Fix up or move on?

Vikings

If you were in this situation what would you do?

Bought my car 12 months ago for €6700 (2001 Opel Astra 1.4 h/b) and over those 12 months have put off things which need to be done to the car, namely:

Timing belt + water pump now need to be done
need a seatbelt pretensioner
new brakes all round, tyres will soon need replacing
needs a service too.

Not sure how much all of the above will cost but i'm trying to figure out the most cost effective way to move forward

I can trade the car in and will probably get between 3.5k and 4k for it (offered 4k last month) and move up a little bit, taking a hit of the €2.7k for one years driving

or get all the work done and drive it till im sick of it. The way I see it though is i've lost that 2.7k mentioned above no matter what I do, so I am finding it hard to justify spending a lot of money fixing all those parts on an ever depreciating car.

Should I cut loose and move on? (probably to an octavia) or has anyone a rough idea on what the above would cost me to get repaired?

thanks

techie

What mileage is on the car?

larchill

That's the worse thing about buying an older car (more than 4/5 years). Ideally one should get these things done as part of the deal when buying - if buying from a dealer that is! Buying privately's a different story. As for the cost of the items you mention:

Set of tyres: €300 Regular service (oil/filter, air filter, plugs): ~ €200ish Brakes (pads + fluid change): ~ €2-300ish Timing belt: don't know, I suppose one could allow €150-200.

You're looking at a grand total of €1,000 here. According to Car Buyers Guide www.cbg.ie a 2001 Astra is selling in the region of €6000 - 6500 at this stage. If you were to come up 2 years to a 2003 model valuations are still in the region of €9500 - 10000. That's €3000 to change, but then you're going up 2 years. If buying from a dealer make sure you get a full service, etc as part of the deal.

Gurgle

larchill wrote:

Set of tyres: €300 Regular service (oil/filter, air filter, plugs): ~ €200ish Brakes (pads + fluid change): ~ €2-300ish Timing belt: don't know, I suppose one could allow €150-200.

Do you bring your car to a really hot female mechanic who does all the work naked while you watch.


OP, get the timing belt & water pump done ASAP, before it takes out your engine. Thats a common problem with the Astra, and probably that car's only major fault.

The 'regular service' involves around €40 in parts and takes less than an hour to do. That should make it around €100 with a decent mechanic.

Why do you think you need new brake pads?
You can get a few years out of a set of brake pads, depending on the mileage you do, and the type of driving. Your car is 6 years old, wait for a scraping noise from the brakes.
Same with the tyres, do they need replacing or not?
If they were new on the car 12 months ago, they certainly shouldn't need replacing yet.

I'm guessing here, but was it the same guy who told you it needed all this work who also offered to give you €4k for it as a trade in?

And why would you consider spending €3k to trade up rather than <<€1k to fix the perfectly good car you have?

Are you going to trade up next year from the new one when it needs servicing?

gucci

i think this sort of question is the eternal question every motorist asks himself/herself every few months when something goes wrong with a car over 5 years old. tough call to make, but your always nearly gonna loose money on a car, its sods law!

Henry Ford III

Fix it.

patrickc

timing belt and water pump done is about 300, off an independent mechanic on an astra, tyres as much as you want to spend, independent mechanic: pads and change front and back about 180. service again independent 100, you could do most of the service yourself I'm sure but if not 150 approx.

Kimbot

larchill wrote:

Set of tyres: €300 Regular service (oil/filter, air filter, plugs): ~ €200ish Brakes (pads + fluid change): ~ €2-300ish Timing belt: don't know, I suppose one could allow €150-200.

If I were you I would fix her up!! The only part of the above I would bring to a mechanic is the timing belt and water pump!!

Set of Tyres: €200 if they are 15's.
Service: €50 is the average price for a service pack.
Brakes: €80 on average.
Timing Belt: €250 max

Total is €580 and some time spend working on the car myself, roughly 2 hours!! Its not a hard job so get a Haynes Manual for your car and try some of it yourself.

Vikings

Right thanks for the replies guys, I bought it with ~64k miles on it and now its at 78/79k. So I do up to 15k miles a year.

With regards to the brakes, they have been making noise since I first bought it and I have just been putting it off getting them changed but now the sound is going right through me! Need these done.

I'm having performance issues and irregular idling aswell as random drops in power when coming to a stop and changing gears sometimes, would need to get all of the above done if im keeping the car. Not to mention the seatbelt pretensioner I need which is a €200+ part from a main dealer only. It just adds up, the money I put in to get it fixed I will never get back so im thinking now is the time to upgrade then keep the next one for its lifetime, while taking better care of it!

oleras

Cut your losses and move on, get a nice juicy loan and upgrade your motor !

I have changed cars in the past because i didnt want to stick 3 more months tax on them......lol.........and im in the same boat again..... 3 days to make a decision !

2stageturbo

I'd be in the "sell it" camp.

Mailman

Buying a second hand car is a lottery.
If you have confidence in your current car then invest the €650 or so that it takes to get it back to perfect order.

Vikings

Oh and not to mention my NCT is past its due and my tax is on the verge of getting me in trouble!

By my reckoning its close to €1000 to get it back to where it needs to be, will bring it to a garage or two and see what quotes I can get on it then make my mind up. Thanks for the replies.

PauloMN

Why do people sell a car rather than maintaining it properly? We really live in a disposable society when someone would rather sell a car than "fix" it. In fact, none of those things is even "fixing" the car as there's nothing wrong with it by the sounds of it aside from the pre-tensioner. Timing belt/water pump, tyres, brakes, service etc. are all normal maintenance requirements.

By the way, if you have almost 80k on the car and the timing belt has never been done, get it (and the water pump) done pronto, like book it in tomorrow whether you are going to sell it or not. If you can't stand the thought of spending money on maintenance, you do not want to know how much valve damage will set you back. 80k is at least 20k miles over the recommended mileage for the timing belt change on the Astra, and in my opinion it should be heading for it's 2nd belt change really.

Additionally, you can bank on the dealer offering you even less when he hears the timing belt needs to be done.

On the notion of changing the car - are you just bored with the Astra? If so, you should change but work out how much it's actually costing you to change. In addition to the €2700 or whatever, the dealer will be charging you a premium price on the newer car, so you'll have lost more there. In another year, you need to service that one again, maybe replace some other bits and pieces. Cars new and old depreciate, changing them on a yearly basis probably maximises the depreciation hit that you will take.

I say stick.

Vikings

You make some good points there Paulo, am I bored with the car? Half tempted to say yes here as I would like a newer car but at the same time I don't need one.

I understand what you are saying about these things being normal maintenance requirements, though at the same time they do need to be done and the cost can add up when having to do them all at once.

It's not that I don't want to maintain or fix the car, i'm just trying to work out if financially that is the best option for me right now. The value of the car will not go up no matter what work is done to it, but the costs to me will which is why I am weighing up the option of trading in and moving on.

Whether its this thread or from reading askaboutmoney too much, my head is saying keep the car and get it sorted but my heart is pushing for a newer car. Going to try get to a garage or two in the morning, got an Opel dealer and an indy beside each other so will see what quotes I get from them to get everything that needs sorting sorted.

itarumaa

I kind would bet that if you get NTC for the car before selling it, you would get more money out of it,

and change that timing belt, since you are playing an expensive game, you might not be very happy if driving the car last time to dealer for trading timing belt goes and destroys the whole engine.

Gurgle

gucci wrote:

every few months when something goes wrong with a car over 5 years old

had to lol at this, the type of statement only a car dealer could come out with .

Newer cars need maintenance too, and you can keep an older car in good order for a fraction of the annual depreciation on a car thats less than 5 years old.

Mustang wrote:

the money I put in to get it fixed I will never get back so im thinking now is the time to upgrade then keep the next one for its lifetime, while taking better care of it!

Unless you're a mechanic (or a cowboy) you never get your money back from a car. The newer the car, the more you lose for every month you own it.

Besides, you'll never sell it privately in its current condition, and you can be sure the trade-in value you get will be a lot less than its real value.

Get it fixed and you could probably get another 5 years of use out of it, without major depreciation or maintenance costs.

Look at it this way, for a car thats €16k new:

New car: Maintenance €0, Depreciation €3k
1 year old: Maintenance €200, Depreciation €2k
2 year old: Maintenance €200, Depreciation €2k
3 year old: Maintenance €300, Depreciation €2k
4 year old: Maintenance €300, Depreciation €1.5k
5 year old: Maintenance €1000, Depreciation €1.5k (getting major service items done)
6 year old: Maintenance €300, Depreciation €1k
7 year old: Maintenance €300, Depreciation €1k
8 year old: Maintenance €300, Depreciation €500
9 year old: Maintenance €300, Depreciation €500
10 year old: Maintenance €300, Depreciation €500

At around 10 years old, its worth maybe €1k, due to have major service items like timing belt etc. done for the second time. Then its time to sell it on to someone who will just drive it until it dies. From experience, this could be 4 years of nothing but the most basic maintenance.

By far the cheapest motoring is at the older end of the scale.