best value run around car

CharlieRabbit01

I'm looking for advice on which cars are best value for money.

I'm 27 have no, no claims bonus and had my licence for about 10 years.

Only need something small 3 door hatch or similar.

worried_jim

Spend £500 on any car with a years MOT. job done.

Here is how to do it-
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3803929

CharlieRabbit01

If possible I'd like to bring the running costs to less than £1500 pa or as close as possible including insurance.

Having not had a car for many years I don't know how realistic this is.

£500 on any car doesnt really help.

mad_rich

It's pretty much a 'how long is a piece of string' question, because a major cost will be repairs. You might buy a £200 car that lasts for 2 years without a penny spent on it, or you might spend £1.5k, and end up with a car that needs frequent, major work. To a large extent, it's down to luck.

The idea of buying a 'disposable' car and running it into the ground has its benefits, as long as you can cope with the potential unreliability. A bit of mechanical knowledge helps. You know the maximum cost, because you've already decided not to spend a penny on it. If you buy 5 a year, that's only £1000!

Other than that, the major cost in most cars is depreciation. Even on old cars you might be looking at 20% a year.

And fuel efficiency. If you do 6000 miles per year, the difference between 30mpg and 50mpg is £500 in fuel costs alone.

Insurance - check out the 'performance and economy' section when you're looking at cars on Autotrader. As well as the mpg (take this with a pinch of salt, or look at Honestjohn for a realistic figure) it will give you the insurance group. Given you have no NCD available, keep it to group 4 or lower.

Tax. Keep an eye on this. It varies between £30 and £255 for most cars you're going to be looking at. Again, the listing on Autotrader will tell you.

£1500 pa with insurance may be tricky, particularly given your lack of NCD. Have you had any quotes yet? Do some dummy searches on confused.com to get an idea of prices for a few vehicles (you can usually get reg numbers from the photos on Autotrader).

Here's an example:

My old car (Saab 2l petrol) cost me a bargain £650.
Insurance is £400, tax £255, MoT £55. That's £710 a year before I've even driven it.
Fuel (awful - 23mpg) was over £1600 a year for 6000 miles!
It was pretty much maintenance-free other than oil change.

New car (Skoda Fabia) cost £1500
Insurance £380, tax £130, MoT probably £25 (becuase it's in good nick, I'm happy to go somewhere for a cheap MoT).
Fuel (58mpg) is £650

So the new car was £1000 more but is over £1100 a year cheaper. I don't think I'm going to spend that on maintenance every year.

forgotmyname

You want the running costs to be less than £1500 a year?

Have you actually had any insurance quotes? That could be more than your total budget.

Easy solution to lower running costs. Drive it less.

Small cars cost more to buy. Bigger cars cost more to run. But this is not always the case.

I have a Mondeo estate which are cheap to buy but also cheap to run because i can get better MPG on runs than my sisters little renault.

I averaged 20mpg better than she did. Not bad for a big old tank.

But in a commute across town in rush hour her car may work out better?

How will you service the £500 car? What if it needs a clutch for £300 - £400 or £300 worth of brakes?

If you dont service it amd spend the money it requires you maybe buying car after car after car.

Im sure there is someone on here thats had 12 cars in a year and they all blew up or died in some horrible way.

Horizon81

Basic model of any small car. If it doesn't have it it can't go wrong - I'm talking air con, elec windows, central locking etc. You could do a lot worse than a mk 1 ph 1 Yaris 1.0 S built in Japan. As basic as you can get but should just run and run if properly maintained.

mad_rich

Or, to take it in a completely opposite direction, what about a brand new car:

http://www.peugeot.co.uk/just-add-fuel-107/

£149/ month for a three year lease. Covers lease costs, warranty, tax, insurance, breakdown cover and servicing. Maximum 6667 miles/ year.

I've no idea what the gotchas are. Presumably you end up paying if it's not in good nick at the end. But it works out at £1788 a year + petrol.

Not bad IMHO, especially if you were going to need finance anyway.

OddballJamie

mad_rich wrote: »

Or, to take it in a completely opposite direction, what about a brand new car:

http://www.peugeot.co.uk/just-add-fuel-107/

£149/ month for a three year lease. Covers lease costs, warranty, tax, insurance, breakdown cover and servicing. Maximum 6667 miles/ year.

I've no idea what the gotchas are. Presumably you end up paying if it's not in good nick at the end. But it works out at £1788 a year + petrol.

Not bad IMHO, especially if you were going to need finance anyway.

"Policyholder must have a minimum of 2 years NCD to use on the vehicle. "
OP has none. Just add fuel is an awful deal in most cases when you can pick up a C1/107 for £6k and own one of the lowest depreciating cars on the market. Tax is zero and insurance will be pennies with 2 years NCD, no MOT and 3 year warranty.
Sell after three years and in the majority of cases overall cost (excludingfuel. will be less than £1788 a year

CharlieRabbit01

the situation is I'm applying for a new job in a different town. We'd prefer not to move as one of us will end up with commuting costs and since i'll be the highest earner it makes more sense for me to commute.

I have 2 options:

option one: travel by train - total journey time (walk, train, changes etc) 1hr 15 minutes - total cost £1532pa

Option 2: buy a cheap run around car commute 10.5 miles, total time 30 minutes.

If I can keep running costs to a minimum I'll be able to keep some savings to pay for repairs etc.

I'd rather not use finance to get the car, for the train ticket I'd use the companys option of the company purchasing a 1 year ticket which is then deducted from my monthly wage.

A car would be nice as we could use it to visit places we cant get to by train, but its not a deal breaker.

citykid5

lupo / arosa 1.4 tdi 60mpg £30 tax insurance group 4 bullit proof enginering all for under 2k SIMPLES

mad_rich

That sort of commute will be pretty hard on the car. 10 miles in the morning, 10 in the evening. You should budget a bit for maintenance.

I don't think you'll be able to beat the train on pure cost, but you might find its worth it for convenience. If it helps, you can mentally take a good third off the ownership costs and shift them to your 'weekends and holidays' budget!

Definitely do a couple of insurance quotes, to give you an idea of cost.