What to do?

mshappy

Nearly 2 months ago I bought a 1994 Fiat cinqucento from a friends Dad for £500

It had a full service history from new and a full years MOT and just over 40,000 miles on the clock.I've done about 3000miles since i;'ve got it.

A few weeks ago it developed a petrol leak. The fuel filler pipe developed a hole in it. Cost £105 at a local garage. They checked it over and advised needed new breaks as they were very worn and not safe.

Got parts from a dealer for £30 and someone I know charged £30 to fit them.

Had the car back and now the handbreak has gone. Think the cable has snapped but not too sure.

It was sold as seen so I don't think there is much approaching the old owner. Although he says he never had a problem with it.

Do I put it down to wear and tear? Or get rid of it all together?

Inactive

Are you being serious?

£500 for a car and you don't expect it to have a few minor faults, just get it fixed.

harveybobbles

Get rid and buy something else. Then get rid of that next week when something esle breaks. Then buy something else.

Jeez...

Do you move house if a door handle starts to wear out?

mshappy

By the time the handbreak is sorted I would of already spent half of what I paid for the car on repairs. When I could of bought a more expensive car to begin with.

harveybobbles

...but that too could have gone wrong. If the ickl Fiat is running fine, then keep it

bigjl

You have also done almost 10% of the cars total mileage, covered in 16 years, in just 2 months, it is also possible that you have a different driving style to the previous owner, and probably a lot less mechanical sympathy, if, as I suspect you are a new young driver.

Cars wear out, sometimes it takes a long time for problems to occur, sometimes it is just luck.

Old and low mileage cars are notorious for having all kinds of niggly problems when they are put unto hard service, which with the miles you are now doing is exactly what you are doing, in a year you will do around 18000 miles at the current rate, which is above average, above average use results in above average maintenance.

The brakes are a wear and tear issue, 3000 miles is a lot, so I don't see how the previous owner could have reasonably thought there was a problem, did you look in the history for the last time the brakes where changed?

Why not think about it this way, you now have new brake pads, so you won't have to worry about them for a while, cars cost money to run, would you consider your Insurance premium to be a waste of money if you didn't have to claim, no, it is a running cost, something you are going to have to live with I'm afraid.

If the things you have said are the only issues you have had with a cheap and old car then I would say you have got a fairly decent buy, it could have been a lot worse.

Hammyman

mshappy wrote: »

By the time the handbreak is sorted I would of already spent half of what I paid for the car on repairs. When I could of bought a more expensive car to begin with.

Irrelevent. Unless you're spending £1000s (and I mean £5k+, not £2k), you're going to have to expect things need doing and things will go wrong and none of it covered under any warranty.

Inactive

mshappy wrote: »

By the time the handbreak is sorted I would of already spent half of what I paid for the car on repairs. When I could of bought a more expensive car to begin with.

Paying more for a car does not mean it will cost less in repairs/to maintain.

I suspect if the original owner still had the car, it would not have cost him/her anything in repairs.

mikey72

Did you have front or back brakes just fitted?

colino

Are you sure the cable has snapped? The baby Fiats had badly designed, badly manufactured brakes and a liitle trick in bringing them into operation, is to find a nice empty stretch of road and accelerate in reverse for about fifty feet and do an emergency stop. That should bring the rear brakes into their proper operational position and get them working properly again.

mcjordi

its just wear and tear.. wouldnt worry about it tbh..

cable could of snapped/come loose or rear arm/adjusters could have seized.. not that much to go wrong on rear brakes tbh