How do you view keeping your car going in other countries, are you mean or thrifty?

[RobMc]

I have always worked on motorcycles, a bit on cars and at times in my life been responsible for the maintenance of dozens of large diesel engines (I love diesels), and following @TheLastColdBeer's refusal to buy a new car in a recent post, am interested in how many think like me and Beer, repair not renew? Horrifically it occurred to me that we might be considered 'green' God forbid. 

Now I know that there are different attitudes and needs in different countries, but in my entire lifetime I have only bought one new car, and that was a present for my wife, anyone else the same? This is not because of cost, but because I refuse to be ripped off with depreciation etc, but a problem is now appearing, I am no longer capable of doing some of the jobs, despite having thousands of pounds of tools, makes me sad. I now have to hand over the work to garages at great expense, or is it? You can keep any machine running forever against the two main enemies wear and rust, it gets more expensive the older they get, but generally this is due to parts availability. So heres my example of cheap? luxury motoring, not in the same league as @monkie's Porsche which will never be cheap, but it is nice, btw we have 3 cars between 2 people, works for us. We'll work in pounds but you can easily convert, that is if the UK is not insolvent by the time I press submit.

Firstly your 'mindset' do you consider any car to be just a means of transport or do you wish to display your wealth or big balls to the ladies/neighbours?, if the latter skip this post. We are talking paying the least you can, for the best you can, it has it's risks but if you're the gambling type or the practical type you can save many thousands and still have reliable transport. By the way, because it's new does not mean it's reliable, that is why manufacturers are reluctant to issue warranties over 3 years with a couple of exceptions. I will ignore the cost of services and tyres etc as these vary widely.

So here's my latest example of the many cars I've owned, supplied by a friend who owned a garage, I cannot fully bend my left leg and this car had a wide opening door and electric seats, a 2004 Mercedes S Class (facelift, important for paint reasons) 3.2 cdi straight six, so how have I done over 5 years and how much has it cost? It does not have a trace of rust on it, and I live by the sea.

Purchase price     (141,000 miles on the clock )                                                 £2500                          

I immediately bit the bullet and did the following

Refurbished set of wheels (on offer Ebay new)                                                 £400

All fluids changed, gearbox, diff, steering, brakes etc, new brakes all round,

New heater matrix and Rad, and pipes, plus other work                                    £2500

2 new level sensors at front                                                                                  £200

New air compressor (suspension)                                                                         £300

PSE pump (central locking)                                                                                    £400

 

Total spent                                                                                                               £6300

i.e. £1260 per year for luxury motoring, my kids are paying that in 3 months for rubbish, perhaps lucky but in my mind that's the 'way to go'

PS parts for these cars are horrific, for instance being old fashioned I like a dipstick for the oil, they have a sensor no dipstick, incredibly I was quoted £150 for an OEM one, got one off Ebay for £30. The PSE pump was anything from £3000 to £1000, if you could get one, I did the job myself and had mine rebuilt for £400 with a lifetime guarantee then it doesn't need recoding. Moral of the story hunt around, it's out there.

Oh by the way the car is currently valued at £2500, so if I sold it now even those costs would plummet, and no post is now complete without mentioning @Majbasil 

 

Edited October 17, 2022 by RobMc

[TheLastColdBeer]

My wife bought this car off the showroom floor in 2011. GM 0% financing, but we paid it off before Lori's passing away in 2016. I keep it because my lust for cars has dwindled to nothing, they're just a necessary nuisance. I used to love motorcycles, owning over 40 of them during my lifetime, but they don't thrill me anymore either. 

[RobMc]

44 minutes ago, TheLastColdBeer said:

I used to love motorcycles, owning over 40 of them during my lifetime

About the same as me, I used to keep 4 bikes and replace one a year, the one I truly regret selling was my T160 Triumph trident, a beautiful machine.

[lTplkey336]

My friend once owned a triumph trident and I was fortunate enough to get to ride it. Loved the bike. Was a lot faster than my 71 sportster. Learned to ride on my first bike , a stock 1970 BSA Thunderbolt that I got for a trade for my 1967 triumph TR4A car.

[MikeB]

In my 44 years of driving I have only purchased two new vehicles.  We buy 2 to 3 year old vehicles.  Let someone else take the depreciation hit.  As far as repairs I do them myself when I can.  I put in a car lift a few years back and it didn't take long to pay for itself in labor savings.  But I drive them till they fall apart from the rust !!

[TBB]

You must think I'm an >IDIOT< if I was going to read the whole thing!!

[rexbowan]

The electronics on the new cars make them difficult to fix yourself and it is never cheap. Not like it used to be if you were handy mechanically.

[RobMc]

5 hours ago, rexbowan said:

The electronics on the new cars make them difficult to fix yourself and it is never cheap. Not like it used to be if you were handy mechanically.

True, but on the plus side a decent scanner is fairly cheap and they can find faults quickly, I find it sad about the replace don't repair for some parts, used to be fun stripping them down and repairing them. It's not just cars, most bikes after the 1980's are the same.

It is amusing is that they are so sensitive now that you have the same amount of breakdowns we had before gadgetry, because a sensor fails or doesn't give the right signal to the ECU. I drove 1000 miles a week for 20 years and a particular high end make of a German car was the one I saw stopped by the side of the motorway the most. Out of boredom I took notice and began counting them, it ended up with a breakdown rate of 1.6/1 on my motorway figures compared to all other makes, give you a clue it wasn't Mercedes.

We've got a few technicians in the forums, wonder what they think?

Edited October 19, 2022 by RobMc

[NuTzOpaNts]

I'd have to Google the money conversions, but...to get my daughter's car up and running again for approx. $1,200 more than it was worth, the decision was based on knowing what the car has been through and what would be done with it.  Decided to not start over and go with a situation that I understood.

Looks like you did pretty good.

[Icequeen]

I used to hate eating Brussel sprouts when I was a child. Now I have to say and sadly admit I kind of like them. I needed to say that somewhere and this seemed the perfect place. 

[RobMc]

1 hour ago, Icequeen said:

I used to hate eating Brussel sprouts when I was a child. Now I have to say and sadly admit I kind of like them. I needed to say that somewhere and this seemed the perfect place. 

That's fine my dear, we all know you love tractors though (ploughing?), and this is the perfect place as most of us boys hate greens too, and liberals.

Good to have you back and someone I know for definite is not a snowflake, make me blush gal.

[TheLastColdBeer]

I feel a tangent swing coming for this thread, the winds are changing.

 

[RobMc]

Now just you all stop that now fckrs

Getting Rob to hijack his own threads 

 

 

[lTplkey336]

You are amazing Rob how you can take a topic about cars and turn it around 360 degrees into a hot and spicy new topic totally unrelated to automobiles LOL.

[MikeB]

Scanners are getting cheap.  And most auto parts stores will run "fault codes" for you.  Many sensors are easily replaced.  And YouTube video's abound on fixing specific vehicle issues.  We developed a bad rocker tick in our 2014 Chrysler Minivan and my wife said lets just buy a new one.  I told her thats crazy !!  The van is in excellent shape and there is zero oil usage.   So I bought a set of rockers for less than $100 and fixed it.  Took a few hours in labor, but its back to normal.   Even if I had to replace the motor, I would.  Cheaper than junking it and buying another.  

[TBB]

10 hours ago, Icequeen said:

I used to hate eating Brussel sprouts when I was a child. Now I have to say and sadly admit I kind of like them. I needed to say that somewhere and this seemed the perfect place. 

I love you  @Icequeen but Brussels Sprouts ? Brussels Sprouts??   Brussels Sprouts???

OK - for you I'll make the sacrifice 

 

 

[RobMc]

1 hour ago, TBB said:

I love you  @Icequeen but Brussels Sprouts ? Brussels Sprouts??   Brussels Sprouts???

OK - for you I'll make the sacrifice 

 

 

Ah Brussel Sprouts

The quickest end to a hot first date ever?

Ever played Dutch Ovens Queenie??

I'll bet she's a gas 

[Icequeen]

2 hours ago, RobMc said:

Ah Brussel Sprouts

The quickest end to a hot first date ever?

Ever played Dutch Ovens Queenie??

I'll bet she's a gas 

[TheLastColdBeer]

Oh no Rob, we're taking this thread by the helm. Check out the tires on this chassis.

[TBB]

1 hour ago, TheLastColdBeer said:

Oh no Rob, we're taking this thread by the helm. Check out the tires on this chassis.

My mechanic always told me to look under the "hood" 

[RobMc]

3 hours ago, TheLastColdBeer said:

Oh no Rob, we're taking this thread by the helm. Check out the tires on this chassis.

Where does the dipstick go??

[TheLastColdBeer]

I would hope all the equipment behaves as OEM designed. Never take anything for granted these days.

 

[RobMc]

1 hour ago, TheLastColdBeer said:

I would hope all the equipment behaves as OEM designed. Never take anything for granted these days.

 

I think @TBB uses Chinese copy, poor material, bends easily ?

[bds1961]

I have always kept my cars till they became more of a pain to keep them going and being dependable.  I have always had a job that required a lot of wheel time.  I am in my 6th car since I started driving 45 years ago. In that time the lowest mileage any of the cars I got rid of was at 90,000 miles. The rest where in the 250,000 to 320,000 range.  Only got rid of the one with the low mileage one was when the dealership had to replace a cam shaft that the engine decided it didn’t like ( was under warranty). They did the replacement with the engine still installed in the car. All the metal from the camshaft and lifters that was ground up over the year as it slowly went out was left in the engine. They never cleaned it out. After a huge fight I was given a huge discount on a new car.   Otherwise all my cars are driven till the time and cost of it being down isn’t worth it 

[RobMc]

13 minutes ago, bds1961 said:

I have always kept my cars till they became more of a pain to keep them going and being dependable.  I have always had a job that required a lot of wheel time.  I am in my 6th car since I started driving 45 years ago. In that time the lowest mileage any of the cars I got rid of was at 90,000 miles. The rest where in the 250,000 to 320,000 range.  Only got rid of the one with the low mileage one was when the dealership had to replace a cam shaft that the engine decided it didn’t like ( was under warranty). They did the replacement with the engine still installed in the car. All the metal from the camshaft and lifters that was ground up over the year as it slowly went out was left in the engine. They never cleaned it out. After a huge fight I was given a huge discount on a new car.   Otherwise all my cars are driven till the time and cost of it being down isn’t worth it 

Looks like there's a lot of us thinking the same? good to hear bds, doesn't surprise me about not flushing the engine. The great thing about keeping and maintaining is that you know exactly what has been done. I've took 3 cars to 200,000 miles in 3 years and 3 to 150,000 miles in 3 years, now I only do about 2000 miles a year but am hoping I live long enough to take this one to 250,000.

Now back to women