Buy the car or hand it back?

System

Nebulous2 wrote: »

It is also at an age and price point that I hate for a car. Buy a new or nearly new car and get a warranty, recovery etc all included.

And pay through the nose for that.

Buy a relatively cheap car and if it needs a major repair like a new engine you can write it off. Buy an £11k BMW at 6 years old and if it needs a new engine it could cost you half the price of the car, but be too expensive to write off. Less than 10k a year is slightly under the point where running a diesel makes sense. Modern diesels can also need some expensive repairs.
I'd change it.

A well maintained one is very unlikely to have the issues you claim. Any car made in the last 20 years which is well maintained can easily hit 200,000 miles needing only service items replacing on the engine. My wife's BMW 525 was on 200,000 when she sold it, had always had 0W30 fully synth engine oil and the engine had no rattles or oil leaks and was as sweet as a nut. Even my friend's well abused not well maintained Astra van is rocking on 250,000 miles and its issues with the engine have been things bolted to it, not the engine itself. Same with his previous well abused Vectra. Engines do not die on modern cars unless they've been seriously neglected.

If you've had a car from new, you've maintained it well and looked after it then there is no reason to expect it to die in the next several years if you continue that. It is certainly not worth throwing away £20k or more in depreciation on a new one merely to get a manufacturers warranty for peace of mind.