When to replace your 'banger' when it just won't die?

Stoke

Hello,

So, I've always been one for bangernomics and for me the formula is usually simple. You buy a banger, you run it until it becomes financially impractical to keep. Head gasket goes, it goes, gearbox goes, it goes, something where the cost is into the several hundreds (or is terminal) and the vehicle goes, eBay some keen mechanic comes and takes it away, jobs a good'n.

I'm currently in the situation where my banger won't die, but I'm starting to wonder whether it's simply worth keeping due to the cost to tax and well, maybe I'm kind of starting to fancy a new car. So the car is a VW Lupo SDI. It's got nearly 170k miles on. The transmission is really solid (I think it might have had a recon'd gbox before i got it), I still get really good fuel economy, it's not failed an MOT since I owned it.

I service it myself, which is cheap, but I hardly take pride in it, I just change the oil filter twice a year, and put in the cheapest EuroCarParts oil. I haven't changed the air filter in years (probably due to be fair), and I just change the fuel filter when I decide to.

Even so, I still routinely get sort of 60+ MPG and the car never brakes down. The tax is £230 because it was made before 2001. That's the only real negative I have for it.

I doubt it's worth more than £100.

Any tips?

Herzlos

If you're buying another banger, you won't be saving much in tax, if at all. The cheap tax cars are all within the last few years.

If you want a new car, go for it but from a purely economics point of view you're best running the Lupo until something goes wrong.

Stoke

By new, I meant a newer slightly better banger. £110 tax, 05 reg, roughly the same fuel economy....

oh and convertible :P it's about £1300

Herzlos

So you're talking about spending £1200 to save £120/year in tax, all else being equal?

londonTiger

i think engineering improvements have made most car mechanics practically indestructible (as long as they have been serviced and maintained). Most of the time their used car values plummet and then when a big bill comes for cambelt/exhaust or there is an emissions issue they just get scrapped.

Used car prices for vehicles that are 10+ years old and have over 150K on the clock are rock bottom. Usually perfectly fine just the design looks very dated.

Stoke

Herzlos wrote: »

So you're talking about spending £1200 to save £120/year in tax, all else being equal?

Erm.... yeah, I suppose when you put it that cynically it does sound daft.

londonTiger wrote: »

i think engineering improvements have made most car mechanics practically indestructible (as long as they have been serviced and maintained). Most of the time their used car values plummet and then when a big bill comes for cambelt/exhaust or there is an emissions issue they just get scrapped.

Used car prices for vehicles that are 10+ years old and have over 150K on the clock are rock bottom. Usually perfectly fine just the design looks very dated.

Ha, I think this is the issue. The mechanics of this car do just seem indestructible. If it was failing MOT's or something that would feel justified, but it's not. The last MOT, all they had to do was re-align the headlight slightly and it passed no problems. About 12 months ago, I was convinced it wouldn't last another 12 months, but now I'm in the same position and yet no further forward lol.

As you said, it's worth nothing. There are better examples with less miles going for £400-£500. This car, at best, is worth £300 but I'm really really not convinced it's worth that. I would imagine it's worth more like £200 or even £100.

dcouponzzzz

Sounds like you're bored of the car, you know the cheapest option is to keep it, but you're trying to convince yourself you need a new one... I do this roughly every 6 months and after a couple of weeks the urge passes

ElefantEd

Stoke wrote: »

Hello,

Even so, I still routinely get sort of 60+ MPG and the car never brakes

How do you stop, by crashing into things?!:rotfl:

Personally I would keep the car until it becomes terminally ill, but at the end of the day it's not hugely expensive to get another slightly newer old car.

almillar

I don't know what mileage you're doing but unless it's stellar save yourself a few quid on the oil filter change twice a year and buy an air filter!
Lupos are good cars - too good - VW made them too well, and too expensive, so they didn't sell very well. Then they tried to sell us the Fox, which went the other way.
If you want it to fail, you're servicing it too well!

jimjames

Just keep it. As above I can't see any reason to change if it's still running fine

londonTiger

Stoke wrote: »

Hello,

So, I've always been one for bangernomics and for me the formula is usually simple. You buy a banger, you run it until it becomes financially impractical to keep. Head gasket goes, it goes, gearbox goes, it goes, something where the cost is into the several hundreds (or is terminal) and the vehicle goes, eBay some keen mechanic comes and takes it away, jobs a good'n.

I'm currently in the situation where my banger won't die, but I'm starting to wonder whether it's simply worth keeping due to the cost to tax and well, maybe I'm kind of starting to fancy a new car. So the car is a VW Lupo SDI. It's got nearly 170k miles on. The transmission is really solid (I think it might have had a recon'd gbox before i got it), I still get really good fuel economy, it's not failed an MOT since I owned it.

I service it myself, which is cheap, but I hardly take pride in it, I just change the oil filter twice a year, and put in the cheapest EuroCarParts oil. I haven't changed the air filter in years (probably due to be fair), and I just change the fuel filter when I decide to.

Even so, I still routinely get sort of 60+ MPG and the car never brakes down. The tax is £230 because it was made before 2001. That's the only real negative I have for it.

I doubt it's worth more than £100.

Any tips?

the lupo gti are very good pocket rockets and have high values. Though your diesel should be above average (more than a petrol lupo)

I think part of the reason why they are so durable is that their engines are adapted from larger golf and polo engines so they wont wear as easily as they are used in a much lighter car.

I'm pretty sure it much be valued much higher, it's a diesel and very light car, it must get extremely good mpg.