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

[ISO3456]

To be honest, we’ve had some bad luck recently with our cars…

This week our car broke down this week on the motorway with a snapped belt (£400 fix)

Only 2 months ago an engine light came on the other car (our main car). Both cars are >10 years old & both just over >100k miles t

Both situations were stressful as they were on the motorway & 1 year old in the car. We had to sit at side of motorway for about an hour. Imo just unfortunate events & bad luck

Now my DHs mum (MIL) is pushing us to get a new car. It’s her comments which have annoyed me most & I think I need a AIBU check

We’re in our mid 30s & have ~100k between us in investment ISA but only <2k actual cash. Infact we do owe still for our main car 3.5k.

She’s mentioned it a few times since breakdown #1 but this week her comments were “what’s the point in having all that money in the bank & driving around in broken down cars”

My opinion is that our investments aren’t “money in the bank’, instead it’s our future income or early retirement
if we had decided to buy 2nd homes or pay off our mortgage instead, it wouldn’t have been seen the same so why should the stocks

Since she’s been going on about it, DH now talking about cars.

Maybe I’m just out of touch. So looking for opinions

AINBU - MIL keep her nose out (and talk to husband about NOT getting a new car)

AIBU - you need to buy a new car

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!

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.

We do yearly service along with MOT so assumed that covered basic stuff like oil changed etc

Will check at home & ask AI if there’s anything which needs doing based on service history & past MOTs for both cars as an action

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.

snapped & got caught on the ‘crank’ apparently so needed a new crank sensor & fan belt & fan belt adjuster too

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!

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

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.

Our DL is £173 a month for 3 of us atm, not one of the mega expensive ones but we get access to most of their gyms through coroperate membership. We often use midlands ones which is £190pp

We’re trying to balance things & not be super focused on retiring.
We try to invest in pensions, X each per month, plus 200 for baby.
Then we spend the rest.

Motorhome & DL are of course optional choices I get that but £173 for a pool all summer, soft play, padel, gym & work from home space is a good deal in my opinion

Motorhome is maybe a splurge & against our strategy but it’s easier to travel in it with a baby as we have all his stuff & can bring tonnes of toys and scooters etc

Our van is 20 years old, 25k miles so most if not all of the value drop has happened & we have a near new van at the front
costs us roughly £100 a month for insurance, MOT, Service & tax. Fuel is super expensive on it, spent £400 going to Netherlands just in fuel on our last trip

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.

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.

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.

Lol 😆

Read my post above.

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

£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.

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.

Any car can break down. You sound very financially astute, new cars are for people who want to spend their whole lives in debt. Be different!

We do our servicing ourselves so ensure that all the relevant filters are replaced - not all of these are replaced at every service so they can easily be overlooked.
We had to replace the battery on one of our cars as it stopped working. We checked the average time to expect out of a battery and it turned out it was a typical time for it to go. The battery on our other car was similar age so we had that checked and that was also near the end of its life so we replaced that too.
One car needed it's spark plugs and coil packs we checked the other car and they needed them doing soon too. We did them 6 months later.

We check the cars over every 3-6 months.

For older cars only doing a check every mot is the bare minimum. For the most part the MOT shouldn't flag anything you weren't already expecting. They aren't for telling you when repairs are due they are a safety net for ensuring there aren't cars on the road in a dangerous condition. It can also be quite varied what gets picked up/documented on an MOT. It's not compulsory to include advisories on the MOT certificate and we have things that come up one year but not the next. For example we had a chipped corner in the number plate of one of previous cars. It did not in anyway impact the reading of the number plate or mean that it was liable for coming detached from the car. It showed up as an advisory every couple of MOTs

the mechanics we use for MOTs is a Mobile mechanic so he usually takes it to a garage who does the MOT and then he benefits from any repairs that I needed as he does them self so generally we get a big list of advisories and this year we did us to sort all advisors out as well

We don’t usually do that, though normally just the things to get it through the MOT and service

I do think from memory on the last service we didn’t give the service history book so perhaps there was things that were needed

I will get DH to check everything today on both cars and maybe the motorhome too for safety and peace of mind

The mechanic we use for the breakdown was a different mechanic to what we usually use, but I know he’s a decent guy as he does my mum‘s cars

i’ve let DH take the car (the one that broke down) on the motorway today for a 45 mile drive so it should get close to 100 miles run to check things are alright while the kid isn’t in a car

We Asked the mechanic his thoughts on the car and he said it was driving quite nice, so I think there’s still life in it yet despite the mileage

I agree that it's none of your parents' business.

But equally, I think you've been lucky with repair costs. I've got a 12 year old car that I'm in the process of replacing because repairs are becoming more frequent and more expensive. I would certainly be looking to get something much newer if I were you.

Well if you owe your parents money and you have savings then pay them back now.
It is entirely up to you what car you drive but I wouldn’t want to be breaking down with a young child in the car.
My car is 11 years old. I will keep driving it but when it becomes unreliable I will replace it.

They should be replaced every 50-100k or every 5 years 🤷‍♀️

There absolutely is a replacement schedule! Mine is booked to be done in a couple of weeks as it’s due.

YANBU to be honest, I am the same way with an old car and money invested rather than buying a new car.

If your cars are reliable and the repairs are a one-off and they have plenty of life in them yet, there is zero chance I'd be looking to replace them. I'd rather have money for retirement later on than a new car now and be broke and unable to stop working when I choose.

How does she know how much money you have? I would be furious if my husband discussed our finances with his parents.

Many new cars go into paralysis mode if hit, even minor hits. My dh is forever having to do road closures to get broken down vehicles towed because they need to be taken to the dealership and be plugged into the computer to release them.

More importantly, why does your mil think she has a say in what you drive? I find that absolutely mad! Both of our cars are 20 years+. I have no intention of buying anything newer.