Replace car now, or wait?

yazgee

OddballJamie wrote: »

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

Totally agree.

Consider this PatP for the same price as your considering spending ona diesel model you could purchase the same spec in petrol and save around £2000 OR spend the same amount and get a petrol one a couple of plates newer.

Assume you go for same price petrol you have saved around £2000. Athough the diesel is more econimical with your 5k mileage it will probably be more than 5 years before you make back £2000 in fuel saving and this is including any RFL costs you will save. Chances are you may want to change in 3-4 years anyway so really won't save anything.

I say go for a newer petrol for the same money.

patp

yazgee wrote: »

Totally agree.

Consider this PatP for the same price as your considering spending ona diesel model you could purchase the same spec in petrol and save around £2000 OR spend the same amount and get a petrol one a couple of plates newer.

Assume you go for same price petrol you have saved around £2000. Athough the diesel is more econimical with your 5k mileage it will probably be more than 5 years before you make back £2000 in fuel saving and this is including any RFL costs you will save. Chances are you may want to change in 3-4 years anyway so really won't save anything.

I say go for a newer petrol for the same money.

I did a spreadsheet, and the difference is about £300/y at my mileage. However, I kept the last car for 9 years and still going strong (!). I've also heard that tax on petrol cars is likely to rise relative to diesels. Interestingly, for the car I'm interested in, you can't find many petrols - have a look on Cargiant, they are nearly all 2.0 diesel - so it's hard to get price comparison.

cynicalgit_2

You can never make money running cars.
Just smoke your car around until it drops.
I had an Audi A6 petrol that I drove for 330,000 trouble free miles.
Was going to have to change the cambelt and thats when i finally got rid of it after 14 years.

Herzlos

patp wrote: »

@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?

Anything that's doing more than 15-20,000 miles a year has probably spent a lot of that on motorways or always on like a taxi, unlike low mileage versions that are likely to have been used for short school runs.

Diesels with mega mileage aren't likely to have DPF problems, since the DPF needs high mileage to regenerate, but the problems may start to occur if you get one and do tiny miles.

OddballJamie

patp wrote: »

I did a spreadsheet, and the difference is about £300/y at my mileage. However, I kept the last car for 9 years and still going strong (!). I've also heard that tax on petrol cars is likely to rise relative to diesels. Interestingly, for the car I'm interested in, you can't find many petrols - have a look on Cargiant, they are nearly all 2.0 diesel - so it's hard to get price comparison.

What MPGs were you working off for the spreadsheet?

On short trips there won't be much difference in MPG between diesel and petrol.

Factor in a possible new turbo, DMF or DPF issues and 5 years of fuel savings have just disappeared.

bigjl

patp wrote: »

@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?

The S Max is mechanically identical to the Galaxy. Same engines and gearbox.

Most ex Addison Lee Galaxys end up being sold to owner driver Private Hire drivers in London. Though i have seen the odd one plated up as Taxis outside London, not sure the areas it was on M25 coming back from Gatwick.

You need to buy the best one you can find.

They are serviced at 10k which is lower than Ford advise and they are only fitted with Ford parts and Hankook tyres after the first set wear out and Castrol oil.

You can check how much they cost new, nearly 26k i think, and see how much a three yr old one is in Autotrader.

I have never had issues with high mileage vehicles. Any vehicle can have a mechanical issue.

But i personally believe far too many UK buyers focus on low mileage vehicles.

Put a set of fresh shocks on a high miles Galaxy and some used top spec alloys from eBay and you have a lot of car for your money.

bigjl

OddballJamie wrote: »

What MPGs were you working off for the spreadsheet?

On short trips there won't be much difference in MPG between diesel and petrol.

Factor in a possible new turbo, DMF or DPF issues and 5 years of fuel savings have just disappeared.

I would usually agree but the Galaxys have proved extremely robust.

No reports of dpf issues.

And they are all either traditional autos with a torque convertor or after 2012 they had the double clutch Powershift autobox.

Mpg figures for the old gearbox is circa 30/35mpg, the later Powershift returned 45mpg in my hands over 15k miles. Would give well over 50mpg on a 60mph run to Stansted.

As i have mentioned previously unlikely to have dmf issues as gears are changed automatically so no driver abuse sitting in too high a gear no harsh release of the clutch.

I never had a dpf warning light and neither have my mates that still work there.

I did look into it as i thought about buying one to use elsewhere as an owner driver. Or even as family use.

If i was looking for a cheapish family bus you really can't go wrong.

Nearly £20k less than they were new?

Whats not to like.

I believe the cambelt interval is 150k so that is one thing to consider if you buy one with 110k or so on. Though they have some with 80k on them.

They have to be kept in decent condition due to the massive corporate accounts they pick up from. Such as Deutsche Bank and any number of large Law and Accountancy firms.

OddballJamie

I wouldn't expect any DPF issues arising when a diesel is being routinely used and few cold starts a few.

I can see problems later on when it starts to do a couple of short journeys a day, not enough to get the cycle going and becomes clogged up.

patp

Thanks bigjl for so much useful information. We may well go for an ex-AL Galaxy now.

Are these DPF's really such a tragedy if they fail? How hard is it to replace them yourself? I've done exhaust manifolds, looking at the part, it seems like it might be fairly straightforward. And if this one is for real, they aren't that expensive:

http://www.buypartsby.co.uk/buy/FORD/GALAXY/2.0/2010/__/81/exhausts/exhausts/diesel-particulate-filters/