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But you're trying to solve the problem of sometimes needing to spend £1500 on an old car by definitely losing >£1500 every single year on a newer car.
The resale value is a red herring.
grams-
I'm not too worried about resale. My example above was more a point to explain my desire to not flog a dead horse. I've only ever owned 2 cars. This C Max and the Panda. Both times I bought assuming I'd run them into the ground. The Panda hit that mark a lot sooner than I was expecting, and I'd be annoyed if the C Max does the same.
If the C Max was not contributing as much to local air pollution and didn't give me the back of my mind "something's going to break"*, I wouldn't be thinking about swapping. It drives great (for me) and has tons of space without being a bastard to park.
This is purely psychological based on the age of the car.
It probably also costs me about £1500 a year on fuel as it is a 2 litre, relatively heavy thing doing the usual young family type trips as mentioned above. The hybrid hire car I had recently was doing anywhere between 50-70mpg, so while it is not the deciding factor, that is going to play a part.
stevo_com
As said, something maybe downstream of the coolant leak or something structural. The Panda died due to suspension mounts. Availability of parts and cost vs value meant I scrapped it for £300. Granted the C Max holds a little more value than the Panda, but it potentially wouldn't take much to make it uneconomical to repair. Eg. if something cost £1.5k to fix, that's half the value of the car, which you would think would be worth doing, but it's not going to add £1.5k in value and something else could equally go bang once I fix the £1.5k problem.