Repair or Trade-In? Discuss.

DPinBucks

My daughter has a nice 09-Reg Corsa diesel, which she loves.  It has very low mileage (51,000) and goes perfectly.  She's had it about 3 years, and shows no sign of mechanical or bodywork problems, EXCEPT:

The other day I stupidly scraped it against a low wall and damaged both offside doors quite extensively.     She's been surprisingly good about it, but of course I have to have it fixed. For a variety of reasons we don't want to go down the insurance route if we can possibly help it, so can we leave that out of the discussion, please?

I've had one quotation, from a quality chain of bodyshops, for £2,500 (they say it needs new doors).  I've still to get one from our local place, which we've used before, and which I think will probably be cheaper.  But with the best will in the world, it looks as though I'd be looking at £1,000  even if they can beat out the doors rather than replace them.

The car would be worth about £2,000 trade-in in good nick; possibly £1,000 as is.  A replacement, Corsa or Fiesta say, would be about £8,000.  She cannot afford more than about £2,000 herself to put towards that.

Do I take the £2,000 hit for repairs on a car which is only worth that, bearing in mind that even though it's good for quite a few years yet and she loves it, it's getting older all the time?  Or is it best to trade it in for what we can get, and I pay up the £6k or so which would be needed?

Either way I'm going to feel guilty.  

un1eash

Never spend more money then the car is worth on a repair. If you really wanted to repair it I'd be looking at the local breakers yard and pick up 2 used doors, they go for £40-60.
£2.5k quote is trying it on, even if you bought 2 used doors and had them sprayed it wouldn't even cost £1000.

car-man

Yes, get 2 doors from a breaker!
I'm certain you could pick up 2 doors in the correct colour quite easily...you could fit them yourself in no time at all!

AMc

I'd second the above - I got quotes for a new bonnet for our mini from partsgateway before I decided it was too much trouble and we went through insurance.

Partsgateway basically take your requirement and then breakers make offers of the parts they have available for you to choose from.  It's probably more expensive than going direct but the running around is done for you.

Assuming you can get a colour match then even if you pay someone to fit them it should be cheaper.

pops107

Would agree with getting 2 doors from the breakers they should be easy to find and in the same colour, get your paint code for your car and get searching on eBay quite easy to find

Rob8980

Is your daughter happy to drive around with damaged doors and just offer her £1k towards a new car when the time comes?

DPinBucks

That's exactly what we've done, in fact.  We got a decent trade-in offer in its current condition against a nearly-new Corsa.  It also saves her an MoT and service next week.

I've paid her the cost of the damage; she'll make a contribution, and then I've made up the difference.  And it turns out the insurance is £100 cheaper, too.  So it's not ended too badly.  We don't mind giving money to the kids if they need it.  It comes out of their inheritance anyway.

So everybody's happy, apart from being a bit prematurely out of pocket.  Even in very good nick, which the car was, an '09-plater would soon start making demands.  Plus, it was an old diesel, and the new one is petrol.