Intro / Question / Thoughts

Introduce yourself and let us know a bit about you and your car

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YK58WJFstuart
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Dec 19, 2018 8:55 pm
Currently Drives:: 2008 Renault Megane Dynamique S 1.6

Intro / Question / Thoughts

Postby YK58WJFstuart » Wed Dec 19, 2018 9:32 pm

Hello, Megane 2's, I am a new member of this site, but have looked at it various times over the last five years, and have owned my car for that long.
The car is a Megane 2 1.6 Dynamique S 2008 that I got as a 1 previous company owner vehicle from The Car Giant (car supermarket).
The car had done about 82,000 miles when I got it and it is now on 120,500 or so.
As far as I am aware my car is the last Megane 2 hatchback sold by The Car Giant from their premises (excluding car auction centres).
I have owned car supermarket cars before and know that higher mileage examples need good servicing, so my car has basically been serviced to warranty standards, basically main dealer services and mot's. I like the car as it does the job and gets me to work.
The main dealer servicing was not cheap, but I would not call it over expensive either and that got me through the first five years with few problems.
Over the last few months, I had to get additional work done as the clutch was on the way out, it needed new tyres, a new belt and water pump, and a couple of mot advisories. I had this done by specialists not main dealers, again not cheap, but I went to specialists of their professions.
The car should be good for some time.

My question is this:
Buying and maintaining a car is not cheap, would Megane 2 owners of this site agree with me that to buy and maintain a car like mine/theirs, the cost would be about £1000 for 7,500 to 10,000 miles on average.
This example would be to have the vehicle maintained and serviced by main dealer / mechanics / engineers.
(and at intervals as and when indicated by the 'service due' message).
Any mechanical work done, plus servicing, plus tyres, plus anything else required to keep the vehicle operating correctly would be included in this figure. (obviously not petrol).

I know that you could buy a used example for not much and drive it until it is no more for less, buy my question relates to keeping a good example in good health.

YK58WJFstuart
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Dec 19, 2018 8:55 pm
Currently Drives:: 2008 Renault Megane Dynamique S 1.6

Re: Intro / Question / Thoughts

Postby YK58WJFstuart » Wed Dec 19, 2018 9:58 pm

I last made a post on this website after I had owned my car for five years, I will have owned it for eight years in about four months time.
It got through the first five years on routine services, MOT's and some tyres.
When I last posted, I had just had a new clutch, timing belt/water pump kit, track rods, and ball joints fitted. The total cost of this was £1150?
I drove the car for another year like that, but the mot and service showed it would need more work.
So, about two years ago, (from August 2021), I had new brake disks and pads all around, new springs all around, new wheel bearings front and rear, new front shock bearings, and new drive belt and tensioner. The parts mainly came from Amazon except the spring kit from Euro Car Parts, the total cost of this job was probably £1000 (including fitting, all at once (Formula 1 Autocentres)). There was probably at least 4 new tyres over the last two years.
Routine services and MOT at my local Renault dealer since, probably cost £200+ each time, so that's about 3 of them.

The cost of the first 5 years was probably £1000 in services and MOT's.
Maintenance (repairs) after 5 years £1150.
The cost of the last 3 years probably £600 in services and MOT's.
Maintenance (repairs) between 5 and 8 years £1000.
Total cost of Maintenance and Servicing/MOT's over 8 years £3750

The tyres on the car are still good, and since I got the car have used 10 Uniroyal Rainsports, at probably £60 each (£600).

The car is still good, and should get through it's next mot in a month or so.
When I first got the car it costed about £3700, so it's cost about the same in maintenance and servicing over 8 years plus tyres.
It get's through about £1000 in petrol a year, and that is minimal, meaning I use it as least as possible.
I have covered about 56,000 miles+ in this car, averaging about 43 miles per gallon.
The car is a 1.6 (2008 Dynamique S), so tax and insurance are reasonable. That's reasonable over 8 years, not five minutes, so I think the main advantage of good maintenance and servicing for car's like mine are that there are longer term savings to be made in other categories.

After the first 5 years, my aim was to replace wear and tear items using Amazon and similar parts, and have them fitted by specialists to the standard that the CarGiant originally prepared the car to when I got it. I think that I have achieved that.

So, my car has had full Renault service history from the day that I got it, it also has full maintenance history as well.

The above is just an example of wear and tear items needed on a good car aged between five and thirteen years.

YK58WJFstuart
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Dec 19, 2018 8:55 pm
Currently Drives:: 2008 Renault Megane Dynamique S 1.6

Re: Intro / Question / Thoughts

Postby YK58WJFstuart » Fri Nov 18, 2022 10:36 am

My last post was a month before an mot, it passed that with a service.
It got through the next mot in July 2022 needing a new cv boot, but it had other advisories.
Since the last post, it has done another 11,000 miles or so, the car is now on about 149,000 miles.
The last mot had advisories, such as noisy wheel bearings, worn bushes, worn clutch (which I replaced after 5 years).
When I did the overhaul after 5 years, I mainly used replacement parts, lucas clutch, sachs slave, lucas cambelt water pump kit, lucas tensioner, brembo disks/pads/bearings (rear), Borg Beck disks, brembo pads (front), apex lowering springs, febest shock bearings, TRW ball joints, klaxcar track rod ends, moog track rods. I got all the parts together from places like amazon, my front wheel bearings were probably on 120,000 miles, so the last item I added to the cart was two mapco wheel bearing kits for about £20 each, I though might as well include them in a big job. They have lasted about 29,000 miles, and although an advisory as noisy, have done the job. I don't think that they are high speed bearings, and suit the car at about 60 mph. I think that is the reason the car has lasted so well, because I don't drive it fast. Ideally I would have got better ones. (luxury genuine Renault items).

However, earlier this week (2nd week in november 2022), the front windscreen wipers stopped working, and the exhaust seems to be blowing a little (might not be the problem), and I will no longer be driving the car to work.

Including buying the car and maintaining/repairing it after 8 years the overall average was about £1000 a year.
I have not spent that much since, so saved some towards the end. (had to get 2 front tyres, plus the cv boot).
Used daily for just over nine years, reliable, no real problems, low insurance, low tax.

Maybe if I had used genuine Renault parts not replacement parts the car would have lasted longer, but it would have costed more, I sourced parts from amazon, euro car parts, etc.

I have not decided what to do with the car yet, could sell, repair, px, or scrap.
Email me if you are interested or want photos or want to know more.

Out.

YK58WJFstuart
:pc

bobbaldilocks
Posts: 14
Joined: Tue Nov 19, 2019 5:49 pm
Currently Drives:: Megane 2's and a Grand Espace and a 330d m sport Touring

Re: Intro / Question / Thoughts

Postby bobbaldilocks » Wed Apr 05, 2023 10:06 am

What a great detailed summary of your ownership over a significant period of time. Really enjoyed reading that because it demonstrates very well the benefits of preventative maintenance versus fix on fail.

Don't get me wrong I need to admit that I've always had both feet firmly in the latter camp, primarily because I've usually been fortunate enough to have a second vehicle to fall back on which enabled the fix to be done at leasure with research and buying the parts at the best price. Scoping out the scale of the job so if it was beyond my capability / tools etc then the labour cost wouldn't come as a surprise if the car needed to go into the garage for the work doing.

I now appreciate that not many folk are able to benefit from that safety net and a poorly running or not running car in many circumstances means unable to get to work to earn wages so to jump on and fix something that initially is a minor annoyance is probably best practice because the minor annoyance will rarely fix itself and will most likely degenerate into a failure, either on the road when you need the car the most or at presentation for the MOT.

I guess an obvious question in response to your post is....what on earth are you going to replace Megane 2 with?

Also (I didn't check .Gov, so this is an honest question), why don't you post some pictures up on the forum of Megane. With that level of provenance that you've built up it'll be a crackin' motor for a youngster to take on. That's certainly what I've found with my son and his mates.
Cheers

YK58WJFstuart
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Dec 19, 2018 8:55 pm
Currently Drives:: 2008 Renault Megane Dynamique S 1.6

Re: Intro / Question / Thoughts

Postby YK58WJFstuart » Thu Apr 06, 2023 9:20 am

8-) I have kept the Mégane (so far anyway), but took it off the road when I last posted a thread.
Will put it back on for early May.
I think the reason I have kept it for so long, is every time I was thinking of getting something else, something serious happened, or I ended up working less and depending on it more.
I fixed it up over months the year before coronavirus happened, so was lucky there as it had a load of work done, and didn't need much apart from MOTs and servicing. When lockdown ended I did experiment by buying a London taxi tx4 that was going to be scrapped, I did about a 1000 miles in it, then it had too many problems and had to be recycled. I didn't take the Mégane off the road for that though.
I will drive the Mégane from may, then see what it needs at the mot in August.
If I replace it, maybe a van, I was thinking part time camper when I got the taxi, my thinking now is London taxis are ideal for driving in cities (that want them).
Don't know yet, I doubt what I get will beat what the Mégane did, but it is not finished yet.
8-)

bobbaldilocks
Posts: 14
Joined: Tue Nov 19, 2019 5:49 pm
Currently Drives:: Megane 2's and a Grand Espace and a 330d m sport Touring

Re: Intro / Question / Thoughts

Postby bobbaldilocks » Thu Jun 01, 2023 8:45 am

Well, we've just moved into June. How are things? Has It been easy enough to recommission Megane and get back on the road? Whilst I guess they're not rare enough or unique enough to give a fellow owner on the road a wave yet, they do seem to be getting fewer in number.

YK58WJFstuart
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Dec 19, 2018 8:55 pm
Currently Drives:: 2008 Renault Megane Dynamique S 1.6

Re: Intro / Question / Thoughts

Postby YK58WJFstuart » Sat Jun 03, 2023 6:39 am

I chose to Mot and service it myself rather than pay loads to get it done for me. It costed me enough to get this far, it's value is not high, for that reason DIY mechanics is its best way forwards, unless something needing better than me arises. I will probably need another years driving out of it.


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