Spend Money On Keeping A High-Miler On The Road, Or...?
 

When discussion about cars and related costs comes up with some members of my family, there usually crops up the argument that at some point, the amount that needs to be spent to keep the car running is higher than the value of the car, so doesn't it make more sense to cut your losses and just get a newer car that won't need the same amount of cash input to keep it running.

I imagine that discussion/argument takes place all over the world.

I've only ever been at the market-position to buy used cars - 5-10 years old, €2000-€5000 price range.

My current car (2000 V70 2.5, 176,000m) is the nicest car I've owned. I loved my Discovery and my HiLux Surf, and my Corolla estate was a real go-forever car, if a little bland. But my V70 is - to me, even at 15 years old, with 176,000m on her - a posh car, a luxury car, a fancy car.

And I want to keep it. I want to keep it on the road, running well. But at this stage, what's needed to keep it running will start costing more than its value, probably many times.

Personally, I'm fine with that - if I had permanent full time work, I might actively seek and save for an XC70, but that's not where I am right now.

I hate the idea of scrapping a car that could be kept not just running, but running well, probably for considerably less than the cost of replacing with a significantly younger, significantly lower-mile car.

I like the idea of well-kept, smooth-running high-mile cars. I hate the discard-and-replace mentality that's so dominant in so many areas of life these days.

So what's the general feeling - spend your money on keeping your loved-and-trusted high-miler going? Or spend that money on replacing it with a younger, lower-mileage car?

I think you've already answered the question yourself.

I had a 04 v70se for 5years and loved it like you. The p2s are a car to like.
The only reason I sold mine was because I moved up to an XC90 D5 last year and didnt have room for both on my drive otherwise it would still be there now.
My missus bought a c30 D5 soon after me buying it so we are still a 2 volvo family.
If you like it and its been reliable, spend on it.
You dont say if its diesel or petrol but if its the gorgeous D5 163 manual then I would say definitely keep it till it dies (could be another 20 years life in it yet)

There are some 300,000 miler v70s about so yours is just a teenager still.

I think you need to factor it the costs of buying the new car - at most you will get £500 for yours in trade in, so if you spend say £2,000 on the new car, thats £1,500 you could have put towards maintenance.
Secondly, like yourself, people tend to change cars when the are needing money spent on them. Dealers may spend some money correcting some of the issues before selling, but they will try and keep it to a minimum as it eats into their profit. So any car you buy, there is always a chance that will need some work doing to it as well. Common work required is tyres, brakes, clutches and cam belts.
Lastly, is it a case of "Better the Devil you know?" Any new car might have a terminal fault which is masked by the previous owner/dealer. If you know the history of your car, and other than wear and tear items needing replacing, it is still reliable, then why change?

Hear, Hear, tt82! Couldn't have put it better myself. People also forget about the costs of production and disposal, as well as depreciation on newer cars. All of which makes my 27 year old 745 'green' in my view, in spite of it's 27MPG thirst!

Regards, John.

Simplicity = reliability and durability.
 

This is a subject that arises regularly on this forum in various guises. Firstly I'm always interested in why does the spend suddenly exceed the value of the car: is it because the owner or previous owners have neglected it?

After all a V70 was a relatively expensive car when new so why expect it to cost small change to run when older.

Buying cars in the 5 - 10 year old bracket requires knowledge and care. Cars manufactured after 1995 - Digital cars: dual mass flywheels, diesels with particulate filers, Euro 6 vehicles will die young once they get into the hands of the 3rd and 4th owners - very few of these digital cars will reach their 20th birthdays.

Analogue cars, e.g older RWD Volvos (200s, 700s and 900s) have already reached 20 + years of age and are still being used reliably and inexpensively.

My own 1986 745GLa (owned from near new) has cost much less to run than my 2003 V70P2 (owned from near new), and the 745 has required much less non routine maintenance than the V70.

If you are budget conscious don't be seduced into buying a diesel - ignore fuel economy, diesels are far more expensive to maintain as they have many of the to avoid digital car features.

Jon.
700/900 Register Keeper VOC.

+1 to all of the above.

The only caveat is that it depend on the overall condition of your car: if it has severe corrosion, or multiple major mechanical issues, then at some point you may need to be hard-headed. And also how much you've bonded with the car: if it's just a car, that's one thing, but if it's a car you really like, there's more incentive to keep it alive.

I recently swapped my V40 for a Toyota Avensis. The reason was that the V40 had several problems looming, which would have been uneconomic to have repaired professionally and I simply hadn't time to do it DIY. It pained me not to fix it, for the reasons stated in previous posts, but circumstances were what they were. As it turns out, I like the Avensis more than the V40: it has all the V40's qualities, and it's more spacious and is an automatic (which I'd been thinking of trying). And both Toyota and Volvo have a reputation for making reliable, well-built cars capable of long service lives.

My 740 is another matter. I've spent several times what I paid for it on spares and repairs, and plan to keep it indefinitely - 'cos I've bonded with it! :)

From personal experience
We have two cars in our family, my aged V70 and a fairly new Kia CEE'D for my wife. I don't have a problem with driving an older car, which may need a little consideration in the way I treat it and does have the risk of things going wrong. My wife has no empathy with a car and is paranoid about it breaking down and leaving her stranded somewhere so she insists on a newer car. (Oddly in the past when her newer car started playing up my old heap became very popular ;) )
When it comes to finance, her Kia cost us £8000 and I expect by the time we get rid of it in 6 years it will be worth £1000 if we are lucky, so it will lose about £1000 a year in depreciation and that's without the cost of any maintenance like brake pads and discs, exhausts, lambda sensors etc. My V70 cost me £800 about 5 years ago, Ive spent a few hundred on parts (often from breakers but new where needed such as brake parts) so that works out at about £200 per year. Comparing the two my V70 starts to look quite cheap, so should it need a few hundred spent on it to keep it going I think I might be justified doing it.
Having said that one has to be realistic about the amount one might spend, it's not a particularly rare or special model so its only value is as transport, part of the economy is that I will work on it myself (if I really mess it up it's an £800 mess not an £8000 one), should something major occur such as a total engine failure I would probably choose to have a look and see if I could find another one which looked good at a good price.

I think a lot of it is a certain mentality that refuses to be part of the discard and replace culture, and as John points out an old car is spreading the environmental cost of building it over more years so it becomes greener the older it gets.

Simplicity equals...
 

I don't entirely disagree with your first paragraph, but clearly if a car has severe corrosion (I've never had one of those personally), then it may be uneconomic (one person's uneconomic might not be mine) to repair. But multiple mechanical issues...I'd still have to question neglectful previous or current owners.

My/our 1986 745GLa has never suffered a failure as such, it was bought nearly new and has remained a cared for car ever since - if I spent £2000 on it would be a better car in many ways than our V70.

Preventative maintenance is a little practiced mantra; I have also, on many occasions written about the green aspect of RWD classic Volvos, they are, for many reasons, the ultimate recycleable car.

I would take either of my 740s anywhere (I particularly like Spain), it is a car that could be repaired anywhere, that's if it needed it. Our 745 was first registered 29 years ago, we've had it 28.5 of those.

Jon.
700/900 Register Keeper VOC.

I was kind of asking generally, rather than actually considering replacing my own.

I'd rather keep my cars (and bikes, when I rode) than replace them. My Corolla had 276,000km on it when I sold it ((60,000 or so on it when I bought it).

I prefer the practice of spending the money on keeping a car you like running, so long as it's fundamentally sound. It'd be nice to have a year here & there where it cost nothing more than ins, tax, diesel, and routine maintenance, but with older stuff, you do expect more maintenance/repair costs than a newer lower-mileage car.

Agree with looking after your car being a factor. The phrases "run it into the ground" and "it'll go forever" are common, and each interesting.

Running a car into the ground is not what I'm talking about here. Running a car into the ground involves driving it hard ("mechanically unsympathetically"), not adhering to some sort of maintenance schedule, crude-bodging rather than quality repair, etc.

Most cars will "go forever" if they're looked after, and you're of the mind to keep it on the road rather than replacing it once costs start creeping up.

In my case, I'd like to have been doing more preemptive work all along (as I've done with all my cars & bikes when in full time permanent work), but circumstances have restricted that for me, though I have looked after the fundamentals. Mine is a 2461cc diesel (apparently with an Audi-built engine), it's a 2000-registered car, but it's the newer late-2000/2001+ model.

I'd like to think that my V70 will be still on the road on its 20th birthday, and I'd be thrilled if I was in the driver's seat on that day.

I gave my '04 XC70 a wash and polish yesterday to celebrate it getting to 220,000 miles. I think I'd like something newer and 'better' but part of me wants me to keep it going as long as possible just for the hell of it. Other than regular service items and fuel it's not really costing me anything.