Strategy for cheap car buying

ciano125

The car allowance is supposed to take into consideration insurance, tax, tyres, servicing etc as well as the price of the vehicle don't forget.

Hintza

They are giving you a fair bit of money so that yoy can have a decent car. I'm surprised they aren't tighter on this.

petrolhead69

£300 a month isn`t all that much to be running a <6 year old <100k mile car tbh when you take into account tyres, servicing, tax, mot, business insurance etc. especially if you actually use the thing carrying heavy stuff or doing high mileages generally putting strain on the car.
£3600 a year total,say you spend £600 a year insurance, £400 in tyres, £180 in tax, £320 servicing/repairs provided nothing major goes wrong and thats being very conservative in the estimate, £50 mot, £100 in screenwash, car washes and other sundries and £2k in depreciation and the money is gone.
That`s all the money accounted for without anything unexpected, on a modern car some repairs can be extortionate, often a car with a dual mass wheel needs the flywheel changed at the same time as a clutch costing £1k+, a modern diesel pump or injector failure £1k+, timing belt and tensioner replacement £300.
unless your savvy and careful you could end up being better off just taking a company car.

Batchy

petrolhead69 wrote: »

£300 a month isn`t all that much to be running a <6 year old <100k mile car tbh when you take into account tyres, servicing, tax, mot, business insurance etc. £3600 a year total,say you spend £600 a year insurance, £400 in tyres, £180 in tax, £320 servicing/repairs provided nothing major goes wrong and thats being very conservative in the estimate, £50 mot, £100 in screenwash, car washes and other sundries and £2k in depreciation and the money is gone.
That`s all the money accounted for without anything unexpected, on a modern car some repairs can be extortionate, often a car with a dual mass wheel needs the flywheel changed at the same time as a clutch costing £1k+, a modern diesel pump or injector failure £1k+, timing belt and tensioner replacement £300.
unless your savvy and careful you could end up being better off just taking a company car.

I have a lease car ... only 232pm Type R GT road tax included... no MOT, includes recovery warranty... all i have to do is do the 20k, and give it back after 24 months.

No hassle, and if you can find a more reliable car than a civic.. please tell the motoring press.
Insurance is only 30 per month but paid lump sum, alls i need to do is fuel it...

THE 232 is less than the equivalent company car tax lol...
you do your maths and your makes ur choices...

pick something thats fun... :-)

AdrianHi

Break a cars costs down as an average monthly spend in a particular year of it's life, do it for each year of it's life and something interesting is revealed. Year 1 is horrendously expensive due to that intial depreciation hit (well we all knew that without looking) but the interesting thing is year 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 the car may get cheaper but it's not by much, sometimes a matter of a couple of hundred a year that could easily get swallowed up by a nasty out of warranty repair.
My suggestion would be to do the sums on a 6 to 12 month old car selling it on before it's warranty expires at 3 years. Year 4 the car still depreciates by nearly as much as year 2/3 but now you have MOT to pay for, no warranty, first brake lining replacements may become due etc. None of these things make the car uneconomic but they are all costs that add up that you don't get on a sub 3 year old car.
When you've done that excercise then look at at what a lease deal will cost you. Lease companies get such big discounts on certain cars (Vauxhall, Ford, Renault etc.) you can end up with a new car for the same average monthly cost as a much older one.
£300 a month will not cover total cost of ownership/use on anything other than a small car on a very low mileage.

I did this excercise for my sister on law who drives a 51 plate Skoda Fabia. Compared it with leasing a new Fabia of an equivalent grade to the one she has now on a 3 year 10,000 a year lease. The difference in average monthly cost between the two is about £10 a month / £100-120 a year.... the new lease car is cheaper!!!
Much lower tax disk, better on fuel, no repairs, extended warranty or breakdown cover to pay for made the difference.