General: Is It worth keeping?

[Gary168]

Hi, bit of a wild one to pose, but here goes.

My Volvo V40 2.0 petrol with 03 plate has just failed its MOT with notifications of anti roll bar ball joints worn, steering ball joints worn, front disc pads worn, plus need new tyres.

The car has done 183,000 miles to date and has always been very reliable.

I am trying to decide whether to trade it in for a new car or spend some money and get it through the MOT?

I don't really have a budget for a new car, but don't want to be in a position of repairing the Volvo, only for something else to go wrong within the next year or so, when I will be in a better position financially to replace the car.

Be glad of members thoughts on this one?

Many thanks

Gary

[magnuz]

If it were mine, i would repair it.
Most of the problems are not all that expensive & are easily fixed.?
Are the worn steering ball joints the inner track rod joints, or the (outer)track rod ends ?
As for tyres.. you get what you pay for. Unless your doing high speed motorway driving, then it may be worth considering budget tyres ?

Also worth noting that prices of used cars are increasing at the moment due to people avoiding public transport !

[ITSv40]

All those failure items are normal service items that I would expect to replace as and when needed. If looked after the mileage is nothing for a Volvo, albeit a Mitsubishi flavoured one.

I had a '97 2.0lt V40 that did 370,000mls with very little major work being done and my current V40 is on 150,000mls and just sailed through the mot and looks like new.

[Montana]

Did the garage give a quote to repair?

Cars will ALWAYS cost you money. A 'new' (to you) car is an unknown quantity so could end up costing you more.

Its always a balance, i would get a quote for the repair work (or parts if DIY) and take it from there.

[griston64]

Originally Posted by Gary168

Hi, bit of a wild one to pose, but here goes.

My Volvo V40 2.0 petrol with 03 plate has just failed its MOT with notifications of anti roll bar ball joints worn, steering ball joints worn, front disc pads worn, plus need new tyres.

The car has done 183,000 miles to date and has always been very reliable.

I am trying to decide whether to trade it in for a new car or spend some money and get it through the MOT?

I don't really have a budget for a new car, but don't want to be in a position of repairing the Volvo, only for something else to go wrong within the next year or so, when I will be in a better position financially to replace the car.

Be glad of members thoughts on this one?

Many thanks

Gary

Trade in value will be minimal for a 17 year old car with no MOT and 183k

If the engine is strong and no structural rust it's better to do the repairs. Most are simple diy by the sound of it. Don't put budget tyres on though.....especially in the build up to winter or all you hard work may well end up in a ditch !!

[P156KWJ]

If you enjoy driving it and it's generally reliable and does what you want it to do - better the devil you know. Repair it and carry on enjoying it.

If you go and buy another car for all you know that could need major repairs 6 months down the line and you'll regret binning off what you know.

[Dippydog]

Were there any/many advisories which might lead you to suspect further outlay in the near future?
My step daughter always used to run cars in the £300-£500 price bracket[much like I do] run them for a while then decide something was wrong and pay someone a horrendous price to fix it only for a couple of weeks later to decide something else equally as horrendously expensive to fix was now wrong so she'd sell that buy something else and the process would repeat.Late last year she decided enough was enough and bought an newer car[a 12 plate]on finance[silly woman]reasoning that it had to be more reliable than the cheap heaps.6 weeks into ownership and the head gasket went,dealer didn't want to know about fixing it so a battle of several months ensued[I told her to reject the car-but she didn't]until it was eventually fixed-my V70 served as her daily transport all the while.3 days after getting it back it broke again when the thermostat[which the dealer didn't replace]stuck so another week passed with my V70 pressed into her service while the dealer got round to replacing that.Last week I got a text message from her asking if I could pick her up from top of nearby motorway as she'd broken down again the car had cut out and the heaters had started blowing cold and wouldn't re-start! The RAC recovered the car but wouldn't allow her into the truck[presumably covid rules?]so I picked her up and once again my V70 is in frontline service for her commute.So much for reliability of newer cars,bearing in mind the V70 is 20 years old and I paid £50 for it[with 10mths MoT]just over 4 years ago!

[clarkey1984]

Newer cars really can be a false economy, it's far better to own something for a number of years so then you are aware of its history, what it's had, what it hasn't, better the devil you know and all that, in my opinion anyway, although having said that repairing my t4 would be seen on paper as uneconomical to recommission, I darent work out how much it's cost me (several thousand) but at least I know what's what with it.

[gatos]

If you like the car and it has served you well, then you may want to consider repairing it. All the faults you listed, are what I would classify as consumables, and general wear and tear. I trust my S40 and it keeps going on with no major problems other than the usual consumable parts that need replacing here and there. I don't know what newer car I would go for, as they seem to have far more many electronics in them and many of the 2005-2010 models start showing their age, with multiple and many times severe problems.

For example, the CEM on our cars is known to burn a relay or two and worst case scenario is that you lose one of the front fog lights. Easy and cheap fix that will last. On the newer models, when the CEM goes, it causes a torrent of problems , that make the cars undriveable and the repair is 5 times more expensive, if it can be done. Just this week , I've had at least 8 messages from people with V70s, V50s, the newer S40s and even newer V40s, XC90s etc., Asking me if I can repair their CEM. In most cases, their cars won't even start or run properly

[CharlesStevenson]

2nd Gatos' comment - many modern cars will switch into 'safe mode' for 'driver safety' and then you're stuffed!

At least older cars (cmon, the X40 range isn't that old is it?) doesn't do anything like that.

... but being totally pragmatic, if the total spend is above what you're comfortable with, it may be time to pass the car onto someone who may carry out the work themselves, thus saving the spend you'd have to cover.

Post the car up on here to see what offers you'd get from someone to buy it - better than a straight dealer-p/x perhaps?

As it's an 03 it's got the later dash & steering wheel, trim etc & if it's been looked after up until now then it should be good for a fair while longer.

FWIW the current scrap collection price for an S/V40 is around £165 - £185 AIU, just to underwrite your calculations.

Just a thought.

P.S. If you'd car to post up the reg then anyone on here could take a quick look at it's previous MOT history and comment if there's anything untoward that might indicate other issues - might help.