Spent a fortune on it so I'm going to sell

[Watchman]

I hear this a fair bit. People whose cars have hit the magical 100K miles (or thereabouts) suddenly have problems (in some cases through a lack of preventative maintenance). They obviously need the car so they spend to resolve the problem, then just when it's returned to them in good health for another period of neglect, they decide to sell and buy a car with unknown history.

Two people in my office are in this position. They have both just brought back to life very nice cars (at the cost of £1500 and £2900), and both have shown me second hand cars I wouldn't touch even if desperate. And yet, they are not desperate any longer.

I'm in the opposite position. Car has always had anything it's needed but hasn't needed much until Christmas when I started a programme of "elected surgery" to reinvigorate it. Now it's partway through some choice work I'm tempted to see how long it'll continue to offer the same levels of reliability I've enjoyed over the past 4 years.