Agree, my bills for the last 3 years have averaged £1,000 one way or another.

cheers
George

Good afternoon gents

I too do all the work on my car myself, mainly because i dont like the standard of work carried out by many garages and the care taken whilst doing it. my car is my pride and joy and it is a sort of hobbie so not only do i sort of enjoy working on it but i cant stand it when some idiot spills antifreeze down the wing or leaves greasy fingerprints all over my pristine interior.
I Fit multi-fuel heaters and boilers, build, line and repair chimneys and design and build fireplaces for a living, and i wont beat around the bush here, i am expensive, but because i am expensive when things go wrong or something unexpected happens i can smile be calm and deal with it, and there is no nasty surprise for the customer, also because we charge enough we can spend time talking to customers and can give a very good after sales service.
I couldn't bare parting with £200 for a oil change but that is because i find it easy to do, if you dont know your dipstick from your gearstick then that is the price you have to pay. as xmexc and others have said the cost of the materials may be £50 but you have to pay rent, rates, tools, office staff, sick pay etc etc and have enough left to make a profit, and lets be honest how much would you want to earn for what could be an hours work after you have paid all your overheads?? and then when one of your idiots spills antifreeze all down somebodies wing, you have to pay for that too!

You make an excellent point XMExc, at the end of the day, there are essential links all along the chain, and as you say, without people buying and servicing new cars, there would be no second hand ones to choose from!

Ciarán

Hi XMexc

I would concur. I think my attitude comes from having grown up in the early post war years when you had to make do and mend. You ran tyres down to the canvas (and through it sometimes), if your battery failed, you could have a cell replaced, if you could make a replacement part instead of buying one, you did.

The modern motoring laws of course dont allow for such prudence, and I suppose you can understand that with the power of modern cars, but motoring was much more enjoyable then. I remember when the DS came out....

Unfortunatly we have gone from the sublime to the ridiculous, the way that natural resources are being wasted now is unsustainable, but I suppose those of us who keep the old cars running are helping a bit.

Peter.N.

I agree somewhat with Xmexc and the others, I do the routine stuff myself such as oil, filters, brakes etc but the big stuff I take to an indie. The money I save doing the basics can then be spent on the harder stuff. I budget about £1000 a year in total as due to the advancing age of the car there are various 'big' jobs which crop up. This compares favourably with running a new car and paying main dealer prices and inevitable depreciation. I think if I had the room I would keep at least 2 cars on the road as this would give me breathing space when the big jobs occur. I could wait for fine weather to do the repairs and shop around a bit for parts etc. I am very envious of John (Xmexc) in this respect having seen his setup and extensive collection.

At the end of the day though I don't run the car because of it's reliability, although that's been ok apart from one expensive episode with the fuel pump, I run it because of it's unique looks, comfort and oddity value, I love it.

John