Budgeting for a used car or big repair bill?

Herzlos

Shoxt3r said:

Herzlos said:

Sea_Shell said:

Does anyone still use those small lightweight, but very basic, "travel" buggies anymore?

Like the ones we had in the 80's.  They collapsed into quite a small thin package.

Is it that an option?

They do, and they are brilliant for slightly bigger kids. The OP talking about a huge buggy makes me think it's a very young kid in a travel system. When we had a newborn the buggy with bassonette took up the whole boot with the parcel shelf removed. Once they moved into the regular seat part it got a lot better until we moved to the travel buggies.

Yes exactly that actually haha. We've had a Joie travel system since she was a newborn and have recently switched to using the seat part but it still completely fills the boot and pops the parcel shelf up! We sometimes take her out with a trike which has an adjustable seat but it still takes over the boot...

We were using a britax holiday by the time our youngest was 2, it's small enough to fit in aircraft overhead storage but wasn't adjustable and had pretty small wheels so was only good for shopping. It made an incredible difference to the boot space though.
Before that we had a series of travel systems and double buggies which rendered the boot completely full.

Shoxt3r

Herzlos said:

Shoxt3r said:

fred246 said:

The £725 bill becomes £100 when you know how to do it yourself. Makes a difference. You never get to the point where you say "this car is costing me too much".

Yeah true, although I don't trust myself to do other than the bare minimum when it comes to servicing cars, especially traveling with my family - if it was just me I might consider it but there's also the fact I'd have peace of mind by going through a garage I suppose!

It's worth noting that fred has a pathalogical hatred for mechanics, despite asking fairly basic maintenance questions on here.

The reason a £725 bill costs that when there's only an alleged £100 in parts because you're paying for the garages expertise and liability (and equipment). You're only saving £625 here if you already have the equipment needed, including the space and the ramps, know what you're doing, get the right parts and don't break anything.  I've DIY'd a few things and it's cost more in the long run than getting an expert in.

Sure, there are some bad mechanics, but there are probably more bad DIY'ers out there. Just get local recommendations for a good one and you should be fine - go for something that's been around a while and isn't too flashy. Ideally, find the place taxi's use because they cannot afford to be off the road for longer than required.

Yeah agreed - I think I would definitely fall into the category of trying to repair this type of thing myself and then winding up running up hundreds of pounds worth of bills! I've since looked into quite a few garages and the one I've used before seems to be the go-to - they're certainly the most popular in the area and have done me well in the past. I think it was basically a question of if it's going to be worth it...but then the other option is to rack up thousands of pounds in debt getting a "new" car.
Regardless, I've since found getting a "new" car isn't going to be possible now anyway since we have a front wall to replace which we only found out about over the weekend - joy! haha

Herzlos said:

Shoxt3r said:

Herzlos said:

Sea_Shell said:

Does anyone still use those small lightweight, but very basic, "travel" buggies anymore?

Like the ones we had in the 80's.  They collapsed into quite a small thin package.

Is it that an option?

They do, and they are brilliant for slightly bigger kids. The OP talking about a huge buggy makes me think it's a very young kid in a travel system. When we had a newborn the buggy with bassonette took up the whole boot with the parcel shelf removed. Once they moved into the regular seat part it got a lot better until we moved to the travel buggies.

Yes exactly that actually haha. We've had a Joie travel system since she was a newborn and have recently switched to using the seat part but it still completely fills the boot and pops the parcel shelf up! We sometimes take her out with a trike which has an adjustable seat but it still takes over the boot...

We were using a britax holiday by the time our youngest was 2, it's small enough to fit in aircraft overhead storage but wasn't adjustable and had pretty small wheels so was only good for shopping. It made an incredible difference to the boot space though.
Before that we had a series of travel systems and double buggies which rendered the boot completely full.

Thanks for the recommendation! Once our little one gets a bit older I think we'll look at getting a smaller pushchair for holidays and longer trips out. The Joie is great if we're walking in the country parks and woodland due to the chunky wheels but if it's just a trip to the beach (which we'll hopefully be able to do soon once the restrictions are lifted) a smaller pushchair would be the way to go for sure it seems