Every year since the original factory 4-year/48,000 mile warranty expired sometime in mid 2008 (hit the mileage before the years), the mini has averaged $1300 in unscheduled maintenance costs:
2009 - $1100
2010 - $1500
2011 - $1500
2012 - $1100
2013 - $1300
Also this year, I'm going to have to get new tires, which will cost around $700, but should last about 3 years. I also have to get my clutch replaced sooner or later, since it's still the factory original with 159,000 miles on it. That's going to cost damn near $2000, so I would definitely like to wait till 2014 to have that done. Hopefully it'll hold up till then.
Whenever anything bad happens to my car, I get mad but I'm always willing to pay to get it fixed. I mean, what else am I going to do? I've never really thought twice about it, but now that I can see it all written down like that, this is really fucking bullshit, like for reals.
I'm not sure what the breaking point for me will be. When I had the civic, it always had some kind of minor problem, but it was always fixable. I stopped fixing it when the cost of repair was more than the value of the car itself. When one of the four cylinders lost compression, that was it for me. That's a super major overhaul. And I was ok with it, because I had the M3 waiting for me.
With the M3, if it was up to me, I'd still be driving it today, even after the accident. I really, really, really wanted it to be fixed. But no, the insurance company decided the repairs would be greater than the value of the car, so they declared it totaled. But again, I was ok with it because I had the mini as a backup.
But now, with the mini, there are no backup cars. Well, there's the X5, but that's not really my car, but I can use is whenever as long as my dad doesn't need to drive it. And although the repairs to the mini are costly, they still don't exceed the value of the car. Yet. It's getting there.
The thought of getting rid of the mini has never crossed my mind. And it still hasn't. Now that I see a pattern with the maintenance and how much the yearly cost is, I can (and will) start to budget for it. Lately, I've been mostly good about cutting down on buying crap I don't need, getting my AmEx balance down, and saving money in general. I guess I'll just have to cut down some more. Though, the thought of getting a part-time job has crossed my mind. Not sure if it'll have to come to that, but we'll see.
