Fastest car for under £2000 challenge...

[Kezzieboy]

Its labour that costs the money though, I bet the turbo was only half that amount - and probably new rather than used.  Reckon you could do it yourself with used/recon for a third of that.

Don't compare the potential fails with a slow, old tech, diesel 306 though...  If you want something faster/newer/premium branded you have to accept the risk that it will have more potential faults.

It definitely wasn't a new turbo, and £500 for a turbo is still pretty bonkers, especially on a 10 year old car!  And yeah, but it's about risk management, isn't it. I probably shouldn't buy a car that'll bankrupt me if it fails, hence not spending £2000 on a very new, but lower spec car, because parts will be more expensive.

Tbh i don't really look at the potential of parts needing replacement (unless a particular brand has a really bad rep) as ALL mechanical parts WILL fail at some point. Like Tom says, chances are a lot was labour.
When buying new cars, you have to take it into account because second hand or refurbished parts may not be available but the sort of age cars you're looking at, you could repair pretty much anything providing you do it your self.

And yeah, but you'd hope a turbo, or something similarly substantial will either (a) last more than 10 years and 120k miles or (b) not cost the earth to get a replacement.

Labour around here is usually £30 per hour max, I'm pretty sure most was parts cost. And agree about replacement parts, as I said to Tom's point, that's why I wouldn't buy something less than 5 years old in my current circumstances, and why I was shocked at how expensive the repairs for my dad's car were.

And yup, I've got quite a lot of tools, and a few places I can work on it so it's keeping control of parts costs that is the issue really! For example, the saab uses pretty common turbos from other marques from what I've read.