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

angelboy

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

I'm not sure what your point is. Parts are expensive for Porsches and Ferraris?


Your levelling a blanket accusation at all Audis and Mazdas as unreliable and costly is somewhat unfair - it sounds to me more like you've simply purchased poor examples of each.


Maybe instead of complaining about having to fix problems which could occur with any car, you should just buy a couple of Porsches?

The point I'm making is that I would expect to pay an amount relative to the value of the vehicle not an disproportional amount. A small control unit goes on a Mazda and I'm told a new one is over £1000. An entire left bank manifold goes on a F355 and it's £1600.

I expect to pay a smaller amount - this is the point I'm making.

Believe me, once the mortgage is paid that's the intention to buy a couple of Porsche - I don't doubt that for a short second! I'n the mean time, my pants are being pulled down for a coupe of 10 year old motors!

BeenThroughItAll

angelboy wrote: »

I didn't get the aircon fixed - I got three quotes, all around £800.

I didn't say you did - but you've complained that it went wrong and would cost a fortune, and conflated that with the car being inherently unreliable. I'm making the point that it's not unreliable, just that things break - often where they're been used inappropriately or in the case of AC, probably not at all.


I keep coming back to this point - it's not 'all Audis and Mazdas are unreliable'; it's that you have a crap Mazda, and a crap Audi.

BeenThroughItAll

angelboy wrote: »

A small control unit goes on a Mazda and I'm told a new one is over £1000. An entire left bank manifold goes on a F355 and it's £1600.

You cannot compare a piece of cast alloy with an electronic control unit. I'm sorry, but you can't.


How much is an ABS unit for an F355? I bet it's a sight more than £1000.


Equally, how much is a manifold for a Mazda 5? I bet it's a lot less than £1600.


Apples ain't oranges, pal.

angelboy

Out of interest then, what do you all accept as an average amount to keep one car on the road per year?

Let's say that the Mazda takes £1000 to get through the MOT. I've lost another £250 say in depreciation. The Audi is losing about £500/10,000-sh and then it could be £1000 again for the turbo. If I accept £1500/year all in then I'd still say that's much cheaper than a contract hire or car loan on a newer car.

My Dad, for example, has lost £2000/year over 5 years in depreciation and only one year did his service & MOT cost £1000. His gearbox sounds like it's on it's last legs as well. So he reckons about £3000 is what it will have eventually cost him per year.

angelboy

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

I didn't say you did - but you've complained that it went wrong and would cost a fortune, and conflated that with the car being inherently unreliable. I'm making the point that it's not unreliable, just that things break - often where they're been used inappropriately or in the case of AC, probably not at all.


I keep coming back to this point - it's not 'all Audis and Mazdas are unreliable'; it's that you have a crap Mazda, and a crap Audi.

Yes, I see.

I think I have a crap Mazda - I do agree.

I don't think I have a crap Audi - maybe just bad luck.

BeenThroughItAll

angelboy wrote: »

Out of interest then, what do you all accept as an average amount to keep one car on the road per year?

In the last twelve months, I've spent approximately £300 on routine service parts (oil, filters, plugs, brake pads), £60 for two MOTs, £30 for tracking, and £120 on a pair of tyres.


That's across three vehicles, though.

angelboy

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

You cannot compare a piece of cast alloy with an electronic control unit. I'm sorry, but you can't.


How much is an ABS unit for an F355? I bet it's a sight more than £1000.


Equally, how much is a manifold for a Mazda 5? I bet it's a lot less than £1600.


Apples ain't oranges, pal.

Yes I understand that - I'm not talking relative I'm talking general annual cost in comparison to. I'm sure others have a different experience - and I'm very aware that today the costs for moth marques will have risen substantially. I can't compare because I don't have either anymore!

Out of 2 years with a 993 my biggest bill was a major service of £500. Two years with the Ferrari the service was about the same but the only thing that went was the manifold. It was my stupid choice to buy the exhaust. It didn't need one. I just wanted it.

angelboy

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

In the last twelve months, I've spent approximately £300 on routine service parts (oil, filters, plugs, brake pads), £60 for two MOTs, £30 for tracking, and £120 on a pair of tyres.


That's across three vehicles, though.

What were the vehicles again?

I take it that's at a indy?

Even the MOT's are much cheaper - mine are £45. I don't know where you can go for £30.

bowlhead99

You mention how you have avoided the initial painful depreciation by buying second-hand. Good move.

But say you are driving a car that would cost £20k new. The aircon system doesn't care that you struck a good deal with a former owner to acquire the whole car for £1000-5000 instead of £20000. When the aircon system packs up, why shouldn't it cost several hundred pounds to buy a new replacement for such a system (plus a whole bunch more pounds for trained mechanics to pull out your broken parts and install the new system)?

If your "bloody crappy" Mazda or old Audi is only worth £2000 with everything working, why not buy another one and get a full set of replacement parts for £2000? Then when the next thing goes wrong, you won't have to worry about sourcing replacement parts a decade after the factory production line has shut down, because you will have already sourced all the replacement parts at very competitive second-hand prices: they are sitting on your driveway.

Tobster86

angelboy wrote: »

But it's statements like that that have caused me to be in the this situation. German cars - Audis/VW/Mercs/BMWs - supposed to be reliable - or so they say.

Japanese cars - can't go wrong - or so they say.

So why have I got a German & a Japanese car and they're both going wrong to the tune of ££££'s.

You have a newer German car, not covered by my 'statement' and for good reasons; they're not reliable.

As for the Mazda 5 - it's a people carrier. Big cheap cars built to very tight margins; not many steps up from an actual STD in my view and treated accordingly by many of their owners.

"But I have a load of kids" I hear people say. I'm not going to share my opinion on that as it WILL offend; but let's tone it down to "should have bought a Volvo XC90".

Why on earth did you replace interesting German cars that were covered by my statement and proved themselves, with a people carrier?

Or even the Italian machine? Maybe not reliable or cheap; but if you can, life is too short not to.