My 2006 A3 has failed its MOT and its crunch time. 
It has always been a brilliant car and with 260,000 miles on the clock it doesn’t owe me anything - so I would like some help with this. 
It’s failed on the antiskid light being on the dashboard and a replacement sensor on the ABS pump hasn’t fixed this.  Now the pump needs to be removed and sent off for repair at a cost of £600ish

It also needs a new wheel bearing, a new left front wing and some suspension bushes and two brake discs. 
 

I don’t have an exact quote for this but you can see where I’m starting to think about whether it’s worth continuing to spend so much money on a car that is worthless to anyone but me. 
 

The only actual MOT fail points are the wheel bearing and the anti skid light so it’s about £1200 of work to pass - the rest are advisories. 
 

Does anyone have any thoughts on this - would you keep it going (because it’s brilliant and I love it and it’s really just wear and tear apart from the ABS pump) or would you cut your losses, be grateful for all the loyal service and allow it to die with dignity?

Yes I know it’s just a car but it’s carried me safely to and from my job at stupid times in the morning and I just don’t know if it’s best to cut my losses or keep it going. 
All (polite) thoughts on this welcome 

Thank you 🙏 

Thank you Jason - yes, that is exactly why I am asking the question - and no, although I would love to do the maintenance myself, I don’t know how 

I have had the car for 14 years and bought it with 80,000 miles on it so I know it well and I had it serviced and maintained at Audi until 6 years ago when I moved home to the north of Scotland - all the miles are “motorway miles” from years of long distance commuting and the first time it failed it’s MOT was in 2019 - on a tyre. 
It’s MOT and service history has been really good and looking back through it, the suspension has been an advisory since 2019 with the words “worn but not excessive play”

The other reason I have asked the question is because of the size of the car. It is really practical because I can put the dogs in it and fit the whole family in if I need to. 
That is the other part of the dilemma - but of course, you are right. It has been beyond economic repair for several years - I have always worked on the basis that I know it’s a good car, this is the first time it has needed anything other than wear and tear items and a newer car would cost me more to buy, and I wouldn’t know it. 
 

Thank you for your reply - it is really helpful to get the thoughts of someone else who isn’t (ridiculously) emotionally attached to the car 😊

Emma.

I would largely agree with Jason that repair costs are going to increase as the car ages and wear accrues. So from a maintenance perspective it would make sense to get rid of it, but that takes no account of sentiment.

On the other hand what are you going to replace it with? An expensive newer car will likely have fewer faults and lower maintenance costs, but a cheap old banger will be worse than your existing car. As the old adage goes "sometimes better the devil you know".

It comes down to what you can afford to invest against the cost of keeping the A4.

Well that’s the trickier bit. 
We currently have two other cars and were planning to get rid of one this year anyway. I just didn’t think it would be this one. The other two are LR Discovery (2006 also high mileage brilliant car never goes wrong - absolutely 100% will now I’ve said this) and Audi TT (2003 high mileage good condition but doesn’t fit the dogs in!) 

So I don’t HAVE to replace it. I just would have preferred it if the TT had fallen over because I’m not as attached to that. 
That’s my problem. 🤯

If transporting the dogs is so important to you the logical thing to do is get rid of the TT and keep the A3.