Thinking ahead - cheapest run-about motoring?

jimmy_81

Hi all,

Currently buying a house, so planning our finances for the future. No children but we are planning a family within the next few years.

Our only car is my company car and my OH catches the bus to work. The place we're buying isn't really within easy walking distance of shops so with a baby a second car is going to be pretty much essential.

So - given it will only be used for local transport, I'm wondering what the cheapest way will be to secure some sort of wheels? :rotfl:

I'm not going to look at specific models yet - chances are we're 12-18 months off buying something - but would appreciate any advice on the absolute cheapest way to have transport.

Some limitations... Obviously it's got to be safe - so buying a 15-year old banger is definitely out! I've also not got any real way to do my own maintenance, so would have to figure in garage & servicing costs.

Before opting for a company car I worked out my old Mondeo averaged £700 per year in servicing & maintenance across the 5 years I owned it! :eek: Would definitely prefer to avoid that again...

So - what do you think? Buy new, or new-ish, with finance or a loan? Save up hard and buy something older for cash, and take the chance with maintenance...?

Any thoughts very much appreciated! :T

bodgerx

Cash all the way.

Don't pay the bank for something that depreciates.

Get them to pay you.

You have not given any idea of budget btw...

londonTiger

£700 in maintenance is fairly typical I would have imagined.

attila_

Agree, £700 to £1000 is typical for a car that size. I've running two vw and cost around £1k per annum average.


What's your budget in cash? Don't get a loan.

jimmy_81

Hey everyone, thanks for the replies!

Realise I could have put my initial question a bit better...

I guess what I'm really asking is... How low could my budget be, both upfront and ongoing, for the cheapest possible compromise of the vehicle itself, road tax, fuel, maintenance, and so on?

For example; at one end of the spectrum I could buy something pretty knackered for £500, but the maintenance & running costs would rapidly outweigh the initial saving. At the other end, I could get something brand new on a "just add fuel" deal to keep costs completely predictable - but obviously that's much more expensive!

So... What's the right compromise in between the extremes? Lowest possible cost to obtain & run a car? How to go about it?

Sorry if that's a bit vague still - but hopefully explains a bit better what I'm getting at?

bodgerx

jimmy_81 wrote: »

Hey everyone, thanks for the replies!

Realise I could have put my initial question a bit better...

I guess what I'm really asking is... How low could my budget be, both upfront and ongoing, for the cheapest possible compromise of the vehicle itself, road tax, fuel, maintenance, and so on?

For example; at one end of the spectrum I could buy something pretty knackered for £500, but the maintenance & running costs would rapidly outweigh the initial saving. At the other end, I could get something brand new on a "just add fuel" deal to keep costs completely predictable - but obviously that's much more expensive!

So... What's the right compromise in between the extremes? Lowest possible cost to obtain & run a car? How to go about it?

Sorry if that's a bit vague still - but hopefully explains a bit better what I'm getting at?

Use the Parkers running cost estimator. Its good:

http://parkers.car-costs.co.uk/cars_parkers_plugin.php

The following compares monthly costs of a new 1.6d Mazda5 and a used 2008 Honda Jazz 1.2:



Jazz Mazda 5
Fixed Costs £210.40 £445.99
Running Costs £135.83 £151.30

Service and Repair £20.45 £33.45
Road Tax £5.56 £6.67
Fuel £97.94 £99.31
Insurance £0.00 £0.00
Breakdown Cover £11.88 £11.88

Monthly Total Costs £346.23 £597.28

forgotmyname

My cheapest car was £45. Sold for £150.

You have a choice of buy the cheapest thing with tax and MOT, And run it until it stops. Or spend a bit of money on basic servicing and get better reliability.

Plenty of cars out there for less than £500 that are not knackered. Undesirable maybe but not knackered.

Its all swings and roundabouts. I buy Mondeo's because they are cheap and people say they are unreliable.
Yet ive spent under £1000 in just under 4 years or motoring in servicing, MOT's, Repairs and upgrades.

Joe_Horner

Early 90s diesels are a good bet for cheap motoring - especially those using the PSA XUD or Perkins Prima / derivatives of. That basically means Pug, Citroen or Rover.

The engines will outlast you if they get fresh oil every 6k miles or so (you can do a home oil change even at the roadside!) and air / fuel filters once a year. That gives servicing costs of around £50 per year. You have no ECU / DPF or any other modern !!!!!! to worry about and you'll still get over 50mpg motorway and well into the 40s locally.

Citroens tend to have their horrible (and potentially expensive) suspension, but Peueot and Rover are pretty bomb-proof in the basic mechanicals.

Tax tends to be high because they're pre- "emission bands" but you more than make up for that on purchase price (£5 - £700 max for a good one), depreciation (effectively zero) and lack of interest charges.

Bodywork by now will be good from the rust perspective because only the good ones that had been properly built and looked after have survived - the many Friday afternoon ones where they forgot to paint bits are all long gone by now!

Given the price you can get them for, even if they do fall apart in a year, throw it away (cash back for the scrap) and you're still streets ahead compared to what a newer car is costing in depreciation etc.

Oh, and from the image POV, they're not "old bangers", they're either "retro" or "future classics" - they all have attendant owners clubs and most are welcome at a lot of classic car shows already

vikingaero

Most of the bangernomics suggestions are fine if you're OK with basic servicing and car maintenance - or even if you have the time to fix cars. I'm guessing that apart from basic checks you can't maintain a banger nor have the time apart from weekends.

You can lease/PCP/JAF a new car. This is normally the most costly option and you never own the car. If your job/lifestyle/mileage/habits are the same most of the time then this is a good option.

Buying a new car with cash/hp/loan gives you the latest safety spec, the reassurance of a new car and a 5/7 year or lifetime warranty if you choose correctly

Buying a car for several thousand obviously saves capital but you only need a run of bad luck and you may as well have bought a new car.

As you have a company car do what we do. Some days if I know I'm going to be office bound I drive Mrs V's car to work (70 mile round trip). Meanwhile she uses our company car and fuel to make the 300 mile round trip to see her family.

Joe_Horner

vikingaero wrote: »

Most of the bangernomics suggestions are fine if you're OK with basic servicing and car maintenance - or even if you have the time to fix cars. I'm guessing that apart from basic checks you can't maintain a banger nor have the time apart from weekends.
[...]
Buying a new car with cash/hp/loan gives you the latest safety spec, the reassurance of a new car and a 5/7 year or lifetime warranty if you choose correctly

The servicing needs of a well chosen older car really are minimal - in terms of time and money. I'll use my '96 Pug 405 as an example, because the Dafs are kinda specialist what with their belt drive & all.

It cost me £400 with 12 months ticket and no service history, exceopt that I know the previous owner looks after his cars. To be fair, it did have a "missing" 5th gear which I had to sort - but if I wasn't happy weilding spanners i could have just paid out an extra couple of hundred for a "better" example. That's still only £600 invested.

I also changed the cam, aux belts and water pump as they were slightly overdue on time plus an oil / filter change for he same reason. Cost to me was about £100 in parts, say £400 in a garage.

So, if I didn't want to use spanners, that would be about £1k total outlay for a car that's serviced, new cam belt etc and 12 months MOT. It has factory alarm and immobiliser but probably isn't that high on anyones joyriding list anyway.

Business use insurance, with zero no claims thanks to being on classics policies for the past 5 years), is £290 per year. Tax is about £250 per year based on engine size.

It will need another oil change during the year, pay a garage = about £75.

So, total for the first year including tax, insurance and buying it is just under £2k + fuel even paying a garage to do the work. Compare that to the annual payment on a "just add fuel" type deal.....

Pure maintenance costs at a garage - assuming nothing goes bang, of course, but that's a risk with all cars - will be around £500, but that includes the belt change which should really be spread over the next 5 years (book life of the belts)

At the end of the year, if it comes up nasty on its MOT I simply weigh it in for £100 or flog it on spare / repair for a couple of hundred and buy another one. Either way, I'm financially streets ahead of anyone with anything newer.

As for safety, it has seatbelts, crumple zones and a driver's airbag. What else do you want for "purely local trips"?

oliverr

From what you've said I think something in the middle may be what you're looking for. If it were me I probably wouldn't go out and buy a new car (especially if I had a company car already) but also wouldn't pay peanuts for an old banger.

Have a look in the £2 - 3,000 mark and I'm sure you'll find something nice. Focus less on the car and more how well its been maintained (low mileage isn't always a good thing). Full service history, serviced regularly, just something that looks like its been taken care of.