What do you budget for maintenance?

DD265 · 5 August 2018 at 12:18PM

I have an '05 Golf TDI which is in excellent nick for it's 118k miles. I do 350ish miles a week currently.

I have a good local independent garage that I trust and I do try to keep on top of things. I think there might be some 'big' costs coming up in terms of belts due to mileage then possibly suspension and brakes at some point as I've had the car a year and they haven't needed doing thus far.

Up until this point I've just used disposable income to pay for maintenance & servicing but my disposable income is about to become less disposable so I want to start budgeting properly. I'm not certain how much to set aside - what would you suggest is a good base figure?

wgl2014 · 5 August 2018 at 12:51PM

Difficult to say, routine maintenance is easy as you have set intervals. You mentioned belts, these are not done that often but it's a false economy to leave them as if they go it can cause significant damage, check your manual.
Brakes are easy to check for wear on both pads and discs, have a look at how much friction material is left and if the discs have any 'lip' around the outside.
For most jobs a Haynes manual and an afternoon can save a fair bit of cash if you are confident to some jobs yourself.

unholyangel · 5 August 2018 at 12:58PM

If you have a good garage you trust, have you tried asking them at MOT time if they think anything big might need done next year? The garage I use does this so I've always known in advance whats going to need done.

Apart from that, it might be helpful to know what sort of work its needed over the last few years. At the quoted age, I'd expect some parts to have either been replaced in the last 2-3 years or shortly need replaced due to rust.

Also, I've heard from a few friends that some garages here are offering repairs on short-term credit - where you get the car repaired and then have 3 months to clear the balance. So perhaps thats an avenue to explore if money is a concern for you.

System · 5 August 2018 at 3:09PM

£500 a year including a service should be more than enough. Depending on how and where you drive the brakes may not need doing for a long time. I'm just reaching the point where I need to replace the back brakes since I last changed them 80,000 miles ago and it is that long ago because the majority of the mileage my car does is a 56 mile round trip to work mostly on a main A road with very little stopping.

As stated some jobs like changing brake pads are quite easy to do and, despite belief to the contrary, within the capabilities of most people once they put their mind to it.

silverwhistle · 5 August 2018 at 4:08PM

My spreadsheet budget shows £30 a month for servicing although as the car is getting on a bit I might increase that to 40. I suspect the front discs will need doing at next service. I'll take it to my usual independent as I don't have a garage, drive, the tools or the confidence to fix. Good at taking things apart but not so much at putting them together again...

DD265 · 5 August 2018 at 4:23PM

Service is due in 2800 miles so I will double check then. Looking at the history the cambelt was changed at 60,000 miles so I think I'm right that this will probably need doing in September/October or spring. There's a note recommending the brake fluid is changed in March, but nothing else was mentioned. General feedback from both garages that have serviced it for me are that it looks pretty immaculate inside.

Since buying the car I've had a full service with all filters replaced followed by an interim service plus the DSG oil and filter changed. New tyres all round, then it's had a new CV boot, coil spring/strut top mount/drop link. I also had some cosmetic work done including the sills which were corroding, but I view all the cosmetic stuff as one-off.

I was thinking maybe £50 a month, so £500 per year sounds good.

System · 5 August 2018 at 6:42PM

Doesn't sound too bad from the post you've made. I don't count things like tyres and replacing brake pads and discs or cambelts as a repair because they're a consumable that'll need replacing on any vehicle which moves.

sevenhills · 5 August 2018 at 7:59PM

DD265 wrote: »

I have an '05 Golf TDI which is in excellent nick for it's 118k miles. I do 350ish miles a week currently.

I have a good local independent garage that I trust and I do try to keep on top of things. I think there might be some 'big' costs coming up in terms of belts due to mileage then possibly suspension and brakes at some point as I've had the car a year and they haven't needed doing thus far.

I recently had my timing belt changed, but a friend of mine has a diesel 1995 people-carrier that has done over 200,000 miles without a belt change.

wwpaddler · 6 August 2018 at 2:32PM

I budget £80 a month for car maintenance - this is possibly a little high as it's a 15 year old 170K mile Megane doing 13K miles/year so it has needed some repairs a younger car wouldn't need. However unlike Tarambor this includes everything (servicing, tyres, brakes, wipers, screenwash, repairs).

System · 6 August 2018 at 2:52PM

Oh I'm including everything in the £500, it is just that replacing consumables aren't really repairs.

Luke86 · 7 August 2018 at 1:07PM

I budget £100 a month for everything, including the consumables people mention like oil, brake pads, service, MOT etc. Only extra is tax and insurance. Sometimes there's some spare, sometimes not.

What do you budget for maintenance?

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