Assessing Vehicle Longevity: When does a "runner" become a "project"?

claywinston

claywinston

claywinston

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United Kingdom, Yorkshire
Hi everyone,

I've been spending a lot of time lately looking at the secondary market specifically cars that are sitting right on the edge of being viable daily drivers versus becoming full-blown projects or donor vehicles.

I'm curious to hear from the community here: for those of you who do your own maintenance, where is your "line in the sand" for an MOT failure?

  • Is it a specific repair cost relative to the car's value?
  • Is it the type of failure (e.g., structural rust vs. mechanical)?
  • Or is it just when the driveway space becomes more valuable than the car itself?
I'm interested in the economics of vehicle longevity in the UK right now, especially with how parts prices and labor costs have shifted recently. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and experiences with your own "fleet."
 
Interesting question, complex answers.

Although I've maintained my own for the most part over the years and fixes have ranged from simple oil changes to suspension, steering, timing belts etc. I think it stems from a) interest in how things work b) being tight fisted thinking that labour charges were a lot c) if you want a job done properly, do it yourself type attitude.

However, I've more often changed vehicles / upgraded when it's got a stage where what we have isn't fulfilling our needs and what we want has come down to an affordable threshold.

There has been a couple of times where I moved a car on due to actually having issues with the car though. One being the automatic gearbox beginning to show signs of needing a rebuild, so rather than the £2.5k bill of a car valued at £3k, we put the money to changing the car instead. I did wonder at times whether it was the right decision, we gave up what was a very very nice car.

It feels a little different right at this moment though. I currently have 2 cars which between them tick all the boxes of what I want / need. One has 130k miles, the other 90k and both are 10 years old ... yet changing wouldn't necessarily get me a better car (other than being younger) , or even one that I'd want more that what I have just now ( I look at both and think 'nice car' when they are in the driveway ) ... and I'd end up with more complexity to maintenance too.

So I'm not currently sure what my threshold for change / line in the sand is at the moment !
 
I’m someone who tends to hold onto cars for a long time and do my own maintenance on them. For me it’s usually a combination of factors that cause me to finally call time on a given car. I’ll generally live with minor faults and quirks but eventually some combination of small faults piling up, a difficult and/or expensive repair needing doing plus signs that more problems are on the way and sometimes just wanting something nicer is generally enough to get rid.

Case in point is my current car, 2008 Volvo XC70 which I’ve owned for about 12 years or so. The faults I’ve been living with include water ingress in at least 2 places, add odd fault where it occasionally just loses all boost until turned off and on again and the door mirror on the driver side has gone stiff causing it to struggle folding in.

Recently the rear differential has started making bad noises. Research suggests it’s fairly common for the input shaft bearing to get starved of oil and become damaged, repair is going to involve buying a rebuilt diff and dropping the rear subframe to fit it. I just CBA fixing it and I’m now just hoping it holds together long enough for me to find a suitable replacement (Probably a V90) at which point I’ll just move it on for whatever I can get.
 
I tend to keep my cars quite a long time and its a combination of things for me usually.

My last car was 15 years old and while it was still working and (just about) passed its MOT with minor work it felt on its last legs. It needed most of the suspension refreshing and the rear sub frame was very rusty so really need changing at the same time plus it was starting to have issues with the electronic parking brake and there was a rattle from the engine which i think was the cam chain tensioned.

So when i totted up the cost of the parts and my time doing it all it just didn't seem worth the money and effort and i felt id got my moneys worth out of it by that stage so i decided get rid and put the money towards a new car.

As for project cars it depends how much space you have, i got rid of my last Impreza as like you said the space in the garage was more useful to me than the car at that point as it needed a fair bit spending on it to make it good again as it didn't have any sentimental value etc, on the flip side the other half of my garage has been occupied by a classic mini for 10 years but that was my grandmothers so even though it needs a full restoration i'm willing to put up with that and hold onto it for when (if) i ever get time to do it.
 
For me a project car would be anything that I really WANT to keep.

Unfortunately, haven’t had that many cars that met the criteria.
I loved both of my AE82s, but rust on the underside was killing the 2nd.
The S13 had to go because of the ex. Would have loved to keep that, was so much fun.

An MX5 was the only other car that made it. I’d had it rust proofed, replaced the front chassis beams, etc. That was killed by ULEZ. Ya boo sucks!
 
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I tend to keep my cars for a long time.

I had a Mitsubishi lancer (not the turbo) which a bought at auction with really low mileage for £2200. It had baby vomit all over the back seat, some of the paint in places was a little discoloured where someone had had something like brake fluid on their hands and then touched it.

Otherwise was mechanically fine.

I had that about 10 years and very little went wrong with it, but.....

What killed it eventually is I had a really weird brake issue. I was on the motorway and needed to slow down just a little, so slowly put my foot on the brake pedal, and slowly ot applying much pressure the pedal went all the way to the floor without the car slowing down at all. Very disconcerting.

But tried the brake again and it worked, it was otherwise fine so I put it down to one of those things....

Drove the car for another 2 months or so, and the same thing happened in basically the same scenario and after that nope, not driving it.

Took it to a good local who tried and tried (they spent a lot of time to be fair) but couldn't replicate the issue not seeing anything wrong with the braking system.

Unfortunately, it's not a case of replacing a part to see if it solved it, because next time that could be you/your family/someone else and their family in the grave.

Short if replacing the ENTIRE braking system, it wasn't worth risking so that car went.



My current car is a 2013 Volvo S60 and it's got a few minor issues but nothing major. The bonnet sensor is broken but I just shorted the connector, so it thinks the bonnet is always closed, no big deal.

I have now also got a problem with the oil pressure switch, as the car is saying it's got low oil level but it's fine. I'll try and repair that next service.

Otherwise it seems to work ok.

What will eventually get all cars in the UK is rust. There is really not a hell of a lot you can do, some cars rust faster than others.
 
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In the UK rust is the killer, my car is 20 years old and only survived that long because earlier in its life I got under it and cleaned, sanded and treated rust patches and then used Dinitrol underseal.

When new they dont do enough to protect from rust, why would they. They want you back to buy another car ASAP.
 
Tend to keep cars long. Our main car is an EV but its the second car that is the one I'm always messing with.

My mechanic said its not really about can you keep it running but do you want to. Is the car still right car for what you're using it for.
When I had a old K11 Micra as a second car, (19yrs old, had it for 16yrs) that was still running fine, jobs were starting to be a little more often. Was the most reliable car I ever owned.
But we started doing more motorway miles and it wasn't the car for that.

Replaced it with a MkV Golf but thats now 19yrs old. Been keeping it as learner car. But the jobs are creeping up on that door locks, window motors, fuel pump, shocks, clutch.
Its a sports spec handles really nicely. But with 1.6 NA lump which I picked for low maintenance. But we had a lot of trouble with fuelling on it, either bad fuel or something.
Had to pump the lines and tank, replaced lots of things. I don't think it ever ran right since. Its bit of slug. Now that headlining is failing thats another job and it has a leak in the hatch somewhere.
Basically I no longer love it enough to keep it, or do those jobs.

Then again I may get a second EV and then in a few years get a 3rd car for weekend. MRS, MX5 or such.
 
In the broadest terms; Honestly, every car pre-2025 should be maintained as long as possible so we can all enjoy driving without all the 'safety' nonsense that got bundled in by the EU. Yes, yes, you can turn stuff off -- until you next start the car and it all turns on again. All the beeps and bongs are more of a safety hazard (distraction) than any kind of safety feature... especially when it attempts to take control from you because it thinks you're doing something unsafe.

In the more individual; maintain it and keep it running for as long as a) you WANT to drive it, and b) you can AFFORD to... if either A or B cease to apply, that's when you move the car on to someone else.
 
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