Keep my car or buy a new one?

[nazy1983]

Hi all,

Three years ago, I bought a Honda Civic 1.6 (53 plate) with 105k miles and FSH for £1k. I drove 15k miles since then and I have had almost no problems and expenses apart from the yearly services and brand new front suspensions. At the beginning of this year, I had a problem with a leakage of engine coolant, but without any consequences.

However, since I had the overheating problem, I started to look for a new car to buy with a budget of around £2-2.5k including the Civic as p/x and the possible options that I have identified are:
- Seat Leon mkII 1.4 TSI,
- Hyundai i30 1.4 or 1.6 / Kia Ceed 1.6 (they are essentially the same car),
- Toyota Auris 1.6 (possibly Valvematic).

Since the Honda will need a major service this year and cambelt change next year plus possible surprises from MOT, would you suggest to keep it and run it into the ground (with the usual maintenance and services) or to buy a new one?

Furthermore, I found on Autotrader this Leon (https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202004098904776) close to where I live with FSH and a quite good MOT history for £2.7k. I was thinking of offering £2.2k with p/x. It seems quite good to me apart from the fact that the ad has been there for a couple of months at least (untaxed since February) and it seems strange to me that nobody has bought it yet. Is there anything that I am missing?

Thanks for reading.

[jagot]

If there have been no problems with coolant leaking and overheating since you had it fixed, you've driven the Civic for 15k miles and otherwise sounds as if its reliable. All cars need servicing and maintenance, and you could be leaping into the unknown with the other options. If you were looking at something significantly newer, then I can imagine it might be worth it, but for the cars you're looking at, I'd be inclined just to run the Civic into the ground.

[nazy1983]

Thanks for your reply.

According to an independent garage, a broken rusty hose clips caused the leaking of the cooling fluid and that caused the overheating. They said not to drive it far because the overheating probably caused serious problems to the engine and it is not worth fixing it because of the low value of the vehicle. The official Honda garage quoted me £120 for the diagnostics of the engine in order to investigate possible damages.
However, I drove it 2.5k miles since then for short commuting trips (5miles each way) plus one long journey (about 100 miles) and I didn't have any problems.

[Bensontoast]

Leon, good car, cheap to maintain

[ZX10R NIN]

Astra Elite

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202...

SRI

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202...

Focus Titanium

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202...

Both of the above will be a reliable set of wheels.

[Ransoman]

nazy1983 said:

Thanks for your reply.

According to an independent garage, a broken rusty hose clips caused the leaking of the cooling fluid and that caused the overheating. They said not to drive it far because the overheating probably caused serious problems to the engine and it is not worth fixing it because of the low value of the vehicle. The official Honda garage quoted me £120 for the diagnostics of the engine in order to investigate possible damages.
However, I drove it 2.5k miles since then for short commuting trips (5miles each way) plus one long journey (about 100 miles) and I didn't have any problems.

I don't think you need to worry about engine damage from overheating. Just carry on driving.

as it is a 17 year old Japanese car, have a very close look at the floorpan and sills for rust. if you find any, prod it firmly with a screwdriver. If you break through the panel then the shell has had it and the car won't be worth fixing with the other bills on the horizon. If there is no rust then don't worry and drive the car into the ground.

[nazy1983]

Ransoman said:

I don't think you need to worry about engine damage from overheating. Just carry on driving.

as it is a 17 year old Japanese car, have a very close look at the floorpan and sills for rust. if you find any, prod it firmly with a screwdriver. If you break through the panel then the shell has had it and the car won't be worth fixing with the other bills on the horizon. If there is no rust then don't worry and drive the car into the ground.

Thanks for your comment.

As far as I know, there is no rust and it has never come out in any service/MOT.
Somewhere else, somebody suggested to skip the cambelt change next year and just run it to the ground until it lasts. Do you agree?

[Ransoman]

nazy1983 said:

Thanks for your comment.

As far as I know, there is no rust and it has never come out in any service/MOT.
Somewhere else, somebody suggested to skip the cambelt change next year and just run it to the ground until it lasts. Do you agree?

Difficult question really. If the car was something special and in good condition but still not worth much, I would definitely change the cambelt. If it was fairly common and had loads of other issues, I wouldn't bother on the grounds that I would scrap it and buy something newer it if it snaps. At that age, there are several other big issues that may end up writing it off before the cambelt fails. Clutch, gearbox, bottom end, corrosion etc.

[nazy1983]

The car is a fairly common Honda Civic mk7 and probably the cost of the cambelt change is higher than the value of the car itself (valued £300 on webuyanycar). It has few extra problems due to the age: noisy clutch, AC not working, few bumps, cooling/engine fans not working.
That's why I wasn't sure if to keep it in the first place or to try to obtain anything from it as part exchange for a new car