Repairs are starting to depress me.. when is enough?

[macca]

first owner cops the depreciation loss, second owner is the winner, third owner cops the expensive repair bills

doesnt matter if its cars, boats, or aeroplanes

buy second hand but as young as you can afford and then look after it and it will look after you

[Nat]

Hi,

Its all pot luck. My first E53 4.4 was trouble free. The second  E53 4.8 was a pig.  Mt E32 735 was faultless for the 3 years I had it, even though it cost £1200 and everything worked.
Back in the day when I was potless I bought an audi 80 sport with 240 k on the clock and no history from a mate who was a dealer. He had taken it in px. That car ran faultlessly for the 18 months I had it.  Same with the 2 scirocco's gti's I had. However the brand new G40 I had was just a joke, and was so bad that in the end VW had it back. Never had another  VW since . Renault 5 gt turbo I had was even worse and that one went back as well.  There is no rhyme or reason, I really look after my cars, some are great and some are just horrible.
Its pot luck. And as with investments, past performance is no gtee of future performance.

[ChrisLux]

Bought my 5/05 3.0d 5 years ago from a family friend with 86,000 kms on it .

Had to replace battery and starter motor (well known problem) in first couple of months and since then it's
been extremely reliable and not cost too much in maintenance apart regular servicing .

This August on 197,000 kms I decided to make a precautionary turbo change as it has started to squeal like the bearings were wearing out , at £1500 that's the biggest bill I've had to pay .

Will keep on driving mine , last 3 BMW's I've sold have all had well over 250,000 KMS on clock and were all
still going strong 

[entropy]

Cheers for the replies guys.

Think i'll still plug away with her providing this Friday's MOT doesn't throw anything nasty at me.

its a lovely car but the repair bills do sting a bit when they come round.

AW8 - Sounds like we getting similar bills, although we are only doing around 5k a year.

[AW8]

Indeed........It's hit & miss and in honesty in last year I have done nearer to 5k than 10k. I also drive the car with some respect for its mileage & maturing years........especially when first driven from cold.

The £1k p/a a rough average........I can have over 12 months with little or nothing & then a big bill over £1k.

On V8 M62 engine as ours do keep an eye on water pump & belt condition and if sorting get stat done too -  don't leave out vulnerable connectors/hoses.

Alternator worth getting output & bearing condition checked too as if it siezes it can do the PAS pump.

Don't want to tempt fate talking of other known issues .

[entropy]

I'm hoping 2014 will be my year of minimal repairs.

Lucky for me most of the big bits have been done by the previous owner.

So far she's had

New Steering Rack (this bill was £2,300) Glad it wasn't during my ownership
New Alternator
New Battery
Rear Bushes
Rocker Gaskets
New Heater
New Coolant tank
New Boots
New Control Arms
2 New Carriers
plus all regular servicing etc

[Drpellypo]

I think a lot of it is down to who's owned the car and how it's been driven. I just traded in my 2002 Audi a6 with 197,000 on the clock. I bought it with 160,000 from a guy who had owned it from brand new. He was an RAF engineer; used to work on jets. That mentality meant he pre-emptively fixed things, so stuff he knew was a weak spot was done before it broke. In the 3 years I had it, I didn't do a single thing. Nothing. Not brakes, not suspension, bushes, gaskets, nothing. 37,000 miles of completely trouble free motoring from the day I bought it til the day I got rid. The car was driven mostly motorway by both me and previous owner, and for the 9 years the previous owner had it. It was garaged every night.

The X5 I've just bought has been with garage for a week now with pretty much every common fault going, all of which will be repaired under warranty, or I'm rejecting the car! I'm hoping this means I'll have similar hassle free motoring, but as said, it can also be down to pot luck.

[Drpellypo]

Oh and with regard to when to part company, I know a guy who has a preface lift with 250,000 miles on it. He keeps repairing it because in his eyes, as long as the engine is ok, everything else factored in, it still works out cheaper than buying new and you know where you are with a car you've had for ages. Another friend had an Audi a8 which he used as an airport chauffeur car and it had 450,000 miles on it when he traded it in. Believe it or not, nothing spectacularly major failed on it in all that time.

[Horizon]

I agree with what you are saying to a degree.
I like to change my cars every 2 years, I get bored with them. I usually sort out all the problems, and then sell them on at a loss! I know its stupid and not economically correct, and I usually regret parting with them at some later date, but as some people do with Wives, its good to try something new every now and again 

[Smeeagain]

Why not just keep the car and throw tenners out the window every 17 hours. Or send them to me

Smee

[Jayx5]

I would rather have my 11 year old x5 and keep fixing it rather than buying a newer car that loses more in depreciation in the first couple of years than my x5 will cost to run for 5! My neighbour has lost £10k on his 320d estate over 2 years, he bought it to save money on fuel but didnt factor in depreciation!