Beamer or Banger 12 December 2006 at 11:14AM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in Debt-Free Wannabe 93 replies 14.2K views

michael1983l

Now I have been the victim of wanting a flash car in the past so I thought it would be handy to pass on my experiance onto some of our younger members who may be on the same wavelength i was.

Pretty much my first car was a 1 year old Ford Focus bought from a dealership. I paid £9000 for it and was happy as can be at first. I was paying £194 a month for the privelidge of driving this car. Then add on the £120 a year tax disc. and £800 quid a year insurance, plus £40 a month on average in fuel.

Yearly total £3728

How much was the car worth 12 months later when I sold it £5500

leaving a total yearly loss of nearly £7000


Now this time round I have bought a 13 year old Mazda 323 for £350, £120 in tax, £400 insurance and £30 a month in fuel bringing my yearly total to £1230 saving me £5770 on last years total. And the car hasnt broken down onm me once yet.



Moral of the story, no matter how much it appeals to get a flash car, please dont if its going to stretch your funds to its limits. I learned the hard way so please take my advice so you dont have to.

BlondeHeadOn

Mazdas are great, I have had one for years and it just goes on and on... very good choice, and I agree totally with your thinking!

aurora_borealis_2

I have very flash cars, usually saabs ... secret is to buy them older.

At the moment we have a top, top, top of the range 95 Griffin. It has heated, ventilated, leather, electric seats, CD multichanger, trip computer and every toy you could think of.

£5000 - bargain

iolanthe07

I'm terrible with cars. Buy a new one every three years because I hate having to have an MOT. That's why I'm on this board!

Snaggles

I have a 12 year old Nissan Micra, which has yet again just sailed through it's MOT (Damn you car!! I was hoping for an excuse to buy a new one lol!).

I don't think I would ever buy a new car though, even if I could afford it - they just lose their value so quickly, but then I'm a typical girlie when it comes to cars - if it gets me from A to B, and is a pretty colour, I'm happy lol!

funky-footprints

we always tend to have new or newer cars, (dont keep them past 4/5 years? is that classed as new/newer?) but have never ever bought on finance, we change our car when we can afford to. Hence being on here too !!

My dh is pain as he has to drive high performance too, (currently driving as Audi S8) so we also fork out excess on his insurance !!!! I want to change mine in the next 12- 18 months, but it should be his turn first, thankfully he has lost so much on his, he has agreed to keep it until he hits about 150k on the mileage !! gawd it will be a right liability by then !!!!!

iolanthe07

My employer gives me an interest free loan otherwise I couldn't afford to buy new, but it still doesn't really make much sense. The initial depreciation is huge. I wish I could break myself of it.

TTMCMschine

I have a fully expensed company car. Costs a fortune in tax, but at least if it breaks down etc it just gets fixed & I don't have to worry about it.

TepidWater

Good thread. I've been through the "really stupid car purchase" phase. My personal stupidity highlight was the purchase of a 4LTR petrol Jeep. This entailed a £350pm loan, £94pm insurance, £100pa tax and . . . . wait for it . . . . approx. £450pm petrol! Doh!

Now driving a 3yr old small diesel. Saved up and paid off in full. Car tax at £50pa and insurance at less than £300pa.

The really, really stupid bit is that I bought the Jeep when I was in debt and was earning £30k less than I'm earning now.

"Experience wasted on the old"? - definitely.

immoral_angeluk

I had a 12 yr old corsa for 3 yrs. My mum bought it for me for £1000. together we spent about 3 times the purchase price of repairs to get it actually working. Value when I part ex'd it for our new car? £10 scrap value because the cambelt/camshaft were about to destroy the inner workings of the engine and would've cost around £500 to fix just to get it safe to drive. £300 a yr insurance third party f+t, £120 a yr tax had 100,000m on it.... grrrr
We now have a safe a reliable rover 25 (3 yrs old) and although we may be paying over the odds as it's on finance but it's only got 20,000m on it (Which is great for a 3 yr old car!) and yes I know rover have gone bust etc BUT we'll be saving a fortune by having a newer car that doesn't need any major repairs doing on a weekly basis... tax is £130 a yr, insurance for both me and my husband is £360 comprehensive.. so overall I'm much happier and feel safer (Especially with a toddler and a new baby due in a few weeks) having a newer car.

If you're going to buy and older car.. just because you don't get ripped off for repairs!

immoral_angeluk

funky-footprints wrote:

we always tend to have new or newer cars, (dont keep them past 4/5 years? is that classed as new/newer?) but have never ever bought on finance, we change our car when we can afford to. Hence being on here too !!

My dh is pain as he has to drive high performance too, (currently driving as Audi S8) so we also fork out excess on his insurance !!!! I want to change mine in the next 12- 18 months, but it should be his turn first, thankfully he has lost so much on his, he has agreed to keep it until he hits about 150k on the mileage !! gawd it will be a right liability by then !!!!!

Why does he have to drive high performance?