Ok a Brand new Fiat 500....how long will you keep it for before ..or "IF" you sell it..part exchange it..? [do you keep it for just 3 yrs before 1st MOT ..?..im asking because this will be my very first car from brand new..and i wonder if its worth keeping for 10 yrs or so..baring in mind im only using it to get me work and back..total of 5 miles per day..and weekend drives out locally round the coast of cornwall..[where i live]

Personally I've always found that 5-7 years seems to work for me.

Paul Kossoff said:

Ok a Brand new Fiat 500....how long will you keep it for before ..or "IF" you sell it..part exchange it..? [do you keep it for just 3 yrs before 1st MOT ..?..im asking because this will be my very first car from brand new..and i wonder if its worth keeping for 10 yrs or so..baring in mind im only using it to get me work and back..total of 5 miles per day..and weekend drives out locally round the coast of cornwall..[where i live]

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Ooooh, I'm in Cornwall too!! Keep a look out for me, I'm in a BNW 550c with a red roof - give me a wave

i dont keep mine for long enough.
possibly 6-7 months atm
thankfully i work for a car dealership so get them at trade price and dont lose anything!

I dont normally keep our cars for very long at all, did count before buying the latest one and in 16 years of driving I have had 36 cars and in the 4 years the wifes been driving she has had 12 cars (all of those have been changed by me some without telling her!!)

But when I bought the 500 for her I did have to promise to let her keep it for 3 years then we will change it!! (probably for an arbarth if I get my way!!)

buy brand new and keep it while it's in warranty. then get rid before trouble starts and the £££s add up and start on the next new one

I will probably keep mine for about 5 years or so. I've only been driving since last year and I don't want to get to a stage where I get anything major going wrong with the car (like the last one). I also figured with the amount of driving I do (or lack of it) and the amount of time I will keep the car, I will have paid nearly all the finance off and will probably get another one if this keeps me happy unless something else takes my fancy.

Till it falls apart.

I find the keep it till it needs an MOT or is out of warranty attitude hilarious, cars don't just get to 3 years old and then fall apart. The Subaru is almost 16 years old and only just now are bits starting to fall off it and it's still a lot cheaper to fix it up than to buy something new.

I've never found a car i like enough to keep it for a long time, 1 year max seems to be when i get bored of it. I like to keep upgrading. But with the Abarth it's different. Even with all the issues I've had, the novelty of driving it and being seen in it hasn't worn off yet and i can't imagine it will. Unless i find another car that's newer but cheaper, and faster but more economical then i'll stick with the Abarth thanks!

But if you do keep the car for the length of time you suggest, if it holds up with very little issues to keep it going, then it will owe you nothing when it comes to changing.

I just keep cars'till I see something I want more. Sometimes that is years, sometimes not.

But, if you had to borrow to buy, make sure the car is worth more than you owe!

For ever and ever! I agree with Maxi, cars don't just start falling apart at a certain age! it will cost more money to keep replacing the whole car, than a few bits of it!

different if you replace it because you fancy something else!

We bought our last brand new car (a Fiat Multipla) in 2000 and it has been great, we did have a gear box problem (which was quite expensive, but nothing compared with a new car). This year it has had new rear brakes and Pete is replacing it's first wheel bearing and it has never failed an MOT - it's done almost 100,000 miles!!

We had completely paid for it over 5 years ago, so the last 5 years have been 'free' apart from running costs!!

booklady said:

For ever and ever! I agree with Maxi, cars don't just start falling apart at a certain age! it will cost more money to keep replacing the whole car, than a few bits of it!

different if you replace it because you fancy something else!

We bought our last brand new car (a Fiat Multipla) in 2000 and it has been great, we did have a gear box problem (which was quite expensive, but nothing compared with a new car). This year it has had new rear brakes and Pete is replacing it's first wheel bearing and it has never failed an MOT - it's done almost 100,000 miles!!

We had completely paid for it over 5 years ago, so the last 5 years have been 'free' apart from running costs!!

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I think the plate thing has a lot to do with this whole new car thing Tracy, in Western Australia you can put any plate on any car but here in the UK of course you can't put an '09 reg on 1990 car and therefore people either want to be able to show off the fact that they have a new car or they're self conscious about having an old car. Tbh I'm not really bothered about the fact that i could have waited 6 weeks and had a 59 plate or that my wifes car is an L Reg. Her car is still tonnes more reliable than more modern cars. Her brother has an X-reg Fabia which has an engine which needs a lot of work done to it after only 100k miles and has suspension which is apparently completely knackered.

Unless you've got a complete lemon of a car or your mechanic is ripping you off, it's almost always cheaper to fix a car up.

Either for as long as possible or for another 2 years if I can afford to upgrade to an Abarth. If I can, then I'll be keeping that for as long as possible instead.

Fixing up an old car is miles cheaper than buying a new one. Plus old cars look better when fully detailed and properly looked after! It looks like you've made an effort!

306maxi said:

Till it falls apart.

I find the keep it till it needs an MOT or is out of warranty attitude hilarious, cars don't just get to 3 years old and then fall apart.

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Of course it's not so much that they fall apart is it... electronics is the expensive thing that goes wrong in cars nowadays, and electronics can fail at any time with no rhyme nor reason. The last car I kept after the warranty expired, repaid me buy having the ABS/traction control ECU fail 6 months out of warranty. Main dealer quoted £1300 to repair (the part alone cost £900!!), but managed to get an independent to do it for £1100. Gone will be the days when cars are scrapped because the engine fails or they're rusting away, it will more likely to be that the cost of repairing the electronics is more than the car is worth.

Been bitten by this kind of thinking before and won't be going down that road again.

chrome500 said:

Of course it's not so much that they fall apart is it... electronics is the expensive thing that goes wrong in cars nowadays, and electronics can fail at any time with no rhyme nor reason. The last car I kept after the warranty expired, repaid me buy having the ABS/traction control ECU fail 6 months out of warranty. Main dealer quoted £1300 to repair (the part alone cost £900!!), but managed to get an independent to do it for £1100. Gone will be the days when cars are scrapped because the engine fails or they're rusting away, it will more likely to be that the cost of repairing the electronics is more than the car is worth.

Been bitten by this kind of thinking before and won't be going down that road again.

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But how common are these sort of failures? A lot of the electronics in the 500 are either Bosch or Magneti Marelli so are quality bits. If the ABS ECU on your 500 goes in 3 years time you go to a wreckers and get one off a 500 that's had a rear end shunt and I doubt you'll pay anything close to £900 for it.

good point "Chrome 500"..the Electronics...maybe the less you have the better..[up to a point]

costs more than £1100 to change your car though, depreciation and the new price.

booklady said:

costs more than £1100 to change your car though, depreciation and the new price.

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I think the fact that most people are quite ignorant when it comes to the oily bits of their means that a lot of people get rid of cars which are probably perfectly fine. People also don't look towards aftermarket replacement bits for their cars which are quite often better and cheaper than overpriced OEM spares.

i hope to keep my 500 for many years. this is my project car.

I usually change my car every 2-3 years. However, this is different - i love my 500 and would only change for another 500 so don't see the point, considering I specced this one how I wanted it to be. Even if I wanted to I couldn't change it due to school fees starting next september .... aiming to change it when it's about 8 years old because I know that I will have got bored by then for definite, and also hopefully school fees finish then!