Car Trouble - Fix or Change? Total Cost of Ownership

Fingersoffish

Hi All,

I am a high mileage driver due to having my son (prev relationship) most weekends which includes 2x 250mi round trips (500mi per weekend about 40x a year) plus additional commuting and business mileage (roughly 27k P/A).

In 2018 I bought (outright) a 2015 vehicle with 22,000 miles on the clock for £9,000. It is now 114,000 miles and has served me well but has now developed an intermittent starting fault which the dealership cannot diagnose (Paid out £250 already and been quoted another £400 just to 'investigate' but in reality, they have no clue as to cause). This fault has left me stranded on at least 5-6 occasions for over an hour and recovery has had to be called twice. 

With no 'fixed' price to repair it and the possibility of endless investigations, plus the fact the car is now at the age more things will go wrong, I am really torn between keeping the car or a buying a 'newer' one. However, the Used Car market has gone crazy since 2018 and to buy another 2-year-old automatic (wife can only drive Auto) car with 22,000 miles now would cost >£15,000 compared to the £9,000 I paid back then!

WeBuyAnyCar will only give me £2700 for the car in its current condition and I doubt if it'd get much more in a private sale given the issues. 

The problem is I have no savings and already have a large loan & mortgage to cover house renovations. With the rapidly increasing cost of living, the idea of taking on additional borrowing (Assuming one of us could get approved) and monthly payments leaves me feeling sick. 

My mileage means Lease or PCP options are out of the question.

I want to make the right choice financially for once in my life and wondered if anyone had any friendly advice or calculations/spreadsheets for total cost of ownership I could use to compare my next course of action?

[Deleted User]

Keep what you have, It's still a young car and you don't seem to be in any position to take on more borrowing - neither would it be sensible.

DrEskimo

Take it elsewhere to try and diagnose and fix the issue. You say dealership, so have you tried a local mechanic? I would always advise to take a car to an indie garage once it is out of warranty.

You've basically explained that you have no savings and I agree that borrowing anymore is not a good option.

Having said that you could go for a much older second hand automatic car. For example we sold my partners automatic Mini just a few months back as we didn't need it anymore. 11-years old (we owned it for 8 of those) and only 50k miles and still ran absolutely fine. Think the garage sold it on for around £5k.

Fingersoffish

DrEskimo said:

Take it elsewhere to try and diagnose and fix the issue. You say dealership, so have you tried a local mechanic? I would always advise to take a car to an indie garage once it is out of warranty.

You've basically explained that you have no savings and I agree that borrowing anymore is not a good option.

Having said that you could go for a much older second hand automatic car. For example we sold my partners automatic Mini just a few months back as we didn't need it anymore. 11-years old (we owned it for 8 of those) and only 50k miles and still ran absolutely fine. Think the garage sold it on for around £5k.

Thanks for the reply.

I had a service plan which was good value with the main dealer so I just happened to mention the issue at the last service. It was at this point they charged me shy of £300 just to tell me 'nothing was wrong' and that further investigations could be up to £1000  with no guarantee of finding the issue. Safe to say at this point I chose to take my business elsewhere in the future!

I do have a good Indie garage that I used for previous cars which were older. It's booked in there for its MOT next week anyway so I could give them a call and see what investigations would cost.

I have looked at 'older' cars but it seems like I'd still have to find 2-3k to get something 5-6 years older than my current car with about half the mileage, of course, the problem then is there's no guarantee not to have problems with an even older car and they are all less economical and more expensive to tax (Current I get 60+ MPG and £0 Tax).

victor2

As above. See if somewhere else can find the fault.

Too many dealers now just plug in the computer and it tells them to replace things until the problem goes away.

You can't afford a new car, the current car isn't worth much with its fault, so you seem to have little choice but to attempt to get it fixed. 114K is not a high mileage on a car that has been properly serviced and maintained (has it?), so could have a good few years left in it, even at the mileage you do.

Maybe you can get it fixed and then sell it at a better price than you are now seeing, and cover your repair costs. But still you're going to struggle to find a good used mileage muncher in today's market without a significant investment.

Fingersoffish

victor2 said:

As above. See if somewhere else can find the fault.

Too many dealers now just plug in the computer and it tells them to replace things until the problem goes away.

You can't afford a new car, the current car isn't worth much with its fault, so you seem to have little choice but to attempt to get it fixed. 114K is not a high mileage on a car that has been properly serviced and maintained (has it?), so could have a good few years left in it, even at the mileage you do.

Maybe you can get it fixed and then sell it at a better price than you are now seeing, and cover your repair costs. But still you're going to struggle to find a good used mileage muncher in today's market without a significant investment.

Thanks 

Yes, I've had it serviced to schedule by the main dealer the whole time i've owned (at least 10 services I think) so in that sense it's in good nick. 
When I bought the car I had intentions of it going at least 200k (or hopefully 350k like my dads old A4!) but it seems modern cars aren't built that way.

I'll take the advice on board and give the garage a call.

Ebe_Scrooge

I'd concur with the advice you've been given so far.  114K is not exactly interstellar mileage by today's standards, and from what you've said it makes eminent sense to keep it.  Apart from anything else, "better the devil you know" - you know the car, you know its history, you know how it's been looked after.  Yes, find a decent independent mechanic who knows what he (or she!) is doing, someone a bit old-school who doesn't just blindly plug in a computer and hope for the best.

What car is it?  I know some cars have better reputations for reliability than others, but 200K miles should not be out of the question for most cars as long as they're looked after.  And if you're getting 60mpg from it currently, that's another consideration - that ain't bad by anyone's standards

Fingersoffish

Ebe_Scrooge said:

I'd concur with the advice you've been given so far.  114K is not exactly interstellar mileage by today's standards, and from what you've said it makes eminent sense to keep it.  Apart from anything else, "better the devil you know" - you know the car, you know its history, you know how it's been looked after.  Yes, find a decent independent mechanic who knows what he (or she!) is doing, someone a bit old-school who doesn't just blindly plug in a computer and hope for the best.

What car is it?  I know some cars have better reputations for reliability than others, but 200K miles should not be out of the question for most cars as long as they're looked after.  And if you're getting 60mpg from it currently, that's another consideration - that ain't bad by anyone's standards

Its a 2015 Skoda Rapid Spaceback 1.4 TDI - All in all, a good car which I enjoy driving with low running costs, but I enjoy sitting outside waiting for it to start considerably less!

I have scoured owner forums and found other people with similar problems but unfortunately never a cause/solution!

mgfvvc

Fingersoffish said:

Its a 2015 Skoda Rapid Spaceback 1.4 TDI - All in all, a good car which I enjoy driving with low running costs, but I enjoy sitting outside waiting for it to start considerably less!

I have scoured owner forums and found other people with similar problems but unfortunately never a cause/solution!

It might be worth finding an Indie VW Group specialist. My local indie are good with Fords, but when I had an issue with a Peugot they were honest about the fact that they weren't confident they could sort it. I found a Peugeot/Citroen specialist indie who were a bit further away but were able to diagnose and fix it quickly and without excessive expense.