Repair or punt - what would you do?

[DanSkoda]

Engine and gearbox mounts? Older Civic ones used to be very prone to failing (splitting) and manifest themselves as grinding or reluctance to change gear at high rpms

[TheJimi]

Been chewing this over.

Just to update, I've decided to punt.

Here's why:

Purchase price: £4,350

Spend to date: £260

***************************
Potential repair bill: c£788

Potential overall spend: c£5,400

**************************

Of which, I'd be lucky to get c4k at resale next year,  so repairing it doesn't make logical sense.

Ergo, I'm selling it now and taking the hit, rather than taking an even bigger hit later on.

[andy-xr]

OK good

Next car, Mk1 escort - wont depreciate

[shandyboy]

I suppose it also depends on how attached you are to the car - as an owner you have to expect the occasional big bill, but if I liked the car it would be worth more "to me" to get it repaired and have use of it...

My car is worth less than a couple of grand, but needs new tyres (at least £400) - and it could do with the wheels refurbing as although they look fine, there is some corrosion around where the tyre bead sits which means one of the wheels has a slow puncture which is annoying. The turbo also has a slight oil leak which hopefully will just be a cheap seal which needs replacing, and its due a service soon too.

So I'm guessing about £1000 of work required - on a £2k car. The problem is I really like the heap of junk!

[stuartmmcfc]

Go back to original owner and threaten them with county court, regardless how long you've had it or if it was a private or trade seller.
Then start a thread on PH and stand back.

[TheJimi]

[eltax91]

Good to see you've made a decision, but one question, if it isn't that noticeable and only at high revs, is it likely to seriously get worse and quickly? If you kept it, didn't fix it and then declared it as a fault next year, would that be such a bad thing?

[TheJimi]

There's a slight oil weep from the crank seal, which is obviously a gearbox-out job (but a ten quid part!) to fix, so my hand has been forced to do something about it now.

[battered]

Are you bothered about a small oil weep? I'm not, it can wait until the clutch comes out unless it gets worse.

[TheJimi]

The slightest thing bothers me!

Which is annoying, to say the least.

[jhonn]

Remember, unless you're planning increasing your budget significantly, any replacement car in the £4-5k price bracket is also likely to have some issues too. The grass isn't always greener, etc

At least with the Honda it's a known quantity.

[SuperHangOn]

The vast majority of ten year old cars for sale will need some money spent. Selling is pointless and uneconomical because you will lose more on the sale than the repair. Plus the hassle finding a replacement and selling.

[TheJimi]

SuperHangOn said:

The vast majority of ten year old cars for sale will need some money spent. Selling is pointless and uneconomical because you will lose more on the sale than the repair. Plus the hassle finding a replacement and selling.

If I repair it, I'll have spent c£5.4k on a what is realistically a 4k car, that I bought two months ago.

I'd be VERY lucky to get £4k back on it, if I kept it a year. Meaning, I'd be looking at a minimum of a 1,400 quid loss.

If I punt it now, for say, £3.6k, I'll restrict my losses to a £1k, which I can swallow.

[anonymous-user]

I bought a Skoda Octavia 1.9 tdi 130 2004 for £800.

So far spent around £1200 on servicing and parts in 10 months. Looking to spend another £500 quid on cambelt and exhaust as well over the next 2 months.
So running costs circa £210 ex insurance,tax and fuel.

Should have just leased.

[Jakg]

TheJimi said:

Of which, I'd be lucky to get c4k at resale next year,  so repairing it doesn't make logical sense.

Is that "it's worth £4k", or "it's worth £4k despite needing £800 of gearbox work"?

I tend to think that cars that need work doing are worth less than normal, but not full retail of job less than normal as there'll always be someone looking for a cheaper project who can fix a gearbox for £200 and a weekends work. But on the flip side - they are much harder to sell, so it could take a lot longer.

[TheJimi]

I wouldn't have the problem I have if it was worth £4k with the synchros needing done!

Edited by TheJimi on Tuesday 23 August 17:14

[battered]

TheJimi said:

If I repair it, I'll have spent c£5.4k on a what is realistically a 4k car, that I bought two months ago.

I'd be VERY lucky to get £4k back on it, if I kept it a year. Meaning, I'd be looking at a minimum of a 1,400 quid loss.

If I punt it now, for say, £3.6k, I'll restrict my losses to a £1k, which I can swallow.

So losing £1k for 2 months' motoring is OK, but £1400 for a year isn't? How does that work?

You're buying a depreciating asset, whatever you replace it with it will depreciate, and a good deal more than £400 a year.

Oh, and if you can't tolerate any minor fault on a car, you should stop buying 10 yr old cars.

[james_gt3rs]

You'll probably get a fair amount of miles out of it without repairing? Worn synchros can be driven around with double declutching if you really don't want to spend the money..

[Toaster Pilot]

TheJimi said:

If I repair it, I'll have spent c£5.4k on a what is realistically a 4k car, that I bought two months ago.

I'd be VERY lucky to get £4k back on it, if I kept it a year. Meaning, I'd be looking at a minimum of a 1,400 quid loss.

If I punt it now, for say, £3.6k, I'll restrict my losses to a £1k, which I can swallow.

You're not going to get £3600 for an EP3 with a knackered gearbox.

[Toyoda]

This thread doesn't make much sense to me. You buy a 10 year car which is an unknown quantity, but a car you clearly liked at the time (2 months ago). Now it needs £800 more spending on it which of course you could do without, but you can afford, so where's the problem. If you obsess about money 'wasted' or money you'll never get back on cars, then you'd never buy a car. Of course there comes a point when a car becomes seriously uneconomical to repair, but this EP3 of yours sounds a long way off that.