Soldato
- Joined
- 12 May 2011
- Posts
- 6,300
- Location
- Southampton
I have an e46 330ci that has some non-essential bills coming up, and I am wondering whether it is worth going ahead with them or getting another car. The issues:
I’m not sure how much this lot will cost to repair but I would suspect it is not going to cheap. I am thinking I could trade the car in for a value of £1,250 (sound reasonable?) and put my car fund (which was really to go towards maintenance) of £2,250 towards another car worth £3,500. The logic being that it could end up that I spend £750 (???) getting this lot repaired and then trade in / sell the car in a years time if something else goes wrong, it might be money wasted if the trade in value only goes up a little or not at all as a result of the repairs. If I traded in / sold now I could have an extra £750 to spend on a car.
However, the problem I have is I doubt I could get as good a car for £3,500. It’s reasonably powerful, sounds nice when you press on, very quiet and smooth running, comfy, heated leather seats, xenons, looks smart, I feel superior and judge people in povety spec 320d’s and those diesel CLK250s, I could retrofit an android head-unit for a satnav / Spotify / ICE stuff.. and I actually like the car.
I could get something like this or this if I was being sensible, and something like this if I was not! (I do about 10k miles and have any sensible car requirements).
It's actually been pretty reliable too. It's never left me stranded, the engine and vanos are fine and runs well. Some consumables have been done "recently" too like clutch, tyres, starter motor..
Is it sensible to keep it? What would you do?
I have an annoying and probably “not doing the car any good” rubbing noise coming from the rear offside wheel which squeaks once per wheel rotation intermittently, which I believe is associated with the handbrake. It is intermittent and stops for a few minutes after a moderate tug on the handbrake. The handbrake also feels odd, with a slight resistance for the first 30% of travel and then feeling normal.
I also have a constant once-per-rotation squeak coming from the same wheel that started was there before the handbrake issue. This squeak gets worse under breaking. It is worse when the wheel / brakes are cold to such an extent that it can go away completely after 30 mins of driving.
My central locking is broken with only the driver’s door unlocking from the fob or interior button (plus manually with the key). The passenger door only unlocks manually, as in pulling the door handle. Sometimes the locks will jam and the fob and interior button doesn’t unlock the car and I can just hear it click as it tries to unlock. It will unlock by the fob after say 20 tries. This is annoying as the fuel filler cap lock is related to the electrical lock.
I also have a constant once-per-rotation squeak coming from the same wheel that started was there before the handbrake issue. This squeak gets worse under breaking. It is worse when the wheel / brakes are cold to such an extent that it can go away completely after 30 mins of driving.
My central locking is broken with only the driver’s door unlocking from the fob or interior button (plus manually with the key). The passenger door only unlocks manually, as in pulling the door handle. Sometimes the locks will jam and the fob and interior button doesn’t unlock the car and I can just hear it click as it tries to unlock. It will unlock by the fob after say 20 tries. This is annoying as the fuel filler cap lock is related to the electrical lock.
I’m not sure how much this lot will cost to repair but I would suspect it is not going to cheap. I am thinking I could trade the car in for a value of £1,250 (sound reasonable?) and put my car fund (which was really to go towards maintenance) of £2,250 towards another car worth £3,500. The logic being that it could end up that I spend £750 (???) getting this lot repaired and then trade in / sell the car in a years time if something else goes wrong, it might be money wasted if the trade in value only goes up a little or not at all as a result of the repairs. If I traded in / sold now I could have an extra £750 to spend on a car.
However, the problem I have is I doubt I could get as good a car for £3,500. It’s reasonably powerful, sounds nice when you press on, very quiet and smooth running, comfy, heated leather seats, xenons, looks smart, I feel superior and judge people in povety spec 320d’s and those diesel CLK250s, I could retrofit an android head-unit for a satnav / Spotify / ICE stuff.. and I actually like the car.
I could get something like this or this if I was being sensible, and something like this if I was not! (I do about 10k miles and have any sensible car requirements).
It's actually been pretty reliable too. It's never left me stranded, the engine and vanos are fine and runs well. Some consumables have been done "recently" too like clutch, tyres, starter motor..
Is it sensible to keep it? What would you do?
