Best value car in the long term? New or Used?

ronnyb_2

Spending £2k on a secondhand car is a mistake. You can buy as much trouble as a £300 - £400 car. Either get a new one or nearly new with warranty or a banger with long MOT. At least if it blows up you've not lost a lot.

ArsenalFC

ronnyb wrote:

Spending £2k on a secondhand car is a mistake. You can buy as much trouble as a £300 - £400 car. Either get a new one or nearly new with warranty or a banger with long MOT. At least if it blows up you've not lost a lot.

I do not agreed with you on this. I have been driving for 10 years and never had a new or nearly new car because of cash.

Excluding oil&filter, spark plugs & tyres change:

First had a pug 205 for 3 years, 1 starter motor change (8 yr old at time) Cost £1000.

Toyota corolla for 5 years, 1 radiator change (8 yrs old). £1800

Current bmw 318is coupe for 1 year (10 yrs old) no additional major cost. £2500. Got it for £2050 + installing an remote alarm system.

I didn't have my own car for one year while I was studying.

My next car will be due this summer, 2001-2002 Ford Focus.
It will depend on everyone's budget, ideally we all want a new or nearly new car but usually cannot afford it.

Japanese is best for old small car.

rdwarr

ronnyb wrote:

Spending £2k on a secondhand car is a mistake. You can buy as much trouble as a £300 - £400 car. Either get a new one or nearly new with warranty or a banger with long MOT. At least if it blows up you've not lost a lot.

My last secondhand car cost £16,000! I've had it six years now (it's nearly ten years old) and covered 65,000 miles. In that time the only problem has been a radiator leak so I'm quite happy.
To have bought it new would have cost £37,000. Well out of my league and £21,000 depreciation in 3.5 years would have been the real killer :eek:
The warranty I bought did say that the radiator was covered but the small print excluded components coming into contact with water :mad:

jjames_3

Can't say I agree with the "£2k is a mistake" comment either. You run the risk of getting a dog no matter how much you spend on a car, that's why you should be careful when buying.

We bought a Nissan Sunny for a little under £2000 about 4 years ago, and still have it. Not a single thing has gone wrong on the car, I can honestly say it's the most reliable car we've ever owned. Yeah it has a couple of rust spots here and there now, but nothing major and (touch wood) I can see it soldiering on for another 4 years quite happily.

burbs_2

ronnyb wrote:

Spending £2k on a secondhand car is a mistake. You can buy as much trouble as a £300 - £400 car. Either get a new one or nearly new with warranty or a banger with long MOT. At least if it blows up you've not lost a lot.

Hopefully you wont take this useless information on board.

Flashfly

Thanks for the all the info so far.

I went to the dealer next door today and his face seemed to light up when I explained I'd be happy to take one of their part-ex cars off them. I left them a list of my specifications and my phone number.

Lets hope they call.

burbs_2

Flashfly wrote:

Thanks for the all the info so far.

I went to the dealer next door today and his face seemed to light up when I explained I'd be happy to take one of their part-ex cars off them. I left them a list of my specifications and my phone number.

Lets hope they call.

As i said Part-Ex take up room on forecourts. They also cost money to send to auction, a nightmare in all honesty.

The only problem you may have is waiting for them to find you one, if there are more dealers around then pop round there as well. Check the usual places as well, Trader etc.

tomstickland

Spending £2k on a secondhand car is a mistake. You can buy as much trouble as a £300 - £400 car. Either get a new one or nearly new with warranty or a banger with long MOT. At least if it blows up you've not lost a lot.

I've managed 10 years and around 250,000 miles in 3 cars that each cost no more than £1,200. My mother has just bought a totally sound, near spotless 6 year old Micra for £1,700.

Cars are so good that there are very few bangers nowadays.

Bearing in mind that you'd expect a brand new car to last 10 years without serious trouble, but a 2 year old car is about half the price of a new one, then buying a used one makes a lot of financial sense.

A £5K new Ka is not good value really when you can buy a huge range of good (and "better") cars for £2-3K.