Financially savvy minds needed!

Dont private hire cars need to be 3 years old or less on first registration of becoming a private hire car?
 
This is one of those things where you need to sit down and look at the *total* cost of ownership over what you expect to be the life of the vehicle you're running. I think when you sit down you may find you'll end up spending on repairs and maintenance on an old car as much as you'd lose in depreciation on a newer car.

I think I'd be looking at something nearly new that has already suffered from epic depreciation. Might be worth looking at 300C Touring or a Volvo of some kind. Shock horror, potentially even something like an Insignia. :eek:
 
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£3000 over 70,000 miles doesn't seem unreasonable to me. Perhaps a little high but not worryingly so.
That's like 5-6 years of average ownership miles.

£3000 spent on maintenance over 6 years sounds fine.

At 70,000 miles, 10mpg can make a considerable difference on fuel spend. I'd consider changing to something more economic, if possible?
 
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That's really not a lot to spend over 70 thousand miles.

The period of time its been spent over is clouding the OPs judgement.

One routine service alone on the Mini last month was £330 pounds and we've only put 3k on it since may.
 
atpbx said:
That's really not a lot to spend over 70 thousand miles.

The period of time its been spent over is clouding the OPs judgement.

One routine service alone on the Mini last month was £330 pounds and we've only put 3k on it since may.
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exactly what i was thinking . thats surely average spending for such mileage on a 5 year old car , its no doubt been through every single big service in the year youve owned it

what things have gone wrong ? will they probably not last another 70 000 ?
 
Saab 9-3 with LPG conversion seem to be extremely popular around here. It may have been around the time prices in Saab's plummeted due to their inevitable decline. But the gamble seems to have worked out, now that the parts department remains...
 
blueboy2001 said:
What work has been done to the Mondeo for £3k?
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Off the top of my head...

Gearbox replacement, new clutch, new flywheel, pretty much a full suspension refresh all round over the year, brake discs and pads front and back at least twice, two seized calipers, wheel bearings all round, around four services, bonnet lock replacement, drive shaft bearings, plenty of odd seals here and there.

Loads more that I'm sure I'm forgetting but it's been through plenty of tyres too and I usually try to put Continentals on whenever finances allow so that isn't cheap. I don't really factor in tyre costs though as any car will go through them quickly with this mileage.

ajstan said:
What's the current mileage of your Mondeo?
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It's currently on 176,000 miles.
 
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A Mondeo is a reliable and cheap to fix car. Keep it. Of course you will have big bills for maintenance with that kind of mileage, but so will any other car. There's no way around it. You've just done a lot of work that will last a long time - the gearbox, clutch, suspension refresh, seals, bearings, etc, so you'd be mad to get rid of it right now for the peanuts it's worth. Keep it for at least another year so you get your money's worth from all that work.
 
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176k is relatively low miles for the sort of use you give it imo, it's had a fairly comprehensive overhaul by the sound of it and should be good for another year at the very least.
It seems pretty daft throwing it away for peanuts when you've shelled out on sorting it out tbh, and I can't see a Mk1 Focus being any better, if anything, it'll need the same again sooner or later anyway.

If anything, I'd consider sourcing a replacement interior for it (most private hire cars suffer here) and perhaps give the bodywork a refresh / touch up if its required.

If the engine went bang, replace it with one from a breaker...

In short, it owes you £3k, get the money from it by working it, don't throw it away on something else, at least not yet.
 
Surely if a Mondeo has had £3k spending on it, then it is far better than any equivalent Mondeo which you will ever find with all of those new parts....

So keep it :confused:
 
Jez said:
Surely if a Mondeo has had £3k spending on it, then it is far better than any equivalent Mondeo which you will ever find with all of those new parts....

So keep it :confused:
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Of course it is.

My quandary is that moving to a more reliable car which returned 50mpg instead of 40mpg would save me upwards of £2,000 a year. Hence the question, is it worth changing?
 
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