What would you consider a big repair bill?

Not to be smart but how long is a piece of string?

Depends on the car, labour rate, some parts might be dealer only, so very expensive.

I knew I had the potential for a bill for roughly half the value of the car coming up (new steering rack). Couldn’t justify it so I traded it in for a new car.

That’s my barometer for a big bill.

North of 1k is expensive. Have my car 10 years, and the most expensive work done was the timing belt and service 700 notes together. I get the cousin now to service the car, change oil etc costs be 70 euro a year. Only changed discs ones, and pads every 3 or 4 years.

My Porsche 911 went in for a service in 2017 and they diagnosed Bore scoring

i had to bite the bullet ..

17k all in ....have it over 12 years now .. but when things go wrong they go spectacularly wrong...in a ring the credit union way ....

its been reliable enough and i drove to Belfast in it last weekend and it did 33mpg / 8.6 l/100km

i bought it for a steal in 2010 .. when you couldn't sell them at all

if i sold it tomorrow i would probably break even on all the maintaince / things i replaced + original cost etc

so overall it has been a cheap car

You never mentioned what car.

Sorry Range Rover tdv8....and I'd say I didn't fare too bad compared to some over 5 years even adding fairly standard yearly maintenance on top of that....it got moved on before yhe most recent demands it made...

I still miss it.....when you weren't stressing out about the next bill it was hands down the most comfortable car I've ever driven and no slouch on the road either.

Yeah, but that would seriously limit the amount of money car dealerships would make on sales due to people not trading and buying new.

The thing is, if you really want to get maximum value from your car, be it a new or an 2nd hand one, you literally drive it into the ground, paying all the costs along the way, This happens quite a lot in other Country's, but here in Ireland we are funneled into changing our cars regularly. The whole system is geared to you changing your car regularly, which means for most people, borrowing each time you change your car. Keeps the car dealerships, the banks and the Government happy. Just try getting insurance on any 10- or 12-year-old car here,,,yet that's not a problem in other countries, once the car has a valid NCT. Anyway, the moral is, if you want to get maximum value and return for your investment in your car, be prepared to drive it to the very end.

Great topic. Have a tendency to buy 5 or 6 year old car and run it for 7 or 8 years. Maybe more. However as some have said this is getting less economical to do because of part, labour and general repairability costs.

The emerging trend ind relation to cars are they are being marketed like a phone, with newer/better features in a newer car which coupled with the repairsbility issues make a mockery of the environmental concerns.

On the topic I have a Bill close to 1k on a ten year old car currently after spending 500 a few weeks ago and 600 earlier in the summer on it. Car work about 5 or 6k but have had it about 5 years.

I would find it hard justify buying a newer car after recent investment in this one but car costs in general really annoy me.

Thanks amacca. That took a bit or writing!!! So, I'll be having a rethink, 🤔. I've heard plenty about how comfortable they are, but benefits are outweighed by the problems.

All that you said about the electronics in modern cars I agree with 100%, especially the electric hand brake. In my last car, an 2014 E class MB, it actually worked perfectly in terms of holding on a hill or at the lights, and moved off smoothly when the accelerator was pressed, but in my latest acquisition, a 2.0 VW Passat, has an automatic hill hold function, but it can slip slightly between the time it releases and starts to move forward. With bumper-to-bumper traffic stopped on a hill, its nerve-wracking, so I just use the manual switch, and let the engine overcome the brakes. Its not the best practice in the world when it comes to wear and tear, but given today's compo culture, its the best option.

A very positive point with the Range Rovers, in their sales spin, the salesman was saying Quote " Unfortunately perhaps, but with some very rare exceptions, the majority of Rover drivers will never experience what this car is really capable of." unquote. For once a salesman was telling the truth. They are fantastic, I've seen one mount a high footpath (12 inches) from a standing start. He put the front wheels against the footpath, and fiddled around with some switches, and accelerated. You could feel the power building up, and then up it climbed onto the path. Remarkable performance. They do what it says on the tin, so all the more its a pity the glitches they are prone to.

Well, if you track your mileage from date of purchase, and all costs involved, Purchase price, fuel, tax insurance etc (Thats what I do myself, but at one stage in my life, it was part of my job) Then add up your total costs over the year, and divide the costs by the mileage, so you get your costs per KLM. You will find that each year your costs per mile will reduce, even if you hit a high-cost year, when expensive repairs were needed, over time these will average out. The main thing is how long you are prepared to keep the car. The longer the better.

When it was working it was the best luxury jeep I ever had .... it could tow too, on the rare occasion I had to tow with it, it had to tow very heavy loads and you would hardly know they were there. A peach of an engine with bags of power imo.....

Pity about the other stuff.

That would be a game changer all right....I wonder what went wrong? Easy to see how and why every 2 years some people religiously change their cars, especially when they hear about cases like this. While the best way to recover some value from this would be to drive it into the ground, having an obviously important part like this fail, would make anyone lose confidence in the car itself. And generally, while any make can have problems (check Car-Recalls.eu) I'd have confidence in the Audi brand, having owned an A6 at one stage.

The problem with modern cars and their electronics, is that the whole electrical system is interlinked, just like a spider's web, a fault in one area, can cause problems in another, plus when a part needs replacing, it has to be "introduced" to the system to get it to "accept! it. Then there are simple things like light bulbs, which were minor items in the past when it came to replacement, not anymore, in lots of cases now, you will have to replace the whole light unit,,,and that can be pricy. And list goes on and on. On the subject of main dealer V indys, bear in mind that behind the fancy frontage and plush waiting area, the quality of the service boils down to the mechanic. Hes the important one, so I'd have no hesitation in using the Indie. He will not have the same overheads as the main dealer, so can be more competitive in pricing. if you find a good one, hang on to him, and it will pay dividends.

I couldn't agree more tbh

They are just another source of unnecessary stress in life afaic

well now, I'm a independent Land rover specialist, and I couldn't have explained it better myself.

Well, I'd be VAG / FORD myself, and worked a bit with Toyota also. Well out of the car business now after more years than I care to think about, but still like to follow what's happening...but now.at a safe distance though☺️ A few years ago, a friend of mine called me and said very excitedly, I've just bought a Range Rover,,,top spec, and you won't believe the bargain I got. Come and have a look. So I did, and he put it through its paces, and it was impressive, to say the least, armchair like comfort, enough switches and warning lights to make you think you were in the cockpit of a Boeing 747. But the delight was shortlived,,,and he soon found out why he had got such a bargain. It literally broke his heart, and 3 mths later, he traded it in for something more reliable. And now, a few mths ago, another friend has bought one. Again, top spec, lovely looking car, and he intends to rejuvenate it as he says himself. I can't help but admire his optimism, considering he is an IT engineer, and this will be his hobby. We will see. If you had to list the 5 (or more) things most prone to failure in the Range Rover, what would they be? And once rectified / replaced, how likely are they to give trouble again?

Thanks,

Jim.

Definitely, overall modern cars are generally much more reliable, and capable of greater mileage then the ones made in the 60' 70's 80's etc. Of course, back then driving conditions were much worse too. The older cars may have been easier to fix (which was just as well as the frequently broke down) But any village worthy of the name would have its own garage and be doing good business. Oil and filter changes were set at 3'000 miles for VW, and 5'000 miles for the majority of other makes. Anything with 70'000 + on the clock would be considered as to be soon needing an engine. Tyres, after 5'000 miles would be entering the "Bald" category, and needing re-molding. So yes modern cars are much better in every way.

Guy I work with had repeated expensive problems a few years back with the electric handbrake on a Passat, left him stranded at least once. Stupid device, a solution in search of a problem. Probably invented because Americans can't drive properly - for the few who have manuals over there, you can actually buy stickers which say this 🙄

Wouldn't it be easier to just say "Caution - Incompetent at wheel" ?

In the 70s and 80s my mother's cousin drove a succession of Renault 4Ls. Traded in every year for the next brand new one. Got a lift in one or the other a few times, the gearstick coming horizontally out of the dash was mad. I suppose the cost to change would have been quite predictable each time and she never had a car out of warranty. A sort of PCP plan before PCP was invented!

We bought a Corolla 15 years ago (it was 3 years old then) and fully intend to run it into the ground. Has been ultra cheap motoring up until now anyway - apart from tyres, wipers, oil, filters, the only expense has been an electronic flasher relay (about €60, going around the Walkinstown roundabout to the Toyota parts depot on hand signals was 'fun') and one set of brake pads all round which turned out to not really be needed but I changed them anyway, cheap parts and an easy DIY job. Petrol so no DPF etc worries, and chain cam engine so no belts to snap. It averaged 6.0L/100km the last time I went Dublin-Galway and back. It's still under 60k miles though so maybe the engine is still a bit tight 😝

My motorbikes cost me a lot more to run but that's another story 😊

But to answer the thread question - the car isn't worth much but its history is known, good cheap low mileage replacement cars are very hard to find, so we'd probably be prepared to pay as much as its book value to keep it going provided we were confident that the repair would work in the long term.

As others have said, the size of a bill is all relative.

You have to be clever when buying in the first place. Cars older than about 6 or 7 years, even with average mileage, are going to start racking up the bills, but by researching the brands, you can save thousands.

For example, certain engine types that may be shared across a few brands might have a poor record for eating through flywheels, clutches, mountings, turbos, throttle bodies, torque convertors, whatever. They're the sort of things that will begin to crop up on a 140k km car, even on one immaculately kept and serviced diligently.

My wife's motor is a 10 year old Volvo. Lovely driver, nicely specced, very economical. But I've already done the clutch and flywheel, various suspension bits and bearings, BCM module and its about to get its third belt and water pump.

I would estimate that over and above the annual service costs, I've spent ~€6,000 in just under 6 years.

I got the car very cheap indeed, with knowledge that some ongoing costs may be high, but thats the trade off.

Is a grand a year a big bill to keep an older car going? Maybe. But what would I be paying to PCP a new car of similar spec and economy? Probably 4k a year. Just to fund depreciation.

Horses for courses I'd say.

Me personally I think now would be the time to sell before you have to pay the big bills. I just couldn’t justify doing a timing belt and a clutch on an 07 Fiesta.

They sound like big and expensive jobs but might be cheaper than you thing. I used to have a 02 1.4 petrol golf. Clutch and timing belt/water pump fitted in the local garage came in at under 500.

I wouldnt say that was expensive. You could buy something fresher needing more work

For me, probably over 800 quid is a big bill. Have a 16 year old beamer and dropped 1100 on it recently for a sump gasket, misc gaskets and some turbo lines. Does make me think about trading up in years, but the cost to do that is so severe.