Fed up with problems of 2nd hand cars

Milky_Mocha

Volcano wrote: »

I predict this revelation will save you a fortune over the coming years!

LOL! I do consider independents normally but I thought this component was a major one which needed to be sourced direct from Mercedes but to be honest I'd now be glad to get anything that'll do the job - even a clothes hanger if it could!

gaztop_3

Can anybody tell me how you go about insuring a lease car? Or is it part of the lease agreement?

Milky_Mocha

vaio wrote: »

Milky_Mocha wrote: »

……we picked up a Merc E320 Avantgarde auto estate diesel for 8k two years ago. It had done 107k miles and drove like a dream literally up until last week when the cataclytic converter (I know I spelt that wrong!) went and apparently it'll cost 2k to fix so virtually useless. I doubt anyone will buy it now as I don't want to spend that much on repairs. We got a turbo diesel golf which looked amazing and drove perfectly for two years and the turbo suddenly went. ………..QUOTE]

It looks like you manage to break them after two years, maybe the best plan would be carry on buying as you do but only keep them for 18 months

More seriously, www.cats-direct-shop.co.uk look like they will do you a cat for under £350, say double it to allow for fitting and you are still well under a grand. Still not cheap but not a deal breaker either

Wouldn’t have thought a recon/repaired golf turbo would be arm and leg either.

A thousand thank yous for this. Got both the precat and cat for under £600 plus £150 to fit. I love this site. You get solutions even if you come here to just rant!:T

thescouselander

gaztop wrote: »

Can anybody tell me how you go about insuring a lease car? Or is it part of the lease agreement?

As far as I know you insure it as you would a car you own.

vaio

Milky_Mocha wrote: »

vaio wrote: »

A thousand thank yous for this. Got both the precat and cat for under £600 plus £150 to fit. I love this site. You get solutions even if you come here to just rant!:T

Good happy ending, put the cheque for my part of the savings in the post to my home address please.

On a serious note I’d also be tempted to replace (or at least get checked) any lambda sensors or similar mixture control sensors in case the cats were killed by wrong fuelling. You’ve got a good deal on the cats, it would be a shame to have to replace them again because of a failed £30 sensor.

ukjoel

elantan wrote: »

if...i dont know if i want to go to auction though i know nothing about cars

My mum had this issue and went to an auction - she also knew nothing.
She just watched the guys that did and picked some car she liked the look of and when they seemed keen she bid against them and won. Her view was rather pay £300 over the odds at an auction for something they all seemed to be keen on than let them buy it and spend another 2k once it was all shiny and polished on their car lot.

Scary but in fairness it worked.

ukjoel

harveybobbles wrote: »

And usually have very thin clutches, battered wheels, scratches here there and everywhere and have more hits than The Beatles...

To be fair this has improved a lot.
Motabiility now insist on a paint and body inspection on every car when it has its service and the details of any marks or dents need to be shown to customers at garage and they know they will be charged and repaired.

Amazing how much this reduced the paint and body bills when the cars went back.

This combined with the vast number of motability cars being driven by nominated drivers (I wont use the word SCAM - oops there it goes) means the percentage with adaptions is so small (less than 5% I believe) to the extent that one of the largest conversion specialists has just gone into administration.

Mark_Hewitt

Are we really talking about leasing here. By the sounds of it, i.e. put down a deposit, make payments then have a baloon payment, that it's more like a Ford Options type arrangement, I forget the technical name. Rather than straight out leasing.

Ling_Valentine

Thanks for the mention, G and S.

Well, IMHO there is no magic answer to running a car.

Many lease cars do work out cheaper, simply because costs are fixed. Damage has the same residual effect on any car, so that applies to all. Simplicity of leasing (if the lease company doesn't do the usual trick of hidden charges and hidden VAT and funny initial payments) is that all the costs are declared. Full term road tax is included.

A lot of this depends what you want to do with your life. If you want to devote loads of time getting, running and mending older or used cars (and all the associated stuff) and crossing fingers etc, good luck. My customers tend to view the car as a consumer good and don't want the car to impact on their time. They just want it to work, and maybe have one small scheduled oil/filter service in 2 years.

Let's face it, if you had to spend as much time fussing around your fridge as your car, would you still devote all that time to it? If your TV needed as much effort to maintain, would you put up with it? What needs valuing is all that wasted time (and effort) If your time is cheap, then spend some extra time.

But I prefer time on the beach, even in Whitley Bay. ))

Mark_Hewitt

Ling_Valentine wrote: »

But I prefer time on the beach, even in Whitley Bay. ))

I thought you were insane, and that confirms it :rotfl: