Advice on cheaper alternative to our 2009 Focus

lobsta100

Hi all

New to this particular board.

As part of our debt-free journey we are looking to save some money by switching one of our cars.

It is a 2009 (59) Ford Focus Zetec 1.6 Automatic with only around 20-25,000 miles on clock.

We have around £2,000 of finance o/s with Ford credit so the idea was to sell it for the most possible and, after paying off loan, use proceeds to buy outright a cheaper alternative.

I have been looking around at how much we could get for the Ford and I have come up with prices ranging from £5,500 to £7,000 for similar models and mileage.

Could anyone suggest my best place to sell the car to get most money back?

This leaves £4-5k to spend on a used alternative. We want something of similar size that has a big boot, can fit 2 carseats for kids in the back and carry buggies/ pram and shopping.

I would want something ideally no older than 2007 and not too crazy mileage. More important than the mileage is not having likelihood of something major going wrong.

My initial thought was a used Skoda Octavia, possibly diesel. I have had a brief search and seen some from 2007 or 2008 with mileage under 100k for under £5,000.

Any advice on the Octavia as an option or other suggestions would be great!

Thanks in advance

P.S. sorry for the length of this post!

AlexisV

How many miles do you do? A diesel might not necessarily be the cheapest option.

The Skoda Octavia is a fine car (it's a VW Golf underneath), albeit not the most exciting to look at.

lobsta100

AlexisV wrote: »

How many miles do you do? A diesel might not necessarily be the cheapest option.

The Skoda Octavia is a fine car (it's a VW Golf underneath), albeit not the most exciting to look at.

To be honest no massive mileage so if we ignore diesel - what do you / others think about options for £4-5k?

Octavia?

Also how about where to sell the Focus?

rodenal

Why don't you pay the focus off? If you can do that and keep it a few years it'll work out far better financially than trading the focus in against anything else. You'll also get an interest rebate of some sort if you have enough cash in the bank to pay early

IanSkinner

2008 Renault Laguna? Should be able to get the 1.5D for around £7k and the mpg is massive.

LandyAndy

In general changing your car is a way of spending money not saving it so do your sums very carefully before you do anything.

As for the Octavia. I just had one on hire in Cyprus for 6 days, a 1.6 petrol. We did 1200km in it and it was pleasant to drive and seemed quite economical. It was easily big enough for us (a family of four tall adults). The boot is very big.

daveyjp

So you are considering selling a car under three years old with 20,000 miles on the clock for a diesel with potentially close to 100,000 that requires more regular cambelt changes (on any used car you need to budget for this to be done if you don't have proof it has been - £250-500, depending on the car) than the Focus to save £2,000? Madness.

Stick with what you know. If possible save some money and use this to pay off the Ford loan early. Once it is paid off you'll still have a young car with lots of miles left in it.

blacksta

Maybe OP just wants another car. I am not sure there are any savings here. You stated you want something similar, same size boot and fit 2 child seats - why not just stick to the existing car.

lobsta100

blacksta wrote: »

Maybe OP just wants another car. I am not sure there are any savings here. You stated you want something similar, same size boot and fit 2 child seats - why not just stick to the existing car.

The whole thing is a cashflow issue.

We have no savings to pay off the loan and need to cut down our monthly expenditure. The suggestion I made saves monthly expenditure of £220.

Strider590

lobsta100 wrote: »

The whole thing is a cashflow issue.

We have no savings to pay off the loan and need to cut down our monthly expenditure. The suggestion I made saves monthly expenditure of £220.

Is that before or after the considerations for fuel, tax, insurance, maintenance forecast??? I say because £220 seems an awful big finance agreement on something as mundane as a Ford Focus.

vax2002

If this is secured finance you will need the finance companies permission to sell the car as its not actually yours to sell and the outstanding finance will show in the HPI check any buyer does.
If you were to sell it hoping to pay the loan, the finance company can turn very sour and reposes the vehicle from who you sold it to leaving you in lots of hot water despite your good intentions to pay the balance off, these finance companies never miss a chance to come out on top.