Waste of money?

[Burnside]

Just thought id ask the autoshite brothers a question. Tonight i went into my local vauxhall dealer an brought the last remaining vauxhall cavalier mk3 rear hatchback boot seal as they are now no longer avalible for my slightly tatty but much loved £250 93 L 1.8 LS as mine was torn in the top right hand corner thanks to the previous owner. Have tryed to get a good secondhand one from a breakers since i brought the car over 18mths ago without any luck so as i had nothing better to do and as today my car turned 16 years old [sad i know ] and i thought id repay it a favour cause i felt guilty about having a bump with a polish audi driver in it a few weeks ago which surprisingly left him worse off. Me and my mate fixed mine last night and he is still waiting for the insurance to inspect his. Getting off track here anyway so i thought id stop on my way home and ask. Went in and they told me they would do a dealer search as it was no longer listed turned up this last remaining one for £95! I said there was no way id pay that much so she said she see if they would do it at a discounted price. Ten mins later i had my answer. £57.50 inc vat.Now despite the fact im skint for the month not good with xmas round the corner and the car badly needs a pair of tyres i payed it Am i losing the plot or am i ok? My mate thinks im a idiot for spending that much what do you think?

[dollywobbler]

Makes sense to me. Just because we like cheap cars doesn't necessarily mean we don't spend money on them. My BX cost £266 and I've easily spent that again on looking after it since September. Ok, so it's done 7000 miles but people still think I'm mad.Personally, I think anyone who says "£300 to pass an MoT? I'll go and spend £3000 on a new car" is mad.

[MrRegieRitmo]

Was there any alternative? Could it have waited till after Xmas?

[FredTransit]

Yep, agreed, sometimes you gotta do what ya gotta do. You can get tyres anywhere and get a good price on them. On the other hand, I would have asked them (as they already did a big price drop) if that's the best they could do. How many other people will they have to sell that to?

[Mr Lobster]

No I wouldn't have said so. If I can find a new back door for my van and it costs me £500 well thats just how it would have to be. Most of my friends would probably think I'm crackers but then they are the ones out spending a grand on a OMG BIG TV or whatever 'essential' that will be obsolete in five years.As DW says just because we like older cars doesn't mean we don't spend money on maintenance. If any of my cars need money spending then it gets done. I still need a reliable car irrespective of how old it is.

[bigstraight6]

We love our cars, so I think you did the right thing here It's a bit concerning that this MK3 Cav part is now obsolete, 'er indoors BMW E36 is now 15 years old, and you can seemingly get anything for it still from the main dealer, even bits of obscure trim which I've replaced over the last year or so, even though it can be expensive, but I do love the car so to hell with it It's my old shite, and it's paid for!.........

[Lankytim]

Did the dealer give you a reach around?

[ashmicro]

Can you not get universal bang-on seals from motor factors anymore?We sold shed loads of them back in the day to a local Lada dealer who replaced the boot seals as part of PDI on new cars.

[Burnside]

I guess i could have left it till after xmas and maybe i could of got the price down a bit thinking about it now! But i guess i thought now or never kind of moment so i said yes. It one of those thing's that make me think ive got ocd or something like that as i guess the tyres are more important but like FredTransit said you can get them pretty cheep now. Mind you thinking about it when i brought this car it was ment to have passed an mot the month before. So i though i was onto a winner for £250. The fact i spent over the next 3 mths having to replace first the engine as it had no oil pressure then the rad went on the way home from that being sorted and then the gearbox went not long after and the brakes packed up once in the rain not funny. So they both got replaced that told me otherwise.[ Though since ive had the engine replaced it's done over 15,000 miles.] So i guess this boot seal isn't a massive spend compared. As most people would have gave up and scrapped it long ago for less. But disspite the fact ive had better/ more fun cars ive really got a soft spot for my tatty cavalier and makes me happy that it's still on the road pissing brown off cause i didn't trade it in on scrappage for a stupid eco-box. I'll stop ranting now.

[Cavcraft]

I think you've done the right thing. Nice to know people are prepared to spnd money on their old cars and look after them.

[strangehighways]

It always seems like a pain to spend money on a car that cost next to nothing, but I have done just that with my 106 D.Bought 6 months ago for £220 with 11 months MOT. I have since spent 400 on the car. I don't regret it though. It has covered 10 000 miles in the last 6 months and is going strong! I'm sure it will last another 6 months no problem. Plus it does 70 mpg!

[Jonnyvalenta]

Old pugs are like that though,I've had more than a few over the years.My current pug,the old 205 Gti with 187 000 hard miles behind it has had more money spent on it in repairs and replacements than a few other cars put together! I don't begrudge it a penny coz I love it! I t may be a bit loose n rattly but it still makes me smile on a twisty road (as I get to the end of it and find nothing's fallen off) as it's just such good fun.

[Pillock]

You'd spend four times that amount on a dealer service for a new car so it's not quite madness.... depends how much you spend over the course of your ownership really though. If it's £57 on a bit of rubber today, and £100 on a bumper tomorrow, and £500 on a new engine next week etc etc then you're nuts, but if that £57 is the first cash it's had in years then you're quids in.A friend of mine spent more than £57 getting the ECU light reset on a Merc!

[55bloke]

An interesting one this- I don't bat an eye lid spending a few hundred quid a year keeping the 25 on the road, it's still vastly cheaper than running a new car. On a similar track, we were offered (unsolicited) maintenance insurance cover for 52 Babe's V reg 206. What would you consider a reasonable annual premium to cover any and all maintenance issues? It was about 420 quid!!! Jeezus, I don't think we've ever spent that much in a year on either of the cars! And certainly nothing like that as an average over the time we've owned them. Would any one think that's a good deal?!!

[Mr Lobster]

Would any one think that's a good deal?!!

Not anyone here. But plenty of people who have the 'old cars cost a fortune to run' mindset would probably lap it up.