Keep, Buy or Lease a Car?

strengthcoach

Hi all,
I'm after a little advice regarding the cheapest option for my circumstances.
Might be easiest if I list all of the relevant info I can think of, so if anyone can help...
I currently have an 03 plate Vectra (1.8 petrol manual)
Vectra delivers ~400-450 miles from a full tank (mainly motorway driving).
According to the .gov.uk website, the MPG is 48.7 (extra urban) and the fuel cost for 12,000 miles is £2,024.
I reckon I'll do ~20,000 miles a year.
Tax is £220 per year
Car cost me £1100
Repairs over the year have cost ~£600
Insurance is ~£500 per year
Paid £1,100 for it 11 months ago
Currently 98,000 miles on the clock

I have the opportunity to buy an 05 Golf 2.0 TDI (Auto) for £3,000
It has 90,000 miles on the clock
Obviously don't know the cost for my regular drive, but the .gov.uk website states 56.5 MPG and £1,750 fuel cost for the 12,000 miles.
The tax for the Golf is £175 per year.
Insurance would be ~£550 per year.

So, my options are keeping the car I have, buying the Golf or leasing or buying a new(er) car.

My thoughts on the new or nearly new car are that newer models have better fuel efficiency, no road tax in some cases and no potential repair bill (due to the warranty) and the monthly repayments plus fuel may be less than I’m currently spending per month on insurance, tax, fuel and repairs on the Vectra?!?

In a previous job I had a BMW 3 series diesel (60 plate) as a company car and could get between 800 and 900 miles out of a tank (again with motorway driving). By the calculations in my head I could half my fuel costs with a similar car.

I don’t really have much cash to spend but I can stretch to the £3000 for the Golf by selling the Vectra and paying it off monthly (I’m buying from a friend).

I know most lease deals only include up to 10,000 miles per year and there would be an additional cost for another 10 or so, I’m hoping someone will have had experience of this sort of situation. There may be something I’m missing and not considering that will make my decision for me. I appreciate there are a lot of unknowns like potential repairs over the next year for the Vectra or the Golf, I may get a job closer to home and my mileage may drop, I may need to consider a completely different car etc. etc.

Having said that, any thoughts at all would be much appreciated. Apologies for the lengthy question, hope it makes sense to some??!!

Cheers
Al

TradePro

strengthcoach wrote: »

I have the opportunity to buy an 05 Golf 2.0 TDI (Auto) for £3,000
It has 90,000 miles on the clock

In my considerable experience, I doubt you will reduce your motoring costs buying an 8 year old 2.0TDi Golf with 90k - the auto bit probably makes it even more of a bad move.

https://www.google.co.uk/#bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&fp=68f0c189a23b5c8d&q=2.0+tdi+problems

mad_rich

First up, I would try to get a more accurate mpg figure. With 20,000 miles per year, fuel will be the major cost, so it's important to be accurate.

Fill the tank. Note the mileage. Drive 'normally' until it's nearly empty. Then fill the tank again (preferably using the same petrol station and same pump) and note the mileage again.

Ideally you would do this over several tanks, but one tank is better than nothing.

Compare that with the manufacturers figure and with the 'Real MPG' here:

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/realmpg/vauxhall/vectra-c-2002
http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/realmpg/volkswagen/golf-v-2004

I doubt the Golf will be the right answer. (And buying a car from a friend is never a great idea.) But a different car might be right for you.

You can save on the tax. It shouldn't be hard to find a car at £120/ year. Maybe even the £30 band if you buy newer. But a hundred quid in a year isn't a massive saving, so don't fixate on it.

In terms of yearly cost, I can only give you an example from my experience.

I was running a 2.0l petrol Saab which was incredibly thirsty (25-30mpg). And £220/ year to tax.

I got a couple of hundred £ for it and bought a 2002 Skoda Fabia for £1600. I now get at least 60-65mpg. The tax is about half, the insurance the same. I reckon it will have paid for itself in about a year.

strengthcoach

Thanks for that Rich,
with the amount of miles that I drive, I always reset the mileage every time I fill up, so 425 is fairly accurate for me. The thing I need to check is how many litres that is in order to calculate the MPG.
Good advice regarding the tax, it's just always such a blow because it comes in 1 hit, normally when I've forgotten about it!

I'm getting the feeling that the Golf might not be such a good idea, although I thought £3k was a good price after looking through autotrader and seeing older models with higher mileage for £4.5K+.

My assumption was that I would save a fair bit on the fuel, but looking at the 'real MPG' for both cars, with fuel costs as they are today, 20,000 miles in the Vectra would cost me £3419 and in the Golf, £2662 saving just over £750 over the year (the Fabia you mention would save me another £500 based on 60MPG).

Also, reading the forums TradePro linked to, I'm not sure on the risk involved with the Golf, would it be a bigger risk than keeping the Vectra or buying any other car older or newer (based on some of the posts)? I've been lucky enough in the past to have company cars so haven't needed to look into used cars at all, but in checking the price of the golf against those on Autotrader, there are a fair few of similar age with similar/more miles on that are a couple of grand more, are they just ticking time bombs or do people generally know there's a good chance they'll be spending money on them and a) they're happy to do that and buy the car or b) that's why they're selling?

Thanks again

Al