What's the most expensive car repair bill you have ever had?
Discussion
cholo said:
Out of interest, i've always wondered why people spend pretty much the entire value of the car on a repair (like some people seem to have on this thread)
I see it quite often on ebay adverts, especially on lower value cars that were high value when new.
Unless you have some sort of emotional connection to the car, if you have a £4k bill on a car that is worth about £4k, surely it is just better/easier to sell for parts?
]
I have permission from the wife to spend 3- 4k on my 09 swift sport with a 2k trade value max. I see it quite often on ebay adverts, especially on lower value cars that were high value when new.
Unless you have some sort of emotional connection to the car, if you have a £4k bill on a car that is worth about £4k, surely it is just better/easier to sell for parts?
]
I have owned the car for 4 years now and in the 4 years its only needed services and new top mounts and with only 51k on the clock its to good to replace even if sometimes I think of changing.
The 3-4k will go on full suspension refresh, brake pads/disks all round,driver seat bolster repaired, a few rattles sorted, outside stone chips sorted with alloy refurb and and full detail. Will then be good to go for another 4-5 years hopefully.
When my three week old TDi Scirocco blew up (the turbo toasted the engine) it required a new engine and turbo, intercooler and pipework, new exhaust system, cat, dpf and all the bits and pieces that hold everything together the parts guys told me it was about £12k including labour all in.
That's a bill I'am glad I dodged.
Most expensive single item bill I had to pay was when a coolant hose o-ring leaked on my Cayman, £40 for a new hose total bill £320.
That's a bill I'am glad I dodged.
Most expensive single item bill I had to pay was when a coolant hose o-ring leaked on my Cayman, £40 for a new hose total bill £320.
Edited by Klippie on Thursday 30th November 19:35
Edited by Klippie on Thursday 30th November 19:36
Turkish91 said:
Engine on my Evo 6 fully shat itself 5 days into ownership. Waved goodbye to £12k when I collected it.
I feel the pain, 6 month old grey import Evo 6 GSR decided to bend a con rod and bend some valves. Due to it being fairly newly released parts would have taken ages to get so new crate RS engine replacement - £11k fitted.£16000 plus VAT on my wife’s 3 month old X5 so £19200 total.
Hit by a hail storm in France during the summer and covered by insurance
New roof, bonnet, rear tail gate, lights, moonroof, all glass out and full respray etc. etc.
Took 6 months from start to finish and the car was never the same.
Hit by a hail storm in France during the summer and covered by insurance
New roof, bonnet, rear tail gate, lights, moonroof, all glass out and full respray etc. etc.
Took 6 months from start to finish and the car was never the same.
Not all in one visit, but all over the course of around a month max. That'll teach me to buy a 'cheap' Aston Martin and think I can get away with only a few bits to bring it back up to standard! The car had official AM extended warranty that picked up some of the tab, however I paid for most!
New wheels and rear tyres (one of the original wheels was cracked and weld repaired a few times and another was buckled along with being badly kerbed so needed replacing)
New discs and pads all round (including handbrake)
New handbrake cable (warranty)
New purge valve (warranty)
New drivers door strut (warranty)
New air con compressor (warranty)
Injector replaced (warranty)
Exhaust cats replaced
RH side indicator repeater replaced
New aux belt and updated pulley
New spark plugs
New power steering fluid and additive flush
New gearbox oil
Engine oil change
Suspension geo setup
That little lot came in at around £5k to me, I think the warranty stuff was another £2k or so on top. All of that was done properly but cheaply, parts sourced very well and specialists used where possible, provided own oil etc. If it had all been done at an official dealer it would have easily been double. I never really fell in love with it and sold the car after only 6 months, thankfully not taking too much of a hit. Swapped it for a much newer F type with 2 years warranty, fresh brakes and tyres all round - lesson learned!
New wheels and rear tyres (one of the original wheels was cracked and weld repaired a few times and another was buckled along with being badly kerbed so needed replacing)
New discs and pads all round (including handbrake)
New handbrake cable (warranty)
New purge valve (warranty)
New drivers door strut (warranty)
New air con compressor (warranty)
Injector replaced (warranty)
Exhaust cats replaced
RH side indicator repeater replaced
New aux belt and updated pulley
New spark plugs
New power steering fluid and additive flush
New gearbox oil
Engine oil change
Suspension geo setup
That little lot came in at around £5k to me, I think the warranty stuff was another £2k or so on top. All of that was done properly but cheaply, parts sourced very well and specialists used where possible, provided own oil etc. If it had all been done at an official dealer it would have easily been double. I never really fell in love with it and sold the car after only 6 months, thankfully not taking too much of a hit. Swapped it for a much newer F type with 2 years warranty, fresh brakes and tyres all round - lesson learned!
Edited by Shrimpvende on Thursday 30th November 23:19
OP said:
What's the most expensive car repair bill you have ever had?
HoHoHo said:
£16000 plus VAT on my wife’s 3 month old X5 so £19200 total.
Hit by a hail storm in France during the summer and covered by insurance
New roof, bonnet, rear tail gate, lights, moonroof, all glass out and full respray etc. etc.
Took 6 months from start to finish and the car was never the same.
On the basis of above I call foul on your contributionHit by a hail storm in France during the summer and covered by insurance
New roof, bonnet, rear tail gate, lights, moonroof, all glass out and full respray etc. etc.
Took 6 months from start to finish and the car was never the same.
[quote
sometimes it’s best to stick with the devil you know.
[/quote]
This is the key thing for me. Thirty years of company cars means I could be rather fastidious with my bikes. Mind you, when I bought a seemingly immaculate, low mileage, one owner ‘04’ Arosa for my lad as his first car (£1.2k), after spending £200 on tyres, £150 on exhaust & then getting a dangerous suspension failure within the first 4 weeks, I traded it and just got my money back (minus pair costs) and started again!
Still a little irritated by the very amenable SEAT mechanic who sold it to me... must have seen me coming grrrrrr).
sometimes it’s best to stick with the devil you know.
[/quote]
This is the key thing for me. Thirty years of company cars means I could be rather fastidious with my bikes. Mind you, when I bought a seemingly immaculate, low mileage, one owner ‘04’ Arosa for my lad as his first car (£1.2k), after spending £200 on tyres, £150 on exhaust & then getting a dangerous suspension failure within the first 4 weeks, I traded it and just got my money back (minus pair costs) and started again!
Still a little irritated by the very amenable SEAT mechanic who sold it to me... must have seen me coming grrrrrr).
HoHoHo said:
£16000 plus VAT on my wife’s 3 month old X5 so £19200 total.
Hit by a hail storm in France during the summer and covered by insurance
New roof, bonnet, rear tail gate, lights, moonroof, all glass out and full respray etc. etc.
Took 6 months from start to finish and the car was never the same.
what wasn't the same ?Hit by a hail storm in France during the summer and covered by insurance
New roof, bonnet, rear tail gate, lights, moonroof, all glass out and full respray etc. etc.
Took 6 months from start to finish and the car was never the same.
housen said:
HoHoHo said:
£16000 plus VAT on my wife’s 3 month old X5 so £19200 total.
Hit by a hail storm in France during the summer and covered by insurance
New roof, bonnet, rear tail gate, lights, moonroof, all glass out and full respray etc. etc.
Took 6 months from start to finish and the car was never the same.
what wasn't the same ?Hit by a hail storm in France during the summer and covered by insurance
New roof, bonnet, rear tail gate, lights, moonroof, all glass out and full respray etc. etc.
Took 6 months from start to finish and the car was never the same.
Paint was pretty poor and a number of small patches removed themslves after a short period of time - poor preparation. The moonroof was dropped and smashed and rattled from that day in. The roof lining was changed a number of times, the electrics within the cabin started to play up.overspray and dust within the cabin and poorly lined up panel gaps. I wasn’t happy with the respray. Trim didn’t fit properly inside or out and the car was constantly back in the garage having faults rectified.
Eventually we had enough of weekly visits to the dealer and moved it on.
Given this is only about money paid to garages rather than parts or expenses for work I do myself, I had to think for a while (going back 35 years but also in the trade). The only garage bill I have ever had was paid to my workplace in 2015, following some heavy surgery in the prior 12 months although recovered, I was still nervous about taking weight if pulling the gearbox for a flywheel swap, so I asked them to do it, and a few other 'while it's apart' things, and it came to just over £1400 with most parts supplied by me.
It would have been more, but got complicated, as they broke stuff, special suspension, brake lines, gave it back to me with no clutch operation and blamed non original parts, but it just needed air getting out so I had to fix it in the car park. Only this July when I did the job myself for other gearbox modification, did I discover a significant degree of carnage in the bell housing as I separated the gearbox. This was due to them dropping or causing something to drop in the housing while offering the gearbox back into place, and was only due to not removing parts for access the manual would suggest necessary, so only a small aperture was available.
While not going into more detail, I'm adding this just because the main parts I paid them to fit, namely a lightweight aluminium flywheel with a new clutch, were pretty much wrecked, so the initial bill, plus over £600 of parts I have to replace again, plus the time to do the job. I wasn't expecting to find this in July, so as a stopgap, have cleaned up the mess while waiting for the parts to do it all over again, this doesn't include the significant damage to the gearbox too.
The real cost I guess should be more, and unless my arm is seriously behind my back, it will be the only time I pay someone like this for work I could do.
Anyway sorry to go on, nothing new I suppose, I won't post details unless they refuse to cough for the specialist parts due fairly soon. I should have known to have waited and done it myself.
It would have been more, but got complicated, as they broke stuff, special suspension, brake lines, gave it back to me with no clutch operation and blamed non original parts, but it just needed air getting out so I had to fix it in the car park. Only this July when I did the job myself for other gearbox modification, did I discover a significant degree of carnage in the bell housing as I separated the gearbox. This was due to them dropping or causing something to drop in the housing while offering the gearbox back into place, and was only due to not removing parts for access the manual would suggest necessary, so only a small aperture was available.
While not going into more detail, I'm adding this just because the main parts I paid them to fit, namely a lightweight aluminium flywheel with a new clutch, were pretty much wrecked, so the initial bill, plus over £600 of parts I have to replace again, plus the time to do the job. I wasn't expecting to find this in July, so as a stopgap, have cleaned up the mess while waiting for the parts to do it all over again, this doesn't include the significant damage to the gearbox too.
The real cost I guess should be more, and unless my arm is seriously behind my back, it will be the only time I pay someone like this for work I could do.
Anyway sorry to go on, nothing new I suppose, I won't post details unless they refuse to cough for the specialist parts due fairly soon. I should have known to have waited and done it myself.
Faust66 said:
Do all my own spannering so I’ve never had a big bill for the oily bits of a car.
Bodywork though… that’s a different story. Booked my Volvo Amazon into a local bodyshop last year.
Had new inner & outer sill on the passenger side, outer sill on the driver’s side, lead loading repairs to gutters, repairs around screens (front and rear), various other minor repairs you’d expect on a car that’s coming up to 50 years old and a full respray in Ford Panther Black.
Bill came to £4,000.
Spent nearly 2 grand on parts as well.
Lot of money when you only earn 19k a year and I’ll be paying that loan off for quite a while yet… and the car will then need more work as it lives outside and is driven in all weathers (in fact, it’s in the work car park as I type!).
But you know what? I’d do it all again in a heartbeat...
About 25 years ago I had a 122S and in a lot of ways it was the best car I have owned! With a stage 2 cylinder head and the camshaft from the fuel injected engine it would startle a lot of more modern cars and never, ever let me down.Bodywork though… that’s a different story. Booked my Volvo Amazon into a local bodyshop last year.
Had new inner & outer sill on the passenger side, outer sill on the driver’s side, lead loading repairs to gutters, repairs around screens (front and rear), various other minor repairs you’d expect on a car that’s coming up to 50 years old and a full respray in Ford Panther Black.
Bill came to £4,000.
Spent nearly 2 grand on parts as well.
Lot of money when you only earn 19k a year and I’ll be paying that loan off for quite a while yet… and the car will then need more work as it lives outside and is driven in all weathers (in fact, it’s in the work car park as I type!).
But you know what? I’d do it all again in a heartbeat...
I miss it really.
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