Most common causes of scrapping a car these days?

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
View Threaded
Sat 25 Sep 2021 21:56
Most common causes of scrapping a car these days? - dragonfly101

I've been doing bangernomics for a while, and have presided over the demise of five cars now, and not one of them was scrapped due to 'piston ring wear' - which is what everyone tells me you need to get the oil changed to prevent, so I'm thinking why bother changing the oil?

2 of them were head gasket going

2 of them were due to needing a large number of consumables replacing at same time to pass MOT, so was cheaper to buy another sub £1000 car to replace it.

1 of them was due to expensive electronics needing replacing.

What are other peoples experiences?

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 25 Sep 2021 22:15
Most common causes of scrapping a car these days? - elekie&a/c doctor

Broken timing chain or a failed electronic gearbox. It won't be long before cars get scrapped for failed led headlights . Usually £1500 a piece .

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 25 Sep 2021 22:20
Most common causes of scrapping a car these days? - Big John

Broken timing chain or a failed electronic gearbox. It won't be long before cars get scrapped for failed led headlights . Usually £1500 a piece .

All new cars now generally have fancy radar "safety" technologies that if you run into a pigeon(or equivalent) need expensive work to sort out - fast forward a few years this will be a major MOT fail/ car write off. Car electronics will be the future big issue.

Re current cars - rust still a car killer especially re subframes or suspension components. I've known many a car suffer with badly rusted rear torsion beam suspension especially re spring cups - or front engine/suspension subframe. After a few years old it's such a big job most people don't bother. In addition rusty brake pipes can be a car killer where some cars have poorly designed/difficult pipe routes up and over subframes, fuel tanks, suspension beams etc involving a major strip down to sort.

Edited by Big John on 25/09/2021 at 22:33

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 25 Sep 2021 22:27
Most common causes of scrapping a car these days? - SLO76
Just thinking, I’ve never actually scrapped a car that I’ve personally owned. I’ve always sold it on while it still has life and value left. The most cost effective cars I’ve owned have been sub £2k older Japanese models I’ve bought and then sold in good running order for minimal or no loss. I’ve never suffered a catastrophic failure so far.

Edited by SLO76 on 25/09/2021 at 22:30

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 26 Sep 2021 00:02
Most common causes of scrapping a car these days? - Terry W

There are over 3000 cars on Autotrader priced between £500-1000. 1300 are less than 100k and 20 years old.

Some may be missing an MoT or with major faults, but there are clearly lots of fairly basic entirely functional cars out there for well under £1000.

Spending £500-1000 to keep an old car going is minor. New set of tyres £3-400, Front pads and discs ~£200. Full service £150-200. Exhaust £100-400.

So few cars will fail due to catastrophic failure - most get scrapped because 2 or 3 items come together.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 26 Sep 2021 09:23
Most common causes of scrapping a car these days? - Grenache

Just last November I scrapped my Pug 206 due to the 'corrosionvirus'. The main front-to-back subframe members had rotted, but it was not obvious from visual inspection as the underseal was in good order, holding the rust in. Only when you touched it with bare hands it started crumbling. And I'd been doing 70mph up the M6 the previous day, gulp.

I'd had it since new in 2001, and covered 120,000 miles, so sad to see it go but happy with how long it lasted. That made the average depreciation £500/year plus an average repair cost of non-consumable items averaging £200/year, excluding wear and tear things like brake discs, and a couple of wheel bearings which is expected at that mileage.

It was the 2.0 HDI model and averaged about 58 mpg over it life.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 26 Sep 2021 09:50
Most common causes of scrapping a car these days? - Trilogy.

Too many good cars are scrapped, either owners can't be bothered to repair, or manufacturers make cars ever more complex and expensive to repair.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 26 Sep 2021 10:56
Most common causes of scrapping a car these days? - John F

Crash damage plus scandalous behaviour of insurance companies.

About 7 years ago a third party's insurer tried to write off our 13yr old carefully maintained Focus after its client ran into the back of it, necessitating a new rear bumper and repair to the rear wing. I refused and insisted it was repaired. It will be 21 in December.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 26 Sep 2021 15:35
Most common causes of scrapping a car these days? - Andrew-T

Crash damage plus scandalous behaviour of insurance companies.

About 7 years ago a third party's insurer tried to write off our 13yr old carefully maintained Focus ....

A third party insurer 'wrote off' my Pug 207SW almost 5 years ago because of front-end damage after an unavoidable 10mph collision. As the car was structurally intact and drivable I kept it and had it repaired locally, and it is still here, probably worth only marginally less than if it had not suffered the accident.

Of course the write-off will always be on its DVLA record, but as it is now 13 years old that hardly matters. It costs little to run, maintain and insure, and is as reliable as it has always been.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 26 Sep 2021 11:00
Most common causes of scrapping a car these days? - Chris M

A friend traded in her 2007 Picanto for a brand new one a couple of months ago. She'd owned it since new, always main dealer service and had covered 44k miles.

She got KIA's £2,000 scrappage deal and that's exactly what they did with the car. Only advisory on the last MoT was for some movement on the suspension top mounts. Previous MoTs mentioned corrosion to rear sub frame, but it couldn't have been that bad as it didn't get a mention last year. Car was tidy and would have made an ideal learners car.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 26 Sep 2021 11:42
Most common causes of scrapping a car these days? - Steveieb

I imagine the main reason for scrapping a car is going to be expensive parts like infotainment displays.

The Renault ones cost over a thousand and are so much in demand most dealers keep them in stock.

The answer has got to be finding a repairer of electronic parts.

A Citroen electric car was quoted £9k fora repair at a main dealers using new components but an electric car specialist in Cheltenham charged £1200 .

My air con compressor costs £1200 from Audi but Compressor Tech tested and refurbished my Denso unit for £270 including swapping the manifold from the old unit.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 26 Sep 2021 11:56
Most common causes of scrapping a car these days? - Falkirk Bairn

A son's first car, early 90, bought with his own money blew the ECU. (I had bought him 2 bangers previously)

Towed him back to a local 1 man band "nissan hut garage" He took out the ECU, walked 50 yards to a local repair man - £30 for the repair - as the repairman said £1 for a component and £29 for his skills.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 26 Sep 2021 12:31
Most common causes of scrapping a car these days? - elekie&a/c doctor
A friend with an Audi A5 recently had the Acc fail . (Adaptive cruise control.). Took it to the dealer , needs a new radar unit @ £2200 plus fitting , plus alignment, on a car worth around £12 k .
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 26 Sep 2021 13:40
Most common causes of scrapping a car these days? - Trilogy.

A friend's 5 years old A6 Avant infotainment system basically fried itself. Audi wanted £4,000 for new one. In the end a refurbished one was fitted for £500 by someone else. Many cars now are far too expensive to repair and unnecessarily complicated.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 26 Sep 2021 15:56
Most common causes of scrapping a car these days? - Terry W

For every complaint about insurance companies unnecessarily writing off cars with minor damage, I suspect there would be ten major objection if they said "don't worry, we can":

  • fit an untested secondhand part from a breakers
  • blow over the damage with a rattle can
  • we don't pay out on minor damage for cars over 10 years old
  • etc

We all end up paying if insurance companies spent more on claims than necessary. We should expect them to consistently do the job properly to the right standard.

If they regard a car as a write off then it should be recorded as such. Otherwise they could be regarded as negligent in failing to deal with the damage appropriately. They should not take short cuts, no matter how aggrieved the owner may feel.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 26 Sep 2021 15:42
Most common causes of scrapping a car these days? - Andrew-T

A friend traded in her 2007 Picanto for a brand new one a couple of months ago. She'd owned it since new, always main dealer service and had covered 44k miles. She got KIA's £2,000 scrappage deal and that's exactly what they did with the car.

The friend would have done better to dispose of her car privately, but many people would never consider that. From the dealer's perspective a 14-year-old car has little value, so they are just doing a favour by 'taking it off her hands'. Without trading it in, she might have managed to reduce the price of her new car by an equal amount, so in effect they gave her zero for it.

The 1994 Pug 306 in my garage had been traded in against a newer Pug at 20 years of age for the princely sum of £100. I suspect the seller may have made a paper profit by doing that. Many more-than-serviceable cars were scrapped unnecessarily during the previous scrappage scheme - criminal waste.

Edited by Andrew-T on 26/09/2021 at 15:47

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 1 Oct 2021 18:19
Most common causes of scrapping a car these days? - Sofa Spud

My most recent scrapping was due to engine management electronics. MOT failure on emissions - even going to specialist diagnostics would have cost almost the value of the car, and that's before fixing anything.

Edited by Sofa Spud on 01/10/2021 at 18:19

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 1 Oct 2021 19:40
Most common causes of scrapping a car these days? - SLO76
I wonder how many cars are written-off based on dishonest or illogical information from main dealers. My old Toyota Avensis had a new catalyst fitted a few weeks back but shortly after the dash lit up like a Christmas tree, everything from engine management light to electronic parking brake warnings were showing. I returned to the tyre and exhaust centre as I could hear a slight blow and suspected this was flagging up an emissions issue. They couldn’t find fault with it.

I then took it to my own garage who checked fault codes, again it flagged up several. They shrugged their shoulders, could find no exhaust blow and told me to take it to Toyota. I then visited the local main dealer who confirmed it was an emissions issue but it was due to the aftermarket cat being incompatible with any Toyota, again no exhaust blow found despite it being very obvious when driving. The main dealer presented me with a quote of nearly £1300 for a new Toyota cat and around £700 worth of other “urgent” repairs. This could’ve effectively written-off most 11yr old mainstream cars.

I then returned to the tyre and exhaust centre and had a chat with the manager, who was very obliging. He arranged to replace the cat under warranty but suggested Toyota's we’re indeed a nightmare for this. I wasn’t convinced but was happy enough to have it replaced and another fitted and checked by the manager himself. Turns out it had either been badly fitted (most likely) or been a faulty cat as it was immediately obvious that there was no longer any blow from the system. Codes reset, Mot passed with no advisories a week later and no lights have returned. The car is fixed and cost not a single penny of the £2,000 the main dealer suggested was needed.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 1 Oct 2021 21:23
Most common causes of scrapping a car these days? - daveyK_UK
Most of the cars I have scrapped have been due to timing belt failure, especially when they are over 10 years old
Reply | Report as offensive | Link

From economical vans to those that have the largest payloads, we have a shortlist for everyone - click to find out which will suit your needs.

Undecided on which van to buy? Our Top 10 shortlists can help...

If you cover no more than 100 miles per day and have easy access to a charging point at home or work, then an EV is ideal for you.

Is an electric car right for me?