At what point do you replace an old car?

[Wolveryeti]

I am generally more keen on mending rather than buying new, but there must come a point with cars when the cost to fix is too much and it's better to get rid.

Personal context is I own a 2010 VW Fox. 80k on clock, but service + repairs needed to pass MOT has become £500-ish /yr. No idea if this is representative, but probably the value of the car is <£1000.

Just curious about what others' rule of thumb is - is it e.g. when the repair cost exceeds what you would lose each year on depreciation for a new-ish car or something like that...?

 

[cupid_stunt]

TBF, £500pa to keep a otherwise reliable car going is cheap enough, more so when you take the price of the service off, as you would be spending that on another car anyway.

 

[blairsh]

What are you fixing, how long you had the car?

 

[SpookyFrank]

500 all in for servicing and repairs is pretty good. The car is probably worth more than you think, an equivalent of similar age and mileage would definitely cost more than 1000 quid.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Even the bottom end of the used car market has got more expensive in the last year or so. Fewer new cars are getting built (because we've somehow, as a species, forgotten how to make semiconductors) and that lack of supply affects everything else.

If you've got a car that works and is OK to drive, putting in a bit of cash to keep it running is a sound investment IMO.

 

[smmudge]

For me it would be how much am I willing to spend on a car per year, and when the costs go above that then find a car that won't be as expensive to have/run. But not in relation to the car's worth, just a flat amount (taking into account inflation and cost of fuel).

Equity is a bonus and cars always cost, I think of it more like paying for a service than trying to get something out of an investment. Yeah it might not be worth much but if it's not costing you much, it's still worth keeping it. £500 for service & repairs sounds reasonable.

 

[blairsh]

Also there is the "better the devil you know" element.

 

[Elpenor]

I think you need to consider the “cost of replacement to you” vs the value which is more or less irrelevant at this age

I would keep that car until it doesn’t start personally. The fox wasn’t a popular car so it’s not going to be worth as much as say a Polo.

My car is of a similar age - 13 years old, 92k miles and could go on for another decade

 

[dessiato]

My Astra is 20 years old, and has 174k miles on it. It always starts, and has not needed any significant spending for years. It has passed the last 6 ITV without cost above the test fee. Why would I get rid of it?

Same with yours. Servicing is expensive in the UK. Your car is costing you slightly under £10 a week. You'd be doing servicing anyway so that is irrelevant. It's probably worth far more to you than its replacement cost.

I'd say keep it for now.

 

[marty21]

Tend to keep them until I have to replace them , my previous car (Golf) made it to 14 years , current Golf is 10 years old & in pretty good nick , thanks to Lambros in my local garage, It could outlast the previous Golf.

 

[8ball]

I scrapped my 2001 reg car a week last Thursday.

She was v. poorly.

My first car. <sniffles>

 

[Cloo]

Usually when it gets written off by a minor prang in our case!

 

[keybored]

When the injection system starts to fail, usually 250-300k miles.

 

[Riklet]

Id get rid of it. 12 year old VW with 80k. You'll always have to pay higher servicing charges for it and its a VW it has more plastic crap that goes wrong and more expensive parts. Car prices are high now and youll get good money for it if its clean and in good nick. Aim for £2k min.. people like VW badge for reliability and it's a small and economical car.

If youre bothered about reliability and spending £500 a year then buy something else with an excellent service and MOT record. Maybe a Toyota Yaris or a Honda Jazz or something. They dont have to be much newer or even lower mileage even. But they will for sure be more reliable as the car ages and over 100k miles etc, plus more common and cheaper more accessible parts.

 

[weltweit]

My car has had a couple of good years of zero extra costs to get through the MOT test. The first year because working from home had meant I had only done a small fraction of my usual miles.

It is reliable, MOT costs usually are for things that would have been replaced at a service anyhow.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Dunno really.

Depends what is needing doing / replacing, how much driving you do and how much you'd want to spend on a new (to you) car - if you're going to be looking for something else cheap, is that going to need £ 500 spending on it next year (or be beyond economic repair)?

If it's getting to the point where they are running out of car to weld on to, then it's time to say enough is enough (my first car was a 1980s ford and it eventually had to be put out of its misery)

Presume with a car of that age you're going to a local garage rather than main dealer.

My general preference is to spend a modest bit each year on a car i know with a garage i trust - others will buy another cheapish car each time their existing one gets expensive, and i'm not sure who spends the most overall.

The other question is whether it's worth running a car at all - a few years ago when my previous car (which i'd had for over 20 years) got stolen and written off, i did give a bit of thought to the annual servicing and MOT, insurance and tax and did wonder whether the amount i paid per year before i actually went anywhere was worth it, or whether it would be easier to do the occasional minicab journey and hire a car a few times a year to go away - at that time i was doing a train commute to a london job so didn't need it for work.

I came to the conclusion that I'd probably save money not having a car, but with living 50 miles or so from ageing mum-tat, the question of what i'd do if there was some sort of emergency just after the last train of the day left these parts made me decide to replace it, and i'm now in a job where i need a car at least once every few weeks.

 

[moose]

Got a 32 year old golf and a 43 year old campervan. Given the government will no doubt prevent us from driving them sometime soon, by some means or other, we're not changing them. We live in an area with negligible public transport, though, which we have to take into account

 

[Epona]

I read the title as "at what point do you replace an old cat" and was about to let rip.

I need glasses, seriously.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

I read the title as "at what point do you replace an old cat" and was about to let rip.

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(they are not serious)

 

[Epona]

Move your moggy with webuyanycat.com

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(they are not serious)

Probably didn't help that the thread is in Suburban rather than Transport -wasn't expecting vehicles in a pedestrianised area