Car - repair or replace?

[springmachine]

I have a golf, it's 10 years old and around 100k miles and is starting to have problems hear and there.

Current issue is that the clutch needs replacing and the bill will be around £1k plus vat.

Trying to decide if I repair and hope nothing else major goes wrong for a few years to make the repair worth while or if I cut my losses before other big bills and put the £1k towards a replacement (second hand) car that is a bit newer and lower mialge...

What othet problems are you having?
Also, what engine is in your car?

Is this price for changing tbe cutch from sn independant? Garages local to here would do it for around £800 to £900 all in, for dual mass clutch and flywheel on a diesel ( which would be more expensive than a clutch for a petrol car).

It seems like low miles to have to replace the clutch. On vw diesels it would normally be 140 to 160 thousand miles before replacing. Also, there would be a good chance that the turbo needed replaced around that mileage too.

Depending on the other problems, and of course personal confidence in the car, i would replace the clutch now and keep for another 20 to 30 thousand miles.

We have owned several vw diesels that got to 160k miles before we sold them.

@SilverViking

Thank you for your response

It's a 2.0 GTD.

Other problems are - a wheel bearing is on its way out and needs replacing, there are some clunks from the rear when going over bumps so think there might be some bushes needing replacing too.
There are small patches of rust forming, but VW have agreed to fix that under their corrosion warranty.

On the plus points it's got 4 new tyres and in general the car is very well spec'd.

I thought about cutting losses and rather than buying another newer car (7 years old maybe) that I would look into leasing instead but my DP isn't keen as we wouldn't own the car

Cars are a nightmare aren't they. We have just paid £700 to fix our son's old ford fiesta but where do you draw the line ?

Bushes are relatively cheap to replace (last bushes we bought were £20 for the set and probably £30 to £50 to change ... ( but it depends which bushes are going). Wheel bearings are a bit more expensive -£80/£90 to buy and probably £60 /£80 to change).

I look at the total cost of ownership per year vs reliability.
An older car has less depreciation, but things start to wear out.

At 10 years old, your depreciation will be less than £500 per year and reducing. For older cars we set aside £400 to £600 per year for repairs (assuming consumables and normal servicing will cost the same), but would very rarely spend £400 on top of service /consumable costs. You can then compare that with eithet buying a newer car you don't know, or with leasing costs.

The big thing for us is that we have a good independant mechanic, so labour rates are a lot less than in a dealership.

I consider the "sweet spot" where depreciation is low and cost of repairs relatively low ... for me that is between 7 to 9 years old (80 to 100k miles) and 12 to 14 years old (120 to 140k miles).

Like all things mechanical... cars parts will wear out at different rates and everyone has different experiences and attitude to the risk of breaking down.

I also argue with myself on whether is it easier to sell at lower miles than hold on until near 150k miles or above and try and sell then!!

We are in Hertfordshire and seem to have a good selection of reliable indipendant vw specialists, but the prices still seem expensive to me.

The £1k price covers clutch and dual mass flywheel and labour but not diagnostics ( the company wasn't sure if the symptoms I explained were clutch, flywheel or other)

The symptoms are that the clutch pedal periodically sticks to the floor and it's becoming more common

£1000 is very expensive. I wouldn’t pay more than £700 with fly wheel.
Get a couple more quotes.

I think it could be a false economy buying another second hand car. You don’t know what could go wrong with it. And I’m guessing it will cost more than £1k!

The most financially sensible option is to get it fixed, definitely.

Shop around for new clutch prices. Recently had one for Fiesta £276

Always repair unless the cost is astronomical.

My mate bought a zafira vxr with 110k miles. Pretty cheap . It needed new brakes, new window loom, refurb turbo. Spent about £600 on it and it's on the button now for less than he would of paid for a "decent one"

Clutch pedal sticking to floor sounds more like master or slave cylinder! Much much cheaper than a clutch and fly replacement !

Update - my local garage fixed my car for free !

They bled the system whilst it was in for an mot and that sorted the sticky pedal

Glad to hear OP it was definitely something fluid related by the sounds of it! For future ref - when the clutch goes the biting point of the pedal usually gets higher and higher you will notice it!