What do I do?

[BrumJim]

Voted before I saw your last post.

Do a cost analysis on your car. How often do you use it? What are the full costs, other than fuel - depreciation, tax, service, MOT, average repair costs, insurance. Then work out how much it would cost to hire a car for all the times that you need it. Then work out if it is cheaper to have your own car, or to hire when you need.

However for water carrying up to the allotment, this could be tricky without a car.

 

[Bromptonaut]

It's very easy to get hung up on repair cost as a proportion of market value of the vehicle. In my view that is a false comparison unless you can source an equivalent vehicle in good repair for the same market value.

My own car is a 10yo Citroen Xantia Estate, it's a diesel but probably worth well under £1k. I need it for the journey to the station and as back up for the main family car. If it breaks down or fails the MoT I'd be asking the garage for an honest opinion on anything else likley to go wrong. Provided the engine and body remain sound I'd be happy to spend several hundred on, for example, steering joints. Compared with the capital/depreciation cost of a (much) newer replacement or the lottery of trying to source an equivalant with a known service history, including the essential cambelt changes, I reckon I'm on a good bet.

 

[ChrisKH]

If you have the space, you could always do what I did and SORN the vehicle until you decide what to do. I did this for a year-18 months and spent my time cycling everywhere until it was necessary for us to have a car again.

 

[TwickenhamCyclist]

When you say buy a new one, what’s the budget? Brand new car or just new to you.

You’ve got to factor in the depreciation cost of a new car, a new car might have much lower running and servicing costs, but, depending what you paid for it, could lose you hundreds or thousands of pounds a year in value.

If I was told it would cost me £400 to keep my car on the road for another year or scrap it, I’d consider if the car was worth £400 to me – or to put it another way, what could I get for £400 + the value of the car in its current un- MOT’d state (which I guess will be next to nothing)?

 

[4F]

A few very good points here. I should say that I don't drive that much - when I do, it is for lugging water to the allotment (which may be problematic without a car, but doesn't in itself justify the cost).

Buy or scrounge a 1000 litre IBC, stand it on 4 pallets and then build a slanted roof above it and with a drainpipe added feed this into the the top of the IBC via the hole with the screw on lid removed

One wet winter and you have free easy access to water right on your plot

 

[BentMikey]

Except that some of the other allotment users will then finish all the water for you!

 

[dav1d]

Yesterday my car went in for an MOT. It left with a bill for £400+

I haven't had the work done yet, and am in two minds about whether I should. What do you guys think?

EDIT: It's a 2001 VW Polo. I don't think its worth much more than about £1000 at a push. It recently broke down on a motorway, and has done about 110k miles.

Have you tried scrapyards for any parts that you may need (if you can fix the faults yourself)? They often have old car parts in.

 

[4F]

Except that some of the other allotment users will then finish all the water for you!

I thought the OP was in Winchester not London

If this was an issue then you easily could cut a rectangle piece of metal plate, cut a couple of small holes in it and then padlock at each end to the metal framework of the IBC

 

[PBancroft]

OK, earlier today I sold the car for £500. Am pretty chuffed I got that much to be honest.

I have been hunting for something else, looking at the Skoda Fabia in particular. But I'm not going to rush into it... for the time being I can live without car, so that is exactly what I am going to do. Will be interesting to see how far I can make it.

 

[fossyant]

Good luck...put the cash to one side

 

[PBancroft]

Good luck...put the cash to one side

Absolutely. It's going straight into an ISA.