as to why anyone would buy a brand new car, ever.

‘cos they want something nice, shiny, new, and to their own spec’?

Taking your argument, you could replace the word “car” with “bike” (or indeed, any other shiny bike part) and apply it to most people on this forum.

I, personally, DGAF about depreciation: I buy cars for ME to enjoy.

when do you bin a old car?

when you don’t know what the pink fluid in the reservoir is for

I’m baffled as to why anyone would buy a brand new car, ever.

I used to think that too but it does depend on circumstances (credit vs savings etc) it can work out cheaper. Missus got a new car for £230pm on pcp that includes everything (depreciation, servicing, warranty etc) except petrol and consumables (tyres and brake pads….). We did have a scrap car to trade in for £2k.

For her it worked out less that buying a year old version of the same car on credit / a loan and at the end of 3 1/2 years she just hands it back (or more likely trades it in).

Unfortunately it’s a bmw!

I got my Y reg Octavia for a bargain £4000 6 years ago. I’ve done a extra 80k miles in it and until last week when it refused to start it had never failed me. The garage hasn’t looked at it yet but I’ve been thinking about how much is worth spending on repairing it as it’s only worth £800 and at 130k miles I expect a few more major things will start going wrong soon.
I have a 60 mile a day commute so need a car but would never buy a new car. My theory is buying at 3 years old then own it until it dies. Can’t understand how all the people at work afford their new cars. I mean even a Fiesta would cost 12K new, how does anyone on an average wage afford one?