Ford Finesse 2003

ahfat41

I have the above car for nearly 20 yrs from new and have done only 63000 miles. The car is due for servicing and mot and for past two years the Ford mechanic has flagged advisory repairs such as cambelt overdue to age at £525: air filter £15, spark plugs £45 and corroded brakes pipes at £576.35. Total £1,161.35. Ford is not the cheapest. Is it worth repairing considering its age and I do not drive a lot just in town for shopping, short distance less than 10 miles a week? I am elderly and do not want to spend loads on another car. Consider giving up driving as it is cheaper to take taxi for shopping and travel by public transport. Just interested to know the opinion of other drivers, will you spend Approx £2000 on a 20 yrs old car. Thanks

ontheroad1970

Have you tried getting a quote from a recommended independent?

caprikid1

If the car is mint the car will be going up in value.

Ozzig

The first thing I'd do is get independent prices and ask if the Ford dealer does a price match - worked with my VW dealer and the cost almost halved.

The main issue is the two most expensive items are costly done or not done, if the brakes or cam belt fails it'll cost you one way or another.

How much can you sell it for? Add that to your £2k estimated costs then calculate how many taxi rides to shops it will cover.

summer_daze009

It wouldn’t be worth buying another car because even a newer car with 63000 miles on it would cost you more than £2000 and there’s no guarantee that you won’t have to spend money on that one in the future. Whether you decide to give up the car altogether is only a call that you could make after careful consideration.

If it is was me I would be spending the money on it and as you have had it from new you know the history. Assuming you have had regular services on it there will still be plenty of mileage in it yet.

I definitely won’t be going to Ford for the repairs though. An independent garage will be far cheaper

Grumpy_chap

ahfat41 said:

I have the above car for nearly 20 yrs from new and have done only 63000 miles. The car is due for servicing and mot and for past two years the Ford mechanic has flagged advisory repairs such as cambelt overdue to age at £525: air filter £15, spark plugs £45 and corroded brakes pipes at £576.35. Total £1,161.35. Ford is not the cheapest. Is it worth repairing considering its age and I do not drive a lot just in town for shopping, short distance less than 10 miles a week? I am elderly and do not want to spend loads on another car. Consider giving up driving as it is cheaper to take taxi for shopping and travel by public transport. Just interested to know the opinion of other drivers, will you spend Approx £2000 on a 20 yrs old car. Thanks

The car sounds lovely

Your itemised service costs are, as you summed, £1.2k.  Yet, in the final sentence you refer to £2k.

• If the cambelt is not done and it fails, it likely means scrapping the car because of the engine damage that is done.

• Are the brake pipes at risk of failure?  Similarly, if the braking system fails, the consequences can be significant.

• Air filter and spark plugs are optional.

What will a local independent charge for the same work?  Though, tbh, those prices don't seem outrageous.  I think cambelt on our Fiesta was in the region of £400 - £450, but that was a few years back (2014) - I no longer have the paperwork to check, sorry.

FWIW - we sold our 1997 Fiesta at Easter and realised £1,050.  We would not have sold it if it were not for ULEZ coming our way.

Goudy

If I was you I would put it through it's MOT before any work, but not at the Ford garage, I'd find an MOT centre locally.

If it passed with a few advisories, I would probably run it a little longer until I'm convinced I really do want to give up driving, particularly if it had some tax and insurance to run down on it.

If it failed on something cheap, I probably would spend a couple of hundred on it and run it a while longer, same as above.

If it failed on something expensive or lots of things, I'd take whatever they offered for it for scrap and probably decide now is a good time to give up driving.

facade

If you want to keep your independence and keep driving, then I'd advise getting the work done, and you will have a car that will last a few more years.

Buying someone else's cast-off could well land you with bigger bills when you find out why the car was cast-off in the first place.

(If you sold your car for scrap, chances are it would be sold on to someone else for about £1500 without having any of the work done.)

The problem with your car is although the required parts are fairly cheap- less than £100 for everything, there is a lot of labour in changing the cambelt and brake pipes and labour charges are sky high.

Try doing as suggested and find a local garage to quote for the work

cambelt kit and waterpump, replace brake pipes.

Definitely get the cambelt done, if the brake pipes are advisory not an MOT fail you can do them next year.