How long can I keep my car?

dipsomaniac

Agreed. Garages are so expensive. My 23yr old car would have been scrapped 10yrs ago when the heater matrix blew if I couldn't take the dash out and do it myself. If you can and are not earning half of the garages hourly rate (£30+ ph) you should DIY

ratrace

I would keep it untill its uneconomical to repair

most people with new cars that you refer to are in thousands of pounds of debt, but thats their business, their are not going to come and pay our bills, the the onus is on us make better

financial decisions for our own lives. Hope that helps

Ebe_Scrooge

dipsomaniac said:

Agreed. Garages are so expensive. My 23yr old car would have been scrapped 10yrs ago when the heater matrix blew if I couldn't take the dash out and do it myself. If you can and are not earning half of the garages hourly rate (£30+ ph) you should DIY

Are you Fred's long-lost twin ?  LOL.  See, it's a difficult one.  Personally, I'm in the same camp as you, and am capable of tackling all but the most complex jobs myself.  However, the OP says "I suppose I don't know much about cars", which implies they have little DIY experience.  That's not to say they can't learn, of course.  Yes, I agree wholeheartedly that you can save an awful lot of money by DIY-ing things - some might even argue it's pretty much a necessity if you want to keep an old car going without shelling out a fortune.  And scrap-yards can yield an amazing array of cheap parts, as well as body panels and fittings if you're not too precious about the car looking absolutely perfect.

The other benefit of running an older car - you generally don't get too upset if some careless person dings or scratches your door in the supermarket carpark.  It's nothing that a bit of filler, a can of spray paint and some T-cut can't fix :-) 

MrsStepford

What about leasing ? 

jimjames

Amateurd said:

My question is, can I just keep driving until it has an expensive failure, or is there a cut-off point where I should ditch it and get a newer car? Can I keep it a few years more or am I being too tight?

No reason to change it. Your car is quite young, one of mine is nearly 20 years old, the other 13 years and going strong. Why waste money on a new car if your current one does what you need.

Amateurd

Thanks for all the advises.

I will treat the car to a service and spend more on holidays instead

barbiedoll

Amateurd said:

Thanks for all the advises.

I will treat the car to a service and spend more on holidays instead

That's exactly how I feel about my 11 year old car. I've got a few quid stashed away for when I absolutely have to get another car, but until then, I'm saving any spare cash for other frivolities, such as holidays (eventually!)

Definitely get in the habit of servicing your car regularly, if you have a local garage that you can trust. I had an expensive repair bill a few years ago. When I asked my garage owner if it was worth doing, or should I just get rid, he told me that it was definitely worth doing and that my car had "a good few years left in it". Bearing in mind that we have always bought our cars from him, (including this one) and he could have potentially sold me another car that day, I appreciated his honesty. He was right, the car is still going, and I've just worked out that the expensive repair has cost me around £2 per week, since I had it done. Bargain, if you ask me, and still cheaper than buying a new car! 

BOWFER

Amateurd said:

Thanks for all the advises.

I will treat the car to a service and spend more on holidays instead

Holidays?
HOLIDAYS!?
They don't go with the MSE ethos, as you've "spent thousands and nothing to show for it at the end"

(seems to be the way people view leasing/PCP cars here, so I might as well make the leap)

neilmcl

MrsStepford said:

What about leasing ? 

What about leasing?

Ebe_Scrooge

BOWFER said:

Holidays?
HOLIDAYS!?
They don't go with the MSE ethos, as you've "spent thousands and nothing to show for it at the end"

(seems to be the way people view leasing/PCP cars here, so I might as well make the leap)

End of the day, if people have money it's up to them what they do with it.  A lot of my friends and neighbours have flashy new cars that are on PCP/lease deals.  If you want to drive a new car, I guess it's a relatively cheap way of doing it.  But personally it's not for me - my car is owned outright, bought second-hand, and costs me considerably less than £300 an month or whatever the going rate for a Range Rover/Porsche/Audi SUV is (seems to be the car of choice round here) when I work out the total annual cost of purchase and running it.  And I really have no burning desire to own a new car - as long as it's reliable and gets me from A to B in relative comfort, that's all I want.

Likewise with holidays - some people spend thousands on holidays, and that's their choice.  I don't spend thousands, but because my motoring costs are pretty low in comparison to others, I can afford a nicer holiday than I otherwise would - I certainly couldn't afford a flash car and a holiday.  But each to their own.  And the OP's questions was about running an older car.