Advice - scrap or retain

conorsauntie

I have a 10 year old Honda civic and it would appear that the gear box is shot. Garage has just phoned and said it could be gear box and /or clutch. I've been quoted £600 for gear box. Car is worth approx £1k. I have agreed to buy my mum's car when she gets a new one which is next March. Do I pay for the repairs to keep me on the road until then, do I get a loan and buy a cheap car that I can sell again next year or do I scrap and get a loan for a proper car that will last a while? Thanks!

OddballJamie

Unless it's got loads of miles I would get the Civic fixed. Better the devil you know and all that.

Strider590

The answer is obvious.....

We Brits are totally backwards in our attitude to car repairs.... It's not about what the car is worth to sell, it's about what the car would cost to replace.

If you have a £1000 car that's otherwise not a bad car, then £600 is much cheaper than another used car. Remember most people get rid of cars because they're "starting to cost too much", often just before the cambelt is due, which means you'd probably end up with something that costs ££££ and straight away needs a £300 cambelt change.

hewhoisnotintheknow

if the car is a gooden, i'd get it fixed

where are you based

colino

Did you put the car in because you thought it had a transmission fault, or is it in for something else? Honda have lots of problems with bad gearboxes, but a half decent techy could test to see if the fault is clutch or gearbox without stripping. Frankly if your paying someone else to do the work and you end up with a recon (scrappy) instead of a rebuild, that would put you back to square one.
If its driving I would sell as is with fully declared (properly diagnosed) fault.

Weird_Nev

Tricky.
FInd out if it IS gearbox or clutch... Can you get a gearbox from a scrapyard for less? I got a gearbox for my MR2 for £50. If the car is otherwise good, it's worth doing the clutch whilst the gearbox is off, since it's £100 in parts (ish) but £200+ labour.

If I could get a substantially better car for £600 I might do that instead. I was looking at hondas today, as it happens. Plenty of decent specimens around for £600-£800.

Herzlos

Strider590 wrote: »

We Brits are totally backwards in our attitude to car repairs.... It's not about what the car is worth to sell, it's about what the car would cost to replace.

Definitely!

If you're looking at borrowing to buy another one, you're talking about paying back in the region of £100/month with the possibility of early repayment fees when you clear it in march. That's £900 already, before factoring in having to update insurance policies and what you'll lose in depreciation and hassle.

There's also the factor of what the Civic is worth; without a gearbox it's worth scrap (so say £100) unless you want to sell it for parts yourself. With a gearbox it's worth about £1k as you said, so fixing it and selling it still results in you being £300 better off.

Get the car repaired, and sell it once you're able to take possession of your mums.


I was in the same position earlier this year, with a car worth even less. I figured a new clutch was realistically 3 months repayments on something else, and that was 6 months ago so I'm better off again already.

chevettedriver

Strider590 wrote: »

The answer is obvious.....

We Brits are totally backwards in our attitude to car repairs.... It's not about what the car is worth to sell, it's about what the car would cost to replace.

If you have a £1000 car that's otherwise not a bad car, then £600 is much cheaper than another used car. Remember most people get rid of cars because they're "starting to cost too much", often just before the cambelt is due, which means you'd probably end up with something that costs ££££ and straight away needs a £300 cambelt change.

Absolutely spot-on, Strider590

Our car is worth about £400 tops. If it needs a £500 repair (hope not) it will have the money spend on it. Why? Because what else would I buy for £500?

£1000 repair would be financially ruinous to us, but even so I think I would repair rather than replace

Both the above would warrant the repair expenditure because it's always been a great car.

If your is always costing money then probably get rid, but otherwise stick with what you have got.

Good luck!

OddballJamie

I wouldn't spend £500 to repair a £400 car unless it was rock solid and I had owned it for a long time or it was something special. Plenty of motors about for £500 + scrap/spares value.