Regular servicing for car not intending to sell anytime soon?

greensalad

My partner and I bought a VW Polo 2015 in 2017 outright. At the time of purchase, we thought we would continue to sell our car every 3-4 years to get something of a similar young age, and therefore we've kept it with full service history (one previous owner before we purchased it).

Recently we began to discuss the car more and possibilities of our changing lifestyle, including hopefully moving somewhere more rural next year and maybe starting a family in 3-5 years. We've started to think it's likely we will keep the car until the end of it's life / it becomes very unreliable and won't sell for much etc.

I'm not really into cars at all. As long as it drives and is comfortable I'm happy. My partner is a lot more interested in cars and has dreams of purchasing a specific (not not unrealistically expensive) car in the future. So it seems likely that at the point we're ready in life to become a 2 car household we'll pursue buying his car outright or maybe on finance, and our current car will be come my "runaround".

Therefore the question of whether it's worth keeping a fully service history has come up. We currently set aside money per month for repairs and maintenance, but having just spent £250 on a full service at a local garage we're starting to wonder if we should just move it to the regular MOTs? Boyfriend is pretty handy with cars and his Dad has mechanic experience so we've been able to fix up a few odd jobs ourselves. The blocker for getting small things fixed is actually that we don't have a driveaway so it's a faff to fix up on the roadside, moreso than not knowing how. 

Anyway, thoughts? Keep the service history up or not bother?

droopsnoot

You should keep up with maintaining the car if you want it to be reliable. If you're not concerned about resale value, then having the book stamped doesn't matter, but having it looked after, or looking after it yourself, does. MOTs are not the same as services - you'll never fail an MOT for not having changed your oil for ten years, but it won't help get the most out of your car. You can easily find out what the recommended service items and mileages are and do the jobs yourself if you are so inclined, though I don't think I'd fancy doing an oil and filter change on the road.

foxy-stoat

You can either service it as per the manufacturer's recommendations or service it when it breaks.  If you average it out you may find that it doesn't matter either way, you will pay the same amount.  I would probably avoid VW dealer and use a trusted garage.

If it has full service history it may help you get the maximum in the future, if you ever have to sell it to the insurance company.

I wouldnt of thought that a Polo will break the bank in the regular servicing anyway.

Grumpy_chap

What is the "specific" car your OH wants?  With a young family, one of you will likely need a larger car.

greensalad

He wants an Audi A7.
I admit I have never really understood the "large car" requirements for a family. We never had anything big. Mainly Fiestas and my Dad had a small Saab for most of my childhood!

Grumpy_chap

The Audi A7 is lovely.
I did not know that Saab made small cars.

greensalad

I was a child so I'm probably misremembering. I remember it was a 3-door and pokey when in the back.

greensalad

droopsnoot said:

You should keep up with maintaining the car if you want it to be reliable. If you're not concerned about resale value, then having the book stamped doesn't matter, but having it looked after, or looking after it yourself, does. 

OK so I guess the Money Saving way of doing it would be to check through what is done on the service, identify what we can do ourselves, and what we can't, and draw up a plan from there? Things like oil changes as you say would probably need to be easier to just pay to have done but possibly we can bring the bill down by doing small things ourselves.

We hope when we buy we'll have a driveway, it's one of the main things we're looking for and one of the reasons we're thinking of moving to a more rural location - more space for exactly this type of thing.

greensalad

foxy-stoat said:

You can either service it as per the manufacturer's recommendations or service it when it breaks.  If you average it out you may find that it doesn't matter either way, you will pay the same amount.  I would probably avoid VW dealer and use a trusted garage.

Yes we had the first service done with the VW garage where we bought it, but soon moved to our local garage as we know they're possibly the best garage we've ever used (for our old car) and they are obviously much cheaper.

knightstyle

greensalad it was probably a 99.  I had several over the years. The later turbo ones were very fast at the lights but could catch you out when accelerating fast round corners.

facade

Grumpy_chap said:

The Audi A7 is lovely.
I did not know that Saab made small cars.

The 96, 99, and 900 were all smaller cars by todays standards, the 900 was available as a 3 or 5 door.

They jumped up in size when they started making Cavaliers & vectras