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Original poster

Can't afford to repair or replace car. Now wtf do we do?

91 replies

Royalgalas · 01/10/2021 06:03

Our car's head gasket has gone. Repair would be £1200 - 1500 so it's effectively a write-off (we bought the car for £1650 in May and its MOT is due before Christmas).

Can't afford the repair, can't afford any increase to our monthly outgoings, so we can't get one on finance. We have £1900 in "savings", which is actually the remainder of a loan we received from a relative to do up our house. Our only option is to buy another heap-of-shit car using this money, the only buffer we had.

Our second baby is due soon. We planned meticulously to ensure we could afford nursery fees etc, but a few unexpected costs have completely messed us up. DH and I are both desperately applying for promotions but I'm so stressed about money, I can't sleep. I've been awake since 4am, in a complete spiral.

How do people afford to live comfortably? I see all these people in new cars and new clothes with 3+ kids and I can't fathom how anyone can pay for it. We're in decent jobs, we are incredibly prudent with our money (All shopping from Aldi/Lidl, second hand clothes etc, no holidays) and we're still barely getting by.

Is there any car option I haven't considered??

OP posts:
Grenlei · 01/10/2021 07:58

@DamnitFanny

Would the remaining £1900 be enough to settle the loan? You’re currently paying £120 to have that money sitting there. If you squared up that loan you could get a newish PCP car for the same amount so your outgoings would remain the same.
If it's possible this is a really good idea. Makes best use of the lump sum and puts you in a better position going forward.

Alternatively could you use the savings to finance a lease/PCP until the loan payments finish, if you can't pay that off in full now?

PurplePinecone · 01/10/2021 08:06

How old is your daughter op? If she's close to 3 then she will get 15-30 hrs in nursery so you won't have to pay.

Can you look at reducing her time at nursery? 2 half days instead of 2 full days? Or only 1 day? I get that your daughter loves it, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do.

PaulGallico · 01/10/2021 08:28

I agree with pp that you need to take your daughter out of nursery - from what you have said this will make the biggest difference to your monthly outgoings. I am older and didn't have huge money struggles when the children were tiny but saw nursery as a necessary expense in order to work. When I was at home (on maternity leave or a new baby) I took the other child out of nursery as it was now a luxury rather than a necessity. I don't want to sound harsh but if you are paying nursery fees when you don't absolutely need to then there might be other savings you could make in your budget

Original poster
Royalgalas · 01/10/2021 08:29

@DamnitFanny and @Grenlei we're going to speak to the bank today to find out what difference it would make to our repayments to use our savings to pay back the loan. I think we have £3900 left on the loan, so it would make a sizeable dent but wouldn't pay it off entirely. We'll need to weigh up whether that 1900 is worth more to us as savings for another emergency, or whether we could reduce our repayments enough to allow us to afford a car on lease.

I'll definitely look at selling it for breaking or to a scrap dealer.

I've also just discovered a type of sealant which claims to fix head gaskets. Worth a punt, so we'll give it a go. Even if it buys us another few weeks, that would be something.

I think we've decided that we'll use the scrap value of the car + whatever loose change we find down the back of the sofa to buy another banger just to tide us over until we've found out about promotions. It's possible that in 6 months time we could have increased our earnings by £500ish a month, which would be transformative. Obviously, my imminent maternity leave makes my own prospects a little less promising but I'll dare to dream!

Thanks so much for the advice/reassurance/sympathy. Being this skint can feel incredibly isolating.

OP posts:
Grenlei · 01/10/2021 08:49

Completely understand OP, it's really tough when things like this happen and it feels like you're fighting hard just to stay in the same place. When my DC were under 3, we got a massive loan to build an extension which stretched us to the limit, midway through our car needed £3k of work (and we'd only bought it for £7k a year earlier!). We had to take the money off the house build which caused other problems - especially as the loan we had only covered the absolute bare minimum anyway. Had a lot of sleepless nights and feeling like we'd never have any spare money. Though it felt like it would never happen, it did eventually get better, children got older, started school which saved on childcare costs, our earnings increased, and slowly but surely things improved.

jessycake · 01/10/2021 08:54

We had this many years ago and in the end after just keep throwing hundreds of pounds away , our nerves in shreds and the fear of my husband losing his job , we got a loan and bought a very unfashionable car that was a couple of years old and had a warranty . If it were now we would get dacia sandero , the most basic no frills tinny version or something similar just to get from A to B. This just gave us a breathing space .

friskybivalves · 01/10/2021 08:59

I know it's not at all the point of the thread but what size are your feet?! MN vipers are brilliant at finding bargain winter boots. Have you discovered the Shoeaholics site? Or someone might have a pair that they have never worn as being not very comfy/bit big/small and could send them your way...could you post a picture?

Flowers
vdbfamily · 01/10/2021 09:02

Our church have a charity connected that helps people on low incomes have cars. It will service and MOT cars for free/ reduced rates and do up second hand cars to give two those who cannot afford. I just googled and it seems like there are quite a lot of charities line that. We have never owned a new car. Our most recent we bought of a neighbor for £1200 a couple of weeks ago and it passed its MOT this week. It should like you have been very unlucky with second hand but personally I would say a new car was a total waste of money.

SmileyClare · 01/10/2021 09:02

I only know about blown head gaskets because that happened to one of our old cars. It's usually a death sentence for an old car because the cost of repairing exceeds the value of the car.

Sealant might get you a couple of months. It's possible that whoever sold you the car had already sealed the broken gasket and didn't tell you..arsehole! The car engine may be clogged or damaged from overuse of sealant- especially a cheap incompatible one.

It depends on the extent of the damage to your head gasket. You'll also need to research the sealant compatible with your car and proceed with caution. Certainly don't attempt any long distance journeys if you get the car going, sealant is a stop gap/temporary fix.

Worth a try though.

Seasonschange · 01/10/2021 09:16

This happened to me. Exact same repair. Radweld bought me 5 more months but that was before it was diagnosed as head gasket (oil in coolant). And I hated being worried about breaking down all the time. People talked to me like an idiot for buying older cars but it is such a lottery. First one died in 18 months (£1400) , second 9 (£1400) but third (£2000) has lasted me 4 years and counting. First two were the types of cars that everyone gushes will last forever. I’ve now saved enough I can afford a decent car when my current dies!

if you /dp don’t need a car for work i would really consider pulling your daughter out of nursery during marerinity leave and saving to get a better car. I was so tense everytime I drove for ages and once I physically vomited when I saw the warning light yet again!

wobbleinprogress · 01/10/2021 09:27

Do you have a local credit union? They can offer good loans if you are desperate

Ohsugarhoneyicetea · 01/10/2021 10:32

If you can get the garage to do a report that says the gasket had a temporary fix (sealant) on it that the seller would have been aware of, then you can take them to small claims court and get your money back. If you can show they knew it was faulty, did a bodge fix and sold it under false pretences, that's what small claims is for. Doesn't help in the short term however.

Filthycop · 01/10/2021 10:56

similar happened to us a few years ago and we borrowed the money fr the repair and then sold the car to pay off the loan - we didn't make much money out of it but more than if we had just sold as a write off. It was enough to help towards a nw car but did put us back a lot as unable to save etc.

Original poster
Royalgalas · 01/10/2021 11:04

@Seasonschange yep, that's been my experience too - both being spoken to like an idiot for buying old (>10 years) cars and the lottery of it all. All of mine have been famously reliable, bomb-proof makes and models. Funnily, the best car we ever had was an ancient and rusty Ford KA that we bought for £500 from a relative. It just kept on going, never let us down and sailed through MOTs. Got rid when our daughter arrived and I've regretted it ever since. Hopelessly impractical, but we'd have saved ourselves thousands!

We're in that income bracket where we don't qualify for any help, but we have absolutely no headroom.. Household income is about £48K but once mortgage, childcare, food and bills and servicing debts (a small credit card which just won't quit and the £5K bank loan) are accounted for, we have bugger all left at the end of the month. The only solace is that we both work for organisations with a very clear career structure. If we stay put, we won't be stuck like this forever. @Grenlei thank you for sharing your experience - it really helps to be reminded that it won't always be like this.

OP posts:
vivainsomnia · 01/10/2021 11:47

pulling her out of nursery is about the only significant saving we could make, but it feels nuclear. She absolutely adores it there - she only does two days a week and still asks to go at the weekend! grin I'm also not sure I can cope with having two small kids on my own with no break
Sorry OP, but you might be embarking yet on a risky purchase when ultimately, the non risky one would be to take your daughter out of nursery.

Is it really more important that she has a blast over your peace of mind? You will cope with no break as many mums in your situation do. I certainly did. No way was my eldest going to attend nursery when I was off on maternity leave with my second. It was a luxury I just couldn't afford.

Asdf12345 · 01/10/2021 11:50

That seems very expensive for just the head gasket. Phone a few small independents for quotes.

Last head gasket I got done was about £700.

If you have the tools the parts plus getting the head pressure checked and skimmed is about £300.

ArkEscape2 · 01/10/2021 12:04

You could look into a local car share scheme

You pay as you go

Floralnomad · 01/10/2021 12:14

If you are going to scrap the car @Royalgalas see what Copart will offer you , we sold a non running car ( cam belt failure) to them this year and they offered 2x what anyone else did , by the time we’d got back the tax and insurance we ended up with over £500 for a car that was scrapped .

Helenahandkart · 01/10/2021 12:19

@Royalgalas

I appreciate the sympathy and kind words. Feeling spectacularly sorry for myself. The sole of my winter boots is coming off and I've just wept over having to try to repair them because I can't afford new ones.

Whoever said money can't buy happiness was talking absolute garbage.

Can’t help with your car but your winter boots are another matter. Buy some ShoeGoo. It’s incredible stuff and has kept all my boots going for years where other glues failed. I think it’s American but you can get it on eBay/online. It’s honestly amazing. Sorry about your car.
Original poster
Royalgalas · 01/10/2021 12:28

@Asdf12345 I asked a local old fella mechanic (he takes ages but has a low hourly rate - cheapest I can think of!) and he said that the head gasket on our make/model of a car is a bugger of a job. Last he did he charged £1K + VAT and he definitely wouldn't do it again for less. I could call around a few more but I don't think I'd get quoted much less!

@vivainsomnia I know you're talking sense but I had terrible PND with my daughter. If it happens again, there's no way I could manage without some extra help. Her funded hours will kick in in April, which cover the two full days. I could ask her nursery to see if they'd hold her place but it's massively oversubscribed and I doubt they'd be able to guarantee her space.

OP posts:
MrsMoastyToasty · 01/10/2021 12:38

Can you take a mortgage holiday for a couple of months? Or get a cheaper mortgage deal?

poorbuthappy · 01/10/2021 12:43

Our head gasket cost £1200 so it's entirely possible that's correct.

OneForTheRoadThen · 01/10/2021 12:48

I think you may need to take your DD out of nursery when you're on maternity leave. I did the same and it was tough but it's only for a year Thanks

Buttons294749 · 01/10/2021 12:58

That s shit.
We have horrible luck with cars too x

Indecisivelurcher · 01/10/2021 13:02

Just sending sympathy, we were in the same boat, earning similar money, similar outgoings, more debt, same type of issues with car. Even started my own threads on here. I would keep your Dd in nursery and count down until April when free hours kick in. It will help massively. Look on vinted and see if you can get yourself some winter boots. I get all my clothes on there now. I followed Dave Ramsey which is very American but has good principles. Regarding cars he says to buy what you can pay cash for. Have you got a friend who knows anything that would car shop with you to try to find something that will last a couple of years? Have a look into debt management snowball he advocates. I think he sets out steps, first save an emergency fund, second pay off debts smallest first, then snowball the payment into the next one.

For what it's worth we've popped out the other side now, both kids in school full time as of yesterday, paid off all debt, paying cash for works on our house, and got a car on lease. Ignoring Dave Ramsey, it miiiiight be worth looking at what the repayments are on a lease car.