What to do about an old car

You are ascribing human characteristics to a machine. It's just as likely (or unlikely) that a car you have owned for 10 years, with minimal problems, will have expensive faults in the next year or so.

As the OP has an older car, repair and maintenance costs for that particular model are far more important than the length of time you have owned it without a problem.

WRT the OP's situation, I would most definitely be looking to fix it if it only has the two problems (s)he mentioned

Chris

The only caveat I would add is that the actual cost of repairs can easily be more than 25% greater than expected.

For example, if the OP's headlight cluster replacement revealed some corrosion, welding might add another 100UKP or so to the bill. You need to add some contingency; that's why my rule of thumb is 50% of the car's value.

Chris

Or you could buy a 2nd hand car that's even more likely to do so.

Repair & maintenance costs for that particular car are the critical bit. & if you're going to sell it for scap value then the expensive planned maintenance costs are optional.

Yep, but most folk would look to buy something newer, which *should* reduce the risk somewhat.

Additionally, unless bought privately, there might be some protection against disastrous faults for a period of time via a warranty or other legally enforceable means.

Chris

But will that warranty be long enough to uncover faults that are there just waiting?

Yes. Or no.

That's why I said 'might be some protection'...

Chris

Quite so. Remembering that Murphy's Law is always the most reliable............

You know the service history of your current vehicle, you know how it's been driven and cared for, meaning you can be a lot more confident that the vehicle has been well looked after. A new car comes without that information - if it's been driven hard, taken over speed bumps quickly etc then there may well be damage that isn't immediately obvious, but that will make it much more likely to fail in the near future than your current car.

The funny thing is, while this all sounds reasonable, it's actually rubbish. Why? Since we know nothing about how the OP drives and that most people are completely clueless about being mechanically sympathetic (including, IME, people who actually use that phrase) then there's nothing in it between his 12YO Stilo and any other 12YO Stilo[1]

While a driver might sit round all smug and rosy-cheeked contemplating how gently they take speed bumps and how the ARBs will last forever, they can be unaware that they've also reduced their clutch to a smear of friction material in 30,000 miles. And give me a worn ARB to change over a worn clutch any day :-)

It's like when punters start trying to haggle over a 2nd hand car. They look at tyre depths and shinyness of paint and assess how good a car is based on that. Just because someone is anal about washing a car or changing the tyres when they're half worn doesn't mean they don't hit speed bumps at 90mph.

It's funny, one never *feels* like a statistical probability.

Daniele

Find someone who will do a bent MOT for you and keep the car.

BTW why are you no longer on soc.culture.jewish.moderated?

It's not rubbish, it's just that you don't how how the OP drives. Add in that information (truthfully) and you have a much better idea if a different car is likely to be better, worse or the same.

I do almost entirely motorway miles in my car, but not a huge number of them these days, only 15,000-20,000 a year I'd say. The journey generally involves a couple of miles down country roads where you have to stop a couple of times, then a long drive at motorway speeds with a nice downhill entry slip road to make it even easier to get up to speed. Come off at the other end and turn a few corners, and that's me parked up. Rinse and repeat to go home.

There's very little braking and gear changes on that drive, so I know that the clutch will likely last a nice long time - last time I had a clutch start to slip the car had done 185,000 on the original clutch. I wince every time I go shopping and see the old buggers revving the hell out of an engine and feathering the clutch to move slowly.

I'd much rather have a car I've taken care of than a random strangers car.

That's fine if, like the OP, you buy a car new and keep it until it's a scrapper.

I would suggest that there are not many 14 year-old cars that fall into that ownership pattern.

Chris

Exactly. *You* don't know how the OP drives so you can't actually say their car is likely to be any better or any worse than an equivalent. I'm not saying that it can't be true (similar to you, I've got a 193,500 mile car on its original clutch) but you can't make bald statements about liklihood of failure.

It'd be the equivalent of "the apples I've got in this bag are tastier than the apples you've got in your bag" :-)

In the end, that's all we are.

I'm pleased to report that I've managed to get the airbag warning light problem solved - the problem was that the OCS emulator I'd bought had stopped working; a new one solves that.

Now to fix the headlamp.

Thanks for all the advice.

Daniele

Why is the resale value relevant? You're assuming it's the same as the replacement value - it might be, but it's unlikely.

Is there some part of "what it would cost to replace it with something as good" that is difficult to understand?