AIBU to resist replacing our old cars despite my mother-in-law's comments?

That's as maybe but that's different to 'just leave it as it'll probably last forever'; an aux belt is just as prone to wearing out as a cam belt and bad news if it does go. On our Volvo the schedule is cam belt at 108k mile intervals and aux belt at 54k mile intervals - basically every 6 and 3 years with our mileage. Looks like for a Sportage it's 60k/6 years too. It'll be the same for pretty much everything I expect.

£400 to fix the car is chicken feed compared to hiring/HPI/PCP, etc. A decent family car could easily be £400 per month.

We have an old Lexus and I think of any car bills in terms of monthly car payments. It usually just has the annual service, but has previously needed new front brake disks (£350) and the cambelt changing (£450).

I'd keep the cars and see how you get on. If they let you down on the motorway again within the next two or three years, then I'd consider it time to upgrade.

Lol 😆

Read my post above.

(Although it's safe to say I was unlucky)

It wasn't the cam belt though.

As far as I know there's no replacement schedule for an alternator belt- it's an as and when kind if thing.

A well-maintained older car is not that much more likely to break down than a newer one, and the maintenance it does need will cost less than you'd be paying for a newer model. Aside from that, it is better for the planet to keep using something you already have than scrap it and get a new one.

Sorry yes you did mention services earlier so apologies - I thought you meant that you just put it in for an MOT and that's it! It sounds like you've just been unlucky with the belt going then - oil shouldn't be anywhere near a belt so if there was oil on the broken belt that's very likely to be what caused it to go. I don't really get why a belt snapping makes a car 'unreliable' - if it was a tyre that popped because it should have been replaced, or had a manufacturing defect, or just had a nail in it, you'd stick a new tyre on and think no more of it. Same with a belt. Replace belts and oil when you should and modern cars will go waaay more than 10 years and 100k miles, I'd stick with it for now.

Reliability and safety are what matters most. If you’re keeping up with the servicing and checking basics in between - tyres, fluids, that’s really helpful.

I would look at the safety ratings of your existing cars before making any decisions. Also look at reliability rankings for the age that they are.

Never assume that newer is better. Like clothing, food and most other consumer items, a lot of cars are built to a price point these days.

My D Nephew is a mechanic and says they see cars now with major (expensive to fix) problems when they are only just outside of the warranty period.

You have to prioritise safety that’s the main thing. Get a 5 star safety car.

We were very like yourselves 2 years ago and for some reason one day decided just to replace our old car with a newer one. Just 2 months later my husband very unexpectedly took very ill and ended up in hospital 50 miles away for 3 weeks.
Driving that journey every single day in the new car made me feel safer and took away the worry of the car making it there.
It made me realise that having a reliable car, one you feel you can trust and not worry about, is worth so much!

I don’t think one breakdown is unreliable. I’m generally happy with old cars, my current one is 10yo.

have to say though I think your priorities are a bit skewed but it’s your life.

Seems bizarre to me to be squirrelling money away for an early retirement on one hand, while spending a lot of unnecessary money on the Campervan especially but also the DL membership. I’m a member at DL, I know how much it’s costing per month for family membership. Will be as much if not more than car repayments.

Plus you’re borrowing money off family!! for non essential stuff. Maybe your family are happy to help but I’d be pissed off at unnecessary motorhomes and expensive gym membership. Motorhomes are expensive, not just to buy but it’s another vehicle to tax, mot, insure. Fuel economy is terrible.

if you really want to maximise early retirement and savings ditch the gym and sell the motorhome. Or carry on and do what you want but accept you can’t have everything and that probably means no new car.

Also an alternator belt shouldn’t be that expensive so it sounds like when it snapped it took a bunch of other bits with it.

If you’re going to run an old car then you need to get it serviced regularly and keep on top of everything like oil changes etc.

You can’t just leave it until the MOT - you’re lucky it didn’t blow up on you!

@ISO3456 you’ve done all those holidays and not paid your parents back

Oh right, if you're going to buy older cars and ignore the service schedule (belts and oil changes basically), then you really are asking for trouble and guaranteeing that what happened to you was going to eventually. Contrary to popular belief a 10 year old 100k mile car isn't necessarily an unreliable deathtrap, but you do need to do the basics.

Personally, as someone that buys a car and keeps it until the wheels fall off, we’ve just been in a similar position. My 16yr old car has a few bills looming & the EML came on. It didn’t start in the hot weather so we pulled the plug. Im not throwing good money after bad. We got a bank loan over 5yrs & paid £15k on something highly practical, under 3yrs & 15k on the clock. We hope it will last 10+ years with regular maintenance. Got a 4yr gap insurance policy to go with it. I’m unprepared to withdraw from savings because my investments will outgrow the interest costs of the loan. The repayments over 5yrs are comparable to a lease deal on a new one, except we own the asset.

I would pay your parents back the £3.5k and get something more reliable and safe with a youngster, using a bank loan. You don’t want to be breaking down on a motorway with children.

At least mine had the courtesy to break down on a little country lane about a mile from home, on a child free weekend with no particular plans.

She’s right. Your cars have over £100k on them and are over 10 years old. They’re only going to become more unreliable and cost more to repair. The thing that would (and did) push me into selling was that I no longer trusted the car after I broke down on the motorway.

Erm, could you not?

A lot of us reading this have no choice but to drive on motorways with our kids in cars that are over 10 years old.