30th Aug 2018, 21:54

You're right it's not the car's fault, and I get what you are saying, but as I mentioned, the car is worth £1200 at best in a private sale. Since the repairs will likely exceed that, it makes you wonder if it's worth it. I could spend a lot making it perfect, but in the end all I'll have is a 11 year old car with over 140K on it.

As durable as Volvos are, I just don't trust it to last me another year or so without hitting me with another big repair bill. Yes it's a decent modern car that's worlds ahead in safety advancements than cars I've had before, but the fact is I got more durability out of older cars. You could also blame the rising cost of motoring in general - fuel, insurance, repairs, parts, tax, etc. In the UK nearly all of the above have almost doubled in recent years.

8th Oct 2018, 18:41

The reason a lot of cars in the £1000 - £1500 price bracket are quickly being scrapped now is simple - rising cost of parts/repairs, just as you mentioned. And in the UK, and I suspect worldwide, things are getting more expensive in general. If a repair is going to cost £1000 upwards and the car is only worth around just that or less, it makes more sense to get another car.

Government scrappage schemes have done little to preserve the longevity of cars - probably made things worse. They would rather cars at 10 years and older were not on the road, and you bought new.

Shame really, 5 - 10 years ago there was still a lot of 1990s cars around and you could get them as cheap as £600 and run them for a year or two with little to no problems, then scrap or even sell again. And even if you did have a repair, it was only around £200 to sort out, not £1000 so it was worth it. Not too long ago I ran some late 80s/early 90s cars just like this - and I did not care about being laughed at for driving a 15 or even 20 year old car - I had the last laugh - I was on the road cheaper than everyone else. But it's getting harder now as you said. The only cars in the bargain price range now are mid 2000s crap with far too much electronic stuff to go wrong.

11th Dec 2018, 19:55

I would agree but it depends on the car. As many have discussed, it is shocking that a £2000 car can be written off with a minor electronic fault. Back in the day myself I was also driving £600 cars and confidently running them for a couple of years, safe in the knowledge that if they were looked after and the timing belt had been done (if applicable), it was a safe bet.

Now it's a whole new ball game. Plenty of cars like Fords and Vauxhalls about at the £2000 price range and Volvos are somewhere in between or slightly above. But there are BMWs and Mercedes from circa 2005 that I would not touch at ridiculous prices for cars of such an age now. Good cars, but let's face it, they will cost the car's value or more when they break. You have to do a lot of research, especially buying any car in the sub £3000 bracket, even cheaper less desirable cars. It's a lot of money for some people, and all you are getting is a 10 year old car with lots of mileage on it - it's not going to be perfect. Again, awful value for money when you think what £1000 or less got you just 10 years ago.

10th May 2019, 12:13

I have a 2008 model S40 that is getting scrapped soon also. Shame - I love it, looked after it, and the car is mint apart from electronic problems that cost too much to repair (airbag, ABS, etc).

Fair enough it is 11 years old and well over 100,000 miles, but as other have alluded to, you expect more from a modern car when 80s and 90s cars were lasting to 15 years and even 150,000 miles plus relatively easily. Most mid to late 2000s model cars are now disappearing quickly due to electronic faults exceeding the car's value to be worth keeping. I suspect the very latest 2019 cars will be the same 10 years or so from now.

11th May 2019, 12:36

Uh huh. And where are these "mid to late 2000s model cars" disappearing to? Most of the ones in salvage yards are only there because they were totalled in accidents. Also, your prediction is based on an assumption that an owner would "scrap" a car over issues with airbags or ABS, (neither of which is crucial to the operation of the car) and, for a car that is otherwise "mint", that sounds pretty nonsensical.

11th May 2019, 18:44

Not nonsensical at all. I agree with the previous few comments about getting rid of a car when it is too much trouble, no matter how good it is. It depends where you live. In the UK an airbag light or ABS fault will make the car fail an MOT test. I think in the USA there is a yearly inspection for similar things, though it may not be as strict.

If an MOT or inspection is due, the simple math is scrap the car if it's not worth repairing, as you will have to pay thousands for it to be road legal. Here in UK electronic faults are notoriously expensive to fix. So if the car is worth only £1000 and your dashboard is lit up with fault indicators, it's time for it to go.

12th May 2019, 02:09

In some countries, like New Zealand, if a car is fitted as standard with ABS, a warning light (or if the warning light does not come on during initial start-up as a test, for those who simply removed the bulb) means the car is not roadworthy, will not be issued a Warrant of Fitness, and therefore cannot be registered. Plus insurance companies will not pay out in an accident if the car was not in "warrantable" state at the time of the accident. Yes, there are cars which don't come with it as standard - that's OK, but if fitted, it must work. Ditto with airbags. So, yes - some cars will be junked if it gets too dear to repair (like when the repair costs more than the car's present market value).

12th May 2019, 17:10

Well said. I think that's what the original poster and some commenters are getting at - modern cars when they get older are way too much of a liability for electronic faults. This simply was not the case for older cars. Longevity has not improved - the average lifespan of a car is 11 - 12 years, and has been since the 80s.

To the comment wondering why and where people are saying these mid-2000 era cars are disappearing to - it is simple, they are getting junked, as that time period was more than 10 years ago so those cars are all at a high mileage. It does not matter how good modern engines and stuff are, or if they are technically better/more advanced than old - the new problem is electronic crap that costs silly amounts to repair, so either way a modern car can be quickly written off at a relatively young age and mileage.