Another few years?

saker75

Dear all,

I'd welcome your advice.

I have a 08 Jaguar X-Type 2.0 Diesel with 155k on the clock. I've had it for five years and it has been the most reliable (and enjoyable) car I've ever owned.

Until recently. It has been in for repair - Turbo actuator and ECU. In themselves they weren't massively expensive jobs but I'm now worried that this is just the beginning and I'll end up throwing good money after bad.

My mechanic thinks I should be able to get another 60k+ out of the car and I've certainly seen some 250k X-types for sale.

My question: Should I look at selling the Jaguar (auto-trader equivalents are about £2700) and buying a lower mileage vehicle? I wouldn't have much money to put into a car and, because of my career aspirations, am not allowed to take out credit.

In a nutshell:

a) Keep Jaguar and expect to spend money on it during its dotage.
b) Sell Jaguar, put money into a £4k car.

My driving: A lot of motorway rush-hour commutes (stop-start), country lanes and regular (every 12 wks) 900 mile round trips.

Thanks


S

lincroft1710

A £4K car might be little better than what you already have. It's given good service and a suggestion of 60K more miles of life would make it worth keeping

motorguy

saker75 wrote: »

Dear all,

I'd welcome your advice.

I have a 08 Jaguar X-Type 2.0 Diesel with 155k on the clock. I've had it for five years and it has been the most reliable (and enjoyable) car I've ever owned.

Until recently. It has been in for repair - Turbo actuator and ECU. In themselves they weren't massively expensive jobs but I'm now worried that this is just the beginning and I'll end up throwing good money after bad.

My mechanic thinks I should be able to get another 60k+ out of the car and I've certainly seen some 250k X-types for sale.

My question: Should I look at selling the Jaguar (auto-trader equivalents are about £2700) and buying a lower mileage vehicle? I wouldn't have much money to put into a car and, because of my career aspirations, am not allowed to take out credit.

In a nutshell:

a) Keep Jaguar and expect to spend money on it during its dotage.
b) Sell Jaguar, put money into a £4k car.

My driving: A lot of motorway rush-hour commutes (stop-start), country lanes and regular (every 12 wks) 900 mile round trips.

Thanks


S

If its served you well up to now, and you've been looking after it like it sounds like you have, then i'd drive on.

As has been said, selling it and buying another car might not necessarily put you in a better position - Jag X Types with high miles are as cheap as chips, so you could end up with a different car of similar age and miles to your own anyway for your £4K

saker75

Thanks both. You're sort of telling me what I want to hear. I bought the car because of it's Mondeo heritage and it has proven very reliable. It's just a fear of the unknown and making sure I'm financially able to cover future issues.

Nobbie1967

It's more of an unknown replacing the Jag. You know how it's been driven and serviced for the last 5 years and what advises you got on the MOT.

Paradigm

saker75 wrote: »

Thanks both. You're sort of telling me what I want to hear. I bought the car because of it's Mondeo heritage and it has proven very reliable. It's just a fear of the unknown and making sure I'm financially able to cover future issues.

I'm driving a W reg (2000) Saab with 175000 miles ish. I keep thinking of changing it but never do because a) I like it. b) It never breaks down. c) It never seems to need much doing at service time or MOT.... cost nothing last MOT. d) I don't know what I'll be getting if I buy something else.


I'll keep running it until a big bill crops up then decide if it's worth fixing.... I've had it 6-7 years & it really owes me nothing.
Sometimes it's better the devil you know

Richard53

The word 'enjoyable' in your post is the key. You obviously like the car, and so you should keep it until you have a very good reason to move it on. I have sold a few cars that I really liked because I thought they were heading for expensive trouble, and always regretted it. B reg Capri 2.8i, where are you now?


The older a car gets, the more likely it is to cost you money, but not necessarily more than a newer car if you factor in the cost of changing, added depreciation etc. Just accept that running costs will be a bit higher and keep enjoying the old bus. I'd be putting £50 or £100 a month (depending on your resources) in a savings account, and if it needs £500 spending on it to get it through the next MoT, it's all accounted for.

bigjl

Not that clued up on X Types but the mk3 Mondeo on which it is based never came with a DPF unless you were mad enough to spec it new (God knows why you would do that)

If the X Type is also not saddled with a DPF then I would stick with what you have.

All the common problems on the X Type (and indeed Mondeo) are easily fixed due to the fact they are now fairly long in the tooth.

I doubt a newer £4K diesel, with a DPF will give you better reliability.

Our old Clio mk3 was a 56plate and had no DPF/FAP.

I looked at a newer Clio recently but avoided looking at diesels due to concern about the DPF/FAP system due to the fact the car would be used for short journeys, the petrol ones had higher RFL than I wanted to pay (some as high as £180)

So I went petrol.

motorguy

bigjl wrote: »

Not that clued up on X Types but the mk3 Mondeo on which it is based never came with a DPF unless you were mad enough to spec it new (God knows why you would do that)

If the X Type is also not saddled with a DPF then I would stick with what you have.

All the common problems on the X Type (and indeed Mondeo) are easily fixed due to the fact they are now fairly long in the tooth.

I doubt a newer £4K diesel, with a DPF will give you better reliability.

Our old Clio mk3 was a 56plate and had no DPF/FAP.

I looked at a newer Clio recently but avoided looking at diesels due to concern about the DPF/FAP system due to the fact the car would be used for short journeys, the petrol ones had higher RFL than I wanted to pay (some as high as £180)

So I went petrol.

DPFs were added with Euro IV compliance which Jaguar introduced into the X Type range in 2006, thugh i dont think it was a legal requirement until after that.

The O/P is doing big miles, so the DPF is functioning as it should

saker75

Quick update to those that kindly responded.

After a lengthy repair where the Turbo and ECU were individually sent off for external repair, I now have the car back.

Nothing wrong with ECU, just three wires to be replaced. Turbo actuator repaired. Followed by full service and trouble free MOT the car once again drives beautifully.

And the cost was significantly less than expected, giving me a financial cushion to build up for anything major in the future.

I was on the cusp of making an impulsive decision that instinctively I didn't want to do and you all helped me rethink.

Thank you.

Herzlos

I'm in the same position with a petrol X-Type, but unless I'm putting a lot of money in I'm going to end up with an inferior car (or much higher mileage) that's unlikely to be any more reliable - in fact it's a total unknown.

Mine is worth about £2k privately though. So my plan is that as long as it's costing me less than about £250/month on average in maintenance (the repayments on something else) I'll just keep repairing it. It's been pretty reliable on the whole, just expensive when anything goes wrong, so I'm not at the stage of having no confidence in it.

I'd keep the £1300 difference and put it into a savings acount to either cover repairs or save up towards a new car, that way when you eventually decide to move on (after another 60k) you've got more money there towards a new car. At this stage/value, you should be able to save more money on a monthly basis than it'll depreciate by.