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>> No. 4611 Anonymous
25th August 2021
Wednesday 1:12 am
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How much is reasonable to spend fixing a car that is worth about £600, but you got it for free?

It passed the last MoT fine but the engine sounds like it's dying currently. Starts fine mind, it's just chugging like a diesel when it's not one.
Only got 74000 miles on it, so I suspect it's just usual mid-life maintenance that has crept up on me.

My gut tells me that spending a few hundred quid a few times for a naff car that I enjoy is better than spending a couple hundred every month before it even has any problems, maybe I'm just looking for reassurance.
Expand all images.
>> No. 4612 Anonymous
25th August 2021
Wednesday 1:25 am
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I don't think that's a question anyone but you can answer. There's nothing to say any car you buy, new or used, won't end up falling to bits or needing major work soon after you buy it. I think it comes down to this:

1. Do you want to keep this car on the road?;
2. Aside from the immediate issues, is there anything else wrong with the car and/or is it due any major work (e.g. timing belt) in the near future?

I suppose it also comes down to what's up with it. It could be a simple fix, or it could be on the verge of death.
>> No. 4613 Anonymous
25th August 2021
Wednesday 3:12 am
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Vimes' Boots Theory aside, have a gander if your make and model usually have trouble around now and how fixable it is. If it's just that the previous owner failed to do the upkeep, go for it. If this is a known terminal issue... it might be time to put her down.

Financials aside, I'd agree that keeping your pride and joy running has value in itself and if the alternative is a car loan then absolutely go for it.
>> No. 4614 Anonymous
25th August 2021
Wednesday 3:32 am
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Well, if you can do some basic research and diagnostics yourself then go for it. Maybe it's just a sensor that needs changing or something. Or just go out and thrash it a bit, get the cobwebs out. If it's something like the pic, then it's been owned by a granny for 10 years who never got it above 2000 revs.
>> No. 4615 Anonymous
25th August 2021
Wednesday 12:44 pm
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>>4613

I think cars are if anything, the inverse proof of Vime's boots theory. A new car costs you more upfront and will still end up coming in to the same maintenance costs, so once you factor in depreciation they're pretty much one of the worst investments I can think of. Besides the warranty, which is often a bit of a con anyway, you're paying for the privilege of a fancy new car, not any inherent peace of mind.

I think the sweet spot in terms of value is a car that's four or five years old, had 50k or thereabouts on the clock, and a full service history in the logbook. Worth between £2k and £4k. Been used but hasn't had the shit beat out of it by some boy racer.
>> No. 4616 Anonymous
25th August 2021
Wednesday 12:51 pm
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>>4615
There aren't many 5-year-old cars with 50k on worth £4,000. 7-10 years old, maybe.

That said, I don't ever intend to drive a car manufactured after 2000.
>> No. 4617 Anonymous
25th August 2021
Wednesday 1:10 pm
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You got a car for free that's worth £600. So essentially even if it costs you 600 quid to have the engine fixed, it's not a loss for you on balance. And it really only starts to become a bad deal for you if the maintenance costs for recurring faults become higher than can be expected for your kind of car.


>>4615

>A new car costs you more upfront and will still end up coming in to the same maintenance costs, so once you factor in depreciation they're pretty much one of the worst investments I can think of

Very true. It's guaranteed money out the window, and depending on what kind of factory-new car you've bought, expect to lose £2,000 to £5,000 right the moment you drive it off the dealer's lot.

I've always driven older cars, because apart from not suffering the massive depreciation you get with a new car, they are easier to work on. Especially nowadays with the ability to buy almost every car part imaginable on the Internet, I see no reason to pay money for a job that I can do with similar quality of workmanship as a trained mechanic. Then again, I've been fixing my own cars for twenty-odd years now and can't remember the last time I actually gave a car to a garage to sort something out. If you have little to no experience working on cars, any older car is a money pit. Older cars often do break down more, simply because they are older cars. Which is another reason why a 20-year-old Golf can often be had for less than 1,000 quid.
>> No. 4618 Anonymous
25th August 2021
Wednesday 1:46 pm
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>>4617

I'd like to work on the car myself but living in a flat and parking on (albeit a quiet one) road aren't super conducive to car maintenance. Want to try some general servicing like the air filter/spark plugs/oil though, it did pass its last MOT without any advisories so that's why I'm pretty set on keeping it for now.
>> No. 4619 Anonymous
25th August 2021
Wednesday 2:25 pm
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>>4618

Steal a few traffic cones and put on a hi-vis. It's like an urban invisibility cloak.
>> No. 4620 Anonymous
25th August 2021
Wednesday 3:21 pm
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>>4618

There are self-service garages in many major cities in the UK, where you can rent lifts by the hour. Maybe that is something you could look into. It's where I do a lot of my DIY repairs.
>> No. 4621 Anonymous
26th August 2021
Thursday 12:20 am
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>>4620

Nowt like that round here.
It's the engine sounding like arse that's worrying me so couldn't hurt to change the spark plugs could it? Fuck knows when it was last properly serviced and maybe they'll reveal something if it's really bad. Seems like the easiest place to start DIYing things.
>> No. 4622 Anonymous
26th August 2021
Thursday 12:33 am
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>>4616

There are plenty, as long as you're looking for something commonplace like a Corsa/Astra, Fiesta/Focus, Golf, etc.

If you're going to be a car snob the conversation about value for money is barely relevant anyway.
>> No. 4623 Anonymous
26th August 2021
Thursday 12:41 am
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>>4621

Your spark plugs would have to be really knackered to make your engine run like that. Not saying it doesn't happen, just that it's somewhat rare. But it's still a good idea to unscrew the spark plugs, because they make uneven combustion in any of your cylinders quite easy to spot, and will point you towards the actual fault.

Also, check the ignition leads, I had a bad one once, and it did make the car run like a tractor because one cylinder wasn't firing at all. Sometimes, there's just gunk or corrosion on your spark plug connectors. A set of ignition leads will cost you about £50 for a Vauxhall like the one in your picture. Maybe another 50 for brand-name Bosch or NGK spark plugs. And if that doesn't help, take a look at your ignition coils, and possibly your fuel injection as well, although that's typically a bit more hands-on and more expensive to fix, as a new fuel injector can be over £50 a piece.
>> No. 4624 Anonymous
26th August 2021
Thursday 12:50 am
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>>4622
A quick AutoTrader search gets me 102 in the whole country. Sorting by milage, they are pretty much all Cat S/D/C.
>> No. 4625 Anonymous
26th August 2021
Thursday 12:56 am
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>>4624

Really? Has the market gone up in the last couple of years since I bought a car? I can't imagine it being that drastic of a difference.

When I bought my car it was exactly in that description, '15 plate, 49,500 miles on, four grand with part ex.
>> No. 4626 Anonymous
26th August 2021
Thursday 2:02 am
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>>4625

Covid innit. Nobody wants to get on the train and the supply of new cars is strangled by the lack of chips. Decent campervans have shot up in price as well.
>> No. 4627 Anonymous
26th August 2021
Thursday 7:42 am
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>>4625

>Really? Has the market gone up in the last couple of years since I bought a car?

Yes, quite brutally. The cars I bought two or three years ago are worth about 20% more than when I bought them, which is something I've never seen happen before.
>> No. 4628 Anonymous
26th August 2021
Thursday 8:53 am
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>>4627
I know a few people who have bought a car on finance, made the balloon payment because it's less than they'd be able to sell the car on for due to prices going up, made a bit of profit and then got another car on finance.
>> No. 4629 Anonymous
26th August 2021
Thursday 3:42 pm
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>>4628

Yeah, my friend did that - he made about six grand profit on a PCP Mercedes, the mind boggles.

I know this is the wrong thread for this, but similarly if you bought a Rolex in 2018 you'd be fucking laughing now. It's not even just that the prices have shot up, you simply can't walk into a shop and buy one right now. And I'm sure we all know about graphics cards etc.

I wonder if this stuff will have any noticable effect on the economy in the medium term.
>> No. 4630 Anonymous
26th August 2021
Thursday 3:49 pm
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>>4629
There's a watch shop in Whitby with lots of Rolexs for sale in the window, if you can put up with the crowds.
>> No. 4631 Anonymous
26th August 2021
Thursday 7:24 pm
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>>4630

There's definitely some Rolexes for sale right now, but new ones are on back order, particularly the big hitters like submariners and GMTs.

Anyway I don't really want one - all luxury watches are a bit overpriced, but a Rolex these days you're paying upwards of 8 or 9 grand just for the badge, on top of what the watch should actually go for. I'll stick with the merely moderately ludicrous Omega pricing instead.

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