Repair Budgeting

[johnsmith]

I am a little OCD, and I keep a very strict monthly budget, with everything on a detailed spreadsheet.

I want to start putting a certain amount of money into a savings wallet each month, to cover annual maintenance and repairs for my 2005 CLK 200.

How much roughly should I budget annually for this?

My working estimate so far is £3000. That's based on reading various forums, and checking general prices in Mercedes indy specialists in my area (East London)

 

[Blobcat]

Hello and welcome,

Who doesn’t love a good spreadsheet…

How long have you had the car and what is it’s maintenance history like?

If you’ve had it awhile and it’s well maintained then I’d say less than “a bag ‘o sand” (£1,000) per year for maintenance

 

[Wighty]

I am a little OCD, and I keep a very strict monthly budget, with everything on a detailed spreadsheet.

I want to start putting a certain amount of money into a savings wallet each month, to cover annual maintenance and repairs for my 2005 CLK 200.

How much roughly should I budget annually for this?

My working estimate so far is £3000. That's based on reading various forums, and checking general prices in Mercedes indy specialists in my area (East London)

I take it that’s £3000 total ? Rather than 3k a year .

 

[LostKiwi]

Rather than £3000 per year (!) I'd put aside an amount to cover common failures (timing gears for example) and £1000 per annum for repairs and maintenance.

This is broken down assuming 10k miles per annum as 4 x tyres @£100 each plus servicing every 15k at £600 plus £400 for incidentals such as brakes.

Insurance is not included as aren't tax and MOT.

 

[DSK]

Just ditch the spreadsheet!

Its all dependent on mileage and the way it’s used which as real variables.

I would say each year as the bate minimum;

Full service
Consumables such as wipers
Puncture/tyre as sh!t can happen anytime
Contingency such as dead battery/set of brakes


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[Gazwould]

Best way forward is to seek help .

 

[Kev555]

Just put the 3K in the savings wallet as per original plan if you wont miss it, Doubt it will need that expenditure unless your a high miler but at least if you've monies left over at the end of the year you can roll it over into next year or drop the OCD for a week and go party mad

 

[Kev555]

Best way forward is to seek help .

Gaz might have known

 

[Wighty]

For 3k you could arrange a weekend in a hot tub with a couple of professionals and a sack of “charlie“ on the side …..apparently.

 

[Noddy 99]

Sold my Insignia for £11,500. Bought the 2009 Merc for £6,000, leaving me £5,500 for a 5-yr projected ownership. That was my "insurance" against the unexpected costs of buying an older "prestige" car. Consumables will come out of the normal household budget as they always have.

Six months on, the pot is down to £3,500 as I've spent a LOT of money on preventative maintenance and getting the car kitted and specced to my requirements.

I also have 2 warranties running concurrently - a basic one which was free with the car and an extra, big-ticket warranty for disasters.

Fingers crossed for the next 5 years...

 

[sonic]

Its almost impossible to guess how much a 17 year old car would cost to run, you could end up spending more on repairs than the car is worth.
Its generally accepted if the annual maintenance cost is more than the annual dipreciation, then its time to get rid of the car.
I have a almost 11 year old E350CDI which I have owned for 10 years. Its serviced by MB on a service contract the current one is £1200 for 3 years. Thats two B & one A service plus an auto gearbox oil change.
The only other costs have been tyres, front discs & pads, & a turbo sensor which cost £150.

 

[LostKiwi]

You can save a fortune by doing some work yourself.

For example...
Our old 2001 E240 estate cost £600 with 110k miles.
In the next 5 years it had
crank sensor - £50
radiator - £300 (used local garage due to time constraints)
A/C compressor - £300 (local garage as needed regas anyway)
front discs - £50 from Grangemouth.
pads X 4 sets - £200
Battery - £75 from Tayna
Rear suspension spheres - £80

So total over 5 years was just over £1000....
(Not including oil and filters or tyres).

Car was sold spares or repair at 167k miles for £600.

Contrast to the R Class:
Costs after 4 months are already at around £1700 not including tyres but does include £550 of audio upgrades). A decent chunk of that was the full service Star gave it but that was my choice to get the car to a known service point (service history was patchy for the last few years but good beforehand).

SL - after 4 years probably owes me £1000 (not including tyres) but has only done 15k miles.

R129 SL - after 5 years that owes £800 or so (done 15k miles) not including oil and filters and tyres but did 8ncludeca new window in the soft top.

Interesting little observation here - the older cars have cost less per year than the newer ones!

 

[Noddy 99]

Its generally accepted if the annual maintenance cost is more than the annual dipreciation, then its time to get rid of the car.

BUT... car-owning is not always about common-sense or balancing the books. If you love the car and can afford to maintain it, then why get rid of it solely because of "accepted wisdom"?

 

[mioba]

Welcome to the forum.
My tuppence, 3k is alot of money for maintenance pa. Biggest outlay I ever had on one of my cars was an ABS module on my W220.
Some things are predictable (service, brakes, tyres)...I would be inclined to 1/2 your estimate and what has not been spent be carried over each year then topped up with a further 1.5k - even thats generous.

Use the other 1.5k as Wighty mentioned on hookers and coke, he is budgeting 3k, his dealer is s robbing bar steward (for once not a MB dealer). ohhh and dont keep such entries on your spreadsheet - wouldn't want your better half to know

 

[SmartAmg]

Welcome.

 

[V6Matty]

Personally I stick £200 per month into a savings account for the car’s maintenance, it slowly increases and if I don’t spend it well that just goes towards the next car some point in the future

 

[Tony Dyson]

I like to live dangerously and don't budget for anything in particular any more, I've had far too many surprise expenses over the Years that usually manage to blow any spreadsheets clean out of the water, I live within my means and have a back up contingency plan for the next one, life's too short.

 

[malcolm E53 AMG]

Everything is relative ie, dependent on how many miles you do per annum and what mileage the car has now on the odometer. If the car is a well cared low mileage example and the service history is up to date and you intend putting say 3000 miles per year on it the costs will be quite low maintenance wise providing you find a good garage who are prepared to not over service a car and that is the real problem a lot of car owners face nowadays.
I have two cars and they both have different servicing regimes. Mercedes stipulate an annual service so a major B service comes around biannually which at my mileage of <3k miles a year is ridiculous so I go for a service regime of AAAB with this car. The BMW on the other hand is biannual servicing which suits me well at <3k miles a year but when the car visits a BMW franchise they insist on doing a major service including all filters and spark plugs at 4 years which again is overkill and mainly lines their pockets which I of course resist
So in conclusion pair the servicing requirements to the mileage the car does it will have the mandatory MoT which I class as a good health check but the bottom line especially if you don’t understand the mechanics of cars is to find a good independent to help you look after the car who isn’t purely in it for profit

 

[sonic]

You can save a fortune by doing some work yourself.

For example...
Our old 2001 E240 estate cost £600 with 110k miles.
In the next 5 years it had
crank sensor - £50
radiator - £300 (used local garage due to time constraints)
A/C compressor - £300 (local garage as needed regas anyway)
front discs - £50 from Grangemouth.
pads X 4 sets - £200
Battery - £75 from Tayna
Rear suspension spheres - £80

So total over 5 years was just over £1000....
(Not including oil and filters or tyres).

Car was sold spares or repair at 167k miles for £600.

Contrast to the R Class:
Costs after 4 months are already at around £1700 not including tyres but does include £550 of audio upgrades). A decent chunk of that was the full service Star gave it but that was my choice to get the car to a known service point (service history was patchy for the last few years but good beforehand).

SL - after 4 years probably owes me £1000 (not including tyres) but has only done 15k miles.

R129 SL - after 5 years that owes £800 or so (done 15k miles) not including oil and filters and tyres but did 8ncludeca new window in the soft top.

Interesting little observation here - the older cars have cost less per year than the newer ones!

You are right big savings if you can do some of the work yourself, plus very low depreciation on older cars.

 

[sonic]

Everything is relative ie, dependent on how many miles you do per annum and what mileage the car has now on the odometer. If the car is a well cared low mileage example and the service history is up to date and you intend putting say 3000 miles per year on it the costs will be quite low maintenance wise providing you find a good garage who are prepared to not over service a car and that is the real problem a lot of car owners face nowadays.
I have two cars and they both have different servicing regimes. Mercedes stipulate an annual service so a major B service comes around biannually which at my mileage of <3k miles a year is ridiculous so I go for a service regime of AAAB with this car. The BMW on the other hand is biannual servicing which suits me well at <3k miles a year but when the car visits a BMW franchise they insist on doing a major service including all filters and spark plugs at 4 years which again is overkill and mainly lines their pockets which I of course resist
So in conclusion pair the servicing requirements to the mileage the car does it will have the mandatory MoT which I class as a good health check but the bottom line especially if you don’t understand the mechanics of cars is to find a good independent to help you look after the car who isn’t purely in it for profit

I am in the same position as you being retired with 2 cars & a bike all doing low millage. Its not so long ago MB servicing was every 17K miles.
Once my service contract runs out I shall look very seriously at your AAAB service intervals.