If you had £280 a month to finance a car....

jimjames

Angelicdevil wrote: »

But as you can see it's almost on a par. I know with the used car I'd have something to sell at the end but I'm happier knowing my monthly costs with a new car and not having to worry tooooooooo much about maintenance.

The servicing and maintenance costs might be on a par but you're missing out the big factor that the used car will be yours and have value at the end of 3 years whereas the new one is given back and that is a big difference.

To me that could be as much as £6000 you'd have after 3 years compared to nothing from the new one.

So over 3 years the new would cost £10972 and the used would cost £5009 - obviously a guesstimate as we don't know what the value would be but the Z4 should hold value fairly well after 5 years depreciation already hit.

But you don't get that new car feeling and being the only one to have driven it which is what you are paying for with a new one.

Angelicdevil

Having had older sports cars previously I recall how much the maintenance costs were and they weren't cheap and I used to do some of the work myself, these days I don't have the time so would be relying entirely on a garage. I struggle to see how a brand new car could come close with the maintenance costs - new brakes/exhaust/dodgy seals/soft top maintenance etc just won't be a problem in the first 3 years. Esp as I drive like a granny these days

I was estimating value of the Z4 at 11 years old around £3.5k, not £6k. It's not the best engine or the best trim. So in my mind most of that value would have been lost in maintenance costs for me.

I'm happy with my decision. Suits my lifestyle


Daveyjp - those were my two final options. So to compare the two makes sense!

I looked at a Nissan Juke too but the costs were the same as the BMW. Which I thought was interesting. I know I'd much prefer the BMW.