Appreciated, but the stable door has been left open and the horse has bolted on that one.

It's a new car. The Mazda has been owned for 9 years so is more.than ready for a change.

Just because it's 9 years old doesn't mean it is ready for the scrap heap. My Mazda3 is coming up on 14 years old and still going fine. A car that isn't rusting badly and doesn't have much in the wasy of complex electronics/gizmos should, if well cared for, last a LONG time, be reliable and be far more cost effective across its lifetime than replacing it every few years.

9 is just a number - it's the car's condition and the cost of maintenance vs the cost of shelling out for a new (to you) car - noting also that if you buy a second hand car, its previous ownership will be somewhat of an unknown, even if it comes with a FSH, as it could've been used for lots of short trips from cold, or thrashed within an inch of its life. Your current car is a known quantity.

Twist I have changed cars about 12 times in last 40 years and never thought once that I should have kept the last one! As for the money yes its gone but at least the house continues to appreciate!

I'd hate to think how much of your disposible income you have spent on buying replacement cars. Still, your money, your choice. I prefer to make a choice when buying the car so I'm not forced into changing the car due to it having many problems, especially if the car and/or make has a history of such issues. I bet your local car dealerships also very much appreciate (££££) you changing your cars that often!

I include the dealership experience in that as well - checking out a number of main dealers in the area for competence (some makes I just won't go for at all because their dealers and brand are very poor at post sales customer service - some, like with Mazda, are patchy, so I have to find a good'un locally, otherwise the deal's off).

It's also the reason why I will never buy a new car that has only just come out - I wait at least a year, if not two before putting any on a short list for consideration, because it gives me time to assess any faults that may emerge from the new spec or any new technologies used, especially as many cars are, in my view released to market too early and owners are used as defacto beta testers.

Decent research (i.e. making a decent effort in it) can save you thousands, maybe tens of thousands over a lifetime, which could be spent on a nicer home, better/more frequent holidays, etc, etc. And it doesn't mean you have to buy a boring car either. At least that's my view anyway.

Edited by Engineer Andy on 15/09/2019 at 12:29

£8200 aaginst £500 to fix the Mazda....keep it ...you're £7800 up.

You have to work out how much extra per year the Mazda will cost to maintain compared to the purchase cost of a new car minus price on selling it, divided by its ownership lifetime in years. Sometimes it is cheaper to buy a new car.

Indeed you do, but it's highly unlikey to work out cheaper to buy a new or second hand car in this case, at least for the next 5 years.

£8200 aaginst £500 to fix the Mazda....keep it ...you're £7800 up.

You have to work out how much extra per year the Mazda will cost to maintain compared to the purchase cost of a new car minus price on selling it, divided by its ownership lifetime in years. Sometimes it is cheaper to buy a new car.

Indeed you do, but it's highly unlikey to work out cheaper to buy a new or second hand car in this case, at least for the next 5 years.

What is your evidence for that remark? I had a K class Micra, described here as bulletproof. It fell to pieces at 10 years and 100,000 miles, and was getting costly to maintain. If a car fails, you’re forced to buy a replacement in a hurry rather than at leisure and usually at a better price. Of course if you have a backup, that’s not an issue.

Because I own a car from the same make which is older (coming up on 14yo) which is is still in decent condition, including rust. Older Mazdas (the early Mazda3 gen-1 cars) did suffer, mine was one of the ones that they resolved that problem to a reasonable degree, later ones and other cars in their range have not suffered much from rust since.

If the OP has a petrol version (likely for a Mazda2) and has serviced it properly, then the only items that (for the most part) need maintenance are general wear and tear items like suspension bushes/arms/dampers, maybe a wheel bearing. The petrol engines are very hardy and the bodyshells from about late 2005 across the baord are far better at resisting rust.

I would suspect that the costs over the next 5 years would amount to (other than standard servicing) about £750 - £1500, tops. The cost to change to buy another car, even second hand would likely come it at around £6k - £7k, and they don't know for sure exactly how well it was driven/kept as they don't know the previous owner.

A 'new' second hand car would also need fettling at that price, as it would be old enough for some wear and tear items to start appearing and may soon need new tyres.

I certainly didn't ever say that Micras were bulletproof - that specific model was generally reliable, but eventually succumbed to corrosion, and why I PXed mine to get my current Mazda3 (I owned a K11 for nearly 8 years up to its 10th birthday).

The later Micras designed and built under the alliance with Renault were, IMHO, of lower quality (engineering-wise) and I wouldn't call them good. I just read in a recent Which? magazine car buying special that the latest model was considered to be poor in terms of reliability.

Petrol-engined Mazdas (forgetting the RX-8) built after the rusting problem era are fine and can last a long time. I see quite a number of 2s and 3s from the mid 2000s still looking fine in my area. Mine, touch wood, has never failed an MOT yet. If anyone, including the OP, lives in an area or near the sea that is reowned for quickly rusting out cars (i.e. the council regularly uses road salt because they get a lot of snow/ice in winter), then that would put a different spin on the situation.

Mazda 2s of that era are also related to the Ford Fiesta and don't have that much in the way of fancy electronics to go wrong.

One example does not tell you anything which is why I’d rather see some evidence such as user surveys. I live in the south of England, and yet we see a lot of salt on the roads in winter. As I indicated, you can take the risk, and hoe you win, or you can trade up at leisure. You takes your choice.

I see lots of examples of Mazdas (including many 2s) from that era that appear to be surviving rather well. SLO himself said that he would recommend keeping the car if money was tight. My point was that the OP didn't appear to want to spend 'any money' fettling his current car, even though that would be quite minimal (especially if he only kept it for another 3-5 years, like mine) when compared to buy another newer second hand car which they don't know the history 100%.

That, in my eyes, is far more of a risk than the know quantity of his current car. If it had been a diesel engined one that had done mainly short trips, then I would've gone with getting a replacement, but a petrol version, because they are far more reliable over the longer term if used in that way.