Advice please

[Stanky]

I seek wisdom from the guardians of the temple of shite, I am but a humble traveller blah blah blah...

 

So, I have just realised I have 6 weeks of ticket left on my 1996 Almera, and 8 weeks of tax (irrelevant after next tuesday), the chances of it attaining another MOT certificate are slim to none, at least without major work.

 

The front 1/3rd of the car is GR8, the engine is willing, cheap to tax, thrifty and easy to work on. The engine has a chain-driven cam so as long as its serviced once in a while it seems pretty much indestructible. The lights work, as do the brakes.

 

The middle 1/3rd of the car is GR6, the windscreen needs to be replaced badly, there is some rust starting to creep into the roof where the tops of the doors close

 

The back 1/3rd is GR2. Both sills have been plated in the past, one has just crumbled in the last  months, going from looking a bit 'peaky' to having a rather large hole - 10 inches by about 6 inches with is seriously frilly around the edges and getting worse. The corrosion will become audible once they start salting the roads. The rear light lense is cracked and it generally looks a bit shabby. Also, the dampers have had it.

 

On the plus side, the tyres are only 9 months old, and have done about 12k miles, so have at least that left in them. The battery is good, and everything works as it should. Incredible, I hear you say, an 18 year old car, with everything still functioning? well I never.

 

Right, so, my question is thus - do I get it fixed? The screen will cost £75 excess, the known welding will be £250, A pair of dampers, fitted will be another £200 I suspect, then I have spent the thick end of £600 on a car which cost me £400 nearly three years ago, and still have dubious plating on one side and other potential issues lurking that I don't know about yet.

 

My head says take it to the bridge, but it seems a shame to bin it off when the starting, driving and stopping departments are all in A* condition, its just everything else thats gone to pot. My heart says its been totally reliable, a pleasure to work on, thrifty and cheap to tax and insure.

 

Its done 125k miles now, 40k of which were in my ownership. Its had a new exhaust from the downpipe-back (including cat).

 

Domestic management wont allow me to have more than one car at a time (due to a financially ruinous MK2 scirocco experience) so if I get something else, this has to go. Either to a new owner, or the bridge. Breaking for spars isn't really worthwhile, I suppose the tyres are good, as is the battery and cat

 

Almeras are totally unloved, so even with all those things fixed, its worth £250 tops, especialy with the tax regime coming in. Its going to be many years before its a classic and appreciates (hah!) so what do I do? 

 

 

[Caffiend]

Depends what you can afford in terms of replacement vehicle IMO. Nothing to absolutely guarantee that any other used car won't need £600 spending on it instantly.

 

Unless you can afford brand new (why would you want to, ew) I'd hang onto the devil I know. Especially as you really like the car, unless you're looking to move it on soon anyway then my vote* would be for take the risk that there's something else lurking and keep it.

 

*not advice. I'll leave that to the experts.

[purplebargeken]

Buy one with a bolloxed engine, swap, take good bits off your and cube it the remains. Makes sense to me. 

[Sigmund Fraud]

£600 will buy you a lot of car, certainly much more than a tired Almera. I'd cut my losses and ebay it while it still has some t&t.

[Rocket88]

With the "take it to the bridge" lobby................if you spend £600 this year, you could be in for the same amount this time next year..............

[garethj]

You've got your car plus £550.  As long as you're not too fussy about what you get, I reckon you can acquire something good for £750.

 

It's not an obvious choice and a pair of tyres and some brake discs can tip the balance either way.  I'd recommend this handy decision-making device

 

If you don't like the feel of the result, that shows you've got a subconscious preference.

[New POD]

I was doing this for about 4 years on my wife's mk3 cavalier, and whilst she was embarrassed by the Pie Key nature of the car, we and her father had owned it almost 20 years, and it had never really let us down. So every year I threw 2 weekends and £300 at it to bodge it threw the MOT.

 

Then I saw a yellow BINI with a black roof, 51 reg, low miles, in a local dealer, and pointed it out to my wife. (I knew she'd love me if I bought it)

 

Within 30 mins of seeing it in the metal, we'd put a deposit on it, and the cavalier was history. Yes I had to find £3K but if you know what you want, you sometimes have to go for it.

[UmBongo]

Is it the GTi?

 

[Stanky]

Sadly not, its the 1.4 GX model, second only in squalor to the 'equation' model. I can sneer at peons in Equations from behind the luxury* of my body colored bumpers.

 

As such, it falls into the £145 a year tax bracket and is lively for a 1400cc car, but this does not mitigate the ferrous oxide issues.

 

Thats a wicked advert though, haven't seen that before!

 

I've been browsing autotrader and there is nothing appealing, but Gumtree has thrown up several options under £1000 which I will investigate henceforth

 

Thanks for the input guys

[Hertz]

I remember that Almera advert nice find. Yes I would also call time in my opinion. I reckon there will be another one knocking around in better nick than yours or go for something different.

[Mr Lobster]

I'd bridge it tbh. Run it until MOT expires then weigh it in. You could try putting it through a test to see if it only fails on bits but realistically I'd get rid.

[Cavcraft]

£600+£150 (or thereabouts) bridge money will buy you a lot of Corsa B. And you'll have change for a weekend on the piss somewhere.

[Pete-M]

Bridge.

 

I sold Almeras new, they were Bridge fodder then.

[Bren]

A neighbour recently scrapped an R plate almera due to needing £400 of welding for another MOT.

 

The backs of the sills had previously been welded - my wife dropped hints about me having a look at it.

 

However, I refuse to weld a car where it has previously been welded - it obviously had not been a good job for it to have gone again.

 

Bridge it and get a mk 1 focus - much better.

[twosmoke300]

^^^ Yeh cos they never need welding 😃

[sierraman]

No but you would make inroads to check for grot before you bought it though wouldn't you?

[twosmoke300]

Has got the blue oval on it ? If yes continue to welder .

[ShiteRider]

You've got your car plus £550.  As long as you're not too fussy about what you get, I reckon you can acquire something good for £750.

 

It's not an obvious choice and a pair of tyres and some brake discs can tip the balance either way.  I'd recommend this handy decision-making device

 

If you don't like the feel of the result, that shows you've got a subconscious preference.

I've just done the coin flip...............the result was death. On the plus side it'll put at least two more on the road, mitigate some of my losses and above all reduce personal stress.

[Albert Ross]

On the plus side, a few "bridges" tend not to take wheels and tyres, so when it's towed into an "end of life" centre, you get to keep the rubber, and can flog it on, or use it on your new one. Same goes for batteries at some places, too.....

[Stanky]

Jordan's in Portsmouth let me take the battery off the Felicia I took there about 3 years ago after I'd weighed it in which was good of them since it was a good'un.

 

The tyres on that were crushed and hopefully burnt too, as they were the main reason it was in there in the first place. Camac Comets (I think) which had all the adhesive properties of plastic at minus 50 celcius.