Do people resent spending any money on their cars?

[sierraman]

Walking round today, couldn't believe the amount of cars running round with bald tyres, well past the tread wear markers. You can only imagine what the brake pads etc were like. What's the worst spots folks have seen like this?

[Jazoli]

Its quite normal, most folk who buy new cars don't even check them until the mot is due 3 years later, I know plenty of folk like that, then there is also 'full service history' meaning it is mot'd every year and has never been serviced, my work car park is always full of decent/high end cars, the ones that are a couple of years old almost always have the cheapest linglong tyres you can buy as most folk cannot afford to put tyres on them, local facebook groups are full of people with financed audi's looking to buy cheap part worn tyres as they can't afford new ones, 

I may drive a cheap car but it sits on 4 premium tyres, has lots of money spent on preventative and unnecessary (to a lot of people) maintenance and I look after it, it is also bought and paid for so when it needs money spending on it I can afford to do it.

[sierraman]

That's the way to do it.

 

Given even a minor service on a new Audi is probably £250-300 you wonder what happens when they hand the PCP back.

[Bianconeri]

I am afraid this is the norm in debt-laden 'look at me' Britain.

 

I've had dozens of colleagues and team members who were happy to blow hundreds a month on plutowagens that they couldn't afford to run and will never own simply because next door had done the same. Never serviced, can't afford tyres then bleat like hell when the lease is up and they get surcharged (but that gets financed on the next one....). And 'only' 50 quid a month for the latest phone, which will be in a drawer next year when it stops being trendy.

 

I run two new cars and a couple of oldies, all paid for. All get properly serviced and all have tyres replaced long before the legal minimum. I even clean them. It's called looking after your stuff. It's not fashionable but I'm quite happy to be out of step.

[sierraman]

I agree, it used to be the way you 'had' to look after stuff or else you'd be in the shit if it came to buying another. It's not just the tread on the tyres it's the tyres they stick on them, saw a 5 year old BMW outside the shops near us last week, had a new set of A-Three-A tyres on it. Where the fuck do you even get those? Can sort or understand going into Kwik Fit and buying a set of arrowspeeds, they'd be of a useable quality but A-three-A tyres?

[unclecalzone]

Of course - a car should

run for a minimum of ten years/200k without any money being spent on maintenance what so ever tyres included or it's an unreliable car!

What's important though is that the neighbours think you are flush -there's a brand new car on the drive yet no food in the fridge

[matty879]

my daily is an 06 focus diesel,which i bought as a none runner,its a case with me anything safety related gets done,and im fortunate enough to be able to save a fortune by doing all my own work,i cannot afford or even want a financed car,the money i dont spend per month on repayments easily pays for my insurance,road tax,fuel and maintanence,i dont give a shite what next door are running,all i know is i have new tyres when needed,not part worn,and days out with the kids,not the excuse we cant go i have no fuel.

in any case would i want a new car?NO i would however love to have my old 306 back.

[Matt]

Living above their means isn't it. Who cares, the garage will do whatever when it gets serviced right?

[sierraman]

A colleague of mine has a mate who works at Mercedes, he said he sees a lot who buy into Mercedes E-Classes, CLS etc by finance or whatever at say 5-6 years old, then have a real shock at the cost of maintenance on them. At the end of the day it might have only cost them £10,000 but it was a £40,000 car and it still has the costs associated with a £40,000 car. He said nearly all of them where knocking about on budget barely legal rubber.

[Rod/b]

My wife had a colleague back about 5 years ago who she didn't really speak to, different team and all that. One day he sidles upand starts talking cars - turned out he had the same car (Seat Leon) and was asking how often she had it serviced. Every 6 months or 10k etc of course, why?

 

Turns out this bloke had had some issues with his car and took it back to the dealer, where it transpired the engine was scrap. He'd done 70k from brand new without once having it serviced. He was convinced the dealer was pulling a fast one when they'd told him that he'd need to bring it in for servicing every now and then.

 

Mrs B explained how this all worked and why she thought the dealer was probably not at fault. His response was "well thats the last SEAT I'm buying, i'll get something reliable like a VW next"

 

So it's not just a cost issue, but a BLITHERING FUCKWITTERY one too.

 

I think basic car maintenance should be part of the driving test.

[Guest Hooli]

 

I think basic car maintenance should be part of the driving test.

 

I think it is now. How to check oil, water etc at least.

[Matt]

I think it is now. How to check oil, water etc at least.

 

Meh. They might ask where the dip stick, coolant tank etc is, but not what you're supposed to do with them and how often. It's all there in the handbook, but hardly anyone reads those.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

A colleague of mine has a mate who works at Mercedes, he said he sees a lot who buy into Mercedes E-Classes, CLS etc by finance or whatever at say 5-6 years old, then have a real shock at the cost of maintenance on them. At the end of the day it might have only cost them £10,000 but it was a £40,000 car and it still has the costs associated with a £40,000 car. He said nearly all of them where knocking about on budget barely legal rubber.

That's because the robbing bastard Merc dealers are charging £140 +VAT per hour, probably more in Central London. Luckily Mercs along with BMW etc are supported by loads of independent specialists, that are often better than main dealers .

I've been lucky having one of the most highly respected Merc places on my doorstep for £65 per hour .

Unfortunately I've just bought a Volvo and had to go to my local dealer to sort out a stuck on handbrake- £118+ vat ph - since found out I could have bought a pair of pattern Mondeo callipers from Euro's for £160 and Just replaced them for half the price of Volvo adjusting the existing ones.

[Barry Cade]

I agree, it used to be the way you 'had' to look after stuff or else you'd be in the shit if it came to buying another. It's not just the tread on the tyres it's the tyres they stick on them, saw a 5 year old BMW outside the shops near us last week, had a new set of A-Three-A tyres on it. Where the fuck do you even get those? Can sort or understand going into Kwik Fit and buying a set of arrowspeeds, they'd be of a useable quality but A-three-A tyres?

Believe it or not, Three A tyres are the premium end of budget tyres. Car snobbery exsists as we all know, but tyre snobbery does also.. I've seen more cracked and perished Conti's and Bridgestones than budget tyres. Maybe it's because they last longer (not in my experience) but I'd rather a 2 year old set of 4mm decent budgets than a 7 year old set of 4mm Continentals with radial cracking all round the tread..

[sierraman]

I passed my test 13 years ago and it was on the test then I think.

 

I've seen loads of people replacing tyres one at a time, who does that?

 

I knew a chap years ago, his car failed the test on the ARB bushes, instead of replacing them which must have cost all of about £2, he bound the existing ones up with tape to pack them out. Found it difficult to believe that it passed the MOT like that but it was the lengths he went to to spare a few pence.

[cort16]

My car has a service pack so I take it Nissan for servicing. Once out of warranty I'd never give the main dealer the money for the sake of a full dealer history. A lot of these indies are much better as they have all the knowledge but actually give a shit.

As for tyres  60-70 quid will get me a good tyre for the Juke but when I had my a6 with 19 inch wheels it was more like 120 for shit tyres - 250 for the recommended continentals. 1000 quid for a set of tyres. Not only that it made the car ride like shit!

[Lord Sterling]

Its quite normal, most folk who buy new cars don't even check them until the mot is due 3 years later, I know plenty of folk like that, then there is also 'full service history' meaning it is mot'd every year and has never been serviced, my work car park is always full of decent/high end cars, the ones that are a couple of years old almost always have the cheapest linglong tyres you can buy as most folk cannot afford to put tyres on them, local facebook groups are full of people with financed audi's looking to buy cheap part worn tyres as they can't afford new ones,

I may drive a cheap car but it sits on 4 premium tyres, has lots of money spent on preventative and unnecessary (to a lot of people) maintenance and I look after it, it is also bought and paid for so when it needs money spending on it I can afford to do it.

Some of my jobs have consisted of picking up ex lease-hire cars but job failed due to bald tyres (still get paid though) we won't take them in such a dangerous condition.

 

As THA_ZOLI alludes to, many people pick expensive/so-called "premium" cars for looks/reputation/appearences. Those particular types of people know nothing about car maintenance or usually cannot afford it and as vehicles less than 3 years old needn't an MOT, they are usually not serviced or even ever have thier bonnets opened up.

 

I was talking the other day to one of the chaps at a vehicle leasing place, he was talking about an Audi S3 they'd leased out, before it came back the leaser had complained about having to pay to get the oil topped up as she ran it dry, when it came back they found evidence that it had never been serviced.

 

Personally I'd never resent spending money, if it needs it, it'll get it. I'd like to spend more money on my cars and keep them tip top, but money has been tight and is getting tighter so it takes me longer to get around to spending on the car as the case with the Sterling, BMW and now Passat.

[chodweaver]

 

 

I knew a chap years ago, his car failed the test on the ARB bushes, instead of replacing them which must have cost all of about £2, he bound the existing ones up with tape to pack them out. Found it difficult to believe that it passed the MOT like that but it was the lengths he went to to spare a few pence.

Er, yup. Done that. But only as a temp* measure to confirm that was what made the knocking noise. I bought the bushes. But i cba to fit them. They went with the car when I raffled it...

 

As for maintenance, everyone that I care for gets a gentle lecture on how their car is far more likely to not ftp when it most matters to them, if they learn a bit about it and show it some TLC. The number of cars I've looked at that had low/no fluids in them when up for sale still astounds me.

 

The worst bit?

 

 

I still bought some of them...

 

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[holbeck]

I think we all sing off the same hymn sheet here, I would resent paying main dealer prices for servicing.

 

But, money is well spent keeping you vehicle serviced. I tend to do basic servicing myself, but have no problem employing the services of my local garagista.

 

Oh, and I once put ditchfinders on our modern..... lesson learned (the hard way).

[unclecalzone]

a family member that told me they thought the yearly MOT was a service, the cars they own get pretty much driven into the ground i.e: Oil is added when the oil light has been on for a few days that kind of thing. Might work on bangernomics but the 12 month old little Peugeot 108 they have bought will suffer the same fate no doubt which to me is madness. Can't tell them though

 

 

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[chodweaver]

I think we all sing off the same hymn sheet here, I would resent paying main dealer prices for servicing.

 

But, money is well spent keeping you vehicle serviced. I tend to do basic servicing myself, but have no problem employing the services of my local garagista.

 

Oh, and I once put ditchfinders on our modern..... lesson learned (the hard way).

Agree. I have supported various independent garages, mostly good, only one I fell out with.

 

The Volvo of my nightmares cost me a bucket wherever I took it, but I gave up on the main dealers very quickly after they charged me repeatedly for doing their 68 point check and none of the warranty work that I'd asked for. I really should have complained, but just opted to never buy a 3k Volvo again or use a main dealer for anything.

 

This alas has been born out again with Mrs CW's new driving school car experience. Three main dealers were involved and all acted like selling new cars was a sideline for them, something they didn't do a lot of, and accordingly they were a bit out of practice and frankly, shit at. Every one of their staff were pointy shoed, shiney suited, on-facebook-all-the-effing-time people with a 17 plate car and a vibrant social life, who apparently couldn't stay with one employer for more than two weeks.

 

I do not put store by any of these attributes. (/chumleigh walker)

 

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[Rod/b]

Have you seen Car Sales Memes on FB? Generally quite amusing but they do seem workshy for the most part.

[Bren]

Looking after your car nerd'nt break the bank. Just do it yourself.

 

Our vectra cost me £100 in parts and oil ( oil filter was £22 and I got eight litres of oil from halfords when it was half price) and took a morning. Cheap for peace of mind. Plus if you do sell just keep the receipts for the parts.

[chodweaver]

The first dealer had her in to sign the paperwork on a Monday morning.

Arsehole sales MANAGER (- not a junior): "It's been bugging me all weekend. I thought the figures I gave you looked a bit low, so I ran it all again and I was right! Here's the new monthly payment."

 

Mrs CW: "it's gone up by nearly 100quid!"

 

"Yes! Amazing how I could have got it so wrong!"

 

Mrs CW: "Goodbye"

 

No word of a lie. I was there.

 

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[Hendry]

Ive always maintained my cars religiously, to the point im often slagged off for it (but in a jokey way not a serious way) I have used main dealers before because of warranty, and because I worked for a main dealer so got cheaper prices (cost + 10% parts, half price labour) Ive used the fast fit chains, indepdents, but the best so far has to be the guy im using now, 1 man band indepedent VW/Audi/Seat/Skoda specialist, premises are run down and not much to look at but I dont care, Im paying £45 an hour labour to a guy whos work is of a better standard than main dealer techs, and has worked on these cars for 25years so knows his stuff, his "reception" has hoards of certificates for VW courses hes completed, Master Tech certification from when he was a main dealer tech at Arnold Clark, Verve, Appleyard, Ingram, Ian Skelly, Lomond Audi and Glasgow Audi. He generally always uses genuine parts, and if not its decent quality parts, he doesnt charge the retail price on them he'll add his cut but cheaper than buying a genuine part elsewhere.

 

I am a snob for genuine parts, though, Ive no idea why, I wouldnt wear Hitec trainers or eat Morrisons value beans or cheap non Barrs Irn Bru, so similarly I wouldnt put cheap stuff on my car. I do stuff even when it could wait a while, whereas other people will leave it until service/mot time and get it done then even though theyre aware of it, or some people will wait till a couple of things need doing before taking to a garage and getting it all done at once, I cant, noises and squeaks, knocks, rattles bug me, so if they happen I'll have it in the garage every week if needs be. I like my cars OEM+. 

 

Getting in other peoples cars and they arent even aware of alarming noises makes me think how many people must drive round oblivious to obvious noises on their cars, or even warning lights on the dash. 

 

Ive only ever bought budget tyres when I was really skint, and even if my car was tatty and rough always made sure it was A1 mechanically and everything even down to interior switches worked. 

 

As for budget tyres on prestige cars, dont immediately assume its been the owner whos done that, when I worked for a main dealer, during sales prep if a car needed tyres it got Hankooks, which are perfectly fine, but when Hankooks started getting more expensive they started using cheap stuff, infact Arnold Clark even now advertise everywhere about tyres that they can do from £28 and they pretty much exclusively sell them, called Orium, if you go round their forecourt looking at the cars for sale, any which have had new tyres have these fitted, most other places are the same, I bought a 4.5 year old 05 plate Astra from a Renault/Fiat main dealer - Parks Motor Group, and theyd fitted it with "Durun A-One" tyres. So yeah if you see a 5 year old BMW/Merc/Audi with budget 18/19" tyres, it couldve not long been bought from a dealer or theyve just not done a lot of miles since purchase to get the tyres worn enough to replace.

 

Part of it is also down to people just realising they need tyres and going "awk ill nip into kwik-fit/national/ATS because its convenient" and then getting absolutely ripped off, i remember my ex's dad needing 2 tyres on an 08 plate Corsa D, £160 at National for 2 Wanli 195/55/16s because they totally rip off!

 

Again, a neigbour has an 06 plate BMW 320 M-Sport, hes a decent guy, only bought the BM because it was cheap because he needed a car after his 10 plate Zafira starting causing all kinds of grief, regularly maintains the car, has it repaired, cleans it regularly as we often chat cars while washing them, he got a puncture, assumed the BM was runflats as per factory, nope, so anyway went to the local ATS and they wanted £140 for 1 runflat, told him 2 other tyres needed replaced, so a £420 bill for 3 tyres, He simply couldnt afford that outlay on 3 tyres with everything else hes recently spent on it, plus bills, living expenses, mortgage, the usual, so went to a local backstreet tyre place, 3 budget non runflats for about £180. Can understand budgets in some circumstances. 

 

I think some people just dont care about cars and only get maintenance and repairs done when it needs it, much like they do with their house. I was in McConechys on Friday getting a 4 wheel alignment done (Hunter Hawkeye Machine is top notch btw) and a customer had put in an 11 plate Hyundai I20 for service and mot, they called whilst I was in and the centre manager answered the call, explained that the service had been done, and the mot, but the car had failed its MOT because a rear tyre had a big bulge in the sidewall, and the front wiper blades were torn and not clearing the screen effectively, he also pointed out that advisories on the MOT were that the other 3 tyres were at 2mm, and the rear brake discs were nearly done. He had some hell of a job getting the customer to even agree to do the MOT fail items, in the end they opted to put 2 rear tyres on it and opted for the cheapest they had, Rikens at 42quid a corner. 

 

Ive been trying to get my dad to service his car for months and its fell on deaf ears! 63 plate Mondeo 1.6 TDCi Titanium X Business Edition, bought at the end of August 16 on 51,500 miles, had full Ford service history every 12,500 miles as specified from new including another done by the Ford dealer he bought it from, Hes a taxi driver service oil warning came on at 64,000 miles and he was intending to service it a couple of weeks late during school holidays as he didnt have his school run, then decided he couldnt be bothered, I mentioned it again as cars now on 71,000 and hes like "ill just get it a full service at 75,000 miles" and then looked at his mileage on the dash and went "oh thats going to be the next couple of weeks, fuck that!"

[beko1987]

I get the same, I replaced the very legal tyres on the xantia because the sidewalls were quite cracked, yet walk past loads of new cars every day with bald tyres, or even half flat ones!

 

But I've seen the other side, my stepdad isn't allowed replacement tyres on his company car until their a certain depth (which seems to be when they near bald) as kwik fit (forced upon him) says so, he's been before to try! He's been known to go out in an evening and purposefully scrub one down, and once I think he chewed the sidewall up as they were going to Scotland on holiday and he didn't want a trip to kwik fit halfway through)

 

Its also one reason why I got all new wheels for the Zafira, all the tyres had varying degrees of sidewall damage which would have probably been fine, but sods law one would have gone in a month we couldn't afford it. The gooner has excellent tyres all round luckily. A brand I've never heard of but I've not got them to squeal or slip so meh, their probably fine!

[Hendry]

I'm currently running around with 3x Barum Bravuris 3HM and a Rovelo RPX988 on the Jetta mainly because my dad put new tyres on just before I got it, they are epically crap, I can trigger the traction control/ESP when pulling away from a set of lights in the dry without trying too hard, they aquaplane like buggery in the wet too.

 

I was going to lob 4x Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 3s on it but was waiting until I got a 4 wheel alignment done first, unfortunately I needed new rear lower arms plus all the fittings, a full service, a new undertray, new wiper blades, new engine cover fixings, new front coil spring, rear brake calliper and rear discs and pads so the money earmarked for tyres is gone, and these are all only around a year old with at least 6mm tread on all, this thread made me check them! So no real need to find money I don't have to replace them just yet.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

The bald tyres on newish ( or any) cars is often not due to owners running on a shoestring, more that people just don't bother tho check them.

When I worked as a chauffeur for a large PLC, I'd often have nothing to do during the normal working day, so would help out in the transport office and one of my favourite things was to have an occaisional wander around the Head Office car parks checking tyres. There were about 300 HQ based cars and I could usually find 20 odd in half an hour that were either illeagal or pretty close- bear in mind the drivers didn't even have to take the car into a tyre place ( our local National Tyres would pick the car up) let alone pay for them.

Needless to say I never had to pay for a tyre for Mrs N's cars.

[garethj]

Perhaps the problem is that when people think of safety, they think of the airbags, car safety cell and all of that stuff.  Whereas safety used to be

[sierraman]

I've found Barums quite good. Fitted them for about 10 years to various stuff, they hold well.

 

I got complained about for 'always faffing about' with the other half Focus. Told her she can sort it all out in future. Went in it the other day, you can hear the rear wheel bearing over the radio. I fully expect that will seize in the near future. I've obviously got more important things to do.