Tomorrow Mrs SDA's venerable (54 reg.) Yaris Verso goes in for its MoT.

Apparently it's valued at about £2,000 which isn't bad for a 10 year old car.

Anyway last year there were a number of advisories, which if we'd had them done would have cost about £800.

I'm thinking that a year on we could have to have them all fixed before it will pass.

So, is it worth spending nearly £1,000 on a car that's only worth £2,000?

This is the real question isn't it. My 13 year old Multipla goes for it's MOT on Tuesday only a few days before we depart for the continent. The car is booked on the ferry so it has to go. When we were looking at new cars a couple of months ago we were offered £450 in part ex. How much is too much to spend on an old car, I guess it depends on how much the car is worth to you not what it is actually worth. My intention if the car co-operates is to run it until it falls to pieces, I would love it to make 15 years. Fingers crossed for Tuesday.

depends on what the advisories are / were

Many years ago an old car salesman told me that to get your monies worth out of a car you should change it every 2 years or run it into the ground as Julie intends going.

We do about 7000 miles a year in the Verso.
Advisories were two rubber suspension bushes, a steering joint and fuel filler pipe rusting.

I would either change a car pre ,1st MOT or keep it maintained and keep it till it drops

Looking back over the bills for the Verso the average cost of servicing/repairs has been just over £400 a year.

Taking the initial price of £8,995 and a nominal RV of £2,000 it has cost us £10,500 over nearly 9 years (not counting VED, insurance or fuel)

The scores are in.
MoT failed
Rear exhaust box leaking (£160), o/s/f coil spring broken (£150), but recommend n/s done as well because otherwise one will be taught and the older one slack (£300).
So with service and MoT costs it's about £700 (gulp).
No mention of the advisories from last year.

sil had a spring go within 3 minutes the other one went while stood, waiting for rescue, what is the shocks (shock absorbers) like may be advantageous to change them on front too..
rather lucky spring not gone through tyre
definitely change steering joint, if the boot splits or is split, it allows water in wears the joint, eventually over a number of miles, will pop out, best not to find out the rest of the story.

Well the Multipla went for it's MOT and to my complete surprise it passed. £35 job done. Advisory on the front brake hoses but the mechanic checked them out and said they weren't a problem. So it's all systems go! Wahey!.

Well done Multipla.
As part of the fallout from the Verso MoT saga I popped Mrs SDA into the local Hyundai dealers today to give her a look at an ix20.
I should've known better.
'It's OK' and 'Any colour as long as it's not white' is about all I got. Oh that and 'Can I get a dog crate in the boot and the grandson on the rear seats?' Answer 'No, but you can't do that in the Verso now and you're talking about a very big car if you want to do that and you hate driving big cars'. Response 'Oh, in that case why bother changing?'
Sometimes I realise I married a musical maestro without any interest in or understanding of motoring whatsoever

Yes Roger, I suppose the credit should go to Neil. He serviced it himself on the drive a couple of months back but I had to nag like h*ll to get the tyres changed. I wouldn't mind but he had the tyres ready in the shed, they just needed fitting but he was trying to get the most out of the ones that were on the car. So it's official, barring disasters that's no need for a new car for another year.

I do understand where Mrs SDA is coming from. Whilst looking at new cars my two biggest questions were "Can I get 3 grandchildren on the back seat?" and "Can I get my mother's wheelchair in the boot?". I left Neil to worry about BHP and MPG, oh and DPFs and DMFs etc. I'm not too bothered about colour as long as it's not bright orange or bright green as my Mum wouldn't get in either without giving me a lot of grief. Anyway hopefully shan't have to worry about it for a while.