How long can I keep my car?

Money_Grabber13579

Amateurd said:

WeBuyAnyCar says my car is worth £650.

AutoTrader average value is about £2K for the same age / mileage car.

This year it has cost £20 in tax, £126 in tyres, a £13 boot catch replacement and will need a service and MOT.

It is worth more than £650 to me - I figure if an unexpected repair came in above £400 I'd think about whether it was time to call it a day.

The question you should really be asking (and it’s a bit of a gamble) is, if £400 was the total cost of repairs this year (and assuming it’s pretty much stopped depreciating), could I get a different car where the depreciation plus any repairs in that car in the same period would be less than £400? For that amount of money, I suspect that in most cases, the answer would be no…

mcpitman

I have in oldie now, 59 plate insignia, 165k+ miles, i've owned it since 4 years old.

Cambelts have been done at 50k, 100, & 150k miles, regular servicing and MOT, tyres and wipers etc.

FVSH until 150k miles (yep bit daft) and it's probably worth £500 in part-ex or £1k private.

For me until the repairs are more costly than the entire value of the car, i'll keep going.

Damn thing has never missed a beat and just keeps going, but whilst that's going, i'm saving (or not spending more to the point).

Ibrahim5

My dad used to say that your brain would let you know when to get rid of a car. When you have fallen out of love and don't want it anymore. I am not too sure. If I have a difficult problem that I am struggling with I feel like that but when I have fixed it I want to keep it.

[Deleted User]

I'd rather have a car I know from new, was serviced annually and well looked after.

If my car would cost say £2000 to repair and it's worth say £6000 on WBAC would I get an equally good car for £6000? Probably not, likely a low mileage diesel with DPF about to go (or illegally removed) or one with spotty service history etc. Replacement cost for me would be something I couldn't afford but where I could get a good deal e.g. 0% finance on a new/newer one or find a suitably well maintained second hand one but hopefully it won't get to that point.

For me, the £20 a year VED plus annual service/MOT and the money I save by commuting on a bike is a great reason to keep running this one for as long as I can

jeradon

I keep my car until I get tired of it.

tr7phil

One of my cars I've had for 25 years and it's now 41 years old.  I have kept track of everything I've spent on it in that time.  It cost me £3000, I have spent £18,235.60 on everything except petrol and insurance but that does include just over £3000 on an unnecessary custom leather interior 3 years ago and the latest big expense - full engine rebuild at 173,000 miles costing just under £4000.  I've spent £10491.37 on petrol over 65,422 miles.  I've spent £3353.25 on insurance which paid out £1027.50 for repairs (knock for knock when a bus entered a roundabout I was already occupying - don't ask!).  It currently has an insurance agreed valuation of £6000.

Total cost of £35080.22 less current value of £6000 is £29080.22, £1163.21 per year or 44p per mile.

Edited to add, the above doesn't include road tax, although as of this year that is now free.  I can't  find my old tax discs and don't seem to have a record of what I've paid.

It's expensive running a car!

TBagpuss

I think it is down to cost, and to convenience and safety.

I have owned 3 cars over the past 25 years.

Car #1 - cheap car , partly because I was young and didn't have much money, partly because I was living, working and having to spend time in some not-very-nice areas of a large city, and so deliberately wanted something which would be cheap to insure and that no one would want to steal. It was about 6 years old when I got it, and I kept it for 5 years. By the end, it was pretty unreliable and would have cost more to repair than it was worth. It also wasn't the best from a safety perspective. If I recall correctly I got £150 for it  in part exchange, which was £25 more than the local scrap yard had offered me 

Car #2 bought new  - had it for 12 years until it was written off in an accident (not a very serious accident, but the insurance company felt it was uneconomical to repair - they were probably right. The parts alone would have been about 2/3 of what the car was worth!  I had been starting to think about replacing it, and would probably have done so within a year or two if it hadn't been for the accident. 

Car #3 second hand - 6 years old when I got it, which was 7 years ago. At present, it's still reliable, maintenance costs are pretty low, so I don't feel any need to replace it. If it were to need anything major I'd probably replace it rather than spend a lot on it, I don't know the current value but I would be very surprised if it's worth more than about £1,500 max - probably less .

I'm not interested in cars except as a way of getting me where I want to be in reasonable comfort and safety, so I've never been interested in having a new car just for the sake of it 

TheMagster

One thing that makes a big difference in the decision to keep an older car in service is how good your garage is who will be doing the ongoing maintenance and repairs.  If you cannot find a reliable, honest and good value garage then that will definitely add to your costs in the long run.  It is worth putting some time in to find out where such a business may be in your locality.

Amateurd

Just got new MOT, 2 new tyres, new wipers and car is full of fuel and the clutch has stopped working.

Been offered £230 for scrap and can't decide if I should try to get it fixed instead

Grumpy_chap

I read the thread through again to refresh myself.

It seems as though the car is inherently reliable and low-cost to run, but you previously said you had a threshold for an unexpected repair at around £400 or more would be the trigger to get rid.

A new clutch is going to be more than that trigger so, to that extent, your decision is made.  Even if that was not the case, the value of the car after the new clutch is fitted will be no more than the cost of the new clutch.  IF you were looking at the choice between that new clutch or a car of similar value, then the new clutch and car that is a known entity would be better than a different car which might just be a money-pit.

So, the only other part of this assessment is whether the £400 is the correct trigger.  If you get a newer new car, the payments will likely be £300 - £400 per month, so that trigger is one-month. 

I have a similar situation with a 2007 Focus but I use the threshold to get rid at around £1k (being 3-4 months of a new car payment).  That said, last September / October, I met a bill of £850 and a sequence of other bills in quick succession resulting in a total of around £1,350.  Had I known at the first bill that the total would ramp so quickly, I'd have scrapped, but each decision has to be taken in isolation.  On that basis, I'd have seen the OP's car kept and a new clutch fitted - different outcome to the OP's £400 trigger to get rid.

Only the OP can determine what their trigger is to get rid.