To upgrade a car or not?

ceoltoir

I recently thought of changing my 15-year-old Honda Jazz (1.2) for a newer secondhand car. Having done a few test drives and, more importantly, looking at my finances, I decided against it.

While I could afford the monthly payments, I'm not making any payments for my current car. Also, I don't drive it much during the working week.

I also found that newer cars had so many features that I didn't want or need, such as air conditioning, electric mirrors, a touch screen and loads of buttons. I like to keep it simple.

The biggest difficulty, however, was in parting with the car. I seem to love it! Although it's done 196,000Km, it still runs well and has never given me any trouble. It passed the NCT recently. The biggest expense in the last two years was replacement of the brake pipes, though I made the mistake of going to a main dealer.

So, my question is this: is it worth spending money on doing some upgrades to the car?

I was thinking of strengthening the suspension, since it's a bit bumpy at the moment. The driver's door lock and the clock are giving up too.

Then adding other things like keyless access, aux socket, a phone charger and a thermometer. There's also a small bump on the back door which I'd like to fix.

Is this a worthwhile thing to do or am I mad to even think about it?

biko

If you intend to keep it forever, do upgrade bits if you like.
It won't increase resale value but it'll keep the car nice to drive.