Living without a modern car, anyone do it?

Blimey, maybe you need to stop parking in those places!

That damage total is ridiculously unacceptable. If all of that happened to my car, I would be buying a 1970s LandCruiser and putting full brush bars all the way around it.

I'm also not doubting your numbers, but how do you achieve 6-10k miles per year without commuting to work, when you also have weekend/hobby cars? That seems amazing to me.

That can backfire as well, very badly .

In the case of my 944 it did work well. However, with a Mondeo V6 Estate Auto I sold we spent a fortune on that. OK, we went from 114k to 281k but it still took around £5-6k IIRC to get it there and I am not including tyres or brakes in that cost! The next owner who was known for being tight surprisingly put another £1.5k into it over 8 months before deciding the car was too much hassle! In comparison, the 3.0 V6 that followed it was more expensive to buy (around £1k more) but from 114k to 281k it took nowhere near as much to maintain or even come close to the amount of hassle. IIRC that took less than £1.5k and it was a car I could trust to get me to France and back ; it did actually before it was written off. Even if I did change the suspension to the way I wanted before it was crashed into it still would have stood me in around £2.2k tops.

The worst has to be the Pissat B6 I bought. Despite it having new handbrake motors, pads etc. it cost £2.5k in three months and it make the first V6 Mondeo look like a super reliable car.

Same with the Escort. A £13k rebuild but I like other owners could never stop fixing the damned thing as my thread outlines.

OTOH it can sometimes work in your favour, but IMO rarer than what people think. My Porker 944 S2 low mileage example fitted into the above cases (I put around £2 to 3k into the car on top of the purchase price in a year and if I kept it I could have probably thrown the same at it again, madness when good S2s then were going for £4-5k), my Turbo was super. It had a rebuilt bottom end by the looks of it, brand new KW suspension work £1.4k in addition to M030 ARBs, the 965 Turbo brake upgrade, new subframe mounts, lower arms, fuel pipes etc. It really did not require much work at all and it served me very well. I probably only spent around £400 on it over the year if you take the respray out of the equation (that was partly my fault which I will leave for talking about at the pub...). The Dolly Sprint I bought was no different but again it does pay to buy with care.

Thought about this last night too, my dad had 2 cars which were polar opposites... 200tdi LR Discovery, bought at 4 years old, and kept 6 years. Ruinously expensive. Failed every MOT, 2 services a year, gearbox failed twice, ate suspension.

Following car was a 3 year old Ford Explorer. Kept 7-8 years, put over 100k on it. Needed nothing barring servicing. In the end he punted it on when the diff got noisy, but with some internet trawling and it off the road a couple if weeks,could've fixed that for buttons.

Subsequently got an 06 shogun sport. 3year old, 3k miles on it. Now on 80+ thousand. Abused hard, work horse and tow car. Never had anything else other than servicing.

If it's 'that' mondeo it has/ had lpg so expect better than 50mpg price equivalent running a big motor never made more sense.

Sweet, the above makes sense. I only live 2-3 miles from work, so the commute isn't an issue as I cycle.

I won't take the cars to work as it's a filthy caustic site that destroys cars (think big company in the news today).

The Saab passed its test yesterday, which was a touch. But needs 2 front tyres,so there's £250+ I'll never see again.

My main sticking point is that we use the Saab pretty much exclusively for going mountain biking, as none of the other cars will accept a bike rack (Gen7 Celica, 220 GTI, Austin 1300).... So I'd end up borrowing my dads shogun sport which is hateful on a long journey and does about 22mpg.

I guess the arrival of 12 months MOT has made me debate milking another year out of the Saab, as a workhorse. Ultimately as some research shows it to be worthless.

Hopefully mine will last that long as I'll going to be well above average mileage as long as I stay in my job! Luckily not had to buy to many parts, but found plenty of bits online or at the breakers where needed.

Some days I really like the Laguna, other days I hate it depending how many bits of dropped off it over the week!! It's more car than I need, but it came along at the right time an touch wood it does the job.

I've found it a comfortable & economical cruiser for the size, and quite a nice looking car especially with a wash and a polish Even my mother likes it which is a first, an she usually disapproves of all my car choices in one shape or another!! And I still have my retro Fiat's for back up and weekends, so a win - win situation.

As for yourself makes sense not to take the car to work!! especially the possible damage and being a short distance. Plus the cycling is a little healthier, if the Saab is proving it's worth then stick with it.

Nothing worse than buying another car, to then find it needs a small fortune spending on it!!

I consider my car fairly modern but my colleagues think differently, I drive my Mercedes 1997 W210 E420 to work daily and clock about 30.000mls a year on it.

bought it for 1250€ 4 years ago and did not use it much until last year june I got rid of my company lease car.

So last year I spent 1800€ on a LPG install (it then had about 320.000kms on the clock)

300€ on coils (as they kept dying on me and it has 8)
25€ on plugs

3 oil changes, so about 100€

one wiring harness plug in the gearbox replaced for 40€

had it diagnosed a few times to find out which coil was broken for about 100€ in total

and 2 new part worn tyres, fitted for 70€

totally 610 euros and probably some things I now forget.

At the moment it needs 4 tyres and a gearbox oil change, but that'll have to wait untill payday.

fuel cost arent too bad as it does about 24MPG on LPG (12L/100km) which costs 0,50€ per liter and 0,30€ just accross the border in Belgium

I got fed up with the coils breaking all the time though but recently did some adjustments that seem to work well. Biggest problem was the LPG installer not following the installation manual, so next time I will do that myself as well.

The only issue for me is that it costs me a lot of time to do all the maintenance myself.

still think it was a good decision to get rid of the company car which cost me 300€ in taxes a month and I got a raise after I handed it back. Also I now claim my miles to work at 0,19€ per km which works out at 25€ per day. Financially I could not have made a better deal.

Austin 1300 would be more than happy with an old style roof rack and a couple of bikes up there on the upright clamping things.

Thanks for the replies, some interesting points. With regards using the 1300 for cycling trips, I think I'll pass.

However, I am strongly debating parting with at least 2 of the cars, if not 3.

Total milage between 3 cars between MOT was 11k last year. 9k on Saab (all holiday/MTB/pleasure use), 400 on the Austin and the rest on the GTI.

Parting with the GTI and the Saab together, makes sense. Then bank some cash and find a mixed use daily.

Old Mercedes Benz or BMW estates appeal, likewise ST170 focus, but then for the type of use we do.... LDV maxus crew bus are ticking boxes.