Minimising the spend on an old car before upgrade

Hobbes8

I have a ten year old Fiesta with just over 100k miles on the clock. The paintwork has some scratches and scrapes, and a couple of patches where the metallic finish has peeled away. It's not worth much, but up until very recently has been pretty reliable, passing its MOT and only needing stuff like new tyres occasionally.

Just before Christmas I had to spend a few hundred on getting it through its MOT and service - new brake pads and a few other things.

Earlier this week the suspension coil went (this might not be the right term). It wasn't driveable so needed to be towed to a nearby garage. They replaced it, found another problem and fixed that. I picked it up yesterday and handed over £260.

Yesterday afternoon the ABS warning light came on. I rang the garage and asked if that might be connected to the problem they fixed. They said it might be, but they wouldn't be able to take a look at it until Monday.

I don't want to throw more money at it, so I'm looking at options for an upgrade - either a £5-7k ish loan for a used car, or possibly a PCP or lease scheme for approx £150-200 per month. I'd like to use the car as a trade-in towards my deposit. As an example, Hyundai's website quoted a £650 trade-in value for my car in "fair" condition.

Do you think it's worth fixing? Does anyone know what the cost of fixing the ABS might be? I can get a quote next week but I'm trying to plan out my finances.

Or should I try and trade-in in the state it's in? Would I get laughed out of the showroom? Is there any merit in being honest about it and finding out the difference in value fixed and unfixed, or would this scupper any chance at a negotiation.

Thanks in advance for any advice. I've only owned one car before this one - some joyriders nicked it and wrote it off so I've never had to deal with getting rid of one before!

facade

The abs may be a simple fix, wait and see.
There is a wire that goes from the wheel hub to the bodywork that will have to have been moved when they changed the spring. It may have broken, or become disconnected or the connector could be corroded and just touching it has broken the connection.

A new one isn't much money if you get a pattern part- they last a few years, and it is worth spending some money to get another 12 months out of it while you save up for another car if you think this one is on its way out.

Any dealer desperate to make money off you by getting you on a finance deal will "give" a good price for it even with the abs light on- as you are paying it yourself with interest on the finance anyway.

Jonesya

To play your figures back to you:

A new car on PCP/lease is going to cost you around £150-£200 per month.

Forget the spending before Christmas - brakes, tyres, MOTs that just normal running costs. With a PCP/lease you'll have dealer servicing costs.

You've just spend £260 on the Fiesta, i.e. around 1 and 1/2 months of PCP payment.

You're now worrying about spending more for the ABS repair but realistically, even if it costs you another £300, that's only 2 months or less of PCP payments.

Assuming the car then runs for a few more months you're still coming out ahead compared to a new car on PCP/lease.

vansboy

The way youare describing the car and the repairs you've needed (plus the ABS, next week), I'd say you still have a 'good' car, that you can anticipate still running until YOU decide to get a newer one, rather than thinking you might need to, due to the expenses you have had recently.

As others say, the repayments on a newer car, trade in deals and offers, can all be made to sound attractive, but running an older car will pretty much always, be the cheaper option.

Keep it going for a while longer.

VB

Hobbes8

Thanks all - that's a helpful way of looking at it. I suppose I worry that the next thing to go will be the clutch or gearbox or something, but I'll get a quote on the ABS and start saving!

Thanks for the helpful advice

System

Hobbes8 wrote: »

I don't want to throw more money at it, so I'm looking at options for an upgrade - either a £5-7k ish loan for a used car, or possibly a PCP or lease scheme for approx £150-200 per month. I'd like to use the car as a trade-in towards my deposit. As an example, Hyundai's website quoted a £650 trade-in value for my car in "fair" condition.

Do you think it's worth fixing?

Well £200 or so to repair will be a hell of a lot cheaper than spending £5000-£7000 on a newer car and £200 is just a fraction of the annual depreciation of a nearly new car. A used car isn't guaranteed to be a problem free car but a fairly new one is going to be main dealer servicing to keep up the value and unless it is another Ford then parts are going to be dearer too - Ford have some of the cheapest parts and main dealer service costs of any maker.

Gearboxes will do over 200,000 miles. And if the clutch goes so what? That's only 3 months of PCP payments and you'll never need to replace it again. For what its worth my last car, a Mondeo, was still on its original clutch at 165,000 miles.

I sold my MK3 Mondeo because it was on 165,000 miles and was 9 years old. There wasn't a thing wrong with it, it had never let me down, I'd not had to spend a load on maintenance, I just decided it was time. I spent £8500 on a 2 year old MK4 Mondeo. Didn't take long to realise what a mistake that was. The car was fine, nothing wrong with it but it became apparent that the build quality wasn't as good as my MK3 and there were design issues that I didn't realise during the test drive such as getting wet when you open the boot if its been raining because water pools in a bevel across the bottom of the rear window then pours down the corners when you lift it up, and the chrome trim on the dash vents reflecting in the door mirrors when it is sunny. Then there was the fact that I had just paid out £8500 to drive down the road just the same as my last car did. Looking back I should have kept my MK3 Mondeo. I've now had my MK4 6 years and constantly think I'd like another car but then I think back to the fact I'd be paying out a load of cash just to drive to work and back the same as I do now.

Ultimately though if you want a new(er) car, get one. Just don't fool yourself you're doing it to save money because you never ever will be unless you're lucky enough to get something in short supply and high demand, such as the new Mustang when it first came out where you could own one for a year and sell for £1000s more than you paid, or an appreciating classic.