Dilemma coming in the next few months, what would you do?

[Djw John]

Basically we've currently got 3 cars, the 225, the 172 and a meg coupe. The 225 and 172 are staying, the 172 forever! The coupe is where we can't decide what to do. We've owned it for 6 years now iirc.

Its a 02 1.6 16v Dynamique with circa 70k on it but also a huge dent (my fault) and is now due its timing belt and could really do with 2 driveshafts to cure a noise its been making. Other than that its great, its like a donkey, you just keeping kicking it and it just plods along. In the last couple of years its had basically full new suspension and brakes (before we bought the 225, just to keep it fresh) and it drives very well. Does an easy 40mpg but is quick enough to not bore you to tears. However, it is basically worthless as the dent, the driveshafts and the timing belt drops the price to only a few hundred, good ones only go for about £800 these days.

We like having the 3 cars as my wife drives the 225 most of the time and we use it for long journeys, the clio is my plaything, loud, bumpy, getting more compromised for work and the coupe is the workhorse, its the go to car when the weather gets bad, for my commute and if we're just dotting about locally.

So our choices are basically;

1. Do nothing, run the coupe till it breaks, scrap it, buy something else.
2. Same as 1 but just run 2 cars
3. Fix the coupe up, timing belt is a £200 job and some driveshafts would be circa £100 with no labour for them.
4. Sell coupe as is, but clio dci.
5. Something else altogether.

All thoughts are welcome

Cheers
John

 

[Aydon182]

Flip a coin.

 

[daveski]

Stick with what you know, keep the Megane Coupe and spend some money on it.

 

[Jaff.]

Run it into the ground. Scrap will be worth roughly £150. See if you can sell the panels like wings, bonnet etc. or the light clusters, wing mirrors etc. and buy another from the spare change

 

[Paul172sport]

Do belts and shafts and live with the dent and for £300 you've got it running well and piece of mind to churn some miles on it whilst you enjoy the 172 properly

 

[Djw John]

Dave and Paul, thats my current thinking but it changes all the bloody time! I do like the fact that we know it, who knows what another banger would need!

Jaff, you probably spend more time on coupe type forums than I do these days, is there much money in breaking one?

 

[Alastair.]

Ebay it, 0.99p no reserve, thats what i would do.

 

[Scotty-boi]

I would keep it and spend some money on it mate, you know it goes well, like you said. Just give it a kick.
I sold my last car to get the ph1, I'm that I'm needed a car to get to work, I'm not wanting to use the ph1, but always worrying to get something else that could be rubbish,
Wish I had kept the car I know was 'my donkey', never cost me a thing. Would have been great for work runs etc.

 

[Jaff.]

No there's no market for breaking them tbh mate

 

[DannyR]

Flip a coin.

5 sided coin? Lol.

 

[Bluebeard]

Ebay it, 0.99p no reserve, thats what i would do.

Same here. 3 cars are not needed! If you're strapped for cash or worried about saving money, get yourself down to 2 cars.

 

[Djw John]

Not overly strapped but certainly not doing well, fixed rate motgage ends in August

What I forgot to say is I only tax it in winter so tax is about £80 and insurance the same. So tax, ticket and insurance is £200 a year in effect. It costs nothing to run but its whether chucking £300 and getting another few years out of it is worthwhile.

And if I was to sell it then yeah, the ebay idea sounds the best bet.

Scotty, thats what Im worried about!

Jaff, thought so.

Danny, come up with a sixth suggestion, I'll have a dice somewhere!


Glad to see theirs as many different opinions as there are options, I hate car decisions!

 

[TheEvilGiraffe]

1 TBH.

Simple as that. It owes you a little bit but you'll never see that back again. I can't imagine you've spent £k's on it anyway...

Sounds like the perfect set up to me. If you can afford it, and you have space for it, why not ?

It's not like you've got £10k sat there SORN'd doing nothing ?!

 

[daveski]

I broke my old Megane 2 or 3 years ago and it was a pain shifting the bits then, wouldn't go down that route now.

 

[Aydon182]

5 sided coin? Lol.

Heads keeps it
Tails rids it
Sorry for expecting you to figure that out.

 

[Djw John]

Nice atitude mate, it's not as simple as that though is it? Hence there being more options.

 

[.LiamC.]

If it's only going to cost you £300 to repair it then you may as well keep it. That's as long as it's really worth having a 3rd car just for the winter, personally I wouldn't say it was but then everyone is in different situations.

I definetly wouldn't get rid of it to buy another cheap car as you know this car so well.

 

[Djw John]

See I don't think I'd buy a car specifically for winter but as it gets about 10mpg more than the clio (which I drive like its stolen) any costs tend to get saved through petrol alone!

I think the fact that not one person suggests getting another car rules that out. Thats something at least!

 

[McGherkin]

Danny, come up with a sixth suggestion, I'll have a dice somewhere!

6: Roll again

Personally I'd just run it into the ground. It's a runabout, so there's not a huge attachment to it (Obviously the 172 is a different matter!), it's cheaper just to run it until it breaks and then buy another one for peanuts.

 

[Aydon182]

Nice atitude mate, it's not as simple as that though is it? Hence there being more options.

Is it really that hard? It's personal preference, if you need it and have the money to do it and want to, then do it, if you don't want to then don't. Only you can decide what's best for you and your financial circumstances. Man up and make your own decisions rather than call on the oh so wise CS.net to make decisions for you when they don't know your full circumstances.

 

[JCC]

I think you need to have a chug and go to sleep Aydon, you're a bit tense.

 

[Djw John]

Flol I can't top that for a reply tbh.

 

[DannyR]

I find it ironic that he actually needs help figuring out there are 5 options not two.

 

[Aydon182]

 

[Djw John]

Enough. You've said your piece, I'm terribly sorry for offending you by asking on a car forum about peoples opinions on what do with a car. I see the error of my ways. If you've nothing constructive to say, bugger off.

 

[yeecup]

pmsl. john if i was you id keep it mate, spend the £300 on it and run about in it, could you not do the belts yourself? u can whip an engine out a ph1 no bother.

 

[Djw John]

Not got the right locking tools but got a mate who would do it for £80, mega new have loads of engine bay space which helps! And obviously get the kit cheap so it would work out ok.

Weve decided to defo keep it, just still to look at finances properly and get the insurance quote for next year to 100% decide to fix it up or not!

 

[crookie]

If money isn't an issue I'd keep it and fix it. If money is a issue, I'd sell it as is on Ebay... Similar predicament myself - between me and the missus we've currently got 4 cars - trying to work out which one to sell at the mo!

 

[Martin_172]

turbo it