Car advice please, change or keep?

bonsai_73

Looking for some advice please. Currently drive an 07 car that we had originally hoped to keep for another 2 years, but it's just become a money pit, so at this stage I'm debating changing it now.

Budget would be up to about 10k at the moment and it would be tight. In two years time, when I had originally expected to be changing, we would probably budget the same or slightly more, but it would be much more manageable.

So at this stage, my options are to (1) buy something a bit newer with this as a trade in/scrappage, (2) keep saving for a while and for now buy something of a similar age/year to keep me going for a couple of years, and try to sell this one, or (3) keep this for the originally planned timeframe and keep fixing up whatever needs doing.

Any advice/opinions appreciated, thanks.

unkel

What car is it and why do you say it's a money pit?

BronsonTB

Would really need some more details to know if the 'money pit' being spent is above normal ware & tear for, that type of car, for the mileage & what work is being done.

bonsai_73

Thanks for the replies, it's a 1.4l Octavia. Don't have a list of the work done to hand at the minute, but in the past 3 years I've put just under 2k into it. Seemed a bit much to me, as I never spent so much on maintenance before I had this car.

bonsai_73

Forgot to add, I do about 12-16km per year. Most of that is city driving (Waterford area), with one longer trip per week.

Cee-Jay-Cee

If it were me I'd sell the car for whatever you can get for it and buy something cheap and reliable to do you for the next few years. Don't be spending €10k on a car when the money is needed elsewhere. You'll get an 06 Civic saloon for under €4K, they're very reliable and economic and so wont cost you anything so long as you service it once a year.

PS: You DON'T need a diesel.

scamalert

octavia is very mcuh like golf -money pit for sure,get rid for whatever amount you can,and as advised buy civic corolla and save cash up,since once you spend 10k depending what you get it might be another pit that might need extra work etc,as opposed to getting smth reliable cheap to fix if breaks,and saving 5-6k on top.

unkel

bonsai_73 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies, it's a 1.4l Octavia. Don't have a list of the work done to hand at the minute, but in the past 3 years I've put just under 2k into it. Seemed a bit much to me, as I never spent so much on maintenance before I had this car.

The car is 10 years old, so €600 per year maintenance over the last few years, while sounding like a lot, is nowhere near what you would lose in depreciation alone if you got a newer car

What work was done? Probably a second timing belt job (about €400), maybe some suspension work and new brake discs / pads? You'd have that on any car. What else was done?

clement

Keep what you have and repair what needs doing. 10k on a car will just be a waste as somebody is off loading it before it gives them trouble. Get your local mechanic to look over the car regularly so that you know what work needs doing soon and not just waiting for an nct fail. At least you can budget then. Cheapest car to get is the one you have.

bonsai_73

unkel wrote: »

The car is 10 years old, so €600 per year maintenance over the last few years, while sounding like a lot, is nowhere near what you would lose in depreciation alone if you got a newer car

What work was done? Probably a second timing belt job (about €400), maybe some suspension work and new brake discs / pads? You'd have that on any car. What else was done?

I don't have the exact information to hand at the moment, but from what I remember, I've had wishbones replaced twice, coil packs, brake pads, shock absorbers, cv joints and wheel bearings. No timing belt yet, still about 20k km to go before I have that to face that.

clement wrote: »

Keep what you have and repair what needs doing. 10k on a car will just be a waste as somebody is off loading it before it gives them trouble. Get your local mechanic to look over the car regularly so that you know what work needs doing soon and not just waiting for an nct fail. At least you can budget then. Cheapest car to get is the one you have.

The car is serviced on schedule every year, and each time, there's about €400-500 worth of work to be done (as well as the cost of the service). It just feels like a lot, but then, maybe all 10 year old cars are like this, I don't know. I suppose if this is all normal, I'll just have to budget better to allow for it

I really appreciate the replies, thanks for taking the time to help.

SaveSave

unkel

That's all normal wear & tear. Apart from the coil packs but they are par for the course with that engine

By all means it sounds like your current car is serving you very well.

I'd rather spend €600 a year on maintenance once a year during a scheduled service on a reliable car that won't depreciate more than a few hundred a year going forward than spending a few grand in deprecation in the first year alone of buying a slightly younger car. And that's before any maintenance on that car.