Spend a bit or move on to pastures new ?

[Stoatman]

Hi all,

I am after a little bit of advice, to see what other people would do in my situation. I am sure many have been here.

I have an X reg civic aerodeck VTI. Its done 125,000 miles , must be worth at most £1250 maybe. Now I know its a good car , incredibly reliable , pulls hard in VTEC (Yo !) and overall is in great condition.(No rust at all). I love the car.

Recently I have had fitted 4 new dampers and polybrushed the front ARB. So it owes me a few quid. However , the interior looks dated/tired , its developed a slight knocking from the front when turning the wheel and it needs brake pipes in the next 12 months.

Now , do I spend say £400 quid getting all these bits sorted. (mechanic cannot find the knocking at the moment though) or put a grand towards a brand new (relatively speaking) car.

Short list so far :

MG ZS 180 - seems to be well thought off but scared off petrol costs (do 60 miles a day)
Mint Mazda Mx-6 (bargain and have owned a cracker in the past (see above for negatives)
Mint Primera GT - Always liked these.
Classic BMW 325 - E30 is it I think ?, not had much experience with beemers.

Help !!.

Cheers

Chris

[magpie215]

Me..I would fix it.

Then again the work mentioned I could do myself so no labour costs.

Being able to DIY is the key to older car ownership and lower motoring cost.

Thought of doing a night course at college or team up with a mate who knows cars?

[Stoatman]

Thanks for that , yeah I do need to learn a bit more. I have thought of doing a course very recently as a matter of fact. Actually i'm going to look now !.

Quite fancy the look of that ZS 180 though ! Ha .

[Dracoro]

You'd be selling a known car for an unknown one.

The unknown one could easily present a £400 (or more) bill within weeks/months.

[Scootersp]

Also that "slight knocking" can be ignored for a while until it turns into a louder knocking delaying the cost and almost certainly making the diagnosis easier!!

[Stoatman]

I suppose thats the problem with getting a different car, better the devil you know and all that. I like the car , its a pity that nearly everyone else does not know or care what it is and see it as a grandad wagon. I'm used to the mockers now!.

Regards the knocking , thats exactly what my mechanic said, as I could end up chasing it with new parts for ages and spend a lot more.

[ClassicMercs]

Dracoro said:

You'd be selling a known car for an unknown one.

The unknown one could easily present a £400 (or more) bill within weeks/months.

+1

[Alex]

Fix it. None of the cars you mention will be as reliable as the Honda.

[Gizmo!]

I used to have one of those... Great fun. I'd fix it: you're not looking at anything significantly different.

Of course if I was spending £2k on a mid sized wagon myself, I'd be trying to find a looked-after BMW 328 (E36).

[300bhp/ton]

Stoatman said:

Hi all,

I am after a little bit of advice, to see what other people would do in my situation. I am sure many have been here.

I have an X reg civic aerodeck VTI. Its done 125,000 miles , must be worth at most £1250 maybe. Now I know its a good car , incredibly reliable , pulls hard in VTEC (Yo !) and overall is in great condition.(No rust at all). I love the car.

Recently I have had fitted 4 new dampers and polybrushed the front ARB. So it owes me a few quid. However , the interior looks dated/tired , its developed a slight knocking from the front when turning the wheel and it needs brake pipes in the next 12 months.

Now , do I spend say £400 quid getting all these bits sorted. (mechanic cannot find the knocking at the moment though) or put a grand towards a brand new (relatively speaking) car.

Short list so far :

MG ZS 180 - seems to be well thought off but scared off petrol costs (do 60 miles a day)
Mint Mazda Mx-6 (bargain and have owned a cracker in the past (see above for negatives)
Mint Primera GT - Always liked these.
Classic BMW 325 - E30 is it I think ?, not had much experience with beemers.

Help !!.

Cheers

Chris

I haven't driven a Civic so can't directly compare. But tbh I say change, there are so many fab cars out there it seems a shame not to try them out. And at this sort of money chances are you could always go back at only a small cost.

My brother had a ZS180. Very very good car. Quite pokey but still liked to rev and sounded really nice. Quite a sorted chassis too for a standard car. Mpg wise they arent bad. On a run you should be able to get 33-36 sort of range, maybe more if you drive sensible. The torquey V6 means you don't have to drive it as hard to get the performance. On shorter runs and a heavy right foot the it is pretty easy to dip into mid 20's, but that's true of many cars, the Civic included I'd have thought.

The 325 will be very different. More old school to drive. Maybe a bit softer in standard trim and steering that has far to many turns lock to lock. But it's a good balanced chassis and rwd with rather fab sideways tendencies. Do rememeber though, it'll be older and need more tlc. So buy one expecting to do some bits to it. I also suspect mpg will be far worse than the MG. I'd reckon nearer to 22-28mpg and maybe touching 30 on a run.

[Jesus TF Christ]

I'm confused as to why you would change the civic for its MG cousin.
With uprated suspension your car is an absolute cracker.

[Stoatman]

A like mind , you dont get those very often with my car these days ! cheers.

It is a nice car , and is nippy . ( I am cautious to use the word fast as you can obviously get 200 bhp in a corsa these days !)

I can get 40 ish to the gallon with a light foot and would like to try and replicate this in any newer car I buy.

As 300 says its nice to try a few different cars especially at this price level. But i do need it to be as reliable as possible.

[snotrag]

Jesus TF Christ said:

I'm confused as to why you would change the civic for its MG cousin.
With uprated suspension your car is an absolute cracker.

Yup - me too - the ZS180 is effectively the same chassis as the car you've already got, no? A K-series car would give you the obvious potential bill, and the V6 is gonna use more fuel than the Honda engine...?

[Zingari]

I'd be inclined to keep. The knocking on turning the wheel sounds like a CV joint and is not a big job.

[Stoatman]

Yes I suppose that is true that they pretty much share a chassis. In fact I have recently done the rear bushes and fitted the rear ARB off the ZS180 to tighten things up a little. Maybe the MG wont actually be that much better.