Is it worth a change of car?

alipops1986

Hey Folks,

I currently have a 55 plate Kia Picanto, with approx 43k miles on the clock. I've owned it since it was 6mnths old. There isn't exactly anything wrong with it, just contemplating a change before it loses too much money, that i can't afford another car.

Recently, i've seen a silver vw fox with less than 12k miles on the clock, 56 plate and looks practically brand new. It's for sale at approx £4600 ish i believe.

So, is it worth trading the kia in for the fox?? I'm anticipating my Kia would be worth £2000-£2400. I have seen the exact copy of my kia including miles for sale at £3995.

Your thoughts please!

Alipops x

AdrianHi

Your Kia is loosing money slower than anything newer or more expensive, it's already taken the biggest hit before you took ownership of it.
That VW is no longer under warranty or about to come out of it. If you do change car do it for one under warranty so you have the reassurance of no big repair bills.

If you cannot afford the continueing depreciation expenses of your current car getting a newer one will only make your siutation worse or no better.

Shimrod

You don't say how you would pay the difference for the new car. If it would be a loan, take the money you would otherwise be paying for the loan every month and stick it in a savings account. If you have a bit of spare cash then add that in for depreciation.
If you don't need to change cars I wouldn't - on a practical level you're turning a car that would cost you £3995 to buy into at best £2400 so that's a notional £1600 cost, and a car that has only done 12,000 miles in 4 years has the potential to have a lot more go wrong as you start putting the miles on it.

jollyme

There are several things that I would consider when coming to a decision about replacing a car:
How reliable is the car? How reliable do you need it to be?
How much are repair bills costing you each year?
Do you like your current car?
Do you want more from a car than you are currently getting - in terms of space performance etc?
Can you afford a different car?
How long would you expect to keep any replacement car? And how much might it be worth at the end of that?
Can you afford not to replace the car?

After thinking deeply about the answers to this questions I am sure that you will be well on the way to answering your question