• An unexpected bill of £772 ($998) is big enough to make motorists want to replace their car with another, hopefully more reliable one, a British study has found.
  • CarGurus research also found that a 10-day wait for repairs and three breakdowns in a year are enough for drivers to free up time for their car.
  • The research shows that almost 75 percent of drivers are stressed at the prospect of unexpected repairs.

Cars, like all machines, are subject to wear and tear. And while a diligent owner gets his car maintained If you want to regularly improve reliability and reduce the chance of being hit with an unexpected repair bill, those nasty surprises can still happen. But how much does an unexpected repair bill have to be before you consider switching cars?

For drivers in Britain, the turning point is £772 in a twelve-month period, which equates to $998 at current exchange rates. This is evident from a study commissioned by CarGurus, which collected the opinions of a thousand British drivers who do not have any form of warranty coverage for their car.

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You can see why someone who has an older car that isn’t worth much, and who is therefore probably not hugely wealthy themselves, might be shocked by a bill of that size. But it can easily happen, for example if you are unlucky during the Great Britain‘s annual MOT inspection, or if you need a new clutch and the associated dual-mass flywheel that modern cars require. And if a timing belt or chain breaks, £772 won’t make much of a dent in the bill.

But while the survey found that owners would draw the line at a surprise bill of £772, those same owners said they would then be willing to spend an average of £14,320 ($18,489) on a replacement. used car – and with no guarantee that it will be more reliable or immune to unexpected repair costs.

Would an unexpected $1,000 repair bill make you want to sell your car?


Other factors that can cause car owners to throw in the towel include waiting ten days for repairs or three or more breakdowns per year. And 72 percent of respondents said they were stressed at the prospect of unexpected repair costs.

How much surprising financial pain would make you think about trading in your current car for something else? Leave a comment below.