Oli You are right about the service costs, but on any car of this age it's not the servicing costs that will come to get you, it's the refurbishment costs. I use that term not to indicate full restoration to being a zero-time concours machine, nor necessarily the repair costs of things that fail suddenly (like my starter this summer). I am using the word refurbishment, or rejuvenation, to mean the things that all the cars need because things wear and deteriorate over time: ever car has either had them or will need them. It's things like clutches, and dampers, and bushes, and sills, and arches, and de-cokes, and and having head gaskets and water pumps changed before they fail rather than after, and front seals done while you;re in there, and caliper plate lift fixed, and wheel refurbs, and getting the air con going, and so on. Even one with a full service history and modest mileage needs loads of that done when it's 20 years old, if it is to be as nice to drive, and as capable as it was when it was new. If you are lucky you can get one that's had all that done in the lats year or so (not mine though, I'm not selling it EVER) and then from that point, with the car rejuvenated, the actual servicing should indeed be pretty modest. Servicing does not in itself run the calendar back, though, and all the cars out there will need the calendar run back at some point if they are to survive long run. Of course it's possible to buy a decent car, run it for a couple of years and move it on, but unless you do at least some of the above while you have it, it will not be so good when you move it on, and it will be another step closer to the scrapper. Which would be a shame, really.
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