Which Engine (kinda new car thread but not :P )

[Niall]

Tom I know this argument is never going to go anywhere but I'm Still going to say my bit.

Newer cars ARE NOT more reliable. I know you have an issue where you need something you
Can have faith in and that's fair enough but how many HDis do you see on here that have had to go on the back of a recovery lorry? How many break down? Barely any because its a solid reliable engine. Fair enough people like Jonny are having issues but that's because of chronic boost. Obviously the more power you try and get out of a engine, the less reliable it can become.

Newer cars break down just as much. Problem is though we are moving away from the times of being able to fix your own car. Take dum dums coupe for example. It's got a dpf fault and needs that liquid topping up (I can't remember the name of it now). That's a dealer job as most of the process needs to be done on PP.
say for example the CD player packs in on the mondeo you buy (likely. There crap). You can't just go and buy a new one and fit it. You have to have the old one unpaired and new one paired before it will work which again, is done with dealer software.
I was comfortable owning my 6 because I knew that even if the head gasket went or the belt snapped, yes it would be an inconvenience but I could have it fixed in a weekend for not a lot of money. Other thing is, have you seen the price of a belt renewal on a mondeo? Some of the newer ones don't use chains. They use a oil bath belt. Your looking at the best part of 800 from a dealer to do the job.
Remember Tom. It's ok you being given the money to buy a newer car but considering how much money you don't have, what are you going to do when it breaks down or something goes wrong?
If my Kia broke down outside of warranty, I'd be looking at £80 a hour labour. That's considered cheap for dealer work. The garage my old man used to work at charged £125 a hour and that was back in 2007!