Trade in or keep

M

mic_y

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Hi guys,

Firstly a quick outline of the situation I am in:
In 2011 I bought a 1 (and a bit) year old Mini Cooper S and have loved and looked after it since. I extended the motorplan to 85000km and when the car hit 84000km my check engine light came on. I took it to Northcliff, where my entire engine, flywheel, clutch and a couple of other bits and bobs were replaced under motorplan, at an invoice total of R128k 0_o

The question that I have now is whether I should just trade the car in for something else (Probably looking in the max R200k region) or keep it for a while since I have a new engine and so much work has been done on the car already.

Will I be hit with a much lower trade-in price now that the car has a new engine? The reason the engine was replaced was the cam bearings seizing due to incorrect tension on the timing chain (this is a well known design fault of the N14 engine, that BMW replaced mid-way through the lifecycle of the R56 Mini).

Cheers,
Michael
 
Question is why do you want a new car?

If it's not because you have a baby on the way or something I say keep it and invest the cash you would have spent on car payments.
 
If you don't NEED the newer car, then keep what you currently have.

A few of my friends are getting newer cars atm, and I have the itch to get something nice.. but everytime I start looking I just keep reminding myself that I don't NEED the new car, and the itch goes away.
 
Chevron said:
Question is why do you want a new car?

If it's not because you have a baby on the way or something I say keep it and invest the cash you would have spent on car payments.
Click to expand...

Well I was going to flog the Mini in any case, as the motorplan was coming to an end and it did not make financial sense to renew it. The itch is just getting so strong and it wont go away :P No baby on the way (at least that I know of). I did want to get something bigger and more off-road capable, but this is purely desire. No real need for it.

The fact that I have a brand new engine (still same model though, and will probably be prone to the same issues) I should be able to get a few good years out of it, I am now in two minds about whether to keep it or not. The car drives fantastically, and the new engine runs smooth as butter.

I am worried though, with the car going out of Motorplan, if something major goes wrong (all the new parts do have a 2 year warranty), but I still have the turbo to worry about. The invoice total for engine replacement really scared the pants off me...
 
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bloody hell. 1000km away from a 128k bill. I would faint at the sight of that quote.
 
If you do trade it in, what will you get? There are not a lot of cars that are aimed at female drivers.
 
ToxicBunny said:
A few of my friends are getting newer cars atm, and I have the itch to get something nice.. but everytime I start looking I just keep reminding myself that I don't NEED the new car, and the itch goes away.
Click to expand...

I just look at my monthly repayments and I have all the motivation in the world to never purchase another new vehicle again.
I could have purchased another property ...

Or I just look at all the specials and read the fine print.
Like paying R2500 to R4000 for a "basic" vehicle (R200K to R300K) and still having a 35% residual after 60 months. :wtf:
 
Rouxenator said:
If you do trade it in, what will you get? There are not a lot of cars that are aimed at female drivers.
Click to expand...

hahahaha, well, guess I am not too worried who it is aimed at, being a guy and all :P

But yeah, I am starting to like the idea of getting the girliest car possible: a corsa ;) *just pulling your leg Roux*

But on the topic of what to get, I really WANT a Forester XT...
 
Id recommend the 1.4 Corsa Essentia D. No one will steal it, as no one wants it.

You might be lucky and get a year or two's usage out of it before things start to go wrong.
 
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