Longevity - Lack of
Discussion
Keep it stiff said:
Sitting in traffic alongside a breakers truck with three cars stacked on it, a 52 plate, a 53 plate and a 55 plate, none had collision damage. As a random trio heading to the breakers yard are these ages representative of typical longevity we should expect?
Depends what the cars were. electrical or mechanical issues easily cost more than a10 year old car is worth.Keep it stiff said:
Sitting in traffic alongside a breakers truck with three cars stacked on it, a 52 plate, a 53 plate and a 55 plate, none had collision damage. As a random trio heading to the breakers yard are these ages representative of typical longevity we should expect?
A few years back a 15 year old car would be a rust bucket, cars last much longer now. Part of the problem these days is car finance is so easy that less people want / need to drive a shed + the ever increasing pressure to remove old dirty cars from the roads.Back in 1991, my dad replaced his ten year old W reg Volvo 240 with a new one. At the time ( I was 11 and just getting interested in cars), I remember thinking that it had done really well because there were very few W reg or older cars on the road.
These days there are loads of 07 and 57 reg cars around, and they don't even look that old or dated in most cases
These days there are loads of 07 and 57 reg cars around, and they don't even look that old or dated in most cases
Well, here's a HI, from someone who's running a W reg, a 51 plate, a 53 plate, a 55 plate, and an 08 plate. I normally do 1 or 2 big jobs on something every year, but no depreciation. (and no touch screens). They can be made to run indefinitely with a bit of skill and love. - though it's going to be the electrical failure that kill them eventually. I had a 1930 swift in the workshop last year, and I reckon I could have run that for another 90 years with basic tools and wearing parts. Not so easy to make an obsolete 90 year old ECU run correctly
It’s a generalisation of course, but I’d suggest it’s representative of modern-day, non-enthusiast car expectations.(sadly).
With the seemingly unstoppable rise of the £/month lifestyle, anything 10+ years old & ‘vanilla’ is just not desired in the image/status obsessed UK.
The same isn’t true in Europe, or indeed many other countries. The UK really does have a unique 2nd hand market, cars are much cheaper here than most other places.
Examples:
We’ve got a 2005 ford fiesta 1.4 zetec in Cyprus, it’s just ticked over 100,000km. The paint is faded to buggery from the sun, and panels have scratches & dents galore, but it’s otherwise mechanically fine. It’d go for 4k Euros, in less than a week. The same car here is <£1k.
https://home.mobile.de/A-M-AUTOCENTER#ses
I used to walk past that place in 2016 quite regularly, and popped in for a chat a few times. All his stock of Merc v8’s appears to have been shifted & replaced by Audi - there’s a definite downgrade in the quality of the cars listed, but the prices on the whole are still a good few thousand higher, like for like vs. UK.
So yes, a 15 yr old car is viewed as ‘ancient’ by the public in general...
With the seemingly unstoppable rise of the £/month lifestyle, anything 10+ years old & ‘vanilla’ is just not desired in the image/status obsessed UK.
The same isn’t true in Europe, or indeed many other countries. The UK really does have a unique 2nd hand market, cars are much cheaper here than most other places.
Examples:
We’ve got a 2005 ford fiesta 1.4 zetec in Cyprus, it’s just ticked over 100,000km. The paint is faded to buggery from the sun, and panels have scratches & dents galore, but it’s otherwise mechanically fine. It’d go for 4k Euros, in less than a week. The same car here is <£1k.
https://home.mobile.de/A-M-AUTOCENTER#ses
I used to walk past that place in 2016 quite regularly, and popped in for a chat a few times. All his stock of Merc v8’s appears to have been shifted & replaced by Audi - there’s a definite downgrade in the quality of the cars listed, but the prices on the whole are still a good few thousand higher, like for like vs. UK.
So yes, a 15 yr old car is viewed as ‘ancient’ by the public in general...
Keep it stiff said:
Sitting in traffic alongside a breakers truck with three cars stacked on it, a 52 plate, a 53 plate and a 55 plate, none had collision damage. As a random trio heading to the breakers yard are these ages representative of typical longevity we should expect?
A 53 reg car will be about 14 years old, which I believe is the average life of a car today. I wouldn't be surprised if that is more than only a few years ago when terminal rust was more of a problem.Sheepshanks said:
Prinny said:
The same isn’t true in Europe, or indeed many other countries. The UK really does have a unique 2nd hand market, cars are much cheaper here than most other places.
Colleagues from elsewhere in Europe are always gobsmacked by how cheap our used cars are.Sheepshanks said:
I'm running a 54 reg Merc and almost anything that went wrong with it would render it an economic write off.
It would if you had half a brain / are economy minded.If you're me, it means you'll throw multiple times what the car is worth to make it properly nice, and then sell it for a fraction of the spares you've fitted..... Let alone the purchase price!
Justin Case said:
Is this why I regularly see car transporters with East European registrations on the M6 laden with 5-10 year old Audis?
I guess so. On another forum a member sold an old Mondeo on eBay to a guy from Poland. He flew over and drove it back, explaining that he converts them to LHD and sells them. Incredible how there could be enough money in it to do all that, and make a profit.You have to bear in mind that in many European countries, taxes on new cars are astronomical. That is why they run old cars, not some deep sociological reason.
People seem to be moaning about one thing that is actually better in the UK. We have some of the best value used cars in the world. Sadly not quite as good value as they used to be, now that approved dealers have cornered the marked in decent 36-month-old cars thanks to all the PCP and lease returns. But there I go, moaning like the rest of them. We still have one of the best value used car markets anywhere.
People seem to be moaning about one thing that is actually better in the UK. We have some of the best value used cars in the world. Sadly not quite as good value as they used to be, now that approved dealers have cornered the marked in decent 36-month-old cars thanks to all the PCP and lease returns. But there I go, moaning like the rest of them. We still have one of the best value used car markets anywhere.
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