The Joy of Running an Old Shed

[Bumblebee7]

stevesuk said:

Aside from a bit of extra safety kit and increased fuel economy (sometimes) - it seems to be the infotainment system that has aged most in our car. Something more modern would have USB sockets, DAB radio. Bluetooth and gimmicks like a reversing camera. Its trinkets like this that the manufacturers use to encourage people to change up I guess.

I've seen a really nice integrated Apple carplay/android auto unit online with good reviews. It's a retrofit but with the correct fascia panels so it looks factory fit. Over £300 and would cost a bit more to have the rear camera professionally installed but would bring the car right up to date so am seriously considering it.

[Pat H]

Thesprucegoose said:

CrgT16 said:

Decent new tyres for me... I am not driving a shed out of necessity, more a choice

I can't imagine anyone with means would choose a ropey old car over a new lease deal.

Why not?

I drive a 13 year old Focus diesel.

I have owned it from new and paid £14,000 for it back in 2007.

It has now done 171,000 miles.

It is worth a few hundred quid at most and is starting to look a bit scruffy around the edges.

But mechanically it is in superb order. It is properly maintained. I use genuine Ford filters. This year I fitted new bottom arms and drop links. It has a matching set of Yokohama tyres.

I have covered 60,000 miles in the last three years, so I am not going to fit crap tyres or skimp on servicing.

I have now suffered all the depreciation that I am ever going to see. Routine servicing aside, I now have free motoring until such time as there is an expensive failure.

The air-con still blows cold and everything works properly. It has a heated front screen, automatic wipers, automatic lights, a six speed box, roof bars and towing kit. And no DPF to worry about.

The only thing it really lacks is cruise control.

To lease the equivalent car (Focus 2.0 diesel Titanium estate) would require a deposit of £2900 and a monthly payment of £325 over three years, with a 15k mileage limit. It's hardly attractive. Neither is the £27,000 list price.

So I will be keeping the old dog for as long as I can.

[Bonefish Blues]

15 y.o. S60 here, 164K miles, and in similarly fine fettle. No dpf, 45-50 mpg everywhere, comfy, reliable, has what it needs done, when it needs doing.

Mrs BFB has the XC70 flavour, same year, 180K miles. Autobox fluid done recently, fully. AWD fluids and filter to be done on Sat.

Why would either of us change - we discuss it from time to time, and decide we wouldn't

[Superchickenn]

Thesprucegoose said:

CrgT16 said:

Decent new tyres for me... I am not driving a shed out of necessity, more a choice

the choice to save money...The vast majority drive sheds to save money, i can't imagine anyone with means would choose a ropey old car over a new lease deal.

I have more than enough means to drive a new leased car, however i dont get half of the enjoyment as driving older cars... i mean if i drove a leased car i wouldnt enter a journey wondering if my shed will get me there... where's the fun in that ?

[tomble22]

We've currently got a 69 plate Insignia as a hire car as someone drove into the side of our Octavia VRs (now 3 bloody months ago) and there isn't anything that the £200 Mondeo can't do apart from the nav screen/apple car play thing. The insignia does have a heated steering wheel as well!

Another thing that baffles me is the fuel consumption on a brand new family car. It's 1 1.5 turbo petrol, not sure on the bhp but in the time we've had it, doing a mix of local trips and some long runs it's average 31 mpg which seems pretty crap for a modern engine.

On the £200 Mondeo note, i ran a forced dpf regen this morning which completed successfully (along with several confused faces in the office car park with me sat in the Mondeo at about 3k rpm). Not sure if it made any difference as the Forscan i have doesn't seem to show soot level on the PID's but i'll see how long the EML stays off for.

Apart from that, no dramas at present, even managed just over 60mpg today on a 40 mile site visit!

[tomble22]

Bonefish Blues said:

15 y.o. S60 here, 164K miles, and in similarly fine fettle. No dpf, 45-50 mpg everywhere, comfy, reliable, has what it needs done, when it needs doing.

Mrs BFB has the XC70 flavour, same year, 180K miles. Autobox fluid done recently, fully. AWD fluids and filter to be done on Sat.

Why would either of us change - we discuss it from time to time, and decide we wouldn't

I've admired the XC70 from afar for a while and one has come up on ebay local to me for shed money......trying to resist the urge to add to the shed collection at the moment!!

[STIfree]

tomble22 said:

On the £200 Mondeo note, i ran a forced dpf regen this morning which completed successfully (along with several confused faces in the office car park with me sat in the Mondeo at about 3k rpm).

I bet that was amusing. How long did it take? I'm guessing its something that can only be done through Forscan?

[tomble22]

STIfree said:

I bet that was amusing. How long did it take? I'm guessing its something that can only be done through Forscan?

It was about 20 minutes. A couple of colleagues pulled in while i was out there so i had to try and explain why i was in the car with a laptop and revving the nuts off it. Quite a tricky thing to do to non car people.

I believe so yes, although the software is free to download, i just paid £20 for the necessary cable.

[rich12]

Pat H said:

Why not?

I drive a 13 year old Focus diesel.

I have owned it from new and paid £14,000 for it back in 2007.

It has now done 171,000 miles.

It is worth a few hundred quid at most and is starting to look a bit scruffy around the edges.


So I will be keeping the old dog for as long as I can.

I love that! £1200 a year in depreciation. I've had cars lose more than that every week!
I wonder at what point in your ownership did it become a 'shed'?

[Bonefish Blues]

tomble22 said:

I've admired the XC70 from afar for a while and one has come up on ebay local to me for shed money......trying to resist the urge to add to the shed collection at the moment!!

There's much to like, and a predictable set of checks to run to make sure that you get as decent a one as possible. My wife loves hers.

[tomble22]

Bonefish Blues said:

There's much to like, and a predictable set of checks to run to make sure that you get as decent a one as possible. My wife loves hers.

Any advice would be appreciated, just in case i lose my mind and bid on it!!

Assume cambelt and gearbox oil change are the essentials?

[rm163603]

Bonefish Blues said:

15 y.o. S60 here, 164K miles, and in similarly fine fettle. No dpf, 45-50 mpg everywhere, comfy, reliable, has what it needs done, when it needs doing.

Mrs BFB has the XC70 flavour, same year, 180K miles. Autobox fluid done recently, fully. AWD fluids and filter to be done on Sat.

Why would either of us change - we discuss it from time to time, and decide we wouldn't

I'm on my 2nd S60, they are such good cars,

The first was an auto 2.4t. No issues in 70K miles to speak of other than consumables.

The one I have now is an 05 plate t5 manual. Again I have had no issues and it's done 60K miles in 3 years.

The comfort and the hifi system are just superb and the build quality is leagues ahead of the BMW from the same era which I also run.

On the BMW all the subframes and brackets are looking rusty, on the volvo it's all still largely perfect.

[Bonefish Blues]

Less so the cambelt more so the aux belt and tensioner. The latter fail, the belt jumps and interferes with the cambelt and then the engine lunches itself.

Yes to the gearbox oil, or rather check it does change smoothly when hot.

If it's the old 5 speed auto then it'll be the euro 3 engine (good!), but it will likely be FWD unless when the splined connector failed, as they all did, someone fixed it with the new spec splined collar.

4C suspension not desirable. They munch bushes for fun, but not their regular dampers, interestingly.

That's about it really.

[tomble22]

Bonefish Blues said:

Less so the cambelt more so the aux belt and tensioner. The latter fail, the belt jumps and interferes with the cambelt and then the engine lunches itself.

Yes to the gearbox oil, or rather check it does change smoothly when hot.

If it's the old 5 speed auto then it'll be the euro 3 engine (good!), but it will likely be FWD unless when the splined connector failed, as they all did, someone fixed it with the new spec splined collar.

4C suspension not desirable. They munch bushes for fun, but not their regular dampers, interestingly.

That's about it really.

I believe it's the Euro 3 163bhp one. Had the options confirmed by a chap on the Volvo forum and nothing about active suspension so that's good. It also had full Volvo history for the first 10 years of it's life so that must be good for something.

[Digby]

rich12 said:

Don't you all just use part worns?
I fitted a set of Bridgestone winter tyres to my saab with 6mm all round for £150.

All the time on the snotters. Have done for years.

I just go on ebay and order up four tyres (often decent makes which can cost anything up to £100 a corner new) and as you say, get them with a few mm of wear. My mate then fits them for me. Just did exactly that with my x4 Hankook Winter Evo tyres. £100 delivered with almost no wear at all and fully tested.

That said, I did just get four new Toyos for my old B11 coupe for about £120 delivered.

[magpie215]

STIfree said:

Don't shed rules dictate that you don't replace tyres until they're bald and you only replace them with the cheapest you can find?

Last pair of tyres came on steel rims...unworn spares from another Galaxy(s).

They are old though so probably not as grippy as they once were.

Price £10.

[Jaguar steve]

Thesprucegoose said:

CrgT16 said:

Decent new tyres for me... I am not driving a shed out of necessity, more a choice

the choice to save money...The vast majority drive sheds to save money, i can't imagine anyone with means would choose a ropey old car over a new lease deal.

I choose old cars over new ones all day long. I've worked the numbers and concluded new cars are financial suicide.

I'm fortunate in having the means to buy new or lease yet my daily Shed cost rather less than I've spent on holidays this year. I've had my weekend car for a decade and it's still worth around the same as I paid for it. Both have been on thousand mile plus road trips around France and neither have caused any drama over the last combined 60k miles. I've no interest in changing either.

That's a choice I cheerfully make for several reasons, among which are I'm liberated from the obligations and ball-ache that comes with shiny new cars, they're both simple enough for me to service myself and choosing virtually zero depreciation cars that don't suck up more money then they need too means more cash is freed up for for more important stuff.

[Monkeylegend]

rich12 said:

Pat H said:

Why not?

I drive a 13 year old Focus diesel.

I have owned it from new and paid £14,000 for it back in 2007.

It has now done 171,000 miles.

It is worth a few hundred quid at most and is starting to look a bit scruffy around the edges.


So I will be keeping the old dog for as long as I can.

I love that! £1200 a year in depreciation. I've had cars lose more than that every week!
I wonder at what point in your ownership did it become a 'shed'?

We have had our 2003 Renault Scenic 5 years now.

Paid £1200 for it, probably worth £200, had 55k when we bought it, now on 115k, apart from a £23 bracket on the back it has only had brake pads and discs, tyres and an oil change every MOT.

Depreciation a staggering £200 per annum.

Love it.

[W00DY]

I'm getting to quite like this fuel economy thing.

[slk 32]

Thesprucegoose said:

slk 32 said:

I've done just over 50k in my shed- now at 172k

I could lease a new car but see it as dead money and would rather run my reliable shed. Just because it's a shed doesn't mean it has to be ropey though*

*other opinions may vary

didnt you buy a bluemotion to save money then spent 5k on bills after purchase. I don't know what the big deal is with running sheds, the vast majority do it to save money, you yourself did it for that reason.
If people are honest with it it not a big deal, means you can enjoy life without another burden to something.

Edited by Thesprucegoose on Tuesday 17th December 12:30

I bought it in November 2014 at 118k - I paid circa £2,350 for it.

My rationale was I could have spent another £1k on a 60k example but would have then still needed to probably do the cam belt and service it so went for the cheaper higher mileage one thinking I'd rather get it completely gone over ( brakes, cambelt, clutch, service) and know everything was done and it was reliable- I spent another £1200 on this and had trouble free motoring upto 136k when the turbo went - That's probably been the biggest expenditure so far - probably another £1500 including service. I could have gone for a second hand turbo but didn't want to be in the same position a couple of years down the line.

since then I've done a few oil services every 5-6k and replaced the eco michelins with some cross climates at a whopping £60 a corner ( the advantage of 14 inch wheels!).

I've done just over 20k in it since mid Feb and should hit 200k early 2021.

All in I've probably spent £6k ( including purchase price) for 55k miles - If the car is worth a grand that's £5k over 60 months =£83 per month. This cost will reduce further ( I would hope) as I keep driving it