[bluescrn]

Many people drive older cars worth less than £4000.

Sticking to old/cheap cars seems like an increasingly good option with so many scare stories about the pain and extreme expense of getting modern cars, particularly EVs, repaired.

And the impending ban on new ICE vehicles seems likely to lead to more older cars being kept on the road for a lot longer.

[jacquesm]

My current car is my last. It's a 1997 and it runs pretty much as good as new and I expect the thing to outlive me.

[jandrese]

Depends on the parts situation. As someone who works on my own cars I've become increasingly distressed at the car parts industry. Even OEM parts, when they are still available, seem to have had a dramatic decrease in quality over the past couple of decades. This is even assuming the correct part is shipped in the first place, which is another problem that has become entirely too common, especially in an age where everything is computerized. So many times you get a box with the correct part number on the outside but the wrong part inside.

If you have the parts and the will it's possible to keep any car running close to forever. That said if you've gotten to the point where the frame is totally rusted out then maybe it's time to consider moving on.

[jacquesm]

Plastics. Those are the hard to source bits. Plastic doesn't stay plastic for ever and NOS can be dried out just as much as the bits that are in the car.

Most other things are easy to source, and anything made of steel can be fixed (zero rust, so far).

[jandrese]

1997 car with no rust? I'm guessing you don't live in an area that knows snow.

[jacquesm]

NL, not a lot of snow but they do put salt on the roads here and it hasn't affected the body at all as far as I can see. My son drives a similar vintage E320 station and it too is still mostly rust free, the only part that seems to suffer on his car is the rear hatch.

[torginus]

Yeah - a car hits a similar valuation around ~15 years of age, meaning a failure of this component limits the financially viable lifespan of a car to this amount - mechanics do engine rebuilds for less money.

[fnord77]

ICE bans are going to cause the value of old cars to skyrocket