What should I do with my car?

MrMiata

Alrighty.

I've an 04 1.4 Petrol VW Golf.
It failed the NCT on a few small things, from a quick look online I was expecting around €150, no more than €180 for the work.

I sent the car down to my local mechanic (a fella who's done a small fortunes worth of work on that car, as well as others of ours), and he's after charging me €270 for some bearings, a shock absorber and some other micky mouse ****e.
He also did the brake pads, which were only an advisory.
He also went at the tracking, which I had not found any issue with, charged €60 for both of those.

I've already bought another car, a Mazda Mx-5, I've been planning on using that as my daily for work and college..
I had just hoped to do the bare minimum on the golf to get it passed the NCT and then sell it on..

But now it stands me more than the car is actually worth (€800 worth of work done last Xmas, I was stuck for the car), and I wouldn't mind it's a great little car.

Should I just keep it as a back up? Taxed till April too..
Should I sell it for what it's worth?

I'd love to get into motorsport/racing, I'm so tempted to set the Mx-5 up as a track car now.. but it's almost too good, would I be better off even selling that to put money into a track car like a Sheane or just a Ford Zetec?

What do you think?
I know this is a bit of stupid question but well... here we are..

Heres Johnny

Pretty shocked you're upset at a mechanic doing brake pads as they were advised by test centre.

At this stage it looks like you're going to resent putting money into it and it has an nct every year now, you may well have to, brakes, tyres, servicing, wear and tear parts plus age related problems too.

I'd say move it on and take what you can get for it. Running an older car is not cheap.

colm_mcm

Car was worth shag all before you did the work, it’s worth more than that now. NCT it, Sell it and move on.

Do some track days in the mx5 and revisit the whole idea of a dedicated track car if you feel you need to at that stage. The Golf isn’t gonna two a trailer and a track car either way.

MrMiata

Heres Johnny wrote: »

Pretty shocked you're upset at a mechanic doing brake pads as they were advised by test centre.

At this stage it looks like you're going to resent putting money into it and it has an nct every year now, you may well have to, brakes, tyres, servicing, wear and tear parts plus age related problems too.

I'd say move it on and take what you can get for it. Running an older car is not cheap.

They were advised, I had a look at them, they'd need changing sooner rather than later but the mechanic said 'well jasus you wouldn't get 10 miles out of them', they'd have been good for another 2 months of solid driving.

I'm running two older cars!

I told him when I went down, I just want the bare minimum for it to pass the NCT, he didn't do that and he charged well for what he did do.

MrMiata

colm_mcm wrote: »

Car was worth shag all before you did the work, it’s worth more than that now. NCT it, Sell it and move on.

Do some track days in the mx5 and revisit the whole idea of a dedicated track car if you feel you need to at that stage. The Golf isn’t gonna two a trailer and a track car either way.

Exactly, I'd be lucky to get a 1000 out of it..
There was no need to go above and beyond the basics for the NCT.. when I specifically asked he didn't.

It's just a pain in the hole knowing it's money I'm throwing away to the next fella who buys it.

We've already got something to tow a trailer.
and I'd sooner cry than track that boring old Golf.

colm_mcm

You got a lot done for the money.

enricoh

colm_mcm wrote: »

You got a lot done for the money.

I thought so too, the joys of being a mechanic!!

MrMiata

colm_mcm wrote: »

You got a lot done for the money.

Every person I've asked said it shouldn't have run me any more than €200 at most, that's coming from other mechanics (not local, relatives) and they all told me he was taking the piss at that price.

colm_mcm

Was that price including parts?

MrMiata

colm_mcm wrote: »

Was that price including parts?

1 shock absorber, 2 lower ball joints, 2 rear brake pads (not needed) and tracking (also not needed).

hurikane

270 quid sounds reasonable to me.

Doctors room ghost

Sounds like a good and thorough job that mechanic did,at small money and if I was him I’d be telling you to do your own spannering anymore if you and the lads know so much about it.

hurikane

MrMiata wrote: »

Every person I've asked said it shouldn't have run me any more than €200 at most, that's coming from other mechanics (not local, relatives) and they all told me he was taking the piss at that price.

So what’s the break down for parts and labour?

colm_mcm

MrMiata wrote: »

1 shock absorber, 2 lower ball joints, 2 rear brake pads (not needed) and tracking (also not needed).

Sounds like you need a reality check. Where were all these experts when you needed the work done?

L-M

If you went to a main dealer you’d pay a grand or more for that worth.

€270... jaysus

Andrewf20

The problem with older cars is that a 30 min job could end up being a knuckle busting 2hr ordeal due to various unforeseen problems cropping up. That may be a part of the equation too.

Tbh, the price doesn't seem too crazy to me.

AndyBoBandy

MrMiata wrote: »

he's after charging me €270 for some bearings, a shock absorber and some other micky mouse ****e.
He also did the brake pads, which were only an advisory.
He also went at the tracking, which I had not found any issue with

What was the ‘some other Micky mouse sh1te’?

Toyotafanboi

Yeah, madness, Ted. Imagine the audactiy of the mechanic, "charging well" for the work that he did :rolleyes: and the worst of it is he was too cheap IMO.

If you dont want the Golf, you have two choices, sell it or scrap it. What it "stands you" is fairly irrelevant as it doesn't change its worth.

Rows Grower

MrMiata wrote: »

Alrighty.

I've an 04 1.4 Petrol VW Golf.
It failed the NCT on a few small things, from a quick look online I was expecting around €150, no more than €180 for the work.

I sent the car down to my local mechanic (a fella who's done a small fortunes worth of work on that car, as well as others of ours), and he's after charging me €270 for some bearings, a shock absorber and some other micky mouse ****e.
He also did the brake pads, which were only an advisory.
He also went at the tracking, which I had not found any issue with, charged €60 for both of those.

I've already bought another car, a Mazda Mx-5, I've been planning on using that as my daily for work and college..
I had just hoped to do the bare minimum on the golf to get it passed the NCT and then sell it on..

But now it stands me more than the car is actually worth (€800 worth of work done last Xmas, I was stuck for the car), and I wouldn't mind it's a great little car.

Should I just keep it as a back up? Taxed till April too..
Should I sell it for what it's worth?

I'd love to get into motorsport/racing, I'm so tempted to set the Mx-5 up as a track car now.. but it's almost too good, would I be better off even selling that to put money into a track car like a Sheane or just a Ford Zetec?

What do you think?
I know this is a bit of stupid question but well... here we are..

Unless you're thinking about the XBox version you better lose that though.

SwissToni

MrMiata wrote: »

1 shock absorber, 2 lower ball joints, 2 rear brake pads (not needed) and tracking (also not needed).

If a mechanic replaced two ball joints and a shock absorber on my car and DID NOT do the tracking after it I’d be annoyed.

If you think that’s a lot of money I think getting into motorsport is not for you.

hurikane

Can you PM the mechanics details? Need to get work done.

Wildly Boaring

SwissToni wrote: »

If a mechanic replaced two ball joints and a shock absorber on my car and DID NOT do the tracking after it I’d be annoyed.

If you think that’s a lot of money I think getting into motorsport is not for you.

Also do not buy a newer car.
270 hardly put a spanner on the suspension of an f10- 5 series

hurikane

hurikane wrote: »

Can you PM the mechanics details? Need to get work done.

Was thinking the same! Sounds very reasonable.





OP, if it were, id probably hold onto it for another 6 months. Could be worth it's weight in gold if you get up for work one morning and the MX5 doesn't start or some other unforeseen issue puts it off the road.


If you're not stuck for the cash, i'd hold onto it as a spare for a few months. Once you're sure you don't need it, sell it on. You won't make money off it, but people buying cars for 1k are probably stuck for cash, and you will have inadvertently done someone out there a favour by selling a genuine motor to them.

Rows Grower

Deleted User wrote: »

Was thinking the same! Sounds very reasonable.





OP, if it were, id probably hold onto it for another 6 months. Could be worth it's weight in gold if you get up for work one morning and the MX5 doesn't start or some other unforeseen issue puts it off the road.


If you're not stuck for the cash, i'd hold onto it as a spare for a few months. Once you're sure you don't need it, sell it on. You won't make money off it, but people buying cars for 1k are probably stuck for cash, and you will have inadvertently done someone out there a favour by selling a genuine motor to them.

Oh no we're not.

MrMiata

Okay I'll hold my hand up and say I'm wrong.

I'm going off what others have told me.

I've dealt with this fella for years, never had an issue with him, this just seemed a little steep as he was saying it's not a big job.
So I asked a few relatives when I got the price and I was told it's expensive.

Rows Grower

Rows Grower wrote: »

Oh no we're not.

I buy bangers myself, and I'm not overly tight for money. But a lot of people are. I doubt you can speak for anyone other than yourself..

monkeysnapper

Christ.....

A 2004 1.4 petrol golf with all that work done could last another few more years .... I garantee once you have a full NCT and give her a good clean and polish and show work done that car will sell no bother....

I had a 2006 citroen c4 that I had all work done like urs and polished it to **** and the phone was hopping .... I advertised it on friday evening and I had 1200 in my ars pocket monday evening ....

Theres always people looking for older well maintained cars ...

Back Home

Heres Johnny wrote: »

Pretty shocked you're upset at a mechanic doing brake pads as they were advised by test centre.

At this stage it looks like you're going to resent putting money into it and it has an nct every year now, you may well have to, brakes, tyres, servicing, wear and tear parts plus age related problems too.

I'd say move it on and take what you can get for it. Running an older car is not cheap.

Not really, get and old toyota it will go forever.

PsychoPete

MrMiata wrote: »

So I asked a few relatives when I got the price and I was told it's expensive.

There is the problem

Heres Johnny

Back Home wrote: »

Not really, get and old toyota it will go forever.

Maybe in Africa it will, in Ireland it will fail nct like anything else and incur bills to put it right which people, like OP, will not want to pay and the car is done for.

9935452

SwissToni wrote: »

If a mechanic replaced two ball joints and a shock absorber on my car and DID NOT do the tracking after it I’d be annoyed.

/quote]

I was thimking the exact same.

Op you got a lot of work done to the car cheap.

monkeysnapper

Back Home wrote: »

Not really, get and old toyota it will go forever.

Is that you scotty?

Back Home

Heres Johnny wrote: »

Maybe in Africa it will, in Ireland it will fail nct like anything else and incur bills to put it right which people, like OP, will not want to pay and the car is done for.

Take my word for it, a petrol Avensis or Corolla when well serviced will do 400-500 thousand kilometres , not so VW or any other German cars. In my work as a mechanic I see Toyotas doing this often. I would have no issue buying one with 250 on the clock and there cheap to fix.

9935452

Back Home wrote: »

Take my word for it, a petrol Avensis or Corolla when well serviced will do 400-500 thousand kilometres , not so VW or any other German cars. In my work as a mechanic I see Toyotas doing this often. I would have no issue buying one with 250 on the clock and there cheap to fix.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/oct/25/bmw-325-million-mile-motor

colm_mcm

9935452 wrote: »

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/oct/25/bmw-325-million-mile-motor

They stuck it on a treadmill basically. This is a test of the engine, not all the other bits that will get you.

Back Home

9935452 wrote: »

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/oct/25/bmw-325-million-mile-motor

Not a fair comparison , there's more to a car than the engine,
To quote the article -
In 1990 it bought this BMW 325i, with its state-of-the-art 2.5 litre in-line 6-cylinder engine, and decided to drive 1,000,000 miles in it. Actually, that's not entirely true. They didn't drive anywhere in it. They didn't even leave the garage. They stuck it on a rolling road – the vehicle equivalent of a hamster wheel – fitted it to a never-ending fuel tank, stuck the throttle at 85mph and kept it running, day and night, for four years

coolbeans

MrMiata wrote: »

Okay I'll hold my hand up and say I'm wrong.

I'm going off what others have told me.

I've dealt with this fella for years, never had an issue with him, this just seemed a little steep as he was saying it's not a big job.
So I asked a few relatives when I got the price and I was told it's expensive.

Fair play for admitting you were wrong, you don't see much of that online. The price was good value, cheap even for the work done. Sometimes I wonder do people expect mechanics to live on air. Anyway, if I were you I'd get rid as soon as NCT done and start the ad with '...new NCT, needs nothing' and then your price. You might get 800 for it. Maybe more, maybe less. Main thing is the new NCT and the fact that some people are just mad for Golfs. Don't forget good pics. Best of luck.

extra-ordinary_

colm_mcm wrote: »

They stuck it on a treadmill basically. This is a test of the engine, not all the other bits that will get you.

Not only that, it's the cold starts that wears an engine.

PauloMN

Agree with the others, I think €270 is very reasonable for the work done. You did well actually.

The other thing to point out is that unless you made it very very clear to him not to, he was right to fix the advisories. You can guarantee that 9 out of 10 people would complain if he didn't fix the advisories on a car that was left in with him with an NCT fail report and advisories.

MrMiata

PauloMN wrote: »

Agree with the others, I think €270 is very reasonable for the work done. You did well actually.

The other thing to point out is that unless you made it very very clear to him not to, he was right to fix the advisories. You can guarantee that 9 out of 10 people would complain if he didn't fix the advisories on a car that was left in with him with an NCT fail report and advisories.

My father went down to him with the car as I was at work, he told him to just get it through the NCT.
We left the NCT fail report with him too.

PauloMN

MrMiata wrote: »

My father went down to him with the car as I was at work, he told him to just get it through the NCT.
We left the NCT fail report with him too.

Bet your father gave him the NCT report and told him to fix whatever is listed on it.

9935452

Back Home wrote: »

Not a fair comparison , there's more to a car than the engine,
To quote the article -
In 1990 it bought this BMW 325i, with its state-of-the-art 2.5 litre in-line 6-cylinder engine, and decided to drive 1,000,000 miles in it. Actually, that's not entirely true. They didn't drive anywhere in it. They didn't even leave the garage. They stuck it on a rolling road – the vehicle equivalent of a hamster wheel – fitted it to a never-ending fuel tank, stuck the throttle at 85mph and kept it running, day and night, for four years

Thats true but you said a well serviced toyota petrol will do 400 to 500k kms .

I actually find that humerous for a few reasons.
1 isnt all the other bits just serviceable items clutches zuspensions brakes . . So service a german car well too and it will do the miles.

2 people normally bought diesels to do the bigger miles. The brother had a mk2 diesel golf which is still on the road. Last count it had 450k miles on it not kms.
3 i find that toyota owners of older cars dont seevice them well. They buy them as a cheap runaround and refuse to put money into them cause they are a toyota and toyotas dont break down

AndyBoBandy

MrMiata wrote: »

I told him when I went down, I just want the bare minimum for it to pass the NCT, he didn't do that and he charged well for what he did do.

So you went to the mechanic yourself with the car?

MrMiata wrote: »

My father went down to him with the car as I was at work, he told him to just get it through the NCT.

So you didn't go down to the mechanic then...

MrMiata wrote: »

We left the NCT fail report with him too.

So you both went down?????

Uncle Pierre

OP, I just recognise your user name from a few other threads I saw lately, and I'm curious about a few things. Hope you don't mind me asking.

You asked for advice a few weeks ago on what to do with the Golf - whether to keep it, or change it. Majority verdict was to keep it for another bit, while you're still in college. But you went out and bought a new one anyway. So first thing is I'm wondering why you're now asking for advice here again, when you decided to ignore most of the advice you got the last time anyway.

Second thing is you told on another thread how you'd just bought a MX-5 that was imported from Japan in 2005. I know you might see it as a more attractive car, but it's still about the same age as the one you had, and likely to need just as much attention and maintenance. So if you're worried over €120 (the difference between the €150 you expected to pay, and the €270 you were charged), is that new car a good fit for you at all?

Over on the cycling forum, you said back in May how you'd just bought a bike for €500. A few weeks ago, you said you were enjoying cycling so much that you were already thinking about upgrading, and wondering what you could get for about €2,000 since you had money that you said was burning a hole in your pocket.

So you were looking at buying either or both a €2,000 bike and a new car around the same time, and still you end up wondering about €120 that was part of a price you now accept was fair enough after all?

Again, hope you don't mind me asking. But I can't help wondering.

Back Home

9935452 wrote: »

Thats true but you said a well serviced toyota petrol will do 400 to 500k kms .

I actually find that humerous for a few reasons.
1 isnt all the other bits just serviceable items clutches zuspensions brakes . . So service a german car well too and it will do the miles.

2 people normally bought diesels to do the bigger miles. The brother had a mk2 diesel golf which is still on the road. Last count it had 450k miles on it not kms.
3 i find that toyota owners of older cars dont seevice them well. They buy them as a cheap runaround and refuse to put money into them cause they are a toyota and toyotas dont break down

people normally bought diesels for the perceived savings

Uncle Pierre

Uncle Pierre wrote: »

So you were looking at buying either or both a €2,000 bike and a new car around the same time, and still you end up wondering about €120 that was part of a price you now accept was fair enough after all?

Again, hope you don't mind me asking. But I can't help wondering.

Don't believe every bit of crap posted on boards!
Sure he's mad to get into motorsport too :rolleyes:

reminds me of the lad saying his 2006 red hyundai coupe was turing too many heads so he wanted to get it wrapped .

MrMiata

Uncle Pierre wrote: »

OP, I just recognise your user name from a few other threads I saw lately, and I'm curious about a few things. Hope you don't mind me asking.

You asked for advice a few weeks ago on what to do with the Golf - whether to keep it, or change it. Majority verdict was to keep it for another bit, while you're still in college. But you went out and bought a new one anyway. So first thing is I'm wondering why you're now asking for advice here again, when you decided to ignore most of the advice you got the last time anyway.

Second thing is you told on another thread how you'd just bought a MX-5 that was imported from Japan in 2005. I know you might see it as a more attractive car, but it's still about the same age as the one you had, and likely to need just as much attention and maintenance. So if you're worried over €120 (the difference between the €150 you expected to pay, and the €270 you were charged), is that new car a good fit for you at all?

Over on the cycling forum, you said back in May how you'd just bought a bike for €500. A few weeks ago, you said you were enjoying cycling so much that you were already thinking about upgrading, and wondering what you could get for about €2,000 since you had money that you said was burning a hole in your pocket.

So you were looking at buying either or both a €2,000 bike and a new car around the same time, and still you end up wondering about €120 that was part of a price you now accept was fair enough after all?

Again, hope you don't mind me asking. But I can't help wondering.

No worries.

I went for a spin in a friends Mx-5 and just decided I needed one, I've always liked them so why not when I could/can afford to keep it.
In that post I was more so asking about upgrading the car, my parents were on to me to get a newer diesel..

Car turned out to be Irish not Jap, I was just stupid and assumed the JZ on the chassis meant JDM, but nope.
The Mx-5 has 110k miles less than the Golf, and it's in better overall nick too.
My problem wasn't with the €120, it was about being overcharged/ripped off (I wasn't).
If someone stole €100 off me I wouldn't say 'ah it's only €100', it's still €100, I'll spend my money where I see fit but I wouldn't like to be robbed of it.

That 2k would have been from selling my own bike, and a guitar, which I could easily shift on.. so I posed the question as though I had the cash, rather than I could make up the cash..
I thought if I wasn't going to change the car then I'd like to upgrade my bike, but I realised that just didn't really make sense, it's still something I could do irrespective of the current situation with cars, it's just I copped on and realised I didn't need to upgrade, I just got distracted by some shiny objects.

I don't sit on posts, I get a notion, post a question and then realise I'm being stupid, I don't hold much worth in my boards.ie profile!