New car to save money???

LindieR

So our old banger is actually starting to fall aprt at the seems and is more and more expesnive to maintain annually. Hubby and I are looking at a new car and we need and argument settled. I am looking at getting a diesel 1.4 / 1.6 with insurance of around £300 pa, no more than 5 yrs old. He drives 32 mile round trip to work everyday and on some days 3 times that. He says that deisel is that much more expensive that it would not jusitfy the saving on road tax. I was under the impression that yes deisel is more expensive to fill the tank with but lasts much longer. Any thoughts also what else should I look out for in an effort to save pennies on this purchase.

gilbert_and_sullivan

Convential wisdom says you are better off with Diesel at the mileage you are covering.

Unfortunately modern Diesels have become so complicated and fragile that they are no longer the default choice for economy that they would have been even 10 years ago.
Each generation gains more emissions control equipment and more things to go wrong.
You wanting a Diesel under 5 years old means you will be well into modern.

Not saying a Diesel won't do you fine if its well chosen and a good example of its type, but there are alternatives that whilst appearing slightly more expensive to run, might well be more reliable and pay for themselves in other ways.

There thats a fat of help isn't it...:)

Strider590

Newer car is not going to guarantee trouble free motoring......

forgotmyname

Buy a 3 - 5 year old car for much less money?

I have a 2L diesel Mondeo and it can do 60+ MPG on a run.

New cars wtill have parts that wear out, Tyres, Brakes, Clutches etc..

LindieR

forgotmyname wrote: »

Buy a 3 - 5 year old car for much less money?

I have a 2L diesel Mondeo and it can do 60+ MPG on a run.

New cars wtill have parts that wear out, Tyres, Brakes, Clutches etc..

Sorry, for less money than our current car is costing, It has terrible MPG, the electrics have failed (cannot lock it anymore) Radio has broken, the fan doesn't work properly, can't have heat and see out of front window and everytime the weather drops below zero something happens with the immobilser and we have to call a man out to reset it at £50 a go. Not to mention the imminent requirement to replace nearly all the replaceable parts including 2 tyres, brakes and clutch. Also tax at £120 per 6months. So yes, something newer which will be cheaper to run, not nessecarily in initial outlay , I think I mentioned budget of upto £5000, although wouldn't mind spending less(wouldn't we all;))

LindieR

gilbert_and_sullivan wrote: »

Convential wisdom says you are better off with Diesel at the mileage you are covering.

Unfortunately modern Diesels have become so complicated and fragile that they are no longer the default choice for economy that they would have been even 10 years ago.
Each generation gains more emissions control equipment and more things to go wrong.
You wanting a Diesel under 5 years old means you will be well into modern.

Not saying a Diesel won't do you fine if its well chosen and a good example of its type, but there are alternatives that whilst appearing slightly more expensive to run, might well be more reliable and pay for themselves in other ways.

There thats a fat of help isn't it...:)

Any suggestions of a well chosen good example??

steve-L

So our old banger is actually starting to fall aprt

Hence I'm assuming you would be happy to keep your next car until its non economic to keep.

Car tax is almost irrelevant in the cast scheme of things!
Insurance - I just got quoted £280/yr on a 280BHP car.... (with me as sole driver, 45 and 8yrs no claims)
Again.... difference on insurance is not really worth it unless you are into the £400's+...

The main things to consider are repairs and depreciation as well as fuel costs. The other stuff is small fry.

My Honda 2.2TDCI has cost almost £2000 (excluding services)in the last 100,000 miles, the biggest chunk being the clutch and DMF at £1000 but now good for another 100,000. The rest is small things like brakes, tyres and small parts on suspension.

Service costs are not much different to a petrol.

My BMW330D I only had a year and 12,000 miles.of its 125,000...so far cost nothing except a puncture repair (£20 ish).... and cost of MOT, and oil service
I replaced the pollen filter myself (£20) but it wouldn't have mattered if I hadn't.

My 30 mile commute gets 50mpg from both.
Heavy town driving the Honda is cheaper

I don't see any need to replace the Honda for another 6 years, possibly longer now we had the clutch done by which time it will be worth £500 scrap.... and we paid £4000 so we can hopefully easily get 10 years out of it at £400/yr depreciation and say £500 yr in services, misc parts etc.

I see no reason the BMW won't be the same.
Cost £6000 (2006 330d a year ago), if I get 10 years out of it at £600/yr I'll be happy!
(As it happens I spent £600 to swap the standard seats for leather sports seats and the car is currently worth more than i paid for it)
Old owner switched jobs (from compulsory company car) and gave me a call to see if I was willing to sell... and offered me £7000 not long ago....

So DEPRECIATION is much lower on diesels, especially BIGGER ONES

I'd recommend you buy yourself a copy of Parkers (or if your cheap MSE just browse in WH Smiths for FREE) and look at the milage adjustment charts....

I am looking at getting a diesel 1.4 / 1.6

Avoid the Ford/Citroen/Peugeot 1.6D at ALL costs...... (same engine)

Frankly I think your better off with a 1.9+
MPG isn't quite the same but depreciation is less and the engine will last longer.

Mondeo, Accord, Avensis, 320, 325, 330..... V70 etc.

For a REAL cheap bargain diesel a Saab 9-3, older 9-5 (not last version) (though these are love or hate cars) OR even a Rover 75 2.0D....

You wanting a Diesel under 5 years old means you will be well into modern.

On that milage it shouldn't be an issue for DPF
Certainly on the Honda and BMW DMF has not been an issue (Honda lasted 180,000 and BMW has so far lasted 125,000 but clutch is going and will need replacing and I'll do the DMF at the same time)

Other than specific makes/models the DMF issue is massively overblown IMHO. If it lasts 100,000 miles+ then its no big deal to change with a clutch. Overall cost including labour is not much more....

So long as you know modern diesels have them and they need changing every 100,000 miles or so.... (the Honda almost managed 200,000).

Bear in mind at 50mpg you spent (at todays prices) £12,800 on diesel or at 35 mpg about £17,000 on petrol or at 40 mpg £15,000.

The car has depreciated LESS and is worth more and has more miles left.

Perhaps the option of something nicer and a bit more oomph would convince hubby! (In any case he should test drive a modern 2l or 3l diesel if he thinks they are slow or unpleasant to drive)

patman99

There are a lot of high-mpg petrol cars now out there. Ford, Renault and a few others fit smaller petrol engines with turbos on to give them the power of a bigger car.
Diesels are also only efficient when at fall operating temperature. Below this, they drink the fuel.

Have you thought about an LPG converted car ?. with LPG at roughly 60% of the price of petrol, they are cheaper to run.

Mind you, give it another 5 years & the argument will be 'which hydrogen car is the best', rather than 'is diesel better than petrol'.

steve-L

patman99 wrote: »

There are a lot of high-mpg petrol cars now out there. Ford, Renault and a few others fit smaller petrol engines with turbos on to give them the power of a bigger car.

Not in the OP's price range ....

Diesels are also only efficient when at fall operating temperature. Below this, they drink the fuel.

On the OP's hubbies commute miles this won't be a problem. Mine is a 3L (so takes a lot to heat up) but I get 50mpg on my 15 mile run.

Mind you, give it another 5 years & the argument will be 'which hydrogen car is the best', rather than 'is diesel better than petrol'.

In another 5 years the 'smaller petrol engines with turbos on' will be scrap, the diesels will still have another 10 tears left in them.

catoutthebag

I wouldn't lease or get a car on finance. It's just bad debt. Save and pay outright (2nd hand, naturally).

I don't know any 1.4/6 diesel engine, but 32miles 5 days a week, and even a bit more, is way below the 12000miles justification for purchasing diesel.

Lum

To be honest I'd be looking at a late 90s diesel for this sort of use, something like a VW Passat with the umwelt engine. I still regret scrapping mine after someone smashed every window on it.

I agree that replacing your current car sounds like a good idea but a new car will never save you money, especially now that all the emissions and efficiency gubbins on them makes them so fragile and expensive to maintain.