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

It's an odd logic to have over 100K in investments and be borrowing money off your parents and buying old, increasingly unreliable cars.

I'm certainly not advocating buying a new car every 3 years on finance, or spunking all your hard-acquired savings and investments but there can be a middle ground.

With a small child reliability is crucial and older cars are likely to be less reliable.

Not often and they’d be under warranty. I don’t understand people who drive bangers when it’s costing a fortune for the upkeep

Do you have them regularly serviced at a reputable garage? Things like drivebelts would be routinely replaced under regular maintenance.

Shit. I never even knew 😳. I just got the cam belt replaced. (Although I think the alternator belt would have been within the interval anyway).

It is not way similar to home equity , you can free up an investment that you don't need to live in, you choose not to instead choose to borrow.

You seem perfectly happy in choosing to continue using your now unreliable cars on the motorway throwing your one yr old over the batrier as and when necessary so if you're happy with your choices then other opinions don't matter

Why on earth did you buy such an old car with such a high mileage and especially wasting £3.5k on it!!! Mental!

A lot of people do it because it's cheaper to spend, say, 1k on repairs each year than it is to buy a new car outright. Not everyone has savings or can use credit.

Enough of the hyperbole please. Don't we get enough maternal guilting thrown at us anyway?

High speed breakdowns are rare and, although statistically likely in older cars, can happen to any age car.

We can pay the back whenever, they’re in no rush for it. So we got out of Mat leave without paying it back

we travelled Europe for 3 months on Mat leave on a single wage plus paying our bills at home so paid off the credit card first

Maybe keep your old cars because you’re okay with the risk. The breakdown on the motorway was very risky and unfortunate, but you guys survived it. Be warned that once one thing starts goes everything starts to go. If it happens again on the motorway, just say your prayers and maybe go behind the barrier. On the other side, though if you do have an accident and you guys don’t make it because older cars aren’t as safe - you won’t need that retirement money..

My first car was old and very unreliable so I did a (free - the days when adult education was free) maintenance course at the college I did my a-levels at. Then I tried to keep up to date. I’m no mechanic but I do know that cam and alternator belts need changing before they snap off and mot, servicing, and replacing before it’s an emergency is important. You can’t have the luxury of cheap cars and the luxury of generalised ignorance about basic maintenance and spend £0 on preventing problems. Two diesels is also an odd choice for homeworkers to pootle to DL in. Diesels are for people who consistently drive long distances. Do you make sure your dpf gets cleaned?

You can do whatever you want with your own money. Obviously. It is irrelevant whether your MIL approves.
But, maybe, stop telling her so much.... if she doesn't know that your car broke down, she won't feel obliged to comment!

'Under warranty' doesn't stop the breakdown and all of its negative effects happening in the first place, though, does it? All it means is that, after you've suffered through it all, eventually got home and managed to get it repaired, somebody else will (hopefully) cover the bill.

Diesels are for people who consistently drive long distances.

Not always. If you need a large vehicle, especially a van-based one - whether you have a big family, are a wheelchair user or other reasons - many of them are either only available as a diesel or otherwise they offer a woefully-underpowered petrol version that you'd be mad to go for.

Buy a fault reader from amazon for £20 to see why the engine light is on.