UKC

I'm after any thoughts and advice really.

I have a 2008 top of the range Fiat Bravo 1.9 diesel (150), I bought it for £8000 on finance 3 years ago and have just finished paying for it. It had around 40k on the clock when I got it and its now at around 115k.

What I'm unsure about is how long to keep it for? I do around 25k miles a year which is quite a lot and I'm conscious that the higher mileage on a car the less it is worth. So my question really is this, do I get rid of it now, use it as a deposit on something and start another finance agreement? Or do I keep it for another year or 2, enjoy not paying out around £200 for a car each month and accept that when I do go for something new that I wont get much at all for my Bravo?

It is in great condition, no problems at all however I am paranoid about having a car with a high mileage as, in my experience, as a car starts to creep over the 100k miles barrier, things just start breaking!

I'm expecting some fairly strong opinions either way but am interested in what other people think?

Cheers

Simon

I used to be in the same situation.

My concern was always that just before I intended to get rid of it I would get a large repair bill (eg gear box, clutch, etc).

I used to plan to keep for 5 years. Pay off in 3 years. But I was doing just under 20k/pa and bought them with fewer miles.

I would get a part exchange price for your now, and then consider that in 2 years you'll get about £1500. Have a look at what the main failure reasons are.

In reply to maybe_si:

Fiat Bravo with 115K is probably worth very little. If you keep the car how much can you save each month? Balance that against getting a new agreement for a new car - taking into account you will likely need repair costs etc. on the Bravo.

You should also consider what you like/need. Most of us don't need new facy cars with all the toys however personally i don't want to driving an old dirty rusty heap when i can have something better.

In reply to maybe_si:

115k on an 08 is already high mileage, plus its a FIAT which do not generally retain much value. I'd be tempted to drive it as long as you 'sensibly' can. I know that means the risk of it going bang or needing something really expensive done (or binning it if something really expensive does need done) but as it has pretty much done most of its depreciation already I suspect that every month/year more you get out of it will be cheaper than the equivilent depreciation (and financve costs) on a newer one.

Just keep saving the monthly payment and use that as a buffer against a big bill or as part of your deposit on a new one when the time comes.

If you have had it and looked after it, you may well be in a better place now than buying a newer one with mileage and unknown care on it. Better the devil you know and all that. You know what has been done and whats likley to go on this one... buying another car often just means spending a year or two doing all the things the last owner suspected were about to go wrong with it plus all the usall running costs plus its newer and depreciating faster.

Paying interest on finance to buy a fast depreciating asset is the worst financial decision ever so anything you can do to put off the day of taking a fresh finance agreement and building up a bigger deposit to make teh next finance smaller is worthwhile.

In reply to maybe_si:

I'd keep it.

You've already got to the point of it being worth very little, however modern cars handle high miles well (I'd rather buy something with a high motorway mileage than a low mileage car thats only done short journeys).

Given that you do high mileages, I'd keep it for as long as possible - why waste money buying low mileage/newish cars at a premium just to turn them into high mileage/low value cars and then sell them?

The 1.9 diesel has timing belt and water pump intervals of around 70K miles, so you'll be due a £300 service next year (at 140K) on the basis of your mileage.

What else might go wrong? Alternators are weak on those, inlet manifold swirl flaps can fail, egr valves can clog (easy to clean) and DMF units fail - but all of those are more likely to be issues on cars that do short journeys/town driving which I assume isnt the case. If all of those things went wrong then you'd be looking at maybe £1200. How many months payments is that on a newer car?

Plenty of people run those engines to well over 200K miles.

In reply to maybe_si:

Keep it.

In reply to maybe_si:

This is brilliant, I'm actually getting useful advice from UKC??!!

Thanks folks, I'd suspected that keeping it would be the best option, it really is a great little car and has all the exciting electro-gizmo's that make it nice to drive.

In reply to another_mark:

Exactly this, run it for another 100k or so, 4 years down the line you'll have saved about £10k. My focus is on 165k miles and over the last few years I've probably averaged £100 a year on servicing and things replaced due to wear and tear, but it's almost 15 years old so I don't exactly follow the service schedule. Still, even if you follow it to the letter I don't see you spending more than £1-2k to keep it on the road for another 100k miles so at the end of it you'll be able to buy something out of your pocket next time instead of on finance. The only reason for buying a new car when you break into 6 figures is if you want something shinier. Conversely to what you said further up I'd always go for a car that's done over 120k, because they're cheap to buy and all the costly repairs have been done already.

In reply to maybe_si:

I think the question to ask here, is not how much your car is worth as an asset, but how much does it cost you to keep and run. Personally, I have kept my cars once paid off but put the loan repayments into a savings account which can be used to purchase the next car interest free. The last car I bought on finance was 7 years ago and although the loan was paid off after 3 years and I traded in the original sporty car for a sensible estate, we are still effectively enjoying free motoring the extent that we are not making monthly payments to buy our car. I reckon our current car will give us another several years of motoring before we start again but we will have saved up for a new car by then.

In reply to maybe_si:

A good garage will tell you at service if there are likely to be major issues in the future. I ran my Ford Ka into the ground with a warning that it would need £1500-2000 work done on it in the next 18-24 months. As the car was worth much less than £1000 I gambled it would be OK for a year or so and then part-exchanged it. It's a risk (get break-down cover) but you save a lot of cash providing it's running fine.

In reply to maybe_si:

I'd run it into the ground personally.

Start building some savings for a deposit (or a 'new' banger) then reassess what's worth repairing and what's not as and when things go bang.

jk

In reply to maybe_si:

Keep it. Preventative maintenance will help prevent it breaking. And keep on top of things if they go wrong so that you don't fall into the "car with lots of things wrong that I have to sell" pit.

That motor will go to the moon and back if necessary. Pump the £200 a month (you haven't yet learned to live with) in savings for the next one and given that depreciation will be almost flat you will have a few years of very cheap motoring.

In reply to maybe_si:

My last 2 cars had ~150k and 176k miles on them.

Changed the last one mainly because my wife didn't like driving it, we needed one with Isofix car seat points and because the radio was knackered - I also wanted a few upgrades. Mechanically, though, it was sound and only had one rust spot anywhere.

In reply to maybe_si:
When it starts costing you more money per month than the loan would be for a new one, taking into account its value, flog it. Unless you get bored of it or want a different type of car, which are other good reasons to change.

Unless you're buying new or nearly new, sometimes it's better the devil you know.

Neil

In reply to maybe_si:

I'd go with keeping it too. Given that a very quick auto trader search suggests £3-3.5k in value there really isn't very much more value to lose. 1.5 years of saving £200 per month and you’re at break even point, even if you get nothing for the car, and after that it’s all totally in your favour.
My last ‘climbing car’ had a whining turbo for the last 3 years and 50K miles, and I drove it with the principle that when it blew I’d scrap the car. In the end I moved countries and had to get rid on the car quickly, so it went to one of the car buying companies for £600 with the turbo still whining.
Admittedly in that time I’d fixed numerous minor issues that would have started to make it less cost efficient; machining a component for the window wiper mechanism and repairing the wire on an ABS sensor meant that I didn’t have to buy new components, and I disabled the fault that the turbo caused; all of which would have cost a fair bit if I hadn’t been able to do them myself.
The things to watch out for are high cost things that go wrong with age.
Modern Diesels have injectors with a defiantly finite life, so some of the stratospheric numbers you see are maybe a thing of the past. You’re looking at £600+ plus labour if they fail. Also consider the turbo. This should give you some warning before it fails but can be a £1k fix, so keep up the regulars servicing so the oil is fresh.
I’d suggest being dispassionate about it, sitting down and working out the point at which you’ll cut your losses with running repairs (I.e. if I get a bill for £xxx, I get what I can for the car and get a new one), and stick to it; saving the money every month towards the day when the old one dies.