What would you do? Car.

[Jules198711]

So as the title says, what would you do in our situation.

DH and I have 2 cars. One is on finance at approx £200 per month and the other is paid off. The car that is paid off is a 2013 plate vauxhall and has a 65000 milage.

Car that is paid off has broken down and needs roughly £1.5k of work done on it (I can't remember exactly what it is, DH told me but I know nothing about car mechanics)

We need two cars! I work shifts as a nurse so leave very early in the morning (6am - get home around 8pm) so public transport isn't an option and the other car is needed for the kids when I am at work (DH works from home) but is it worth spending that much money on a 13 year old car which is probably worth less.

Money is pretty tight at the moment, we have 2k in savings and that's it. I really don't want to wipe us out completely incase we have another emergency.

Options are -

1. Trade the car in and maybe get £500-1000 and then buy another car on finance (cheapest I've seen is about £120 per month over 4 years).

1. Take out a loan of £1.5k and pay that back over 1 year - 18 months. Pay for repairs and keep 13 year old car and hope it doesn't need anything else done.

1. Use our savings to pay for repairs leaving us with only £500.

Really don't know what to do! We can't really afford another monthly bill of over £100. Wish we could just have one car, we've looked at that but it just won't work. Would mean we would have to get kids up before 6am sometimes on weekends so DH could take me to work.

Please help!

DW is a nurse and I wfh half the time, the other half an hour away. We just have to get up, drop wife to work then be home again at 7.30am to get baby dressed before nursery drop off. Needs must at this point in time for us.

Definitely don't take a loan to buy an old unknown car. Been there too.

@Jules198711
Have you checked online how much your old car would be worth if it was running ok? I think Parkers does free valuations for example. Then you can judge whether it's worth repairing it.
Can you afford an extra £120pm finance for 4 years on a newer car?
If you use your savings to repair the old car how long would it take you to save to get back to £2k savings?
Don't take a loan to repair the old car.

"The car that is paid off is a 2013 plate vauxhall and has a 65000 milage."

Depending on the model it could well be the case that the repair is more than the car is worth. As it ages seals etc deteriorate and if you repair it it may well needs more work in a year or two.

Is your financial situation going to improve so that the second monthly payment is affordable at that point? How long left on the car currently being financed?

I doubt that the car is worth less than £1500. I was looking at 64 plate cars the other day so only a year or so newer and it was a minimum of £3-4k for a Skoda Citigo so tiny basic car, so I'd think your car is worth similar at least when fixed. But look on Autotrader for an idea of price.

Whether it is worth repairing depends more on whether it is generally a decent car, condition and level of maintenance other than this breakdown ie if it's the clutch, are the tyres, brakes, suspension, timing belt etc newish or are you expecting to need to replace these fairly soon?

Also do you trust your garage and what do they advise? If you trust your garage and the other things are in good condition, I'd be tempted to repair the car and pay for it with savings. If it lasts a year without further major expense, you're no worse off than the £120 pm finance. If you have another emergency then's the time to borrow money, not now, unless you can get a 0% credit card deal to pay for the work and pay it off interest free over the next few months or so.

If the above doesn't apply, I'd be tempted to replace the car but also have a really good review of your budget, income and spending unless you've already done this to see if you can cut some costs, plus could you perhaps do the odd bank shift to bring in extra money? Even one shift a month should cover the cost of a car loan.

Doesn’t matter what the car is worth to sell it to someone else. What matters is what it’s worth to you. It’s actually cheaper to pay the £1500 to keep it on the road than several thousand to buy a replacement that may still have costly problems. You need to evaluate the likelihood of the repair being a one-off or whether it’s the first of more expensive repair bills. Only you know it’s history, condition, how well it’s been driven, servicehistory, future mileage and use etc. Are there any advisories on its last mot?

We had an old car that got written off by a lunatic neighbour who left her handbrake off and it rolled off her drive into ours. Even before the accident it was only worth £1k on open market. Repair costs were £2.5k so insurers wrote it off. But it was cheaper for us to have it repaired and keep it rather than paying £5-10k for a half decent used that may have come with problems itself. So we bought it from insurer for scrap value and financed the repairs with their payoff and savings. That was 5 years ago and a good decision as nothing has gone wrong with it since, costs have only been servicing and mots and it’s still worth the same £1k. We knew the car and knew it was a good solid runner, properly serviced and well driven so that’s what led to us paying and keeping it.

Is it petrol or diesel? If diesel you can keep the engine going for lots more miles but it depends what the body work is like....if it's starting to rust underneath then don't bother fixing. If it's petrol then don't bother fixing.

I dislike finance for cars, if you have an accident and write it off the insurance pays off the loan and you are left with nothing. If you are able to approach the bank for a loan instead that's a better way of borrowing.

The cost of the car may be £1000, but it is worth whatever it would cost to replace, in this case £5760.

Repair from savings, and save the £120 you would have spent on a replacement car.

I would pay for the repair of the older car then save for a deposit for another car. In a year or so I'd trade the old car in for something with half the mileage.

Do either of you have access to electric car through work scheme? My husband did this after his car was written off on a 2 year lease. I work in a school and they have a similar thing but I don’t earn the minimum to access it so no idea if it is a cheap enough option.

the scheme my husband did had everything included tyres servicing insurance so it wasn’t as bad as you thought and my school one you can get 2nd hand electric cars.

We buy any car gave me £2500 for a 13 year old Citroen with a major engine failure, worth checking! At £120 a month that would cover the first 20 months of finance for another vehicle

First of all get a second quote for the repairs just to make sure you can’t get it any cheaper.
then I’d repair the car out of your savings and work to top them back up.
Ive got a car on finance and it’s like a chain around my neck, wish id never done it and have issues with this car, really wish i had of invested in my old car

Ugh. Been there - older car, costly repair required. It's a gamble.

We stumped up for the costly repair and the first time (!) that happened the gamble paid off.

The second time, yes the second time, it didn't pay off.

Are there any Facebook user groups for the your vehicle? You could ask other driver opinions.

TBH, I think getting the kids up early at the weekends and living with one car might be worth considering.

Is there anyone who could come and sit in the house with your kids at the weekends? A babysitter could be cheaper than a new car!

I'd double check how much you'd get for it to trade in. I was in a similar situation and still got £1000 for a car that I couldn't drive.

Personally I'd get a newer, small, reliable car rather than spend loads on an old car.

If the old car has been reliable I'd get it fixed and try to build up savings again. Plan to replace it when the other car is paid off.

Fix your 2013 car, it's low mileage and you know the car - buying a different second hand car is no guarantee you won't go have issues , if you buy one and have issues then what? You would have to keep paying your monthly payments AND repairs leaving you in a terrible position.

I would use the savings to fix your car, then replace them with £120/mth you would have paid for the new loan. In a year you would replace your savings.

It doesn't sound like you can afford another car on finance if you can't afford an extra £100 bill any given month so forget about that option.

Why does your kids need to be driven on school days? Is it absolutely necessary or just nice? Could they ride bikes instead or could you husband get a cargo bike and take them to school that way?

If they really do need to be driven then I'd keep the old car and fix it. Better the devil you know.

My 15 Yr old car needed approx the same as yours spending on it, I asked my very trustworthy garage (family friend) and they said it's chucking good money away.
I traded it in £500, and they'll send it to auction.
You really can't afford to get into debt.
How far away do you work, do you have access to a Cycle to Work scheme?
Also it depends on where you live.
I live in a cycle friendly city.

Whatever you do, don't trade in for another car. You can't afford it.

I really don't understand why you want to take on debt, when you have the money to pay for the repairs? Shop around for the best price and then work on trying to rebuild your savings afterwards.

To find out the value of your car here, no email required it just gives you the price
https://carvaluation.confused.com/

Secondly, I would repair it. Dh did this with his car and it kept it on the road. Yes the car was worth less than the £1500 to repair it but it would have cost £5k upwards to replace it so we took the lesser amount. It was a solid Skoda and we traded it for "scrap" and received £250 in 2019 and that car is actually not scrapped and is still going as we (for fun) looked it up on the MOT site.

The car is essential to get you to work, I would take it from the savings and then build them back up. If you have another emergency then you can assess then if you take out a loan or whatever. Don't take on debt when you don't have to.

Secondhand cars are quite expensive these days. 65k miles is still pretty low for the age. A 2013 astra with that mileage on autotrader seems to average out around £3000. I would get a quote from at least one more garage for the repairs and look at whether this is likely to be a recurring problem or if once this problem is fixed you're going to get a few more years out of this car. Id use the money from your savings to pay for it then focus on building the savings back up. There's no point getting into debt when you have savings sitting there. Don't commit to 100 a month or a new finance agreement on another car if you're not sure you can afford it.