Old daily (over 10 years) v New Running costs

[berendd]

I drive an 08 ford focus @ 60.000kms a year and it's still on just regular services so that's not more expensive as expected.

allthough I would suggest a mid 90ties family saloon as the most usefull daily. as long as parts are widely available and no big problems are known.. get something like a mk4 golf or focus mk1 if you need a cheap to run low service car..

[akku]

we had a '93 Mazda 626, brilliant car, never a fault, cheap to run, comfy, all that. SHould never have let the Mrs talk me into letting it go

[retrowagen1234]

me and a friend worked out the mpg of my old polo formal E (that nev now owns) and it was 3mpg off the polo bluemotions specs.... that was a y reg car!!! 1982! so in twenty five years they gained 3mpg... and they managed to make it look twonk in the process... at least mine looked like any other mk2 polo to anyone else... no one needed to know the original owner was tight and fuel consuous

[ben711200]

I usually budget £50 or so each month for 'car stuff', whether it's service costs or fun stuff, and normally go over that. I'm not sure what I actually spend on servicing because the first few months of ownership tend to end up with me sorting out the bits that PO neglected and then getting bored and flogging it on ;D

[ChasR]

This will sound silly, but on any car I say that if you can 'spend' less than £600 a year you are doing well.

The Focus adhered to this well even with the clutch being changed and me putting on another 50k onto its clock.

Peugeot didn't (306 GTi-6) but then being a Hot Hatch they are not quite pence to run to be honest (£800 a year (it never let me down and £600 of that was down to a cambelt change and exhaust replacement)).

Porsche is currently on £250 after 5 months.

Another thing to considering is hassle. Yes you can get less hassle with a new car but I beg to differ. You normally wait around in the dealership for quite a while as you get a courtesy car etc. and IME changing the oil on most cars take about 30 mins (alot quicker than going to a garage) hence the hassle arguably is not alot less if you are used to working on the car.

However I will admit it's nice having that feeling of will my car make it.

[bortaf]

I'm fortunate working in a shared workshop, the old boy who has the other half does al the new cars i do the old ones so comparisons are easy.
Here's one

Him...
BMW 530 D for it's first MOT (56 plate) it failed on rear tyres, cost £130 each PLUSS!!! £70 at the BMW dealers to turn off the runflat warning light!
and even then they only did it cos the threatend to sue em (he's a barrister) they said if he'd bought the tyres from then he'd get the light switched off for free, nice but the dealer wanted £219 each for the exact same tyres

Me...
Mk3 golf 1.4 on a J plate, for the same money i replaced the rear beam bushes, serviced the engine, replaced both front window winder mechs and glass, fitted 2 new front tyres, a S/H battery, sorted a wiring problem and MOT'd it ;D

The BMW did 28 - 32 MPG the golf about 2MPG better, OK they cost the same to pass the mot the differance was this was the first MOT the golf had ever failed the BM had 5 adviserys including rear bushes, strut top bushes, front discs and a clonking diff

Anything 1970s on is a viable daily you just need to have the spares in place for when it needs em, a little bit of forward planning is all it takes.

[Fiat Daft]

bought the wife a beetle cab for 10k last october,£100 service before we took it to the 'ring,no tryres or enything else at all,she is thinking about changing it so i valued it at work today,and it came up as £10250 in below average condition (it aint) so thats not too bad considering its got another 15k miles on it!

[Deleted]

Oct 1, 2009 20:25:04 GMT bortaf said:

a little bit of forward planning is all it takes.

A-men to that! When my D-I pump went it could have been expensive, i was lucky enough to have one up the loft, changed it my self for £0 in 2 hours.

Now i've used my "spare" I'm on the look out for another spare incase the same thing happens again save me an expensive repair.

[Lankytim]

Ive always had old cars as dailys and never had any real aggro, although the Audi has been a real pain. Since I threatened to scrap it a month or so ago things have been OK. To be fair the stuff that has gone wrong has been reasonably cheap and straightforward to fix and a newer car could have developed the same faults, and been more expensive to fix. As has been said, the key is to accept that old cars will need a little more TLC than a modern. It should work out a whole lot cheaper than running a "new"car- and a whole lot more fun!

The one thing that makes me lust after a newish car is the safety aspect. OK, you can be fine and feel smug about the money youve saved by running a 20 year old car as a daily but in the split-second it takes for a bad accident to happen youll really wish youd paid the finance and been sat in an 08 reg Focus and not an F plate Micra or similar...

I guess if you thought about it too hard youd never leave the house.

[Tim]

cars last in an inverse proportion to how much you like/need them - hence my much loved and pampered civic was terminally rusty, my two 106's died when i needed them (hated them but they were soooo cheap to run),

the 406 however will live forever, as i'q quite like something retro finally :-)

[Deleted]

my list..

1978 ford transit 2 years now.. mot fail totals in 2 years 18 quid.. servicing 30 quid? breakdowns.. none
1966 humber sceptre 3 years almost servicing maybe 40 quid? breakdowns 1 clutch 100 quid

moderns pug 405 est no breakdowns never failed an MOT 3 years now, only repairs front suspension bushes at 45 quid

so my modern and classics compare pretty well except for fuel economy.. both classics average about 23 to the gallon wheras the pug I think sneaks off at night and syphons the neighbours

[Harold Ramp Bumface Fandango]

I run modern(ish) cars and older stuff and have had no big problems with either.
I'd jump in my 1999 Astra and go anywhere in the world in it if I had to,and I'd also take my 1990 Micra anywhere too.

I suppose the trick is to do your homework on modern cars and try and eliminate ones that are known for causing trouble. It won't neccessarily stop you getting a duff one but might eliminate a few along the way.

[andyf]

What I cannot figure is that after all these years of the human race making cars, why do modern vehicles tend to have problems with things that should have been sorted years ago?

My Navara I bought from new. I have had the drive shafts, clutch, flywheel and clutch pedal (don`t ask) and the central locking unit replaced under warranty. That has now done 50k and is just 3 years old. It also has other ongoing problems that are being sorted out (still under warranty as they were reported to them last month).

I was also told that the front discs need replacing, these are chargeable though although servicing has always been done on time and pads changed before wearing right down.

None of my old vehicles that I have owned have ever had as many problems in all the years I have owned them. I am dreading to think what will go wrong next on the Navara now that the warranty is out.

[misteralz]

Oct 1, 2009 15:52:39 GMT dollywobbler said:

I think you just need a different mindset. I'd personally rather have the occasional need to tinker with things - which is easily done on an older design - than have a car that I'd have to take to a proper, expensive garage if something went wrong. The way I see it - for the cost of a new car (once you factor in finance, depreciation and servicing) I can own several older cars. Result surely?

Nail on head. Between me and my wife we own the following:

2002 Audi S3
2002 Audi TT
1992 mk2 GTI
1991 mk2 GTI with a VR6 in it
1994 Range Rover 300 TDi
1985 Audi Coupe Quattro
1978-ish Land Rover Lightweight

Some of those are projects, but we've usually got four cars road legal at any one time, so there's always something to use in reserve. Everything is owned outright. I think, at most, we spend about £3k per year on vehicles alone, which typically elicits that 'OMG, how on earth can you spend £500 per month on your cars, that's mad, that is. Why do you need so many, etc...' Well, we've each got a good quality, fast and reliable daily, either of which we could drive to Moscow tomorrow if we wished, and nothing would go wrong. We have a large old 4x4 because we live in the middle of nowhere and we do get snowed in. Owning livestock, being stuck in for days is not an option. Then there's my mk2 which is just a toy for sunny days but never fails to make me grin like a loon. Can one car cover all those bases? No. I also don't think we could get two Cayenne Turbos for £500 per month, which is the only thing which could come close. Then I usually drop the bombshell, 'So, how much is your Kia Spastic on finance costing you?'