URGENT advice needed!

Robi

Robi

Robi

Soldato
Joined
14 Apr 2007
Posts
3,469
Apologies in advance for the sudden and blunt nature of this post, but my hand has been forced somewhat.

In a nutshell, my car (06' Mini 1.6 Petrol) broke down in the early hours this morning and it's looking like the engine is completely screwed. The garage is still running diagnostic checks but the latest update is that they are unable to get compression on pistons 1 or 3, the car refuses to start. At the very least the head gasket will need replacing, which will be £600+. When they strip the engine it is likely that further problems will be discovered, therefore doubling or tripling the bill. On a car worth £2-3k it's not really economical to fund the repairs. I was planning to run this into the ground, buy a house, and then buy a new car. No chance of that happening now!

So, my predicament. I need a new car fairly pronto. I'm in the process of saving for a deposit (I'm already pretty much there), therefore I have a large chunk of money saved up. I don't really want to use this, simply because it's for a house.

The loan on my current car coincidently finishes this month, so that money can be used against a new car.

I'm genuinely stumped at what to do. I do 10k+ miles a year, so that limits my options somewhat. I would also much rather avoid being tied into any kind of long contract because I want to buy a house in the not too distant future. With my very limited knowledge of cars, it seems like my options are as follows:

A. Take out a 2 year 15k lease for similar monthly payments to my previous bank loan i.e. £215/m

B. Take out a bank loan and buy a 2-3 year old car with monthly payments similar to my previous bank loan

C. Take out a PCP contract for similar monthly payments to my previous bank loan

D. Buy a banger for £2k and hope it doesn't develop problems

I suppose with option B, I could sell the car when I come to buy a house, and hopefully clear most if not all of the loan. This is also much more flexible if my job situation were to unfavourably change.

I'm absolutely exhausted at the moment (been up since 4am driving to a meeting), so any sound advice would be greatly appreciated!
 
Robi said:
When they strip the engine it is likely that further problems will be discovered, therefore doubling or tripling the bill. On a car worth £2-3k it's not really economical to fund the repairs. I was planning to run this into the ground, buy a house, and then buy a new car. No chance of that happening now!
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Robi said:
D. Buy a banger for £2k and hope it doesn't develop problems
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My advice at this point, if you do indeed go for option D, is to forget that your car is worth £2-3k. If you're going to spend £2k on an old banger, you might as well get yours fixed.

See what actually comes of the further diagnostics and make an informed decision then. Rush into doing something asap and it might end up a costly decision.

10k miles a year to me screams that something brand new and utterly reliable is slightly wasted, but that's all circumstantial of course.
 
If it has had a head gasket failure, and you haven't overheated the engine (ie you stopped the car pronto when it failed) it should just need the gasket and a small head skim. All in no more than £1000 tops.

I'd wait and see what the garage says. Where did you take it? Just a local independent place? I'd definitely be avoiding any sort of load, car finance or anything like that if you're looking for a mortgage soon too as it will reduce your chances of being approved for one.
 
As said, just fix your current car.

Or look for a proper banger. Sub ~£1k with a long MOT should be possible. I have twice today seen £500 motors with years MOT's on my local facebay pages. 10k isn't a huge amount of miles really, so fuel costs shouldn't be too much of a concern with what you buy, it doesn't have to be hugely economical, but will be cheaper than spending more to get a more economical banger.

That being said, you can get decent vw tdi's (golf / bora / Passat etc...) for around a grand that will do the job reasonably well.

On the plus side, you had planned on running the mini into the ground. You have done that now. So it's up to you whether to fix it or not. I personally wouldn't do a loan or lease or anything while you are just about to buy a house. Instead, just fix your car, or buy a banger for less than the cost of fixing it.
 
One other thing to bear in mind - how far down the house purchase process are you? Remember when you apply for the mortgage they'll assess affordability and they'll take into account existing credit arrangements. While it's entirely dependent on hire circumstances, you stand a better chance of getting the mortgage if you don't have any car finance than if you did. If you're on 80k a year and applying for a 100k mortgage then it'll probably make no difference whatsoever, but if you're closer to the average first time buyer amounts then a few hundred quid a month could have an impact.

From a practicality standpoint, once you move you'll need as much disposable income as possible for furnishing, decorating and fixing, so tying it up in a car would not be the best idea.
 
Engines on ebay for £350, £300-£350 of labour?? so even if the engine is totally ruined the answer is a fix is cheaper than rushing into a finance arrangement halfway through buying a house.
 
Update from the garage. The absolute minimum is that it will require a new head gasket which will set me back £740. But they can't guarantee it will resolve the issues, as they will only understand the true extent of the damage when they strip the engine. At present, the car won't even start.

If they strip the engine and discover new problems, I'll have the £740 to pay, plus labour and all the additional fixes. So it could quite easily turn into £1.5k+ in a heartbeat. Is it really worth the risk on a car worth £2k? It doesn't make financial sense to spend the value of the car in repairs, when it's still sitting st 96k miles and could develop further faults.

£740 may fix it, but that money could turn into £1.5k. £1.5k that could be put against a new car with no problems.

A new engine for £500 will still incur £500 of labour surely? Half the value of a car.

What about a loan and then selling the car/paying off the loan when I come to buy a house? Seems the most flexible option.
 
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It makes more sense than spending 2k+ on a car with similar age/mileage and is completely unknown to you!!

That's a lot of money for a head gasket though. Just get an engine on eBay as above and get it swapped.
 
I am in a similar boat to you at the moment, almost finished saving for a house deposit and looking to buy in the next year or so. As already said, avoid any sort of loans or outgoings as possible as it will help your mortgage chances. Fix what you have if its worth doing, or suck it up and buy a banger with 12 months MOT that has been looked after.
 
Robi said:
Update from the garage. The absolute minimum is that it will require a new head gasket which will set me back £740. But they can't guarantee it will resolve the issues, as they will only understand the true extent of the damage when they strip the engine. At present, the car won't even start.

If they strip the engine and discover new problems, I'll have the £740 to pay, plus labour and all the additional fixes. So it could quite easily turn into £1.5k+ in a heartbeat. Is it really worth the risk on a car worth £2k? It doesn't make financial sense to spend the value of the car in repairs, when it's still sitting st 96k miles and could develop further faults.

£740 may fix it, but that money could turn into £1.5k. £1.5k that could be put against a new car with no problems.

A new engine for £500 will still incur £500 of labour surely? Half the value of a car.

What about a loan and then selling the car/paying off the loan when I come to buy a house? Seems the most flexible option.
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Surely it won't cost the full £740 for them to strip it down and do a proper diagnosis?
 
Garage said I'm looking about £800 in labour + the engine. So about £1.2k all in giving any fluctuations.

Is that not still a daft amount of money to throw into a car that's old and only worth £2k?
 
Zaphan58 said:
Surely it won't cost the full £740 for them to strip it down and do a proper diagnosis?
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Not £740, but if they then discover further problems I'm left with paying £740 for the gasket, labour for the strip/diagnosis and then additional for the other fixes.
 
Personally I would let them strip it down. If it costs you about £1k at least you know its a good car. Might be worth shopping around and getting a few quotes.
 
Robi said:
Garage said I'm looking about £800 in labour + the engine. So about £1.2k all in giving any fluctuations.

Is that not still a daft amount of money to throw into a car that's old and only worth £2k?
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You aren't looking at this sensibly.

Option 1
Repair your current car, potential cost between £750-£1500. At the end you are left with a £2k car. Total cost to you is £750-£1500 and you are left with a car you know.

Option 2
Buy new £2k car. At the end you are left with a £2k car. Total cost to you in £2k and you are left with a car that is unknown to you.



Both options leave you with a £2k car, option 1 is significantly cheaper and leaves you with a car that you know the history of.
 
I don't know why head gasket is being touted as the symptoms are always obvious before failure, low compression could be caused by loads of things.
 
Janesy B said:
I don't know why head gasket is being touted as the symptoms are always obvious before failure, low compression could be caused by loads of things.
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Which is why I'd rather just get a good used one.

I do think the labour rates are too high, 700 quid to swap an engine on a mini is way too much - it can't be more than a days work surely?
 
Peerzy said:
You aren't looking at this sensibly.

Option 1
Repair your current car, potential cost between £750-£1500. At the end you are left with a £2k car. Total cost to you is £750-£1500 and you are left with a car you know.

Option 2
Buy new £2k car. At the end you are left with a £2k car. Total cost to you in £2k and you are left with a car that is unknown to you.



Both options leave you with a £2k car, option 1 is significantly cheaper and leaves you with a car that you know the history of.
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This.
 
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