When would be a good time to buy an 11-plate used car?

Guest101

Herzlos wrote: »

You can't put a plate on a car older than the plate (so you can't make the car look newer), so if it's a new style '11' plate, the car needs to be an '11' plate or newer. If it was one of the old style ones (pre-70's?) then it'd be fine.

Sorry i see what you mean, i've been looking at the opposite way, ie putting an 02 plat on my 59 reg, my mistake

interstellaflyer

Guest101 wrote: »

But why would u need an 11+ car for that reg, you can just buy the car, buy the reg, register the new reg on the new car.

It doesnt have to be 11+ to have RW11.

It can't be older than an 11plate, you can't put a newer reg on an older car.

forgotmyname

If they buy a diesel they may well do more than 4000 miles a year though.

An extra 25 - 40 miles a week at high revs to regenerate the DPF. Maybe?

Then the trips to the dealers to reset or replace the DPF when it fails to regenerate so many times.

littlesnuggy

Thanks for all the further responses. I'll try to answer some of the queries:

We live & work within a city within walking distance to our offices, so day-to-day we don't currently use the car that much. We make a few 4-mile round trips per week to the babysitter. Most of our mileage is on 200+ mile trips to visit family every couple of months, who are very spread out.

In addition, I will be using the car for work a lot more in the next 2-3 years time. I'm looking to buy the car outright privately rather than through the company (of which I am a director) because I cannot justify it for company use at the moment, but in the next few years I anticipate I will be using it a lot more, so at that time I would probably take a car allowance to recoup some of the cost .

I therefore want something that will be comfortable, reliable & safe doing long distances, but also that looks respectable when visiting clients. Much as I have loved my current car, it is far from professional looking now (it doesn't help that it is bright blue).

In the last 2 months, the MOT, handbrake cable and exhaust issues have cost close to £500. The resale value of the Corsa will be less than £1k I think, so it feels like I'm spending money on something that itself has little worth.

Ultimately, we can afford a new car and actually want one! We are looking at an Audi A3.

My OH researched the fuel consumption & road taxes and came to the conclusion that a diesel would be better. I am willing to hear alternative arguments to that though, as we've always had petrol.

The registration was to spell something using the 11 as part of the word, but I am quite happy to admit this a ridiculous frivolity and should not be an integral basis of chosing the car we will drive for the next 6 years!

Herzlos

If you are mostly doing long drives and going to be doing much more mileage than a diesel does make sense.

The reason I asked is that there's an mindset that diesel is cheapest to run because the mpg is higher, but little consideration to the bigger picture. The same way people will spend hundreds or thousands more to save £20 a year on VED.

AdrianC

littlesnuggy wrote: »

My OH researched the fuel consumption & road taxes and came to the conclusion that a diesel would be better. I am willing to hear alternative arguments to that though, as we've always had petrol.

Fuel consumption (go by real-world figures available off quite a few sites such as fuelly, not official, especially on a diesel) and VED are one aspect as to which'll be cheaper, but not all of it.

Work out the difference in fuel cost, add to that the difference in VED. Then the difference in maintenance costs. Then consider the difference in purchase price and depreciation.

All in all, for a low mileage, you will almost certainly find that the cost difference is much lower than you think, and that's before you consider the much greater risk for expensive repairs on a modern, very complicated diesel. Google for DPF - diesel particulate filter - and DMF - dual mass flywheel, as well as the potential expense from mis-fuelling it, if you're used to a petrol.