Average car lifespan

[brownnova]

Having driven from north to south yesterday I reckon it partly depends on your location. Older cars seem to survive better in more rural areas...

[Yoss]

They did a similar advert for the 700 series, but the designed life expectancy was 21 years.

 

I'd say that was a pretty accurate advert. I still seem to see 700s, or at least 850s, on a pretty much daily basis. I sometimes wonder if they're not still secretly building them somewhere as there seem to be more around now than when they were new.

[danthecapriman]

I'd say that was a pretty accurate advert. I still seem to see 700s, or at least 850s, on a pretty much daily basis. I sometimes wonder if they're not still secretly building them somewhere as there seem to be more around now than when they were new.

I think they did well with those old Volvo’s, as you say, there’s still loads around. Even the original flat front 700’s like mine are still regular sights and the newest ones of them are almost 30 now.

What seems to kill them off most is purely because they’re old cars and people don’t want them (or their crap fuel economy!). The banger racers have started going through them a quite a rate too now Granada’s have about fallen out of existence.

I still say, a good 200, 700 or 900 is all the car you’ll ever need!

[406V6]

Many cars worth £500 will be scrapped by the unwashed because of it needing £501 repair (werf more than the car innit bruv). Then spending £500 on another money pit so they are £500 down and the car probably needs more fixing.

 

In my experience what will kill driving an old car is a daily is parts availability. Apart from service items most of the bits for my car are No Longer Available. Many will be available from a scrapper but then there's the time while the car's off the road and the hassle getting them. It's fine for those with several carrs in the house but this won't be the case for everyone.

[0ldCh0d]

The newest car I have owned was my 2010 Skoda Octavia VRS 2.0 Tsi (EA888) engine.

 

When I bought it, it had a very very brief rattle on cold start up,it sounded like an old 1.2 corsa.

Anyway, it turned out that it was the timing chain tensioner ready to give up the ghost. I had it replaced ,as well as new guides & chain, cost me just over £600. However, it turns out that it is a well known issue with this engine & there are plenty of cases of it failing & trashing the engine (look it up on the web) Skoda quote around £5000 for a new engine!!!....

Needless to say, as much I loved the car, I did not trust it to last me another 10 years with just simple routine maintenance...plus the thought of the chain failing, the carbon build up on the valves etc...So, I sold it.

 

I like old cars better, & at least with an old car, you have a decent chance of finding parts from a scrapyard. Try finding a 2010 Skoda Octavia VRS in the Scrappy's....good luck with that.

 

As some may know, I now have my s60 T5 as my daily & whilst it's a bit gutsy on the fuel consumption, I know that it's simpler to fix than the Octavia was should it have an FTP.

 

Plus, the Volvo owes me nothing.

 

This is not a Skoda bashing post, just trying to point out the complexity & cost of some moderns repair wise.

 

 

 

Old cars all the way.

[puddlethumper]

I've never owned anything later than 1990 and that was the famous/infamous

' Knobvan ' which is now on its way to Belgium. Who would've thought it ?

I like 70's and 80's wagons. Loads more room in the engine bay to do stuff. 

Parts can be the problem with older models but it depends on what you have.

I have no problem getting parts for a 30 year old base 305 van, partly thanks

to my 305 spares man, Mr D Spares who's broken a couple over the last year or so

and whom I have seen this very afternoon to obtain some more. Cheers Tom.

At the end of the day a base model has less to go wrong no matter what it is.

I intend to hang on to my base van for as long as possible because all that

ecu's, b&q's, mdf's etc stuff I don't have a clue about and I dread the day I may

have to own such an electronic nightmare.

As to average life span some go early and others last for ages. Volvos seem to go

on longer than most but when you look at the price of a  5 year old small common

eurobox it isn't going to make into its teens let alone its 30's. 

I was at a small car dismantler, a year or so ago, and the owner had 5/6 cars that

didn't make it to 10 years old. No accident damage or big mechanical failures.

Electronics did them in.

So my advice is buy a base. You can't beat a bit of bass.

[TheClutchBasketPodcast]

The average age also takes into consideration that many get crashed/written of for other reasons from the day they are new. Some also quite easily rack up 300,000 miles in a 10 year life span

[Yoss]

^^ My Favorit is top of the range but still very much base by everyone elses standard. The extras consist of a rev counter, a pop up sunroof and a digital clock so I still completely concur with the above.

[puddlethumper]

^^ Top of the range but still very base ? With a rev counter ? sunroof ? DIGITAL CLOCK ?

Sheer looxury ! 

[DoctorRetro]

I noticed on my journey of 400 miles yesterday that I only saw three pre 2000 cars. All 'R' plates, a Mondeo estate, a base Corsa and a Honda Civic.

 

So my 27 year old Corolla is a bit of an oddity on the roads.

[Adrian_pt]

Two reasons. Snobbery, and age related plates. 

 

At primary school in about 1998, the two oldest cars were our B-reg Volvo, and one guy who occasionally picked his children up in an absolutely hanging white E-reg Orion with the front bumper taped on. One of the yummy mummies took it on herself to complain to the guy (in a high Alderley Edge whine): "there is a certain _tone_ here .... I don't mean to be intrusive ... but are you, er, struggling?". The guy calmly lit a cigarette, revealed himself to be the local (and very famous) grandee, and asked her who she thought he needed impress by rocking up in a nicer car?

[Datsuncog]

I've never owned anything later than 1990 [...]

So my advice is buy a base. You can't beat a bit of bass.

 

Any excuse to re-post this...

 

 

(And yes, I miss my Laguna RN base; the all-analogue dash never gave me the grief that the digital units in my other Lags did.)

[bub2006]

My current car is base trim but still gets such frivolity as and, electric windows,mirrors and remote locking and it's on an X plate. No AC,front fogs or arm rests (which I miss!) 2.0 hdi 90 so not much in the way to go wrong on the engine by modern diesel standards

[The_Equalizer]

Any excuse to re-post this...

 

 

(And yes, I miss my Laguna RN base; the all-analogue dash never gave me the grief that the digital units in my other Lags did.)

 

Tenuous link, just for you Datsuncog:

 

[SierraMikeHotel]

 

 

Some other thoughts: British car retail prices used to be a chunk higher than Continental (prompting personal import explosion late 1990s), also U.K. spec levels generally higher than our European neighbours?

I remember old Top Gear campaigning about this, at great length. They found that cars here were considerably more expensive, but the industry's excuse was that the British customer demands a higher spec. Can't remember now if TG considered that a valid answer or not.

 

Back then most things were cheaper in France than they were here, but it's pretty much equalised now (except for booze). This is based on entirely unscientific anecdotal evidence.

[CortinaDave]

I'm not sure that was true, at least in the past. Almost all mk4/5 Taunus seemed to have headlight wash whereas hardly any in the UK did ( it was an option)

 

Johnny Foreigner could also get a GL or Ghia in 2 door whereas here you had to take an L or base.

[Eyersey1234]

Whilst out in the bus yesterday over an 8 hour period I saw 1 pre 2000 vehicle, a F reg Transit camper van.