When to stop spending on older car?

Mickey666

alan_d said:

My daily driver is a 17 year old Volvo. It's cost far less than that to maintain over the last few years, BUT I do most work myself so no labour costs. Most of what you mention I consider wear-and-tear items, and all (except the exhaust flexi) I have replaced on one of my cars in the last year or two. None of this makes me feel that I should replace with another, younger used car with a new set of problems!
I think you'd be unlucky to need to spend the same in the next year or two, so just keep running it.

Good point.  Any age of car will require expenditure on such items.  Drive a brand new car, say, 25k miles and it’ll need a new set of tyres.  A battery might last 4 years, 5 if you’re lucky, but it won’t last forever.  Same with brakes and other ‘wear’ items.  If they all need replacing at the same time then it could be expensive, but average it out and the age of the car will make little difference.   It’s more of a cash flow issue than an expense issue, which can be an important consideration of course, but as pointed out above, buying a new car might just swap an immediate saving on wearing parts for depreciation instead.
The taxman allows 45p/mile as the cost of running a car - sounds very high at first, but factor in everything and it won’t be far off.  If you put aside 45p/mile after every journey then you’ll always have enough money in hand for a new set of tyres or brakes etc . . . . Though of course no one does that in practice

scot22_2

I dislike card produced in recent years.  Too many, in my opinion, New features are having motorists as guinea pigs for autonomous cars.
When they go wrong potential hazard and considerable expense.
I once bought a new car.  Depreciation is a significant factor, never again.

nottsphil

I can't believe all this advice has been offered without a single respondent asking if it's petrol or diesel, or even what the mileage is! 

Britannia1863

It's a diesel with just shy of 120k on.

[Deleted User]

Britannia1863 said:

It's a diesel with just shy of 120k on.

I'm a big fan of the 10 year old car market, my last 4 cars have been bought at 10 year old for approx £2k but very carefully selected, my current one was one owner with full dealer history despite having 150k miles on the clock, now on 174k miles and running fine, had nothing more than a wheel bearing to replace other than wear and tear items like tyres and servicing in 2 years of ownership.

Given that it is a diesel and the mileage isn't sky high it sounds like it could give you another few years of motoring. My advice is start a saving fund for next car while still running this one, once it gets to the point your are hit with excess repairs then flip to next car - ie run it into the ground whilst having funds to get a replacement.

Flight3287462

nottsphil said:

I can't believe all this advice has been offered without a single respondent asking if it's petrol or diesel, or even what the mileage is! 

And how would that change the advice given?

livetoclimb

Britannia1863 said:

It's a diesel with just shy of 120k on.

Is it a 2 litre diesel? If so then presumably it’s the infamous N47 with known timing chain tensioner faults. If it starts rattling, especially at start-up, get rid... It’s an engine-out job to repair, cost approx £3.5k (independent) to 5k to repair out of your own pocket.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_N47

Not what you’ll want to hear - and I don’t mean to scaremonger - but it’s my cautious view of anything with an 07-13 2.0d from BMW. 

If it’s got the 3.0 diesel then enjoy it as long as you can - fantastic engine!

nottsphil

Hunyani_Flight_825 said:

nottsphil said:

I can't believe all this advice has been offered without a single respondent asking if it's petrol or diesel, or even what the mileage is! 

And how would that change the advice given?

If only you'd bothered to read the previous post....