when is it time to call time on car?

doelani

Our car is only worth about £500, it's a deawoo so not expensive to start with. It had 3 mot and no real expense excpet usual serviceing, tyres etc. Now since last MOT in may ( 4th mot ) has been nothing but expense. Cannot remember what first one was, then we got timing belt changed because of age of car , then soemthing else, now 2 weeks later and engine management system is showing another fault :eek:

I know not being very technical here but I know the car has cost us about £500 since May, this includes a service and mot ( which passed with no issues ) It has never not started, as soon as we notice something not feeling right we get it checked.

We just cannot afford to keep throwing ££££ at it every few weeks which is how it seems at the minute, but when do we call it quits and look for new car ( well new second hand )

How do others decide enough is enough ? I think we should just drive it til it stops, hubby wants to look for new car now .

Rolandtheroadie

When the cost to fix it is more than it would cost you to replace it. We've just spent nearly £2k on an 8 year old car. To replace it with the same would have cost £4k so we fixed it. The work we've done should ensure the engine wont let us down any time soon. (it's still a gamble though)
It's MOT'd till May, even with an engine management light on (or any light for that matter), I'd now say to myself it's going in May next year, time to save for another car.
How much can you afford for a new car? If it's £100 a month, put £100 away from now to May to go towards your deposit.

doelani

scotsman4th wrote: »

When the cost to fix it is more than it would cost you to replace it. We've just spent nearly £2k on an 8 year old car. To replace it with the same would have cost £4k so we fixed it. The work we've done should ensure the engine wont let us down any time soon. (it's still a gamble though)
It's MOT'd till May, even with an engine management light on (or any light for that matter), I'd now say to myself it's going in May next year, time to save for another car.
How much can you afford for a new car? If it's £100 a month, put £100 away from now to May to go towards your deposit.

This is my way of thinking too but hubby does not agree, we have some money saved but I would like to continue saving until car acually packs in . I have said we should save the amount new car payment would be and at least when or of car gives up we will have a decent deposit towards new car.

cyclonebri1

You are right, hubby is wrong, get the the benefit from what you have paid, :T. A 6 year old car is not old.

Hammyman

£1000 nowadays buys you not a lot. Stick with what you've got - you know what its faults are and what has been done. A new car, even if its a couple of grand, is likely to need money spending on it. A service and an MOT is part of the running costs so you need to deduct those from what you've spent as you'd need to do it anyway.

Inactive

All cars cost money to run, keep what you have.

Daewoo's are usually fairly reliable cars.

dannymccann

Hammyman wrote: »

£1000 nowadays buys you not a lot. Stick with what you've got - you know what its faults are and what has been done. A new car, even if its a couple of grand, is likely to need money spending on it. A service and an MOT is part of the running costs so you need to deduct those from what you've spent as you'd need to do it anyway.

True the choice is lowered, but you can buy a real decent banger for £1k now. Up the budget to 2k and you can really get a properly decent motor for a good few years.

For example, our Astra 2.0Dti cost us £2k 2 years ago on a Y plate, 68k mileage. Was a pretty good deal I think, all its cost up to today is your usual running costs, 2 new tyres, front brake discs/pads and a service every year. And it still returns 55mpg on long runs even at its age

stator

I'm in the same situation. The trouble is the bills are always worth doing as a one off aren't they? eg £150 or £200. Then a few months later you need to spend that again. If the bill came all at once the decision would be easy.

The only thing you can really do is to ask the mechanic what he thinks of the generate condition of the car and then make a judgement. Mine has quite severe rust so I don't plan on keeping it for a very long time, but I just don't want to spend the money on another car since they are so expensive at the moment.

doelani

Inactive wrote: »

Daewoo's are usually fairly reliable cars.

Yes we have never had an issue with it just now everything seems to be going at once. Not sure what we will decide to do, just do not wnat to spend another £400-£500 in next few months



Thanks everyone for your replies

cyclonebri1

When I see these costings that people quote on here it horrifies me.

So far, touch wood, I have yet to take a car to a garage for any repair. I do realise that not everyone is an "engineer", so cannot make those savings. However I can't recall in a lifetimes motoring ever spending more than a few hundred quid in parts during a cars ownership, and I generally keep cars untill about 10 years old.
The odd head gasket, timing belt or 3, brke pads, discs, odd steering joint and that has been it. The last vectra had a ss exhaust put on it at a year old and it's still on now at 12 yo, present car came with ss exhaust as standard fit.

Just amazed at why people such as the op get faced with all these mega bills?;)

jaydeeuk1

Is it a lanos?
Timing belt is part and parcel of car ownership, unless you only own brand new for 2-3 years. I had a lanos and mechancially it was excellent, and the the only things not working were non important stuff like air con. Only decided to get rid with the scrappage thing when heater matrix cracked (and its an utter !!!! to do on these). Have the fault code checked out, I'd guess a sensor or some kind, probably an oxygen one - had them go on mine and only fixed it as MPG suffered a fair bit.