19 y old car

fatbelly

The value of scrap goes up and down. It's not worth thinking about. Just run your car until your mechanic tells you to stop. Then scrap/part exchange it at that point

Nasqueron

I got rid of an old G plate tank of a saloon (was given to me free and ran it for about 4 years for not much!) in around 2006, would have been an MOT money pit at the last service so opted to scrap instead, local place took it for nothing. My last car was damaged in an ice skid/ditch and not worth repairing (needed a new radiator and stuff) - was a small hatchback, scrapped in 2014, got £90 for it but the scrappies had to use a loader to take from the garage to their yard so seemed fair to me.

Goudy

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6688876/19-y-old-car

Road tax and insurance are intrinsic to running any car, new or old, this one or another.

If you are worrying about the cost of these compared to the cars value don't, because if you want to lower those costs as a percentage of your cars value, you'll be forking out 10's of thousands of pounds on a new car.

By the sounds of it, you're in a sweet spot with your car now. It's reliable, deprecation has hit the bottom, I presume you own it outright and your mechanic is telling you there is some good life still left in it.

As far as value goes, it looks like this is the time when the cost of ownership is at it's least, so run it as cheaply as you can for the next few years and get that value out of it.

If something goes bang in the meantime or your mechanic says it needs a £1000 worth of work and it's only worth a few hundred, then just scrap it.

GunJack

Summed up pretty much bob-on by @Goudy I'd just add that things like tyres, exhausts, some suspension bits for the MoT can be quite normal, and will go on more expensive cars too - they're effectively consumables. If it's reliable, keep going :)

OP - if you want some inspiration for keeping your car, have a read through this thread - not all of it as it's quite big, but have a look at the last, say, 8-10 pages and you'll learn to love your Note all over again ;)

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3803929/your-bangernomics-successes/p202

leosayer

My Mum has owned a Nissan Note auto for about 15 years and hardly anything has gone wrong apart from the aforementioned water leak.

The money saving approach has to be to stick with the Note until it becomes uneconomical.

facade

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82190434#Comment_82190434

The water leak is 99.9999% going to be from around the high level rear brake light.

The bulb lasts less than 5 minutes, and it destroys the sealing gasket when you remove the light to change it.

A new gasket is eye-wateringly expensive from Renault/Nissan, so no-one ever changes it (they just walk out of the dealer laughing at the comedy price) and they just bodge it with sealant, which never, ever works. A new gasket (fit a new premium quality bulb too, it is a fraction of the price of the gasket) should make all the difference. Then if the bulb goes don't change it, it isn't required and won't fail the MOT unless you tell them the bulb has gone rather than it is disconnected.

The only way to tell that it leaks is to sit in the back and stare at the back of the light in continual miserable drizzle. It will just laugh at a hosepipe and not drip once, it needs hours of gentle soaking to let water through in a very slow steady drip. (I write from experience)

spurdog1

i'm so grateful for the concensus. keep it, use it. thanks all