Volvo V40 cross country - To sell or keep

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
What is life like with your car? Let us know and win £500 in John Lewis vouchers | No thanks
View Threaded
Fri 6 Aug 2021 10:09
Volvo V40 cross country - To sell or keep - Polly Parrot
I currently have a Volvo V40 CC that is in the garage being fixed after the service chucked up several issues (mostly brakes and suspension). It’s going to cost me a huge amount. It’s a 63 plate car with 109000 on the clock. It was a silly heart over head purchase. The parts and servicing cost so much.

My question is, should I sell it now, with 12 months MOT and in good condition. Or should to px it and set up PCP with something used but more reliable and cheaper to run? I fear future bills. I like to see them coming so that I can plan for them.

I’m keen on getting a Mini Clubman, but think I’m leading with my head again. There is a 17 plate one with 47000 for sale at the local Mini dealership.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 6 Aug 2021 10:23
Volvo V40 cross country - To sell or keep - Polly Parrot
I should add that whatever I get needs to fit a Labrador and toddler. It also can’t be a large estate due to parking space limitations at work.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 6 Aug 2021 10:34
Volvo V40 cross country - To sell or keep - Falkirk Bairn

8 year old - expect age related matters - rubber bushes, springs, dampers etc etc

How long have you owned the car? Has it been trouble free until now?

Is the car petrol/diesel? Ageing diesels can be an issue as the age / miles rise.

Most here would not go for Minis, not the best reputation - you could be buying more problems - better the devil you know .

Repairs are expensive, a new car is even more expensive.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 6 Aug 2021 10:42
Volvo V40 cross country - To sell or keep - Polly Parrot
Thanks for your response. My Volvo is a diesel, and other than the lock dying on one side, it has been relatively trouble free. I have had it for three years. The people servicing it at the moment say that it has a leak from the gearbox that will need exploring at some point.

If not a Mini, I guess I would look for a Focus, Fabia estate, or something similar. I’m fearful of significant depreciation, and also a bit of a sucker for a car that doesn’t feel tacky inside. I had a Clio that just ruined it for me!
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 6 Aug 2021 11:49
Volvo V40 cross country - To sell or keep - badbusdriver

Getting a PCP for a used car is unlikely to be a good deal, the interest rate is almost certainly going to be higher than were you to get a bank loan (assuming a decent credit rating).

As for alternative cars, if you gave us an idea of what sort of price range you'd be looking at, what your annual mileage is along with what type of journey (urban, motorway etc), whether you'd be looking for a manual or auto gearbox.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 6 Aug 2021 12:11
Volvo V40 cross country - To sell or keep - Polly Parrot
That’s really helpful to know. I have never gone for PCP before and I am super reluctant. I am a little obsessed with maintaining a strong credit rating, and worry about borrowing too much.
I would rather not spend more than £12 k on a car. I drive about 13,000 miles a year. Manual. Mostly driving on A roads into a city - so a bit of a mixture.
I am keen to moving over to hybrid/electric in the next 5 years. My original plan was to keep the Volvo for a few more years and then hit the electric car world. Seems a bit out of my price range at the moment though. In the mean time, petrol would suffice.
Thank you for the help. I’m a bit hopeless at this kind of thing.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 6 Aug 2021 12:38
Volvo V40 cross country - To sell or keep - John F

8 year old - expect age related matters - rubber bushes, springs, dampers etc etc

Not these days. Our family Focus, twenty years old, has all its original rubber bushes, springs and dampers. Unfortunately, unscrupulous garages will fail bushes on the slightest of pretexts, e.g. 5.3.4 'excessively worn'. or 'no longer prevents ingress if dirt' , phrases which are a licence to print money as few will argue with the mechanic's observation and opinion as to when the threshold of 'danger' is reached. A reliable honest indy tester with whom you have made a relationship over the years is well worth paying full or nearly full price for an MoT.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 6 Aug 2021 11:59
Volvo V40 cross country - To sell or keep - SLO76
I wouldn’t touch a used Mini, they’ve an awful reputation for poor reliability. I also wouldn’t go for a PCP on a used car as they’re never competitive. The best way to buy used is via a low rate personal loan, just remember to compare like for like. A 3yr PCP with a balloon payment at the end is equivalent to a 5yr personal loan for example. After 3yrs you will owe less on the bank loan and will pay less interest.

I’d work out how much space you need and how many miles you do. Less than 15k and I’d go petrol to avoid long term reliability woes.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 6 Aug 2021 12:12
Volvo V40 cross country - To sell or keep - Polly Parrot
Thank you! That is enormously helpful to know.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 6 Aug 2021 12:26
Volvo V40 cross country - To sell or keep - John F
I currently have a Volvo V40 CC that is in the garage being fixed after the service chucked up several issues (mostly brakes and suspension). It’s going to cost me a huge amount. It’s a 63 plate car with 109000 on the clock.

Was it driving OK before the 'service'? I find it hard to believe that a merely eight year old Volvo having just turned 100,000 should cost a 'huge amount', whatever that is? Brake pads and discs wear out on all cars, but on such a mundane model they should not be too expensive. What else is allegedly wrong? Some unscrupulous garages typecast females (which I assume you are) as mechanically ignorant and invent allegedly necessary restorative work, suggesting the replacement of items and fluids that have many thousands of miles wear left in them and which are not remotely dangerous and would not fail the MoT test.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 6 Aug 2021 13:25
Volvo V40 cross country - To sell or keep - Polly Parrot
It was making some interesting noises. All four brake discs and pads needed replacing. The suspension on the front right (coil had broken - then found part of it on my driveway), the shock absorber on the left. Something to do with the anti-roll bar at the back (?). Bill currently standing at about £1200. They have had it for five days and are threatening to keep in until Monday due to parts and staffing issues. Honestly, they have be super super rubbish. A different excuse each day. All being done via a main dealership (Vauxhall as it is where I bought it). I know! I have been sucked in by a free MOT and am now being punished for it!
I am on the war path with them.

(I am a really reasonable and non-confrontational person. It hasn’t fared me well on this occasion)
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 6 Aug 2021 15:04
Volvo V40 cross country - To sell or keep - Archie35

For a car of that age I would absolutely never take it to a main dealer (unless for something so specialist that no independant could cope), and certainly not to a main dealer from a different brand. Can you ask around your friends/neighbours and find a trustworthy independant garage, then get them to do the work? Or is it too late, for this work at least?

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 6 Aug 2021 15:31
Volvo V40 cross country - To sell or keep - Polly Parrot
I have always had this policy with my previous cars, but I went back to this place due to the free MOT - silly I know. I have learnt my lesson. Too late now as the majority of the work has been done.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 6 Aug 2021 17:48
Volvo V40 cross country - To sell or keep - Rerepo

Get yourself a Honda or Toyota of whatever size you need and get on with your life. But avoid the 1.0T Honda turbo engine. If driving in town a fair bit then consider a Toyota Hybrid car ... they are very reliable.

Mini's are all about image.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 6 Aug 2021 18:29
Volvo V40 cross country - To sell or keep - pd

None of that sounds too terminal to me. And brake pads and discs even wear out on Honda's as well!

I suspect the big issue is you are paying £100 an hour instead of £55 and if they are fitting Volvo parts that will ramp the price up.

Really, new padsl/discs and a spring and shock is typical wear and test and the car if OK otherwise should have plenty of life left.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 6 Aug 2021 21:02
Volvo V40 cross country - To sell or keep - John F

It's being hit by a bill like this that often persuades the owner to sell the car - for not very much money. The purchaser gets a bargain which will possibly be trouble free for many thousands of miles. Such a bill might well be far less than the annual depreciation of its replacement. People seem to think over two thousand pounds a year is acceptable nowadays. I would keep it, and follow the advice above of seeking a reliable indy in future. Unless it is a requirement of the warranty, it's financial madness to stick with a main dealer for routine servicing and repair work for mundane mass produced cars.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 6 Aug 2021 22:08
Volvo V40 cross country - To sell or keep - Polly Parrot
Thanks John, this is great advice. I’ll keep my Volvo. I have just been in a s***ty mood as the people servicing it keep stringing me along. It will have been in for a week in total by the time I’m told I will get it back.
In my mind my car seemed quite new. Time flies.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 7 Aug 2021 09:11
Volvo V40 cross country - To sell or keep - John F
In my mind my car seemed quite new. Time flies.

The older you get, the faster it flies. My erstwhile flagship Audi, nearly sixteen years old, also seems quite new. And my timeless Triumph TR7 DHC has conceptually metamorphosed from an everyday work and pleasure car into a 'historic vehicle', needing neither tax nor MoT from now on. It still looks and works just the same as it always did - an exemplar of the cosmologist's theory that there is no such thing as time.......

Buy the best and make it last is a good motoring adage. 'The quality will remain long after the price is forgotten' (Henry Royce). And one of our mods has perhaps already experienced a little of 'the bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of a low price is forgotten' (Benjamin Franklin).

You might get an occasional large bill but if only doing a low annual mileage it will happen rarely - unless you patronise a main dealer. The saving on depreciation, a factor apparently rarely considered by low mileage motorists who change their cars every three or four years, will more than offset it.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 6 Aug 2021 22:25
Volvo V40 cross country - To sell or keep - ifekas

Although my car is old and the warranty long expired I have continued to have had my car serviced at the KIA dealership (actually I don't think the price is bad), but I have the MoT and any stuff that needs doing elsewhere as it is not only cost effective, but one can ensure that the work done is really needed, and of course one doesn't pay a premium for the repairs done at the 'glass palace'.

To give the dealership credit, other than trying to sell me a replacement tyre for a Michelin CrossClimate that was 'low' at 3.5mm, to be replaced with a nasty Nexen (obviously I declined), they have been good, though I always need to decline the sales spiel for the air con disinfectant. I have in the past had some brake discs and pads replaced by the dealership when they gave me a 'special' (reasonable) price after I declined the 'normal' price.

Sounds like I am paranoid, but I don't want to feel like I am being ripped off!

As to your question, as newer s/h cars seem too be terribly overpriced at the moment, might be best to stick with what you have for the next year or so.

Oh, and my car is an 11 year old diesel and has suffered no engine related issues whatsoever so far, so it doesn't necessarily mean that if you have a diesel car you are doomed to expensive repairs.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 7 Aug 2021 10:54
Volvo V40 cross country - To sell or keep - madf

As to your question, as newer s/h cars seem too be terribly overpriced at the moment, might be best to stick with what you have for the next year or so.

Oh, and my car is an 11 year old diesel and has suffered no engine related issues whatsoever so far, so it doesn't necessarily mean that if you have a diesel car you are doomed to expensive repairs.

Second hand prices seem to be falling.Our Jazz valued in May £4500 . Now £3700 -18%

Our 18 year old Yaris diesel (No DPF,) has only needed new glow plugs apart from normal maintenance.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 7 Aug 2021 21:24
Volvo V40 cross country - To sell or keep - Xileno

A friend had colossal problems with his Volvo diesel Cross Country (I don't know the exact model), it would cut out often at speed on the motorway. He spent over £1000 at the dealer in trying to track it down, no fault code was logged. In the end took it to another independent garage and they disconnected the haldex unit thinking that was interfering with the electronics but that didn't solve it. It would run fine for hundreds of miles and then suddenly cut out. Eventually a Volvo specialist in Essex sorted it out, a transistor was dodgy and when new one was soldered in all was fine.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 7 Aug 2021 21:40
Volvo V40 cross country - To sell or keep - ifekas

Second hand prices seem to be falling.Our Jazz valued in May £4500 . Now £3700 -18%

Our 18 year old Yaris diesel (No DPF,) has only needed new glow plugs apart from normal maintenance.

I am surprised; I know the value of pre 2015 diesels has dropped significantly in value due to the ULEZ, but from the windscreen prices of small s/h cars from resellers in my area the prices seem ridiculously high for even cars that are six to seven years old, though I have no idea how close to the sticker price the cars sell for.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 8 Aug 2021 08:20
Volvo V40 cross country - To sell or keep - barney100

Get it to a good indie, get it fixed and keep it for me unless you are really set on anew car. Changing your car dosen't mean you are safe from bills, nothing more galling than seeing your old car you got rid of driving around for years.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link