Repair or trade-in on ten-year-old car?

ectoraige

We have a 2006 Renault Grand Scenic that we bought in 2012, it had about 80,000km on the clock and was the best condition car we could afford at the time. The plan was to keep it for a few years, and then replace with something with similar investment, plus whatever trade-in was available. With luck there might have been a scrappage scheme to help.

However, with the poor car market during the recession there doesn't seem to be great value out there in the second-hand market now for an upgrade, especially for MPVs/estates which is what we'd be looking at. The car is ten years old now so we'll have annual NCT, plus this year we'll have to replace the timing kit. However we thought perhaps we should hold off on a replacement and just keep the car on the road until there is better value out there.

That was until today, the motor unit for the electronic parking brake failed which will cost at least €500 plus labour to repair. Am I now on the brink of the money-pit? We could repair it, get the timing belt done, and hope nothing else costly happens for, say, another two years. That's about €1000 in maintenance on what's probably a €4000 car, if even.

If we choose to replace the car, are we better off getting it fixed now anyway, so that we don't lose as much on a trade-in? We haven't really being watching the market recently and it's our only car, so if we don't fix, it'll have to be a quick purchase, which isn't really conducive to a bargain anyway.

Any thoughts/advice would be appreciated.

Atlantic Dawn

Your main problem is your own without the parking brake fixed it not worth a whole lot, probably €2-€2.5k as a trade in at max if you look at what they are going for a Donedeal.

ectoraige

Sorry, are you saying it would be maybe €2-€2.5k trade-in with or without being repaired? I'm looking at a very similar one here, except ours does have a sunroof, and doesn't have a "C" reg

I guess I'm wondering whether would it cost more to trade in repaired on unrepaired? I'm guessing repairing it first is the smarter option?

Atlantic Dawn

ectoraige wrote: »

Sorry, are you saying it would be maybe €2-€2.5k trade-in with or without being repaired? I'm looking at a very similar one here, except ours does have a sunroof, and doesn't have a "C" reg

I guess I'm wondering whether would it cost more to trade in repaired on unrepaired? I'm guessing repairing it first is the smarter option?

Without being fixed and with you going for a car €10-15k.

I'd repair it first only if I was going to sell it private, if trading it in the deal will be so bad that spending good money to fix it won't make sense.

ectoraige

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Without being fixed and with you going for a car €10-15k.

I'd repair it first only if I was going to sell it private, if trading it in the deal will be so bad that spending good money to fix it won't make sense.

Yeah, 10-12k was what we were aiming at. Turns out the 500 quid guesstimate I was given was in sterling too, so with labour we're looking at the guts of a grand. Might see what it would cost out of the breakers, reprogramming will still be costly enough I imagine.

Atlantic Dawn

Are you buying another Renault? The car might appeal to a Renault dealer as they could source and do the repair inhouse so might give a better deal?

ectoraige

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Are you buying another Renault? The car might appeal to a Renault dealer as they could source and do the repair inhouse so might give a better deal?

No, after three broken window regulators, two keycard repairs and now this, I think we'll be moving on from Renault, it's an opportunity to see what other manufacturers can screw up

Besides, there isn't a Renault dealer in the Northwest anymore, and I'm not really in the mood to traverse the country hunting for a replacement.

bazz26

It's very unlikely a main dealer will resell a 10 year old car on their forecourt, especially a Renault of that vintage (no offense) so even a fully working one is probably not worth a whole lot to them as a trade-in. They will just sell it on as is to a smaller dealer.