In article , Tim Lamb
writes
In message , The Natural Philosopher
writes
On 27/02/2020 18:36, Andrew wrote:
On 27/02/2020 01:02, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 26/02/2020 18:25, Andrew wrote:
There was a time when snapped V-belts were a common sight on the
roadside, but now you never see them, and I never see the flat
multi-grooved ones either (*). Instead I see many half-moon
bits of broken coil springs on the side of the road.

Mostly people are not running cars to as low a state as they used to.

The modern trend is to pay to have a decent car on tick of some
sort, and dump it when it gets to 70k miles or so.

Modern belts will do 100K + and are inspected as part of maintenance.

There is little point in owning a car worth under £500 these days
when tax MOT and insurance will be more than that...unless you are
driving without any of the above.



I got £150 trade in for my 1998 Astra F 1.6 petrol estate with 75K
miles and full service history. Needed a cambelt when I sold it.
GOV.UK shows it has passed its MOT twice since then and doing about
10K per year.

That would have traded out at about £2 with a new cambelt and dealers
guarantee.

Dealer charge for a cam belt/water pump job on a Ford Fiesta is around
£800! Anyone care to buy a low mileage 10 year old Zetec?



Just been quoted £475 +vat for cam belt change on VW Transporter by
dealer. About to start shopping around independents.
--
bert