Early-retirement wannabe

Marine_life

aldershot wrote: »

My passat is 15 years old and I really should replace it but I don't know whether to spend £20k/£15k/£10k/£5k.

I would buy a smaller car and something newer (Golf?)

coyrls

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

First thing though is to buy him a car. First one since he was 18 as he has had company cars throughout his working career so he has to hand it back in 8 weeks time.

You should investigate if it's possible for him to buy his company car from the lease company. The advantage is that he will have had the car from new and so know its complete history. It's what I did, I was plesantly surprised by the cost, even though it included buying out the remaining contract.

jerrysimon

Managed to purchase a new Corsa two years ago on 4 years 0% with unlimited warranty. As we use our bikes most of the time in two years we have only put 10K miles on it i.e. 5K/year.

When you look at second hand unless you want to run a banger new is the only way to go with good deals. I would even coinsider a 3 year payment plan where you hand it back for new and are guaranteed fixed cost motoring. At least you know what your ongoing outlay is and its fixed. Though having said that I think this works out better for smaller cars.

My daughter just passed her test and pays £150/month for a new Vauxhall Viva over three years. When we worked out loans for s/h cars for her and risks of repair on a 4-5 year old car this was the best deal for trouble free three years motoring.

Jerry

edinburgher

You can save up for a car in advance of purchasing it, a lot easier with a cheap secondhand car!

mgdavid

aldershot wrote: »

That's harder than it looks. Most of us on this thread are savers by nature rather then spenders and trying to find the sweet spot of motor purchase, new (discount from list px of course), nearly new, 3 years old, 6 years old, old banger etc, is not easy.

My passat is 15 years old and I really should replace it but I don't know whether to spend £20k/£15k/£10k/£5k.

Yep BTDT.
I started from a basic premise that I would never buy a brand new car, and would never enter any sort of lease / contract hire / loan agreement. I needed a decent car that could tow a trailer & racecar and also carry tools, fuel and all the paraphernalia of motor racing.. I also detest 4x4s and MPVs and all the latest crossover nonsense. Remember that the motor industry is 99% marketing hype - I have the advantage that I've worked for a couple of major manufacturers.
Ended up spending sub-£10k on a Volvo estate, best long-distance load-lugging cruiser I've ever driven (think Scotland and back south on the same day) and has cost nothing other than tyres, annual service and MOT. It's now 9 years old and with a dateless plate is hard to tell from a new one. Planning to keep it another 3 to 4 years minimum.

atush

aldershot wrote: »

That's harder than it looks. Most of us on this thread are savers by nature rather then spenders and trying to find the sweet spot of motor purchase, new (discount from list px of course), nearly new, 3 years old, 6 years old, old banger etc, is not easy.

My passat is 15 years old and I really should replace it but I don't know whether to spend £20k/£15k/£10k/£5k.

This is EXACTLY the place we find ourselves with an 11 and 5 yr old car between us.

We have the cash, but are dithering between new nearly new and used, and which model, and where to buy (on island here is expensive, buy across and it costs 500+ to bring it over with ferry, new MOT and re-registering etc).

It keeps us dithering lol

atush

Marine_life wrote: »

Sounds like you have a good plan! Wish you lots of luck with it.

Our bonus system is a little more of a dark art - it's paid in arrears i.e. the bonus coming up is for the year to June - but they take a while to decide what the bonus number should be and (more importantly) how they should allocate it as not everyone gets the same amount (they allocate more to people who they want to keep). Usually the announcement comes around mid-end of October and once its announced there would be no going back. I have six months notice in my contract so I will also get a bonus for this year...but it's only this years figure I have in my budget so anything extra is cushion

This is the way the OH's is- and it gets paid later and you dont know til a little while before what it will be.

atush

Marine_life wrote: »

I would buy a smaller car and something newer (Golf?)

Yes, the OH is thinking of a golf to replace his A4

enthusiasticsaver

aldershot wrote: »

That's harder than it looks. Most of us on this thread are savers by nature rather then spenders and trying to find the sweet spot of motor purchase, new (discount from list px of course), nearly new, 3 years old, 6 years old, old banger etc, is not easy.

My passat is 15 years old and I really should replace it but I don't know whether to spend £20k/£15k/£10k/£5k.

Yes, I have stressed on him that after getting brand new cars every 4 years this is not going to happen now we are having to pay for it ourselves. Initially I suggested he use mine but as he is still active and has hobbies which would be difficult to do without a car and I am still working we have decided one car between us is impractical initially. We live in a rural area so public transport not brilliant. I have a 2 year old Renault captur which was bought with just 4000 miles on the clock. My OH likes Renault Scenics and has had 4 of them as company cars so our local garage is looking for a 1-2 year old car. We have budgeted £13-15k for it but he will then hold on to it for quite a few years.

enthusiasticsaver

coyrls wrote: »

You should investigate if it's possible for him to buy his company car from the lease company. The advantage is that he will have had the car from new and so know its complete history. It's what I did, I was plesantly surprised by the cost, even though it included buying out the remaining contract.

Yes he would have done that if he still had his old car. He is not keen on the car he has now- Nissan x trail so does not want to keep it in retirement. Shame really but in the past we have asked about buying them after the 4 years are up and the discounts have not been that good. We are going to ask anyway and wont buy a replacement until he is actually retired.