Replace car now, or wait?

patp

DKLS wrote: »

If its running ok, I would keep it til it throws a big bill, bil had an s-max as a company car which had to go back as it was costing the firm too much.

That's interesting. Do you now what the costs were? I've heard they can chew up a lot of tyres.

patp

Strider590 wrote: »

Warning - At that age, I wouldn't be surprised if it's on it's 2nd battery (roughly every 5-6 years), in which case it'll likely fail to start at some point in the next 3 months. £50 for a battery is still cheaper than a new car.

I think it's on its third, replaced last year. It's been a fantastic car so far, no major bills apart from the cam belt. But high tax and poor mpg.

Strider590 wrote: »

Diesels aren't cheaper to run, not if you do short journeys, look up DMF and DPF failures.
http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/car-buyers-guide/cbg_fuel.html
When one of these goes, your looking at £1000-£2000 repair bills, which means you might as well have just bought a petrol.

Interesting. I still have the diesels are bombproof mentality. I do certainly do a lot of short runs, in fact the only long trips are during school holidays. How unreliable are these filters?

bigjl

SCO wrote: »

I agree.

If the car is 10k this year, in 3 years it will prob be worth between 4-5k if your lucky.

If he buys unwisely then i fully agree.

But if he buys at the correct part of the depreciation curve for the vehicle he is buying and uses a no frill car supermarket he could lose very little over 2 or 3 yrs.

I bought a 2008 Pathfinder Aventura back in 2011. Just over 3 years old with 90k on it.

New it was £36k with the options.

I paid £11.5k at a small specialist dealer as i needed it for a business venture snd couldn't find one at auction or a supermarket.

It now has 115k on it an WBAC value it at over £8.5k meaning it has a trade price of a little more and retail of perhaps £9000/9250 perhaps.

Buy an ex AddLee Galaxy at 3 yrs old for around £8000/8500, which new retail price was around £25000/26000 give or take.

You can see them in Autotrader a year or so later, pretty much all Black Auto Galaxys in Zetec or Edge spec for the last five years or so seem to be ex AddLee, and the prices are still up around the £6k mark.

Prices do vary but it isn't always going to be financial suicide.

You are spot on. There is no moneysaving going on really.

But if the OP wants five years out of his next motor then buy recent and above average miles over five years his £8500, for example, has cost him £1700 a year if the vehicle has no end value and ignoring servicing and tyres.

Keep it for ten and it has cost £850 a year.

My V50 cost me £1900 ignoring maintenance costs, for just over two years use.

My previous Mondeo cost me £850 for over 3 years motoring ignoring maintenance costs.

My examples are not really bangernomics as they were both 3 yr old with higher than average miles but crucially full main dealer history vehicles.

This is ignoring the fact that something like a 60 plate auto Galaxy is s much nicer car than the OPs current vehicle.

The DPF issue hasn't affected the Galaxy from what i have heard from mates that have worked at AddLee for years and this was confirmed when i took mine in for a service and spoke to the mechanic, Ford use lots of data from AddLee vehicles to improve the vehicles for urban use and form a psrt of a Fords R&D which surprised me at the time but if you consider the amount of data it seems logical as AddLee have over 3500 Galaxys running around London.

yazgee

Without getting too mathematical about it the difference between what your 11 year old Citroen is worth now it's okay and when it breaks down and needs money spending on it is not gonna be massive, we're talking only hundreds not thousands. So don't let that be a deciding factor about changing.

If you want to change there is no time like the present. Follow your heart, negotiate a good deal and if you end up with a decent reliable car you won't even worry if you paid a little more than you wanted.

If you want to buy a certain car now with a certain age & mileage but think in a years time that certain car might be cheaper then yes, you are right. But in reality in a years time you will probably want that certain car to be a year newer than the last one and therefore the same price as the first one was a year ago.

bigjl

patp wrote: »

I think it's on its third, replaced last year. It's been a fantastic car so far, no major bills apart from the cam belt. But high tax and poor mpg.



Interesting. I still have the diesels are bombproof mentality. I do certainly do a lot of short runs, in fact the only long trips are during school holidays. How unreliable are these filters?

I used a Galaxy fitted with the later Powershift box for 4 months or so during the Olympics working for Addison Lee and averaged 45mpg and that had a dpf aswell.

You could tell when it was regenerating by the increase in vibes and a drop in mpg, the tip i can give is never switch off when it is doing a regen this causes the problems.

I drove in late afternoon into the night and did the school run in it so lots of slow speed stuff.

No dmf problems as it is an automatic, i believe the Powershift does have a dmf but obviously there is no user abuse!

I personally think a lot of dmf problems are due to user issues, starting and stopping the engine without the clutch depressed like it states in all the manuals i have read, people labouring the engine in too high a gear causing extra vibes that the dmf struggles to cope with and overheats and harsh clutch usage.

My V50 had over 160k on the original DMF my Mondeo had well over 200k on the original DMF and the wifes Clio has nearly 110k on the original DMF.

And nobody i know at AddLee has had any DPF related issues despite almost complete urban use. Some of my mates have been driving DPF equipped Galsxys since they were introduced to the fleet back in '08.

I would add some DPF cleaner to the tank once a month as a precaution. JLM do one as do Wynns and EuroCarParts have their own brand one TripleQ.

JLM was first to market and bottle is only 100mls and it is the most expensive.

But add it to your tank at the start of the month and brim it then top off at half tank should ensure there is alwsys some in there to help reduce the temp the soot burns off at, from 600degrees to 200degrees i believe.

I think it is the Celium? That provides the benefits. I am sure that is also present in AdBlue and Eloys but i could be wrong on that.

Apparently you can add it to an Eloys equipped vehicle and it helps.

Hopefully the Engineers are getting to bottom of the DPF issues.

But a little bit of care from the user should help reduce any issues.

Personal experience means i must add avoid any vehicle fitted eith the 1.9cdti Fiat engine, Saab, Opel, Alfa and Vauxhall are the ones i know that are, there msy be more but i think that is them all.

Strider590

bigjl wrote: »

Hopefully the Engineers are getting to bottom of the DPF issues.

They don't need to, it's a wear and tear part and they usually outlast the manufacturer warranty period. As it is, they're a nice chunk of profit for the dealerships.

DKLS

patp wrote: »

That's interesting. Do you now what the costs were? I've heard they can chew up a lot of tyres.

Not sure exactly, but he did swap to a BMW 320d, the ford didnt help its case by breaking down a number of times in his brief ownership.

bigjl

Strider590 wrote: »

They don't need to, it's a wear and tear part and they usually outlast the manufacturer warranty period. As it is, they're a nice chunk of profit for the dealerships.

From what i have read it is only a wear and tear part on some vehicles.

Such as the V50 with a dpf and Eloys fluid additive tank.

Then it is changed at the 75k service from memory.

On all other vehicles it is normally changed when it is too clogged for a forced regen to get the vehicle back on the road.

A bit like the battery packs on the Prius.

Everybody said they will need replacing every 100k or 50k or 5 yrs then Private Hire and Hackney drivers started using them and they turn out to last 300k an awful lot of the time.

I am no fan of them but they have improved a lot since they were introduced.

I have a friend with a 2 yr old 730d that has mega miles on it and he has never had the dpf full light on so far, his previous 59 plate 730d had mega miles and that was the same.

He only ever uses the expensive Shell diesel whatever it's called these day.

Coincidence?

Who knows.

patp

@bigjl:

You seem to know a lot about Galaxys! Are S-Max's the same mechanically?

Interested in your low age - high mileage idea. I do note that high mileage drops the price a lot, given that I only do 5k a year and like to keep cars a long time this sounds like a useful principle. Would you mind explaining a little? Is a high mile well maintained young car a good bet for reliability and costs over 7-10 years? What counts as high mileage for a 2.0 diesel Galaxy or SMax?

OddballJamie

5k a year, I wouldn't even consider a diesel.