Morning All
After some advice/help.
Later this year my partner and I are going to the South of France for a 2-3 week holiday. This is something she has been doing with her family for a good number of years and she normally goes in her Dad's car with her mum and sister. Over the years she's had enough of the new car smell, petrol fumes, acceleration and smoothness of the particular automatic gearboxes in her dads various cars over the years. Personally I love all that BHP and new car smell. So for the last couple of years we have been flying and last year we hired a Renault Clio which seemed quite expense between 4 of us - nice car but not really my cup of tea. We will be taking in a few sites in germany before crossing over back in the south of France.
I've always been a fan of driving on the continent and have done it a few times from the UK over to Belgium and France in my 2006 Mondeo ST TDCi and another time in a friends brand new Saab 9-3 at the time.
Now the for the dilemma. I want to go in the TF! In principal all have agreed that we can drive there and for me it has to be the MG. Yes we could go in the Mondeo I still have but it wouldn't be the same or we could even go in my latest toy of the Mercedes C250 which would probably eat 20k miles and ask for more and still return 55MPG.
I've had the TF nearly 3 years, its a 2002 on about 64k - never really caused any major problems and is an reasonable state. Service history isn't great and it is severely over due a cambelt. 4 Years or 60k....try 14 years and 64k. I would of course get the cambelt done ASAP (with tensioner and water pump) and a major service. Oil, Brake Fluid, All Filters, Spark Plugs etc. Brakes are good as had new discs and pads fairly recently. Can't find in the history it has had a new belt. I feel like I'm familiar with the car as I have drained the coolant and refilled a number of times due to various leaking pipes, I've done the discs and pads, I even changed the alternator and belt in the work car park when the belt went.
I have been quoted upto £375 for the cambelt change with water pump, tensioner and new coolant. This includes parts and up to 5 hours labour. They're a reputable garage and local who I have used before and trust. They have said if it doesn't take this long they will charge the actual amount of time it takes but. Any one have any thoughts on this?
On paper and to the various motoring authorities it is sad to say the poor MG isn't worth a lot
perhaps £1,000 if lucky and allegedly a Cat D after a lady bumped the bumper and they didn't want to pay out to repair it. Not sure it is actually written off as no transfer of ownerships took place and I still have the original V5 just had to get it re-mot'd for insurance to be valid.
This throws up a few issues. I would take out European breakdown cover on whichever car I went in whether your talking 2002 or 2015. The way I see it a brand new car out of the factory has as much potential to suffer a problem as a looked after older car.
I would take a basic tool kit with me on the trip - self amalgamating silicone tape, vise grips, screwdrivers, sockets, jack, tyre foam and spare wheel, footpump, knife, spare coolant, spare oil, tool for circlips, possibly a selection of jubilee clips, spare radiator bleed screw.
If the car is only worth say £1,000 and it suffers a problem the breakdown cover may be able to repair it at the side of the road or at a local garage. The first problem is that if a repair comes in at say £800 at a local garage in France or Germany I'd seriously have to consider whether that is something I'd want to proceed with. Secondly if they can't fix the car and repatriation cost's say £1,200 they will only cover the repatriation up to the value of the vehicle.
So to go in the MG it would cost £500 up front to make it in my opinion reliable for the cambelt and decent service. If the MG became damaged abroad I may be a little annoyed but it wouldn't be the end of the world plus the MG is more for the adventure and experience I think. The Mondeo might require a bit of work and is just as likely to breakdown as any other car as it hasn't been driven much recently. And then there is the Mercedes which on the whole I think wouldn't cost a penny up front and would take the whole trip in it's stride - however if something went wrong with the Mercedes or it became damaged this would be a more of a major concern but at the same time there's £500 in the bank which hasn't been spent to fix things on the other cars.
Now that I've bored everyone I suppose these are the main points:
1. TF, Mondeo or Mercedes
2. The MG is worth the servicing right to keep it going a bit longer? It's quite low mileage and enjoyable.
3. What happens in the instance of a breakdown that cost s more than the car.
Any thoughts or experience much appreciated.