When do you decide to scrap a car because of a bill ?

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LTD

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Thinking about the Rover 75 thread ....

When do YOU decide that a car is no longer worth repairing ?

What do you do next ? Buy a car you don't know and then set about fixing all of it's problems ? Then wait for a big bill ?

Is owning an older car a labour of love that means you do what is necessary until it becomes unviable ?





I'm of the opinion that cars need maintenance. Initially, it's just service parts until things like brakes need replaced and then a clutch or gasket or so. Things that naturally wear or break down.

Do we scrap vehicles prematurely because of those that would rather spend £10k on a newer car than £1k on a good repair ?


Please discuss :D
 
I've scrapped 2 cars.

1. A Volvo 343 when the engine went pop. Rust all over - it was never going to pass an MOT.

2. The replacement, another Volvo 343, this time with no obvious rust. It became apparent at MOT time that there was plenty of rust underneath, and that the trader who had sold it to me had scrimped on a few safety checks. Was not a good enough car to warrant the repair costs.

Wear and tear - replace, unless you know there is more trouble coming which makes it pointless.
 
Do we scrap vehicles prematurely because of those that would rather spend £10k on a newer car than £1k on a good repair ?


Please discuss

I sooo hate that term "please discuss"...


Coming from Yorkshire I need to ask, what's a £1k repair bill? :dk:


Rusty sills...wedge a bit o' Hovis in...worn clutch...wedge a bit o' Hovis on and it'll soon burn in...oil leaks...yep...guessed it....
 
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I never scrap a car now,when I was younger I had mk2 escorts,mk2 cavalier sri's,capri's at the time worth nothing now you pay through the nose for one that in worse condition than the ones I scrapped as a lad, And as i have got older I have learned all the skills to repair whatever, I can weld,work on wiring,rebuild engines gearboxes, what needs done I can do,so I never scrap a car
 
Shopping at the lower end of the market as I do its probably a lot easier for me to do the calculations.

My current 300D Saloon cost me around £385 if I remember rightly. I have spent about the same (over time) getting it up to where it is now. It has just passed its MoT so I'm going to spend some more on it - wings and stuff to keep it right.
The scrooge in me says dont spend any more on it. Twelve month ticket - just run it into the deck. The hobbyist and Mercedes nut in me says - new wings and bottom half respray. I do that because I can - It wont improve its resale value because it has over 200k on it but it will fulfill an ambition to keep this one on the road. It looks good (even now) and I have full confidence in the car that it will do all I ask of it and more.

(Goes back to check the question!!!)

Yes Ive bought blind on ebay a couple of nightmares and they were stripped for parts and scrapped as being non viable. BER we used to call it in the military (Beyond Economical Repair)

How do I draw the BER line - Rust has taken the largest toll.
 
Here are two old girls that went to the scrap yard. The black one was a 250 slower than any slug and rotten through. I paid not a lot for it and got quite a bit back in scrap. I scraped it as it failed its MoT on too many issues.
The blue one was my first 300D 124 12v but proved to be an ex Glasgow Taxi and a clunker. Again bought for buttons and a learning curve for me. But hey it was fun. Run that one for around 6 months till its MoT ran out too. Some guys play golf or follow kissball. I just love having a dabble at cars.
 
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The black one deserved to be scrapped with those wheels and grille badge.
 
I scrapped the 124 estate after the bodyshell was twisted out of shape by that woman who ran into it .

Also scrapped the Fintail , most reluctantly , after I realised it was rotten in so many inaccessible places ( the bulkhead between the engine compartment and the interior was the last straw ) and well beyond my welding skills .

Every other car I've had has been passed on , usually to family members , and usually because my requirements have changed rather than something being wrong with it .

I would only scrap something when the cost of repair is more than the value of the vehicle and/or if a vehicle is so far gone in one way or another it makes more sense to just get a better one . Having said that , I do get attached to my cars and try to keep them as long as possible .
 
I've scrapped 2 cars, the last was my black pre-facelift 202 that got trashed in an accident, and the first was a Vauxhall Astra estate - it's engine pretty much seized, and to be fair it was a heap anyway.
 
If head ruled heart-- when the bill [ or immediate bill plus reasonably predicted near-future bills] exceeds the reasonable market value of the car as "in theory" you will never be able to realise that money even by selling it outright immediately after the repair. Where that falls down is if the car is liable to appreciate in value or its value remains stable= the zero depreciation [ the BIG hidden cost of ownership] plus maintenance only cost argument? This is a compelling economic argument for keeping an old car running as the depreciation loss on a newer car is almost always going to far outstrip its running costs - however this is a "hidden cost" only revealed when you come to replace again and so doesn't register as an outgoing.
At the end of the day heart usually rules head and costs are often secondary. If people like a car they tend to hang on to it longer than they should, be it familiar controls, dealing with the same garages- or just the way it feels. The "breakup" often comes because people just get fed up of a car after a while [ the 5 year itch? :devil:] altho there's nothing wrong with the vehicle. Or a series of "betrayals" i.e. breakdowns or faults cause what the lawyers call "irretrievable breakdown of the relationship" .:p
 
It's not really as simple as market value.

Mrs BTB drives a 16 year old Audi A4 TDi estate that's got approx. 150k miles on it. It's not immaculate (some wear & tear on the interior and a few external scuffs) but it has no rust at all and is (touch wood) mega reliable. In the 8 years she's had it it's never broken down or failed to start, just passed the MOT with the only advisory being worn wiper blades.

Market value - no idea really, £1000 or so I would guess? But no way I'd have the same degree of confidence in an unknown car I bought for that amount of money. So it's worth more to us than what we could sell it for, if that makes sense?! :dk:
 
If I'm not in the market for a significantly higher priced car, I prefer to spend time and cash on the car i'm already running, providing it has,nt become a nuisance value, say with intermittant faults or a rash of repairs all coming close after another.

A honda civic I bought new and ran for 3 1/2 years cost me approx. 2 1/2k a year in depreciation, so I'm not unhappy if my e300d works out around the grand a year in parts/repairs.
 
Another take on this thread, when do you stop sinking money into an unreliable car and cut your loses and buy another....

Depends how much you like the car, and your tolerance levels for unreliability.
 
Another take on this thread, when do you stop sinking money into an unreliable car and cut your loses and buy another....

Depends how much you like the car, and your tolerance levels for unreliability.

On a modern car I'd just get shot, on a classic it's just the cost of getting them back up to scratch.

I wouldn't have sunk £6800 into any modern car maintenance for just 2 years use.
 
Another take on this thread, when do you stop sinking money into an unreliable car and cut your loses and buy another....
Last Thursday. :)

My girlfriend's Mk4 Golf TDI lost first and second gear; the selector fork is intact so it's something more expensive.

It also needs a service in a few hundred miles and a new clutch.

Total cost will be as much as the car is worth so it's going in the bin (or at least being sold for parts).
 
On a modern car I'd just get shot, on a classic it's just the cost of getting them back up to scratch.

I wouldn't have sunk £6800 into any modern car maintenance for just 2 years use.

£6800 would have leased me something superb too.

Classic cars are a purchase of fun, and maintance repairs goes hand in hand with them.

With a non classic car, but an older car 6-12yrs old depends on market value vs repairs. SBC pumps will see 211s now getting broken and rust will see of W210's now if the repair is signifcantly costly.
 
I buy cars usually from the very bottom of the market, so if I do scrap them, I usually make a profit :) With an older (80s) Mercedes, I know that if I maintain and repair them properly, I could make them last me a lifetime. That's why I like base models.
 
We have a 124 estate. The bodywork and interior are pretty much immaculate and the underside rust free having been dinitrolled. Having said that in the first 2 years it needed lots of work to bring it up to scratch mechanically. Here is a selection. Pads/discs all round including parking brake shoes, ECU, head gasket, steering damper, various suspension and subframe bushes, various relays - OVP, fuel pump, N10, rear exhaust box. Its certainly kept Olly and Jack at PCS in work. However we now have a 140,000 mile 17 year old car that I can confidently drive across europe and that is probably mechanically as good as a 2-3 year old car. Its too scary to add up what it has cost. Certainly more than its worth but to me that is not the point.
 

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