Buy a new car or fix 11 year old car?

[WheelsOnTheBusGoRound]

My 11 year citroen xsara picasso needs a new clutch. Have a couple of quotes ranging from £550 - £600 and the car is due its MOT and service soon which may bring up other issues. So the car is looking at costing at least £700 over the next couple of months.

I have some money available to buy a newer second hand car and have been looking at 3-4 year old citroen c3 picasso's for around £5000- £6000.

Can anyone help with a few question?

How long does a car normally last these days before it gives way to age? If I spend £700+ on an 11 year old car is another expensive problem likely to come up in a few months?

Is £4000- £5000 (based on what I have to spend on my existing car anyway) a reasonable amount to spend for 7-8 years worth of driving?

We were in an almost identical situation and we went for the newer car at £6000. Ours came with a warranty of 4 years still left on it (3 year old warranty) and a 2 year dealer warranty. For us it was the best thing we could have done as we were so stressed and worried with something breaking on the old car all the time it was and has been wonderful to just drive and not worry about it.

The other option is to buy a cheaper second hand car but then you have to weigh up what kind of warranty you'd have and what might go wrong with it.

Sorry meant Kia, not warranty!

We went with getting a brand new car as the warranty was good (5 years, toyota are the market best with 7 years) and I was getting sick of waiting for the next £300 problem! If you work in public sector there is an affinity scheme which wiped around £3,000 off the list price. Also very low tax (was £230 now £20) and no MOT !!!

We paid £1,200 for our current car, so we got great life from it really - but it seems luck of the draw to get a "good" one.

We recently scrapped a car and traded in another for a new one.. Both were Vauxhall Corsas bought new by us. The one we scrapped was an R register and the other an 04. They both had well over 180,000 miles on the clock. With the older car the body work needed attention and there were a lot of minor issues that needed dealing with. A big service and an MOT were due and it just wasn't worth paying out to keep it on the road, so we drove it to the scrap yard. It was a sad day really as it had never once let us down mechanically. Anything that had needed to doing, (and it wasnt much) had been done as part of the regular service. The other car had a similar mileage, but was still a good and reliable runner and the garage where we bought our. new car offered us a good price which saved us the hassle of selling it privately.

As to what you should do, I'm not sure. In some ways it's better the devil you know than one you don't especially if you are planning to buy privately. If you are looking to buy from a garage that offers a guarantee then this at least offers you some protection if problems arise within the warranty period.

Kia give 7 yr warranty and also gave me 3 yrs free servicing.

Try orange cars-they give great prices on all cars (see website) which you can either get from them or use their price to push down a dealership

Clutches wear out just like tyres and brakes.
You could by another used car and be faced with all manner of problems. The problem isn't your car just the clutch. I understand your worries regarding hitting an age where everything starts going though. Citroen are not known for there longevity just like Ford and Vauxhall.

I'd get the clutch sorted, have it serviced and MOT'd ( as you'd have to do with another used car) and stick with it.

My decision would depend on how much mileage your car has, general condition and how much it hascost in repairs previously.
You could have trouble selling it with a high cost repair to consider.
You could consider part exchanging for a newer car.
My DH did this recently, he part ex'ed his high powered mid life crisis for a slightly newer, high powered mid life crisis job. He did well on the part ex, his car had low mileage for its age (2003) and was in excellent condition.

We have an 11 year old work horse 4 by 4 which is totally reliable and happily paid out £600 for brake pipes etc. plus another 200 for a replacement fuel pump. It is 11 years old though and things are starting to wear out, a window mechanism failed, the rear door handle plastic went brittle and needed replacing.
We are thinking of a part ex deal on it next year. It gets to a point where it's better to cut your losses.

I'd go for the newer car.