HELP! I'm sick and tired of ridiculous motoring costs!

jimjames

Sounds like you've been unlucky or made a poor choice of cars.

My car had over 100,000 miles on purchase and has passed MOT every year for the last 5 with no work needed. My other car had 230,000 miles and again passed MOT without problem.

Things like aircon and turbo failure are not part of the MOT anyway. Cars do cost money to run but routine servicing will avoid surprises at the MOT.

angelboy

I think one frustrating thing is that both cars have the potential to be upwards of £1000 each within a month of each other. I have the money to fix them BUT I don't want to be spending ££££'s year after year.

I had a 98 Renault Laguna that used to sale through the MOT's year after year then one year it cost £650. The year after, a wiper blade. I eventually scrapped it a few years ago.

My wife had an 2001 Fiat Punto and last year it cost £700 to get through the MOT. This year it still needed some work - hence the reason I bought her the Audi.

If we paid £700/year to keep our cars on the road, including servicing and wear and tear items then fine - it's cheap motoring as there's no finance to pay BUT when every year on the 'newer' cars are facing £1000+ bills then it's starting to get daft. Last year - OK - the Mazda was close to £800 I think to keep on the road - well this year it would have been nice to sale through the MOT. One ABS unit later and the bill is a minimum £500. What's next year when something else fails?

I think I'm just trying to work out if I'm being out of touch and everyone spends £1000+ to keep there 10 year old motors on the road or is it just damn bad luck that I'm having with the last two cars I've bought?

angelboy

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

They don't sound that great to me. If it's true an ABS sensor's failed, then £100 should sort a new one, possibly much less. If it's the ABS module, a repair can usually be effected by a number of specialists such as BBA Reman for a lot less than £350 (last time I had one rebuilt by them it was ~£150, plus an hour or so to swap the pump over and bleed.

Sinspeed just quoted me £285 + Vat.

The indi says he goes to BBA and he did say the last one was about £300 + vat


Just looking at BBA Reman shop you can see that the prices vary wildly depending on the model. A Vauxhall ABS pressure sensor exchange is £495 but a BMW is £125.

Maybe the £300 is about right for the Mazda

angelboy

dannyrst wrote: »

I'm not being funny, but it sounds like a mix of bad luck and you not knowing enough about cars to realise when you are getting ripped off.

Why would you get a custom back box made when, as said before, you can get them for £100. It takes 15 minutes with a ramp to fit it too, so give a mate at a garage £20 cash in hand and job done.

The Mazda was centre & back - sorry my mistake. At the time they wanted to do a 'cat-back' replacement which was big money - the reason being the CAT is part of the centre exhaust. The CAT had to be cut and spliced with a new back box - hence the reason I had to get a custom one made as the alternative was £££'s.

I researched it at the time and it was right what they were saying.

The Audi A4 entire exhaust system came up at £450 and the Mazda £1200

droopsnoot

I guess the problem with the turbo or valve stem seals is that it will be introducing oil into the exhaust which may well give an emissions failure. If it's very bad it might also take the cat out, so it's probably worth looking into.
It seems a bit strange that an indie is talking about swapping stuff like the turbo or head so easily, unless they're just giving you a worst-case scenario. I'd have thought removing the turbo to examine it might reveal whether oil contamination (assuming that's the issue) is coming in from the engine, or starting at the "far" end of the turbo, but then it might be such a pain to remove the turbo that it's not worth putting the old one back on. It would have to be a real swine to get at, based on the price you mentioned.


I feel your pain, though - I'd love to get something a bit newer, but the increasing complexity puts me off. The car I have is already well capable of costing some serious money (a couple of years ago I had to swap an acceleration sensor the size of a basic relay, but main dealer only and around £140) but more modern stuff has the potential to be even worse, set against the potential of better build quality.

Marktheshark

Most Mazdas are fords with a few different panels and a badge.
The mazda 5 looks like the c-max.

Same with the mazda 6, most mondeo parts fit and cost a tenth of the mazda ones.

mattyprice4004

Blimey, that's crazy money. I've had a selection of MGs and Rovers over the last 9 years of motoring, and have spent less in that time than your Madza has cost...

Usually doing 30,000+ per year too.

EdGasket

You spend more on repairs than I do on my cars. Stick with simple designs i.e. no turbos, common makes/models, and research the model e.g. the earlier Audi's (up to 2002) were Ok but the later ones, like yours have issues. You will find cars like the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla will give years of service so long as you pick a good one in the first place.

forgotmyname

Back box from europarts £100. So its not a main dealer item.

ABS sensore get replaced not re-programmed, I assume you mean a controller board?

As you have found and done the maths which is unusual on here, normally people don't think of the depreciation or not owning anything after paying all that money out on a lease vehicle or a PC where you have to pay a lump sum at the end to own the car.

I buy cars that are approx 5 years old because the depreciation has started to level off, but the service history must be spot on.

With a 9 year old car you want the least amoutn of gadgets you can get, After that amount of time aircon seals maybe on their last legs and some parts rusting through and aircon parts are expensive on any car.
But a poorly treated example can have those issues at 3 years old.

If you put £10k into a 3 year old car then your going to be paying for it for 3 - 5 years?
So before its paid for the car will be 6 - 8 years old and possibly suffering from exactly the same issues that you have now.

The only difference now is that your not paying for the car as well as having to pay repairs and depreciation.

I bought a 5 year old Mondeo in 2009 with high miles but a brilliant service history, just over £2000.
Sold it early this year for £800 having spent £1500 over the 5+ years, That included brakes, tyres MOTs, oil changes which i do twice yearly etc etc..

Buy a tidy older car and the repairs can be very cheap. But you need to make sure
there is no rust.

zaax

10 year old cars are getting old in the tooth & will need a lot to up keep. Buy one that only 3-4 years old.