Re: Modern Cars.
Originally Posted by
Longdogs
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I spent many hours under my old cars when I was younger, have changed a gearbox a clutch and even fitted an engine without pulleys. These days I hardly lift the bonnet.
Manufacturers have purposely made it difficult for the DIYer to repair their own cars. I just happened to be looking at accessories for my car and an LED headlight can cost up to £700.
That's for one, not a pair.
The same with me, except for removing or refitting an engine, far too heavy for one person! Nowadays I just check fluid levels once a week, I don’t really have to do that as they have sensors, even low tyre pressures are notified to the driver.
While having the ACC sensor re-calibrated recently on my VW Golf I was speaking to the Service Manager about the extortionate cost of that sensor. Had it needed replacing it would have cost £1,400 rather than the £450 to re-calibrate. As it was it was an insurance claim (see link at end as this was posted on OFF).
He was commenting that a front-end crash, not a really serious one, could actually write-off an older ‘modern’ vehicle: two new headlights £1,000 each, ACC sensor £1,400, plus new bumper, two new wings, new grille and a new bonnet and maybe new airbags as they can deploy at just 16mph. All in addition to any damage behind the bumper/wings which when considering how tight everything is to the bodywork could easily be possible, everything is designed to crumple anyway. All the above plus main dealer labour costs at £100 an hour!
The ever-decreasing value of cars, especially diesels, is also an issue. My own car, an unmarked 2014 VW Golf Blue Motion TDi 1.6 with 18,000 miles on the clock cost new around £23,000, it is now worth between £9,000 and £10,000 trade-in (depreciation £50 per week!
). So it wouldn’t take much to write that off considering the cost of parts and labour.
https://www.over50sforum.com/showthr...t=60026&page=8
https://www.reference.com/vehicles/m...58473d71eaa229