[vashisth]

Another reason to sell the car becomes is the change of state and thereby new registration issues.
As in my case, when I moved from Haryana to Hyderabad I was coerced to pay road tax there and the price difference between two states was hefty. Moreover, Keeping the car with old registration and purchasing a new car there would have invited bigger amount of tax (14% instead of 12%) for owning a second car.

[hserus]

Depends on how long the repairs take so the car is out of commission too, and how much they cost.

Similarly - I just made the decision yesterday to dispose of my 8 year old whirlpool top load washing machine, that cost around 14..15k to begin with, already had 7k of repairs (including suspension rod replacement and a motor strip and rebuild, to deal with NVH / knocking issues both times) in the past 6 months, before the circuit board burnt out a couple of days back, over a weekend with service only possible on Monday. That'd be another 3500 to repair based on what it'd cost me to replace the circuit board a the last time a couple of years back.

When the repairs start to cost you more than the machine originally cost you - that'd be a great time to sell I guess.

[i74js]

I started with Ford Escort, which is now parked after completing 2.40 Lac km. This was a CKD machine when the relationship between Ford and Mahindra started in India. Most of the parts as I can see carry stamp of made in Germany.

I had only spent on disc rotor, front suspension, alternator, AC toggle switch, battery and 4 sets of rubber. And I think once the AC overhaul was carried out and brake shoe after every 30k km.

I don't remember having touched the timing belt. The car is being parked for past 2 years and I need to figure out how to revive it as I still love the "pent house", more it was my first car ever.

Flip side - Indica V2 bought in 2003 covered nearly 1.15 Lac km was generally okay but around 2011 it started giving troubles with the coolant leakage. Almost the complete cooling system was overhauled by Concorde Motors but the car refused to stay "cool" after multiple repairs. The Tata Motors mechanic said - "apki gadi gas banati hai" which results in excess pressure in the system resulting in leakage.

Anyways after trying for an year with around 6 - 7 visits to Tatas as well as local garages, finally used it for buying Punto.

Verna and Punto are daily rides now and both are extremely reliable with 65k and 33k after 7 and 2 years respectively.

Cheers

[mayankk]

And when you decide to dispose of cars because of upcoming costs or repairs required, guess who ends up buying them? Me!!
The fiesta came with MAJOR coolant/cooling system issues that poked through after about a month of usage. 4-5 months of trials and errors saw me lose 30-40 litres of coolant out the front, though the heater coil and other places. Ended up costing me about 10k for trials and final fix. Total may have been around 20 big ones.
The tucson came with a gearbox issue, and cost me again about 20k to fix.
So you see, it MAY be easier to fix the car. Especially in a market like India which thrives on FNG, and out of ASC options.

However, if you DO plan to get rid of a car, do inform the buyer, even if its after sale.

[richie4u]

The thumb rule of maintaining your car:Get it fixed when it occurs, it might just be a hub cap costing a couple of 100's or a clutch that will give up soon,no matter what get it repaired as soon as possible.

Normally we have a habit of procrastinating small repairs until maybe the next service or wait for something else to go wrong. In that process your car suffers from other failures, and now starts looking and feeling "older" and that's where all the disappointment starts. More repairs come together and a fat bill that you don't look forward to. Avoid this habit. After all its as they say, "A stitch in time saves nine"

[allien936]

Originally Posted by GTO

Why you shouldn't sell your car due to maintenance / repairs

• Retaining your old car & getting the necessary work done will be FAR, far cheaper than buying a new car
• Remember, a car is built of innumerable wear & tear items which have a finite life. Accept their replacements
• If your car has otherwise been mechanically sound, there's no reason to doubt its reliability.

Replace your car IF

• Parts are hard to come by because the model is discontinued (e.g. Opel Corsa, Skoda Fabia...).
• You have excess funds (after the necessary savings & investments) and have your heart sold on a new machine. Well, as they say, you only live once!
Consider lateral upgrades - whatever depreciation you suffer on the current car, you make up for on the pre-worshipped car

Why not to sell
Totally agree with all the points mentioned by GTO here. These machines are built to last forever. Though the consumable parts will definitely need replacements. I own a 2008 Skoda Fabia 1.4 PD Tdi elegance. A phased out model. The AC compressor needed replacement. Which cost me 26k. Before that i installed new Bilstein suspension system for 20k, as the car is almost 7 years old. And before that i got new clutch plates and pressure plates for 11k. All these jobs were done at an independent garage. A thought once came into my mind for replacing the car just before the AC compressor gave up. But if you consider the current market value of the car, i was foolish to even think about selling it. I have spent almost half the money of the current price of the car, on replacing a few of the parts and usual services. And i did it because the car is otherwise mechanically sound. Even gives better fuel economy as compared to new hatchbacks in the market. Then why sell? My car has run 72,000 kms. Which is not much considering its Diesel. And built quality of any Skoda is brilliant i feel.

Consider selling
Again GTO, you are totally right here. Parts are hard to come by these days for phased out models. And for Skoda if you have to get any job done from ASC is like a sudden sink hole in your pocket. I was quoted 65k for clutch replacement at the Skoda ASC. I got all three jobs done from an independent mechanic outside, for less price. Part sourcing was done by myself. Its not so difficult as there are many sources available online and one can always order from overseas. It turns out to be cheaper. Trust me.

And the inevitable.! If you have sold your heart to a new machine, no one can help you. Except your bank balance. If its big enough, then go for it and replace your old love for a new one.

Considering the lateral upgrades - i have been saying this all the time, The quality of the car does not go down as fast as its face value does. So go for a pre-worshiped car. Doing a little bit of research is all that it takes to land up in a good deal. Only thing is one would not get all the features that are there in the newest version. But considering the price, of a preowned, top of the line variant of any car, buying a new one will hardly make any sense.

Keep Revvin'

[alpha1]

People are usually penny wise pound foolish, so in spite of your best intent, GTO, and your excellent thread about the financials, I am sure people will never learn.

I have a friend who has done IIT + IIM (therefore it is expected that he would use some analytical/logical/mathematical approach). He wants to dispose his older car and buy a new one. Guess why?
Because the old car has scratches (which will requires paintwork) and some suspension work + steering rack.

I said even if you were to spend 1 lakh, it would be cheaper than buying a new car of 10 lakhs!!!

[manishkapadia]

Very good thread. I think people swap cars because they are bored of using the same vehicle for long. A vehicle needs some part changes as it ages because of wear and tear factors. But its not any less reliable. Also consider the low cost of insurance for an old car. Today I am paying less than 20k for 3 vehicles in the family and at the same time a new vehicle insurance will be atleast 30K for a single one.

And it is fun to keep an old car in top shape. I have a City that is 6 years old now and its good. Drives well, bullet proof and maintained well. It is not difficult to maintain a car. I stay in a coastal area, have open car parking only, and also have kids in the house. Still my car looks like this after 6 years. Most cars age well these days. I am planning to keep it for a very long time like 12 years or maybe more. I know that in some time I might need to stock up on some spares but that' s the fun part.

It makes a lot of financial sense to use an old vehicle and maintain it.

[artrocious]

Keeping your existing car, especially after you have closed its debt is like driving around in luxury for just a few rupees of fuel. It is cheaper than taking an auto and very convenient and literally FREE (rather negligible)!

While this advise of keeping your car is as logical as it seems, we have to remember that there is a TIPPING POINT. At this point you HAVE to let go and get yourself a new ride no matter the costs. Fact is the extra cost you pay on a new ride may possibly be cheaper or match the cost of fixing your old vehicle. Now add to it the peace of mind of warranty and the reliability of a new vehicle. You don't want to be stranded with your family in the middle of nowhere.

I made a mistake trying TOO HARD to keep my existing car and refused to let go. It only cost me much more than the value of the car and in the end I was left with something even more un-reliable. You can read my sad story here: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techni...ml#post3821670

[Golf Pro]

I own a 2011 Bmw 320d which has done 52,000 kms. It's never had any issues and has been regularly serviced with the chennai dealer. Currently it's got a engine oil leakage issue and is in the service garage with replacement of oil filter housing, thermostat and oil cooling housing replacement. I was shocked to know of this issue as German car engine are high in technology. Anyways now need to decide if this car is going to get further troubles in the long run. I planned to use it well upto ten years hence my decision to upgrade to Bmw. Have you heard of any such failures in their engine? The Bmw service guy says it's a common problem with the Diesel engines and they are giving a two year warranty on the new parts but it all adds upto a 70k bill.

[vinit.merchant]

How about bringing another angle to this dilemma. What if the cost of repairs are more than the resale value of the car?

Some time back there was a thread on why the Luxury cars are left to rot, and most of the replies were to the effect of "why throw good money after bad money"

Repair costs more than the resale value of the car, the green tax and certification headache post 15 years, unavailability, or availability at a very high cost, of spares. These become valid reasons for a change.
Heck, when I go to the market to ask for the value of my car, the quote I get is a little more than changing the 5 tires on the car. Of course it runs well, built like a tank et all but it ain't got any value left in the market.

Wise men would trade it with a new car under exchange. This way there would be no unpleasant conversations with prospective buyers coming to check the car and stripping it with this is not good, that is bad, etc. All this at 10% of the original price of the car !

To conclude, I am not wise. At least not yet

[KiloAlpha]

This thread echoes with my personal experience of changing vehicles.
Until today, I have had to sell my cars because ... I simply had to - did not have an option at all.

1. 1974 Ambassador Mark II - sold off in 2002 after being in the house since new, because nobody in the family (apart from me) was using it, and I was living in another city.
2. Sold my VW Golf after 18 months because I was moving out of the country
3. Wrote off my Zen in an accident
4. Junked my Ford Fiesta because of problems with the engine, cost of repair was way more than market value.
5. Sold my Nissan Primera when I moved out of UK to return to India

I now own a 2010 Ford Figo, 56K on the odo. No problems from the past 2 years or so (touch wood) apart from maintenance as mentioned in the manual.

Should I sell it and upgrade? I am not so sure at all. After reading this thread, maybe I will hang on to it for a while longer.

While on the subject, I am personally patting myself on the back for selling off the Mahindra Flyte just as niggling problems started to become more persistent. I got it serviced, fixed existing problems, and sold it off within couple of months.
So, if one can spot the trend of increasing problems early, then get then fixed for cheap and sell the car. In this case, the cost of keeping the car is a big risk in terms of cost and inconvenience. It all depends on how much value you put on peace of mind.

[shobhit.shri]

Pro-tip for people who want to smell a new car every 3-4 years without feeling like a foolish: Buy a Skoda/VW and nobody would ever come up with an argument to counter you

On a serious note, 50 posts and not a single mention of anybody keeping their VW/Skoda for a long time! I think that should also be a reason for reselling since some brands lose their value faster than other.

[atnyia]

I sold my rock solid Getz (which I had bought pre-owned) at mileage of only 28K. It required less repair than our i10. It ran without niggles. Fuel efficiency was a good 13-14. Was I stupid?
I don't think so.

1) I got married and now had a baby too in the family. I had relocated to Gurgaon from Pune. The use of car was beginning to change from weekend drives to daily drives.
2) The Getz 1.1 is perennially in turbo lag zone. The boost never comes. So, it's not pleasing to drive apart from highways where you could cruise.

In short, my need changes from an occasional drive to Kashid to regular NCR trips of 100 KMs. For this, I needed something more comfortable and spacious for my family which consists of all females apart from the one year old toddler and me. Secondly, although I am a sedate driver, the drive was never interesting.

More than everything else, I had entered a new phase in my life of a husband to a wife, parent to a son and son to a just retired mother. I needed a new car. This is as much emotions as much it is economics.

[PatienceWins]

Exactly what I have been thinking.

I am using a 2007 model Getz 1.3 Prime, top end model with ABS. 90% of my usage is city and the car meets my requirements well. My wife started driving recently, so I cannot get a bigger vehicle. The car is as good as new, as I have maintained it very well. It has run 73,500 kms, and no major issues so far - usual wear and tear items like timing belt (replaced it earlier to be safe) and clutch, still running on stock break pads. The car has not visited service centre in the last 12 months, my usage is less nowadays - planning to go early next year. The maintenance cost comes to around Rs. 6000 per year, plus the oil I get from outside.

I would like to retain the car for city usage when I am getting a bigger vehicle, but parking space is a premium and difficult to get in my apartment complex.

I make modifications to the car when I feel the 'ownership fatigue'. Upgraded the audio system, remaped the engine (driveability in city is too good now, and gives decent performance in highway with full load and AC).

Hope to keep it for a couple of years at least, by when wife would become a good driver to upgrade to a bigger vehicle.