Do i keep the car or get rid??

stuartjl

Hi, i require a car to get to work, 40 miles away from home. The car is only worth 500 pound but is costing me a lot in maintenance e.g. tyres, brakes etc. At the minute its costing me about 100 to 200 pounds on maintenance.

Ideally i would get a new car on credit but i'm a debt free wannabe and have high debt on my credit cards. The other option is i get a newer cheap car and take the risk it does not breakdown. What i'm asking is do i get rid or keep pumping money into the car and hopefully the maintenance costs go down??

buglawton

So the only maintenance really is tyres and brakes, and that £100 is per month or per year? I assume month which is fair enough at your mileage.

Well, even new cars will wear through their tyres and brakes.

Are you trying to talk yourself into buying a newer car to impress your mates with or are you making a strictly financial decision here?

PS I have run cars happily, economically and reliably till they had 130,000 miles on the clock.

Will.ii.am

Hi, you say its costing 100 to 200 pounds, over what period is this? monthly, 6 months? and the maintenance you have described i.e tyres, thats pritty much going to be the same on every car give or take and brakes i'm assuming pads and discs are another wear and tear item thats going to need changing on every car.

thegirlintheattic

I was in a similar situatuation but without the credit card debt and went for a nearly new (61 plate) car on finance because it would work out cheaper to pay the finance every month rather than the repairs, MOT etc.

However, I would think with high credit card debts your best to look for a car you can buy outright but be careful to check it's well maintained and hope for the best.

EDIT: If it's just wear and tear you've got to accept that.

Ultrasonic

buglawton wrote: »

So the only maintenance really is tyres and brakes, and that £100 is per month or per year? I assume month which is fair enough at your mileage.

£1200 per year on tyres and brakes on a 20k annual mileage wouldn't seem reasonable to me. I guess the £100-£200 figure is either per year, or there are lots of other faults that have not been mentioned.

As others have said, if running costs are only standard wear items like tyres and brakes then there will be no saving in replacing the car.

Norman_Castle

Ideally i would get a new car on credit but i'm a debt free wannabe

If you are a debt free wannabe ideally you would buy a car outright.

Ultrasonic

thegirlintheattic wrote: »

I was in a similar situatuation but without the credit card debt and went for a nearly new (61 plate) car on finance because it would work out cheaper to pay the finance every month rather than the repairs, MOT etc.

Were you paying off a loan on your previous car? If not I find that very hard to believe. And even if it is true there would be much cheaper options than buying a one year old car.

arcon5

thegirlintheattic wrote: »

I was in a similar situatuation but without the credit card debt and went for a nearly new (61 plate) car on finance because it would work out cheaper to pay the finance every month rather than the repairs, MOT etc.

This makes no sense at all, all vehicles old or new require repairs, MOT etc. So not really sure how you're saving by taking finance out

thegirlintheattic

New car does not need MOT for three years, so I have two left (saving at least £100). I got free servicing thrown in for two years (saving at least £300) The likelyhood of repairs is lower, especially as my old car needed repairs to pass the MOT and the clutch was on the way out. In a year my old car had cost over £2000 in repairs plus the £30 to get to work everyday it was out of action. So all out I'm saving about £50 a month, then have much lower insurance so that's another £33 a month saving. I've got the piece of mind of having a car that is likely to have no issues for the next few years at least and I can get to work everyday (I'm in a rural area so own car is vital).

In any case I didn't ask for people to critique what I choose to spent my money on.

caveman774

i have always wondered why people buy new cars, i have always run older cars and without fail they have been cheaper than the 2-300 a month i would have spent on a finance deal for a car that would be rapidly reducing in value to the point that i would have to take a large hit when selling - factor that into the equation and i think you willfind that running an old car is indeed cheaper than a new one. if you are looking for a very cheap to run car look for a small deisel engined car pref a seat or vw as parts are cheap and they were built well in the forst place and the wiring isnt a mass of spaggehtti unlike french cars and you will find that you will get about 50-70 mpg depending on what you buy and that the car will loose less money than its counterparts due to inherent build quaility

Ultrasonic

thegirlintheattic wrote: »

New car does not need MOT for three years, so I have two left (saving at least £100). I got free servicing thrown in for two years (saving at least £300) The likelyhood of repairs is lower, especially as my old car needed repairs to pass the MOT and the clutch was on the way out. In a year my old car had cost over £2000 in repairs plus the £30 to get to work everyday it was out of action. So all out I'm saving about £50 a month, then have much lower insurance so that's another £33 a month saving. I've got the piece of mind of having a car that is likely to have no issues for the next few years at least and I can get to work everyday (I'm in a rural area so own car is vital).

In any case I didn't ask for people to critique what I choose to spent my money on.

The purpose of my earlier post was to highlight to the OP that the route you chose to take is far from the cheapest option, rather than to criticise you for doing so. There are lots of reasons for wanting a new or nearly new car, it's just that saving money is not one of them. Especially if you take out a loan to do so.

In case it isn't obvious, a major reason for this is the rapid depreciation of new and nearly new cars. The AA quote typical depreciation of 40% by the end of year 1 and 60% at the end of year three. If as an example a car cost £10k new and was bought at one year old for £6k, then over the following two years it would lose a futher £2k in value. Note that this is a guaranteed loss which needs to be set against the possible costs of repairs on an older second hand car. It also dwarfs any savings on MOT test and service costs. (Of course older cars depreciate as well and this should be accounted for in a full analysis, but you get the idea.)