Should I or shouldn't I?

Rilot

Rilot

Rilot

Don
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
23,584
Location
Wargrave, UK
After 18 months on the scrap heap, I'm back working again. I'll be mobile most of the time and I rekon I'll be running 20k miles per year.
Now, here's the issue; my 540i needs money spending on it to keep it running reliably.

I need new springs and dampers at the front, lower control arms, and rear subframe bushes. The car looks tatty and needs the rust around the wheel arches and the bonnet sorting.
To get this lot fixed, I'm looking at at least £1k from a specialist.

I would go and buy a new car, but due to being on the dole for the best part of 18 months, and having defaulted on some loans I had due to the redundancy protection not paying out, my credit score is screwed and there's no way I'm going to get a loan.

So, spend the money on the 540i and hope that the engine or gearbox don't go bang (It's on 150k miles), or just leave it, bank the cash I would have used to fix it and save as much as I can in the time between now and when the car breaks?

What do you think?
 
I'd spend the grand total of £0.00p on it - run it to kill it and then replace with a derv and repair your finances.

Well played on becoming a tax-collector again - your Government is most pleased. :p
 
The dole must pay well to run a 540i for 18 months!!!

I suspect you haven't lavished that much money on it over that time and at 150k it might be getting a little tired. As above run it until it'll no logner pass an MOT.

However, 20k miles in a V8 isn't going to be cheap on fuel...
 
Spend, spend, spend, if you're doing the mileage then the last thing you want is to break down miles from home.
 
[TW]Fox;16634266 said:
Repair it and it will go on being better than anything else this side of 10 grand.
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Yeah, that's kind of my thoughts too.... I dunno though. Spending nothing and getting in a derv to get my finances sorted does sound like the more sensible thing to do however that involves spaneding a lot of cash on a newer motor and we all know how economical that is in the short term. I'll only end up with a crap derv anyway that may end up more hassle that the 540i which so far, has been very reliable.

I'll think on it for a few weeks..... I can do the work myself if I take a weeks holiday I guess. That will cut the costs down significantly.
My only concern is that if I spend say £1500 on it and it goes bang 20k miles later, I'm left with having spent money for no reason. I guess I can always break it though and make some cash back. E39 parts are always wanted on auction sites.
 
£1500 for it to go bang in 20k (a year) is pretty good for an oldish 540i I would imagine. That's basically what you would expect from the car.
 
[TW]Fox;16634266 said:
Repair it and it will go on being better than anything else this side of 10 grand.
Click to expand...

Indeed, couldn't agree more.

SeatIbiza said:
The dole must pay well to run a 540i for 18 months!!!

However, 20k miles in a V8 isn't going to be cheap on fuel...
Click to expand...

A 540i isn't that expensive to put fuel in, you can get 30mpg out of them on a run ...but if you're not working and I would assume not doing too many miles then it's a moot point anyway.

At the end of the day, without spending a great deal more money, £15k+ ...you can't really get an appreciably better car, a tidier one perhaps but better? ...not likely.
 
The manual 'box makes a big difference to the economy. If it does explode in 20k miles, that's 20k miles for £1500 in a nice V8 environment.
Certainly anything with a V8 you buy now for £1500 won't be as nice!
 
Run it, kill it, bin it.

Seriously, it will cost you a grand now to smarten up, but could happily throw up another grand's worth of work the following week... and the week after that. Just look through Moeks' thread and recall upon your past experiences.

Spending any more is throwing good money after bad imo. Run it until it gives up and sell it to some kid for a grand.
 
It's hardly throwing good money after bad, is it? It needs routine work at this sort of age - a suspension refresh in the main. It'll then be good with this suspension for many thousands more miles.

It's nothing like Moeks situation at all, he bought a shabby example from a driveway trader and then threw a heavy dose of paranoia into the mix. He hasn't actually shelled out that much on repairs himself, either.
 
As long as it drives safely and is going to pass it's MOT, I'd avoid spending money on it. NickXX is right - there's the potential for a sudden bill and it's a good idea to have a kitty of money set aside for it. Primarily you need to have a working vehicle, some cosmetic improvements and suspension refreshing should be second fiddle to that.
 
PMKeates said:
As long as it drives safely and is going to pass it's MOT, I'd avoid spending money on it. NickXX is right - there's the potential for a sudden bill and it's a good idea to have a kitty of money set aside for it. Primarily you need to have a working vehicle, some cosmetic improvements and suspension refreshing should be second fiddle to that.
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Presumably though he has the money and doesnt wish to drive around in a car with baggy, tired suspension and cosmetic issues when it's within his power to rectify these.
 
[TW]Fox;16636854 said:
Presumably though he has the money and doesnt wish to drive around in a car with baggy, tired suspension and cosmetic issues when it's within his power to rectify these.
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On the dole for 1.5 years, defaulted on loans, worried about spending £1k, cannot get new loans. It's sensible to not spend unnecessarily in this situation. I don't want to jinx the guy, but he's only just got a new job. I'd rather save the cash until I felt secure or had more available.
 
Aye. Finances are in a right mess due to being out of work for so long.
I'll run it as it is for a while. It's not dangerous yet. Maybe re-evaluate in a month.

And yes, i mostly use the tiger for commuting but it's not practical to use for customer visits.
 
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