Economic to repair?

bdfh

Forgot to add - even though I am planning on replacing the car, I hadn’t planned on doing so now, because ideally I would want to run it for a bit longer so as to get better value for its original purchase way back in 2010.
Thanks Grumpy_chap for highlighting about the garage replacing the hangers - I had forgotten they’d done that until yesterday when I was looking through the paperwork - it was among various other things that needed fixing in March - hence why I hadn’t previously made the link. 

Hope that all makes a bit more sense!

bdfh

AdrianC said:

bdfh said:

Feel the need to explain myself further! Was really only after a rough cost of the repairs, should’ve made that clearer at the outset. The car will be replaced with a new one relatively shortly regardless of what condition it’s in, because it’s not really suitable for what we want from a car any more, life circumstances having changed etc. The money for the replacement is in place and has already been ‘budgeted’ as it were, and definitely wouldn’t be buying a £1k banger (or a heap - whatever you want to call it!)
The way I see it is this: if it will cost almost or more than the car’s part ex value to repair it, then there is no point doing that and I might as well add the repair money to the pot for the replacement. If, however, as now seems to be evident, it will be significantly less, then it’s worth paying that now and then recouping at least some of it back with a part ex a few months down the line. 

That does put a slightly different picture on things, although you do seem to have forgotten what you'll be using as transport in the interim period.

TBH, I'm not sure I'd PX it. Unless you're being gouged on the purchase, when they'll give you a "really generous" PX price (which makes the relevant figure, the cost to change, merely a bit juicy), they'll give you a derisory figure simply because they don't want to be bothered with it. It'll get taken straight from wherever you park it to the local auction house, do not pass go, do not collect £200. 

😂 - don’t worry, we have a second car! 

What would you do with it instead? I’ll admit to always having been swayed by the convenience of part ex over selling privately...

noclaf

Grumpy_chap said:

The thing about "bangernomics" is that you might have a car worth £1k, but you know whether it is fundamentally reliable (keeper) or not (get rid).
If the car is worth £1k and you get a bill of £1k at the MOT but that is going to be it for another year, then you are still in an OK place as the alternative is to scrap the old car with no MOT and either:

• Buy another car for £1k, which you might be scrapping in a fortnight if it's a lemon
• Buy a brand new car, in which case £1k only covers 3 month's payments
• Buy some car at some point in between the above two, say £5k to £10k, and still taking a gamble, yet unlikely that you'd lose all the money in a fortnight even if it turns out to be a lemon.

My car is a 2007 Focus purchased for £2k in 2016 and it has run faultlessly.  Last year's MOT landed around £700 bill to pass, but much of that was really wear-and-tear items so I paid and have had over another year trouble-free motoring.
The other benefit of an older car is that you can not worry about parking knocks and things, whereas a new car, that would be another cost to put right.

Echo all the above and the 3rd suggestion worked out quite well for me personally. Bought a 2004 focus in 2010 from a Ford main dealer with full service history and low miles for £5000 incl p/x my previous troublesome car. I've had the focus for 10 yrs now, servicing and maintenance is done as an when it needs it but knowing the cars history inside out I can't justify changing it yet. It just keeps going and even if a slightly bigger bill comes as long as rust doesn't become an issue I will keep driving it for as long as possible. Given its age I try to stay on top of preventative maintenance as being proactive means relative peace of mind too.

onlyfoolsandparking

I like to call my car 'an old nail' BUT it's been a belter up to now, paid £500 for it 4 years ago (Citroen C4 picasso, 2007) It's a CAT D just a little body damage been repaired by Stevie Wonder I think lol and it still makes me laugh thinking of the clown who did actually spend time and effort repairing it the way the bonnet doesn't line up properly and the front bumper looks a little slanted lol but I too can park it anywhere without worry, in fact a young nipper ran into it about a year ago with shopping trolley (mum not keeping eye on him) he was all upset and mum was panicking, I told her not to worry and be thankful it wasn't a new shiny car or shopping trip could have been real expensive for her. She appreciated my thoughts and kind gesture. 

Mechanically it's tip top, I've kept on top of it with servicing, It's had a clutch, alternator, coil pack, discs and pads, tyres and a dozen oil and filter changes, recently done cambelt as it looked like it might be on limit, water pump at same time as it's just easier to do both together and I still reckon with over 110,000 on clock It's good for another 50k, we'll see of course. I don't think its worth having a nice car these days, too expensive to buy, run and maintain, cheap nail will do me  

Jack_Cork

AdrianC said:

Jack_Cork said:

fred246 said:

They call it a 'heap' on this forum.

I prefer 'old banger' or 'bag of !!!!!!'

"Shed" would be the usual term of semi-endearment.

I'm just trying to remember ever owning anything but...

Very MSE. I have an old X3, some bits have stopped working, like the electric door mirror but I'd never spend any money fixing that, had an inner door membrane fail and it leaked water, but I fixed that as it was more important. I keep on the road to take the dogs out for a walk and stuff to the dump. I also have a 68 plate XE, a work car and a new 20 plate Skoda so a bit of a mix. 
X3 is still good, I love the sound of the 2.5 straight 6

Mistral001

The problem with the exhaust could have been nothing to do with the hangers.   If the pipe going into the front of a back box failed at motorway speeds, the resuting lose back box could cause a lot of damage to other parts of the car. 

As others have suggested, get the back box fixed, forget about replacing the parking sensors and keep the car until you are ready for a new car.  Those of us who buy bangers do not mind not getting the extras, so there should be no problem with getting it sold without the parking sensors.

bdfh

Mistral001 said:

The problem with the exhaust could have been nothing to do with the hangers.   If the pipe going into the front of a back box failed at motorway speeds, the resuting lose back box could cause a lot of damage to other parts of the car.  

That’s exactly what I was worried about - we moved into hard shoulder and stopped as soon as we safely could after identifying the noise that signalled there was something wrong, and box fell off on hard shoulder at lower speed rather than on the carriageway (-thankfully, could have been a disaster if it had come off entirely at full speed). This makes me think/hope that the likelihood of incurring other damage is reduced. 

Hear what everyone is saying about the parking sensors but do actually find them very useful and would miss them! 

Herzlos

fred246 said:

I have never had an exhaust fitted by a garage where they have connected ALL the mountings. They leave some unconnected because they can't be bothered.

You must have some pretty bad luck or be bad at choosing garages (do you just go for the cheapest?).
I dare say that the vast majority are fitted correctly.

bdfh said:

Feel the need to explain myself further! Was really only after a rough cost of the repairs, should’ve made that clearer at the outset. The car will be replaced with a new one relatively shortly regardless of what condition it’s in, because it’s not really suitable for what we want from a car any more, life circumstances having changed etc. The money for the replacement is in place and has already been ‘budgeted’ as it were, and definitely wouldn’t be buying a £1k banger (or a heap - whatever you want to call it!)
The way I see it is this: if it will cost almost or more than the car’s part ex value to repair it, then there is no point doing that and I might as well add the repair money to the pot for the replacement. If, however, as now seems to be evident, it will be significantly less, then it’s worth paying that now and then recouping at least some of it back with a part ex a few months down the line. 

If you've got the money to move to a more suitable car I'd just look to do that.

You may not get the expected p/x value with a missing exhaust though - it'll be pretty obvious when you drive it in.

Wait and see what it'll cost to repair vs what you can sell it for - someone will happily take it for a bit above scrap to use the parts or to bodge it back together.

fred246

Exhausts are held on by multiple mountings. If one snaps the others will hold the exhaust. When the last one snaps the exhaust falls off. A garage put one of my exhausts on holding on just one mounting. So when that snapped the exhaust would drop off. The OP had already had work done on his and the exhaust dropped off. So probably they weren't done properly by the garage previously. If there should be 4 and they only attach 3 it will be out of warranty by the time those 3 snap. If you keep an eye on your exhaust it should never drop off.

MinuteNoodles

Car_54 said:

I wouldn't disagree with that, so long as you don't lose sight of the car's real value. We see lots of posts from people who have spent £hundreds on their pride and joy only to be offered market value when it's written off in an accident.

The car's real value is irrelevant. What is relevent is what you could get for the money you would have spent on repairs plus the value of your car if you sold it. More often than not the answer is "something only a couple of years newer that there's the chance of a big bill or wear and tear items like brakes, shocks or clutch in the time you'll own it".

Whether they've spent money on its maintenance and get a low payout if it gets written off is also fairly irrelevant because if they'd changed the car then they'd spent that money anyway.