Hi all.

There is probably a lot of you on here (me included!) Who has a cheap Ford daily driver, say bought for between £500 - £2000. Now (touch wood) my Mondy has been totally reliable, starts on the button every day and is pretty good to drive.

My question to you all is, do you think these sort of reliable cars will be available in the future of around 10 years or so? I ask this because cars today have many more sensors and electrical systems on them, along with smaller engines with a turbo and in my mind when these eventually go wrong they will cost a lot to fix and will probably cost a lot more than the car was bought for or worth!!

What do you all reckon? Cheers everyone!!

 

I think most cars have issues, even 'reliable' ones (VW pd engines eating camshafts, or mondeo injector failures). Technology and design has improved, but that has allowed things to be built closer to the bone (see audi 1.8t conrods..). It's this trend which will cause things to wear out more quickly.

I don't think we're seeing it yet, many 10 year old cars will do 200k no problem, in another 10 years they will be like washing machines, which a standard built in economic obsolescence at 100k

 

I don't think you have anything to worry about. Cars actually seem to be me reliable in terms of high mileage, not repaired as much now, but parts replaced.
Cost is also relative now too, we earn more money now than ten years ago, then again things cost more so it's just relative.

 

Cheap cars in years to come, nothing with and RS badge. Reckon cars that are on 03-07 plates will be the sort of era of cars that will be at their rock bottom prices.

 

I will stick to my 1k bangers lol.

Our focus has been a brilliant car. Sadly the old girl is starting to rust.

Same with my pooma. Its a good car but thats also rusting.
I dont think its worth having nice cars cause no one else respects them. Every time i wash the focus there is another scratch or dent on it from where the mrs works.

 

Yeah mate. That's why I got myself an older car, because of lack of respect from other people who couldn't give a toss about damaging other peoples cars!!!

That's a shame about the Focus and Pooma Glenn. Is it the body work that is starting to rust or underneath??

 

Executive cars will always depreciate the most, my bmw was 10 years old when I bought it. Someone in 2003 paid £40k for it and I paid £3k for it in 2013. It's pretty bullet proof mechanically but the electrics have gremlins, wiring faults, Central locking problems, all easy cheap fixes but they take ages and most owners wouldn't bother paying a garage the hours to do the repairs. I'm looking forward to picking up a 5 or 6 year old focus St in a couple of years, more money but loads more toys and a bit less of a bus. Considered buying one new but eh depreciation scared me, £24k new now you can get the same car for £15k. Wouldn't wanna take that hit.

 

Its just surface rust on the focus. Ive had the sills and a small section on the floor welded. I can do welding so it hasnt cost me anything.

 

Loosing 37k in 3 years isnt bad lol.

 

Gotta love my BMs depreciation in 16years About 72K new to 1.2K , almost worthless cars unless you can DIY all maintanance and repairs!


But back to the OPs Q, with more and more electrics, it seems easier to diagnose faults with £20 ebay leads and free software for newer cars

 

When u look at cars from when I was a lad like the old mk1 and 2 fiestas, mk3 escorts etc u were lucky to get to 100,000 miles and still be running! My friend has an 1993 Bmw e36 316 and it's done 337,000 miles and still purrs like a kitten but most cars of the era have now been scrapped, and now there's a lot of new cars that are dying before 100,000 miles again but there's some that will do 300,000 miles. There seems to be no telling, I think the problem is lack of maintenance. Working in a main dealers for the first time u wouldn't believe how basic the servicing schedules have now become. In a year and a half of working there I've not changed one petrol fuel filter as there rated to 100,000 miles and there in the fuel tank and most services consist of oil and filter and Brake fluid change. 10 years ago every service had oil, oil filter, air and fuel filters, spark plugs etc etc. an good example is of a mitisubishi l200 we had in last week for a running fault that had been serviced 3 months previous. It sounded like the engine was struggling to rev so in middle of diagnosis I removed the air filter and it was one of the worst I'd ever seen, completely black and u couldn't blow and air line through it hardly! Replaced that and it ran fine. The owner had it serviced regularly according to Mitsubishi service schedule since new so that says a lot about these long life services!!

 

Its funny you mention that as the garage I use for servicing is a proper old school garage run by a couple of good guys. We were chatting about cars one day recently and he mentioned that they see a lot of cars (new customers) with engine failure or turbo failure which is down to the long servicing schedule recommended by the manufacturer. My mechanic said that regardless of what is recommended by the manufacturer, at the very least the oil should be changed once a year! He said the worst cars they see by a long chalk are Audi closely followed by BMW, and that it is new cars and not just the older ones as you may think!!!

 

There are some weapons to had out there in time. Renault 225 are becoming very cheap and would make a great track toy.

 

Yeah this is true. I did a service the other day and I used my brake fluid tester (main dealer doesn't have one!) and it shot straight to red, replace straight away. I reported it on the service check and my boss said no we're not changing it as he's on a service schedule and it isn't due yet. I checked and it'd be another 12,000 miles before it's due to be changed! Hardly safe

 

As labour costs rise and engineers get better at predicting things, you see things built and run closer to the bone.

If Audi can sell a car to Mr Rep which only needs an oil change every 20k miles, and makes it £100 a month cheaper to run than the equivalent BMW of course he will, he doesnt care if it does 100k or 200k.

 

Ive got a 05 Focus Mk1 Ghia as a daily run about other Tha the coil drivers going I. The ecu its been spot on and no rust!!