The sale value of any car is only of any consequence if you want to sell it**, that Forester as you well know is worth far more in real terms.

I look at my cars with their potential life expectancy, what they are worth to others is irrelevant, for instance our 2002 Outback H6 was bought 2 years ago for the princely sum of £1070, we ran if for a few months whilst i investigated how good or bad it really was and how long it should last all being well, and within 3 months it was shipped off to have an LPG conversion costing more than we paid for it, i also went right through the car to bring it back to my standard, all oils changed, new discs and pads all round and many hours spent rustproofing it...oh and new spark plugs which was a horrid job to do.

It might seem like money wasted to many, but SWMBO loves it, it's worth nothing to anyone else and unless something unforseen happens should last many years yet, goes like hell and costs about the same to fuel a Diesel car of the same size, what on earth could we replace it with, we have no image to maintain so new or more fashionable cars of no interest.

That wheel bearing cost far too much on your car, but you already know that, what went wrong?

It's good that such cars have little or no value, they make superb used buys and can last almost indefinately.

**like houses really and the odd British fetish of how much my house is worth, unless you sell up and go live in a tent it really matters not how much money you've made on it in the grand Ponzi scheme that forms the basis our failing economy.

Edited by gordonbennet on 09/04/2016 at 16:55

I tend to think 'it's better the devil you know'.

Getting rid because of a repair bill means the hassle of finding another and not knowing how much that will cost in hidden problems.

The repair or scrap decision can be a hard one.

But if it still suits your needs and is generally reliable then keeping it could be the better option. I feel sometimes people focus too much on price of repairs compared to the market value of the car. Say the car is worth £1000 and you’re facing a garage bill of £500, then scarping/selling it may seem like the best option. But to get a newer car you’ll either have to use cash or take out a loan. The replacement car will still need servicing and consumables like tyres.

If you take into account loan repayments and depreciation, the newer car could cost you over £2000 a year, which may make you look differently on the £500 garage bill for the old car.

I’m currently using a 2003 Seat Leon, which I bought 10 years ago. Its market value is only around £1000, but to me it’s worth a lot more. Since I would have to pay a lot more to replace the car. I hope to get another a few years use from it and have budgeted an amount of money each year for repairs. If the repairs start over that budget or the car starts to become unreliable then I will have to replace it.

I think for many people it’s the fact they’re bored of the car or want to change it and use the cost of repairs as justification to themselves. These days with the better rust proofing it wouldn’t surprise me if most of the cars that turn up at the scrap yards are still serviceable.

But I’m under no illusions that I’ll be able to keep my car on the road indefinitely. There is a lot of rubber and plastic in the car that is now 13 years old. This was brought home to me last month when the fuel cap fell on the floor. The rubber strap had snapped, looking closer it was cracked in a number of places. Still a replacement was only £10 and since I serviced it myself it cost me around £50 in maintenance/repairs for the year.

So there’s some money still left in the kitty and I’m seriously considering fitting cruise control, since my right knee isn’t too pleased with the motorway commute I now have to make.

GB,

(i)I liked your "methodology" re the Outback, a local farmer went down the same route, cept with a high spec petrol Honda Accord, which bought for "stone nothing" and then professionally gas-converted, gave sterling service.

(ii) Regardless of buying 2nd hand(with up to 100k on) or brand new, I have always choosen to run our cars for as many years as possible, on the reasonable rational belief that I trust a known-to-me quantity more than an unknown one.

(iii) Also, re the financial benefits of prolonged ownership, since car delers make money by buying and selling cars, therefore the average punter must lose commensurately, ever time they change, the fewer times I trade, the worse off the dealer must be, therefore the better off I should be.

regards

m

Many thanks for the compliment, Avant, but I am purely a 'design engineer', in the Construction Industry, so no real automotive engineering experience - to be honest I do not like the 'greasy hands' required to go with maintaining cars, hence why I really thoroughly research my purchases (especially here) and tend to err on the side of caution (e.g. buying Japanese and more proven technology that necessarily the latest kit), as well as always getting my car serviced at the main dealers, even outside the warranty period.

My 'maintenance skills' starts and ends at occasional checks on fluid levels/windereen wiper and tyres' condition and keeping an eye/ear out for things generally that seem unusual (e.g. a creaking sound indicating worn suspension, etc). My philosephy (and of any decent engineer) is to try and buy products with as few 'inherent' problems as is possible - besides the research, I also wait at least a couple of years into a car model's lifespan before taking the plunge, in case some faults appear after the initial batch of first sales.

Luck does play a part as well - when I was thinking of buying my current car, the equivalent (delivery miles only) Mazda3 1.6 diesel was also being offered at Motorpoint for the same price as my 1.6 petrol (admitedly a TS as opposed the petrol's TS2), and at the time I was possibly going to be doing somewhere between 12k-20k miles p.a., so could've chosen the diesel, which hasn't been that reliable.

I was also 'lucky' that my 1.6 petrol was a European-specced car (sourced from Cyprus), which had a reasonable variation on kit to the UK version, including certain items in lieu of not having traction/stability control (I don't think either were actually needed - it handles fine generally) which have had reliability issues (shared parts with other makes) as documented on this website.

Edited by Engineer Andy on 10/04/2016 at 13:50

It'll depend to some extent on how durable the electronic trickery is -

I am optimistic. A SW/MW/LW radio I bought in Africa in 1973 still works perfectly, as does my Akai hi-fi bought in 1975. My first lap top, the size and weight of a small paving slab, also still works.

The average age of our three cars (TR7, Ford Focus, Audi A8) is 20yrs, and I have no intention of replacing any of them unless catastrophic expensive failure. My records show that over the past 36yrs the capital cost per annum has been £780 for mine (3 audis and a TR7) and £830 for SWMBO's family cars (Fiesta, two Passats and a Focus) - falling every year from now on as long as we keep them.

So if you like it and it's well made, keep it and care for it; it's usually cheaper in the long run, especially if you do your own servicing.

Crikey - that's a lot! My records show that I spent a total of £1994 in the last 5yrs (accounting years June'10 - June'15) maintaining and repairing both our cars (Audi A6/A8 and Focus) INCLUDING service and MoT costs. Admittedly I service them myself, using the MoT to check them over.

Assuming you actually like the car, I would say break point is a bill for around £500 plus the suspicion that there might be a high risk of some more expensive bills soon. One more year of ownership is one more year's avoidance of the huge depreciation of a newer car which nowadays is often measured in thousands rather than hundreds of pounds.