keep It or get rid of it

It's a sad fact that cars themnselves often don't cost much to keep running - it's things like aircon (that you can live without) and overpriced minor electrical items that are critical to the running of the engine ..

For my ,oney - if you can live without the aircon, get the most use out of the car that you can then dump it when something else major goes wrong that actually stops it working.

Unless you are really fed up with it!

Check the S/H values v. the cost of repairing the aircon and ask yourself "If I spend all this osh, willI get it back by selling the car quick, or will I gain overall by selling as is ...

Personally I'd go for option 4), get the work done and sell it privately. I never trade in because you lose a small fortune compared to a private sale.

If you sell it without doing the work you'll lose out because the drop in the sale price will probably be more than the cost of putting in right (fact that the car is faulty devalues it more in the eyes of potential buyers than the actual cost of the repair to put it right).

I definitely wouldn't keep it because it's a Rover who, while I'm sure are capable of producing good cars, also do a nice sideline in producing lemons and it sounds like you may have got one of them.

Thanks for the advice. When we purchased the car the one reason we chose it was for aircon but perhaps its installed by Rover as a customer service, i.e to cool down the customer when his car goes wrong and they are told its going to cost an arm and a leg.

Maybe I was spoilt by my previous Rover which was a Metro, in which I covered nearly 90,000 miles and the total servicing costs over 5.5 years was £2,200

I think I will probably get it fixed but not at £1,100, as my feeling is that people will probably think air con not working and will then deduct the maximum cost of fixing it.

Don't fix the air con, try to sell privately but point out the aircon doesn't work to callers. You never know, someone may not be bothered about it, especially as winter is setting in. If no-one buys it, you're no worse off.

Pete

It shouldn't be anything near that. All that needs to be done is to discharge the system, stick a new compressor in and have it charged again. The discharge / charge should be around £100 / £150 quid at an air con specialist. The compressor for a Jag cost only £150 quid or so a while ago. God knows where Rover are getting £1100 from.

I paid £80 for discharge / charge this summer at VAC in Surrey. Jon

Before you go anywhere near a dealer go to an air con specialist they will probably get your air con sorted for a fraction of what a dealer has quoted you.