Repair a car of scrap it?

[Kris]

Last night the clutch failed on my car as I was driving home. As yet I don't have much of an idea as to how much this is going to cost to fix, but I am sure that it will cost more to fix than the car is worth. As such I'm in a quandary. Do I fix get the car fixed (I don't have the time, tools or facilities to do this myself). Of do I scrap it / flog it for spares and replace the car. I was looking to replace it in about 9 months time after I had finished my course and had a job. At the moment I don't have the funds to replace it in the way that I was expecting to be able to, so any replacement would be most likely a very similar car, but with slightly fewer miles on it.

[skipepsi]

If you tell us the make and model of the car and where you live then a more accurate answer is possible.

[Kris]

I live in Devon. It's a volvo v40

[pirouets]

Personally I have never been convinced of the "its costs more to repair than its worth" element as what ever happens the new car will cost more. Given what you said about finishing a course and getting a job in 9 months time, it sounds like a fix time to me. Then when you have the job and are 100% sure its time. You may find that replace the clutch, and it runs fine for some time. I used to have a Sierra and I made a comment to the garage that serviced it that I was thinking of changing it as it had done 140,000 miles, and there comment was "Its just run in, and we've never really had to do anything huge to it." In the end someone nicked it and wrote it off which mad ethe decision for me.

 

I guess what I am trying so badly to say is look at your past bills and what shocks have there been in the past. if there is a track record of this thing, then look at the replacement, otherwise, fix it.

 

Biggest mistake my wife and I made was flogging an old mini metro MG she had because it had had an expensive service. The car it was replaced with firstly cost us £1300 and then had to be MOT'd, serviced, etc, and things went wrong on that one as well. We should have kept the MG metro, plus it was a far more fun car to drive as you could throw it around on country lanes

[smudgeloco]

Buying a new "old" car is just taking a big gamble! No guarantees that it will be reliable, etc.

In this instance, better the devil you know.

If the car has become a money pit, one where you are constantly spending money to keep it on the road, then it becomes a dilemma - keep spending, or cut loses?

[PMP]

Last night the clutch failed on my car as I was driving home. As yet I don't have much of an idea as to how much this is going to cost to fix, but I am sure that it will cost more to fix than the car is worth. As such I'm in a quandary. Do I fix get the car fixed (I don't have the time, tools or facilities to do this myself). Of do I scrap it / flog it for spares and replace the car. I was looking to replace it in about 9 months time after I had finished my course and had a job. At the moment I don't have the funds to replace it in the way that I was expecting to be able to, so any replacement would be most likely a very similar car, but with slightly fewer miles on it.

 

A quick google search indicates that a V40 clutch kit is about £200 beer tokens.

http://www.partsforvolvosonline.com/product_info.php?products_id=5989

There are relatively cheap 'chains' that do them, eg Mr Clutch, (google), that you can get an idea of pricing on over the phone, they should have a 'price menu'. Speak to an independant Volvo garage(google), choose a relatively local one, as they'll have local overhead costs, and get an idea of the complexity of the job, eg engine out etc etc.

Depending on how much elses needs doing and the general age/condition of the car, how much MOT is left, it's well worth considering a repair. You'll get a very low amount from a scrappie, and a quick look on autotrader indicates that you need above a grand to get a V40. I'd try and find a good local garage with a good reputation and see what prices they quote for a repair. As others have said unlesss you know the history and/or owners of another 'old' car, you obviously have the potential to buy a turkey, costing far more if that develops or has problems. I currently run a R plate Pug 306, which now has 185k+ on it. It has one or two minor problems, that I just live with, but its reliability is such that I just keep on running it. If your is similar in that its generally 'good' then if money is tight I'd probably look to do the clutch. Any similar car you buy will also depreciate at a similar level and that is another cost factor to consider.

[Tony_S]

A tank of petrol and a couple of new tyres would probably be equal to the "worth" of my car. However if the clutch went I'd have it replaced as the car is generally reliable, cheap to run and I don't care if the dog makes the back muddy. I'd have to spend a lot more than having the clutch done at a good local garage to get another suitable vehicle. Two years ago the insurance wanted to write it off after I was rear ended as they said the repair was more than the value. That took some negotiating to overcome.

 

Tony

[great central]

As others have said, weigh up the repair cost against what you are going to have to pay for another car.

I've recently had to give up on my old car (Rover 214 SEI), lovely to drive, economical, cheap to insure. :icon_thumbsup2: Paid £370 for it three and a half years ago. Finally though, the head gasket went for the second time around Christmas, tried living with a Land Rover Discovery I had but, being a V8, the petrol it got through was too much even though it sounded superb with a straight through exhaust :icon_e_biggrin: , around 15mpg

Went and bought a Rover 418 diesel around the end of January, paid £120 for it, no MOT but with about £200 spent on it, if I include a cost for labour, I'm hoping it'll last acouple of years at least, turns in over 50mpg as well!

I've never got the idea of don't bother repairing cars unless they are really beyond, like mine is with a major engine fault which would need either a new engine or full rebuild. :icon_cry:

I'd say fix yours, unless there are other issues with it. You could, of course, fall for the temptation of the scrappage scheme, but if it were me, I'd want an equivalent car to what I was trading in, so I'd guess in your case you need to find at least £10,000 to add to your car. The other option is buying something very small and cheap with depreciation to zero in about 4 years, just as you finish paying for it :icon_grumpy:

Regarding getting it fixed, give a Volvo dealer a call, we found that, at least for parts, the local Volvo dealer was cheaper than even the spares retailers. Everybody wants the business, if they know you are not in the market for another car, it'll give the workshop some work at least. :icon_thumbsup2:

[Jenny Emily]

I've always had old cars, because you get a lot more car for your money, especially with Volvos. A Volvo is just about always far cheaper to run than an old Fiesta or 'cheap' car because they are so well engineered.

 

I've had work done to my old Volvo 850 that comes to twice the value of the car. However it is still always cheaper than the hidden costs of buying a new car. The only time I draw the line is when the mileage on the clock reaches close to 250,000 and something major needs doing like a differential. Usually only then will a reliable car like a Volvo become a money pit (as lots of other componants will also be reaching the end of their life) as happened with my previous Volvo.

 

As some-one else has posted, clutches aren't the most expensive thing in the world to replace, and every car will need one or two of them to reach a high mileage, so there's nothing unusual in having to replace one. It is not necessarily a sign that a succession of expensive repairs are on their way. If you are confident that you have looked after the vehicle and that it is otherwise in good shape, the repair will always be cheaper than the depreciation on a new car and even the up front money you have to find to buy a replacement car. You also have little chance of knowing that the new car isn't a few thousand miles away from needing a new clutch either.

[Robert]

Better the devil you know, than the devil you don't.

 

Get the clutch changed by a good local garage. Sometimes pleading poverty will get a few quid knocked off the bill. I'd avoid places like Mr. Clutch/ Kwik fit like the plague - but that's a personal opinion. I am sure others will have a different one.

 

As others have said, a new clutch on a high mileage car isn't anything to be too bothered about. It is only when it starts to become a bottomless money pit that you really need to think about changing it.

[great central]

Just remembered a company Ford Escort I used to drive, I had it for just under three years, did around 100,000 from new and had SIX clutches in that time

I never had to have clutches in any other car, and a Morris marina I owned from 18 months old, with 10,000 on the clock only needed a clutch at about 115,000 miles.

[Kris]

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions. This will be the first clutch I have put on the car (I suspect it will be the first that it has had). Given that it is a high milage car that's not so bad.

[stewartingram]

I've always taken the view - look after what you have. With a car, I've always done my own maintenance (with minor exceptions in the past couple of years). For instance, replace the brake shoes; Parts + labour cost equals parts + cost of tools to do job, then next time, only parts to buy! And some of the tools are used on other maintenance jobs anyway. Result is, that you get to know the car, if it does break down you know how to fix it, or at least enough to get home so you can do it properly. Eventually the car becomes "worthless" in trade terms, but YOU know it inside out, & can predict when things will wear out, and have become good at sourcing good prices for spares. Forget Halfords (aka HalFrauds) and the like, go to motor factors and pay trade prices. Don't forget scrappies too, though they are becoming more like spare part dealers nowadays!

I'm now 61, been driving since 1967. My total car ownership in that time is as follows:

Austin A30 (12 yrs) £50

Hillman Hunter (3 months, half of which was off the road) Bought this for £300 as a bigger car for a growing family. Big mistake.

Morris Marina £75 (4 years, then made redundant so went upmarket with an Ital, 6 month old demonstrator with a massive discount.

Morris Ital £3000 - expensive! (12 years)

Rover Sterling 825 about £875? (rebuilt into a late 827 version after a major engine failure)

Rover Sterling 827 £2000? (purchased after cambelt failure on previous)

Rover Sterling 827 £1000? (as above, sudden water pump failure causing cambelt failure) Converted this to lpg, written off at 10mph on black ice 250yds from home!

Rover Sterling 827 £300? (purchased cheaply from dealer, interior had to be totally replaced from previous car, and lpg transferred)

Rover 75 V6 2.5 £4000 from dealer. Excellent car, replaced the 827 as a more modern luxury car, about 2-1/2 yrs ago. DIY converted to lpg again. Maintained by me still, though I have had the odd job done by local garage (special tools etc) - think I deserve this at my age!

Forget the popular press, keep away from Fords , not built to last. Yes Austin/Leyland/Rover/whatever the name of the month was got a bad press, but they've done me proud. I've stuck with the marque (as I like it) but have stayed with familiar engineering, which has progressed with time, but I can still understand it. As you can see, not an awful oulay over the years. Spares not that much either.

Don't forget that manufacturers are there to sell; so are dealers and everyone else. Hence the high depreciation of car values. BUT to you, a car you know and trust is worth more.

[37114]

Go for the clutch, I had a new clutch put in my renault at 199k, carried on to 215k before the gearbox disintegrated, which was just enough time for me to start my new job and save up for a focus.

[Bruciethefish]

I'm with the general concencus;- get the clutch done, & shop around for quotes before booking it in anywhere. Just one question;- did it start slipping, which is a sign of a worn-out clutch, or is there some other fault, like not disengaging... If the latter, your cable might just have bust, which would be cheap & quick to fix, the cable may also have frayed causing a stiff or unreliable action... It's rare for the actual clutch plates to fail suddenly, usually there's a lot of slipping going on before the car will no longer propel itself, & it may be worth getting someone mechanical to give it a quick look over, just in case..

[Kris]

I'm with the general concencus;- get the clutch done, & shop around for quotes before booking it in anywhere. Just one question;- did it start slipping, which is a sign of a worn-out clutch, or is there some other fault, like not disengaging... If the latter, your cable might just have bust, which would be cheap & quick to fix, the cable may also have frayed causing a stiff or unreliable action... It's rare for the actual clutch plates to fail suddenly, usually there's a lot of slipping going on before the car will no longer propel itself, & it may be worth getting someone mechanical to give it a quick look over, just in case..

 

It started slipping, getting progressively worst as I was driving home, until it would not propel itself. In the process of doing this it appears that the flywheel also let go, oh the joy of cars!

[skipepsi]

If the flywheel has let go ie left the end of the crankshaft then it is time to price up a replacement engine and gearbox. Then you can weigh up the prices and make a decision.

[Captain Kernow]

Kris - if you need details of a potentially 'good but cheap' garage in our neck of the woods (near Marley Head), plus a car scrap yard just up the lane from him, send me a PM!

[Kris]

Thanks for the offer Tim. Maybe next time, but it currently being looked after by another. Hopefully they will have all the parts by Monday.