Buying a new car

laura84gr

Hi guys,

I would be really grateful for some advice. It's time like this when I wish my dad was still here!:rotfl:

I paid off my car just over a year ago. It's a 2009 with 58000 miles on the clock. I've just paid a little money to get a repair done but they have said they are predicting a big repair coming up and have said it could cost up to £800 to fix. The guy from the garage is really good to me and has always been honest and has suggested it might be time to trade it in/sell it on.

I get quoted anything from £4k to £2.5k when I value the car online. I am in the middle of saving for my house deposit and I have £11k so far.

What would you guys do in my position?

I could do without my car in reality......but I do think I'd eventually want to buy one because it does make life easier. I also really don't have the time to be able to sell it privately. I work approx 70 hours a week shift work. So was thinking "we buy any car route".

I also don't want to be paying a monthly payment as I know this would affect my mortgage affordability.

Should I just bite the bullet and trade my car in, and use a small amount of my saved deposit and maybe by a car worth £5k approx?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

Mobeer

Any garage that sells you a used car will need to make a reasonable profit on that sale. Webuyanycar or equivalent will need to make a reasonable profit on your car, Taken together those amounts could easily add up to £800.

Questions you should ask yourself:
- how likely\soon is the predicted repair\replacement?
- is it something to replace before it breaks, or something to wait and repair?
- if this issue is repaired\replaced\never happens, how likely are other big bills.

If for example this is something that might (or might not) need fixing in a year or two, after which the car will be sound, then I'd not change the car for new.
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edit: there is a motoring forum here that might also be helpful

19lottie82

Older cars need maintaining, there's no getting away from that.
Once a car is out with the warranty period of 3 years, it makes sense to put a small amount aside each week or month for this.

What is the repair? Is it a timing chain / belt, per chance?

Anyway, financially, unless you can see lots of expensive repairs on the horizon then it makes sense to repair your car and hang on to it. A new car will cost you a LOT more than £800 in the long run.

Your car isn't ancient and the mileage isn't high. Unless it's consistently giving you problems I really can't understand why your mechanic is advising you to get rid of it?

Selling this car with the intent of buying another circa £5k makes no sense to me I'm afraid. There's no guarantee that car won't need an £800 repair not too far down the road either. It really could be out of the frying pan and into the fire!

System

laura84gr wrote: »

I paid off my car just over a year ago. It's a 2009 with 58000 miles on the clock. I've just paid a little money to get a repair done but they have said they are predicting a big repair coming up and have said it could cost up to £800 to fix.

What would you guys do in my position?

You're saving up for a house deposit so the last thing you need is to be spending £5k on a car. Fix the car you have. If you sell it to "We buy any car" you'll lose more than the £800 cost of repairs in the kick you in the balls offer they make. You'll then lose a load more money in interest on the car you buy.

My wife had a 1995 Mitsubishi FTO that cost her £900 to get through one MOT and she spent that even though the car was worth £500 because there was nothing else wrong with it and what you could get for even a couple of thousand pounds was going to come with some problem or another that'd need doing in the next 12 months anyway.

I have absolutely no idea why people in this country are so adverse to paying to repair cars. In the USA they keep them for donkeys years and for example will quite willingly sink a couple of thousand dollars for a new gearbox into something that is 10 years old with 200,000 miles on because they worked out a long time ago that it was far cheaper to fix what you've got than continually buy new cars every time your finance deal came to an end and not only eat a loss in finance but also a huge loss in depreciation. Here's how mad it is and an illustration as to why they do what they do in the USA:

I have a Ford Mondeo which when new was £20k. At three years old, the age people tend to trade cars in, it was worth £9000. That is a loss of £11,000 every 3 years. I plan on keeping it to 200,000 miles which will mean the car will be 12 years old and at that point it'll be worth lets say £0.

Buy it new and keep it to 12 years its cost you £20k plus lets say another £2k either in finance or lost interest on savings so the total cost over 12 years is £22,000.
If you trade the car in every 3 years you will have three lots of £11000 in depreciation to pay which is £33,000. In addition to that, like the above you'll eat £3000 in either finance or lost interest so the total cost over 12 years is £36,000.

You would have to spend over £14,000 in repairs over a 12 year period for the above car you keep for 12 years to be more expensive than renewing every 3 years. And you would be extremely unlucky to have to spend even 1/2 of that even including servicing. The argument for keeping a car and repairing it is even stronger if, like me, you bought it at 2 years old when it had already had a big chunk of depreciation.

Cars in recent times have proven they can last 14/15 years very easily, doing the thick end of 200,000 miles and still be in good condition as can be seen by the plethora of 2003/2004 plates being sold on various facebook pages etc. At some point they're going to have a bill which is going to be a good chunk of what they're worth or even like my wife's FTO, more than they're worth but it doesn't mean the money isn't worth spending or that you're throwing the money away. I'd rather spend several hundred quid a year repairing something that'll probably never need doing again than set fire to far more than that in depreciation and loan interest.

laura84gr

Thank you so much for your feedback.

It is a timing belt issue that will need sorting. I need to speak to the garage properly because I only had a quick conversation yesterday as I was in work. I'm not sure I understand exactly what issues will come up or how long I have until this will need repaired.

I don't want to spend my deposit, or get rid of my car to be honest. I just wanted some advice.

System

laura84gr wrote: »

Thank you so much for your feedback.

It is a timing belt issue that will need sorting. I need to speak to the garage properly because I only had a quick conversation yesterday as I was in work. I'm not sure I understand exactly what issues will come up or how long I have until this will need repaired.

I don't want to spend my deposit, or get rid of my car to be honest. I just wanted some advice.

All cars need timing belts unless they have a chain. Any petrol or small diesel engined car you buy is going to need a timing belt around 60,000 miles and whoever buys your car is going to know it needs one soon and will factor that into the price they offer so you're going to end up paying for the cambelt either by getting it done yourself or with a lower sale price. Some are 100,000 or like my Mondeo 125,000 miles but it is normal wear and tear servicing no different to needing new tyres or brake pads and would you sell a vehicle because it needs new tyres or brake pads? No. A cambelt change IS NOT A REPAIR, its normal servicing and I doubt very very much it will cost £800. Usually the cost is a few hundred quid. I got a quote for my Mondeo at the main Ford dealer and that was £500 including the auxiliary belts so if you're being quoted £800 go elsewhere, it should be less than half that.

Ilona

I had a look at W B A C when it came to me changing mine. They offered peanuts, would not deal with those who want to rip me off.

I had a few grand saved so just did a part ex with the large dealer, because I don't want the bother of selling private. I had the cash spare, but if your priority is saving for a house, then go for the cheapest option for your car. Check out another garage for cost of work needed.
Ilona

27cool

If you get rid of an otherwise excellent car just on the off chance that the replacement will not need any work, that is short sighted thinking. Better the devil you know. There is no guarantee that a S/H replacement car will not need some work.
As has already been said, replacing a cam belt is not a repair, it is just maintenance. If there are no other problems that you know of, and you happy with what you have. Then stick with what you know. Especially if you have other important uses for the money.

iolanthe07

As a general rule the cheapest car you can have is the one you've got now. There are exceptions to this, obviously, but it is not a bad guide.

It is a timing belt issue that will need sorting
A new cambelt shouldn't cost £800, but if you are having it done, get the garage to replace the water pump at the same time.

Pixie5740

I often think with cars it's a case of better the devil you know. There's no guarantee that buying a £5k car means you won't have be paying out £800 in repairs. You're saving up for a house concentrate on that rather than wasting money changing cars just because your car might have an £800 coming up.

laura84gr

Thank you everyone for responding to me. I really do appreciate it.

Maybe this is better on the motoring forum - but should I get this fixed now or wait?