Lotus, many years ago, full engine rebuild, new clutch, all suspension bits.. got it back, repainted it and then the diff/hubs oil seals failed so new oil seals, new brakes and on the way to the garage the alternator failed.

The marque living up to its "Lots Of Trouble, Usually Serious" reputation there.

Which model was it, please?

In the mid-80s a friend of mine bought a '79 JPS Esprit, a lovely thing and vanishingly rare now, but my goodness, it blowtorched through cash. He had it for 9 months, and it was probably driveable for 3 of those months. He threw a recon turbo, new radiator, head gasket and many more sundry bits at it, but the final straw was when the gearbox lost two gears.

He got a quote for a recon gearbox but was told by the specialist that the chassis was also rotten in parts and wouldn't pass the next MOT without major work, and ideally a complete replacement.

Road car repair was an oil leak on a diff oil seal in a 105,000 mile Golf. It had led a hard life towing the Caterham most summer weekends for 5 years thus not too upset. Gearbox was getting a bit noisy so decided to do the lot and replace the clutch whilst it was all apart, daft not to. Total bill from a garage owning mate (just before christmas out of the racing season when he was less busy) was £350.

On the Caterham I had a major oil leak on a track day caused by a sticking pressure relief valve that blew out an oil seal. Thought I had turned the engine off in time but no such luck. needed a crank regrind, new bearings and gaskets etc labour was free i.e. me. Total cost estimated at about £300.

But instead I bought a brand new crate engine from Ford, cost £700. Sold off the bits I did not need on e-bay for £200. Then I sold the damaged engine bit by bit on e-bay for another £400.

Total cost was £100, cheaper than the £300 estimated repair cost and I had an all new engine. Probably took less time as well. Still in the car 10 years later and other than oil changes and a cam belt and tensioners it has never been touched.

......., or else voluntary expenditure on a whim, like the recent £2K+ repaint of my Pug 205.

What???!! You can buy at least two Pug 205s for that! I presume it must be a 'classic' GTi!

New DMF and clutch for the Civic 2.2 diesel 2006 cost £996 and that was at the time cheap, Honda would take 2 days -Mr Clutch £1700 and 2 days, garage that did do it, I dropped in at opening in morning, got phone call 11 30ish same day, car ready so very pleased

only thing was it was half value of car, I usually get rid at that 50% of value repairs but liked the car so kept it

But then that's the difference between 'sensible' motoring and a hobby. Despite its lack of depreciation the cost per mile of running my low mileage TR7 is immense.....must get round to that oil change soon!

Cost per mile is a pretty pointless measure if a car is not used for regular transportation. If it sits in a garage being admired, the answer is somewhere near infinity .....

In November 2014 I bought a Mini Cooper S, 51k miles, FSH, 12 month Mini Warranty. Six weeks later, while accelerating up a hill, car hiccuped and misfired, then engine ran rough, so limped home. Diagnosis was piston on No 2 cylinder had broken.

BMW/Mini decided because of swarf contamination in oil ways and bore damage, a new short engine was needed (and a decoke). The bill was £6,600 which was fully covered by manufacturers warranty - fortunately.

Without a doubt the most costly car to fix has been the MB coupe we still have but rarely use.

Worse bill was probably the CHG failure (they all do that around 100k), and whilst the engine was partially stripped i had a new timing chain and tensioner fitted plus the oil cooler under the oil filter housing, circa £1800.

Another cracker, same car was the failure of the engine wiring loom,( they all do that as well around 12 years) causing a misfire on one coil pack which spiked the ECU...these German hewn from granite W124's are just great... fortunately the ecu was repairable, but new wiring loom plus ecu repair plus 3 new coils came to around £1250 all in, which was a lot cheaper than the dealer would have been when a new ecu alone was some £1500.

There have been numerous other problems, snapped drive shaft, blown OVP relay twice, failed aerial motor, rear window glass delaminates and blows the in between heating element now on its third @ £450 trade a throw, oh and nearly forgot the drivers (frameless) window regulator at some £400.

That car, and what has gone wrong is pretty typical for the model and was the final straw in my car ownership choices, dare not work out the cost per mile, hence the permanent return to Japanese only, Toyota/Subaru, which i should have continued with following previous trouble free experience.

Edited by gordonbennet on 08/10/2018 at 13:07

2006 plate Vauxhall Signum 1.9cdti 150bhp

Dual mass flywheel, clutch, M32 gearbox and the DPF all found to be duff after a run back from Devon. Clutch rattling, gearbox crunching in every gear (no ..... Not the clutch.... Other m32 problems/symptoms also present) . A regenn every tank full destroying the fuel consumption. Wouldn't do any better than 42/45mpg when previously 50+ was normal.

Clutch/flywheel £1000 to £1500 . Gearbox £750 and up too £1000 for the exhaust/DPF.

Economic endgame on an 11 year old 90000 mile car. Any one of the above faults and I would have fixed it . l sold it for £300 and bought a 2005 plate 33000 mile Astra 1.6 petrol for the repair money. Super little motor lasted 3 years with only service parts and a coil pack.