Bangernomics: advice please :) replace my Ford Mondeo now or later?

stevesavingmoney1272

Hi. My current daily 50 mile round trip commute is in a 1997 P reg Ford Mondeo 2.0GLX petrol. My wife and I bought the car about 5 years ago with 30k on the clock - 1 owner and full service history. This was at the time our main family car, but since buying a Citroen Picasso for that role I am looking to change the Mondeo. The main aim would be to save money on the daily commute. The MOT on the Mondeo is up at the end of October, as is the road tax. In June this year I had a major service on it which included new discs and pads on the front and a new exhaust pipe. The car's now got 84k on it. It is mechanically sound. I know i will have to replace the timing chain at 90k. I'm concerned that clutches tend to go at about 90k on average as well an a replacement clutch is about £500 as the sub-frame of the car has to be lowered to get to it. Obviously I really don't want to get that into that expense. I would love some advice on when the best time is to sell the Mondeo and what suitable car forum members would advise to replace it :T I know I would be doing well to get £300 for the Mondeo as is and I would like the replacement car to be true bangernomics motoring. Or do I just keep the Mondeo? Please help

Kind regards
stevesavingmoney1272

Hintza

Run it until it requires an expensive part. You know the car and as such it is worth a lot of money to you.

It was virtually worthless to anyone else.

LandyAndy

Keep it, keep it, keep it. There are few things more valuable than an old car that you know well. Depreciation is essentially zero and that is the biggest expense of running most cars.

I have an 'M' reg Peugeot 405 with 213k up. Last year I did 21,700 miles in it. Servicing and repairs for that period were about £500. Depreciation is zero.

Your car is still quite low mileage and you've just spent a few quid on it so put it in for an MoT asap and see what needs doing, if anything (my Peugeot just passed without any work).

anewman

To answer your question directly, it would no doubt be best to sell it with as close to a full 12 months MOT as possible.in order to get the best price. However, I might be inclined to agree with the last two posters if the car has been well maintained - unless you are certain you would get better MPG from another car to make it worthwhile.

Road_Hog

Flat rate road tax as well.

A third vote for keeping it until it's going to cost something to repair.

Edit: Even if you are going to get rid of it, you'll still have to MOT it or your buyer will assume there is something fundamently wrong with it, that you're not telling them about. You won't get offered much for a car without an MOT of that age.

stevesavingmoney1272

Thank you very much for your replies so far. I've edited the original post because I thought of some extra details which might inform contributors to the thread a little more.

hewhoisnotintheknow

keep it, try getting it through the mot, see what comes up, i got given a free car at the weekend, L reg (94) xanitia, 179 on the clock, 11 months mot on it no signs of dieing soon!

Conor_3

How would you save money on the commute when you'd be spending £1000's buying a new car? Your Mondeo does around 32MPG so costs you roughly £8 a day. A newer car is only going to save you at most £2 a day so it'll take TWO YEARS commuting to recoup every £1000 you spend over what you get from the sale of the Mondeo. So if you sell the Mondeo for £500 and buy a car for £2500, it'll take you FOUR YEARS just to break even.

stevesavingmoney1272

Many thanks: I would agree about the 32mpg on the mondeo. I wasn't thinking of spending a lot on a replacement vehicle. If I MOT'd the Mondeo, then say sold it for roughly £300, I was going to have the £300 as my purchase cost for the next car. I quite fancied something small say with a 1.0l or 1.3l engine, which would also mean less tax I think. What would you advise? :j Thanks, Steve

goldspanners

stevesavingmoney1272 wrote: »

Many thanks: I would agree about the 32mpg on the mondeo. I wasn't thinking of spending a lot on a replacement vehicle. If I MOT'd the Mondeo, then say sold it for roughly £300, I was going to have the £300 as my purchase cost for the next car. I quite fancied something small say with a 1.0l or 1.3l engine, which would also mean less tax I think. What would you advise? :j Thanks, Steve

£300 wont get you a car with lower tax,as the age range you would be looking at wont be affected by the new road tax rules.
i would say for the little savings you make on fuel i would prefer to have the mondeo over most small cars.

stevesavingmoney1272

Thank you to everyone for your advice. The overriding response is certainly that I should keep the Mondeo for now until an expensive part fails which is what I shall do. I am very grateful to the forum for this as I was just going to sell it with 12 months MOT in October, but there seems to be little point in getting rid of the car unless something major goes wrong. Might as well have the £100 offered for scrap when it does require major mechanicals.

Please consider this thread as finished: thank you all once again for your advice . Steve