New Car - Car loan vs Lease car

SilverUK

Hi all,

I'm currently considering what to do with my next car, at the moment I have a 2005 Golf 1.9L diesel. Love my car but it's close to 100,000 miles on the clock now and it's probably best to start thinking about changing it before anything goes catastrophically wrong ... again!

My ideal car will be a 1.9L 2009 Golf for about £8,500 (second hand) with as few miles on the clock as possible, my daily commute from Kings Hill to Canterbury is about 70 miles return so I do need a car that will be reliable (hence the German brand!)

I'm considering two options that will allow me to upgrade earlier,

1) Sell my current car for £3,500~ use some of my salary to fund about £1,000 - £2,000 and then take out say a £3,000 car loan from my bank repayable over 12 months.

This would cost around £3,300 in total to repay.

With this option I'd own the car and probably sell it again in 4-5 years, I think I'd probably lose a few thousand when I sold it on.

2) The second option would be to get a personal lease car, I've never done this so I don't really know the pros and cons, I could afford to pay £300 give or take a little bit for a lease but I wouldn't have anything to sell on at the end of the lease?

What are your thoughts on what I should do?

catwoman73

100,000 miles on that car is nothing as long as you keep up with oil changes etc. I have a 58 plate octavia with 130 000 miles on it and I fully expect to keep it for another 5 - 10 years.

I think you should stick with the car you have and save £300 pm or whatever you think is affordable for another 2/3 years at least.

Chances are you will be able to buy a decent car with cash by the time you actually need to buy one.

BeenThroughItAll

As above, 100K on a 1.9TDI Golf is naff all. Same engine has been used in all kinds of models across the VAG range and is generally considered bulletproof as long as it's serviced properly.


As an indication, a Skoda Superb I know of with the same engine was sold with over 400K miles on it a few months back. It's well over 470K now and still going.

SilverUK

The engines are good... the other parts however are not.

In the last year I've replaced the turbo radiator which blew up on a drive to Bordeaux costing £400. A few sensors in the engine costing a couple of hundred pounds each. The clutch has never been replaced and is thus nearing it's end of life. As are multiple components so it makes sense to get something with 20k miles.

I also want air con and hopefully DAB radio to make the commute more comfortable as I spend probably an hour and a half in my car every day.

So I'd like to change my car, just looking for the most financially sensible way to go about doing so.

BeenThroughItAll

Silver89 wrote: »

The engines are good... the other parts however are not.

In the last year I've replaced the turbo radiator which blew up on a drive to Bordeaux costing £400. A few sensors in the engine costing a couple of hundred pounds each. The clutch has never been replaced and is thus nearing it's end of life. As are multiple components so it makes sense to get something with 20k miles.

I also want air con and hopefully DAB radio to make the commute more comfortable as I spend probably an hour and a half in my car every day.

So I'd like to change my car, just looking for the most financially sensible way to go about doing so.

Bloody hell, several hundred quid a time for sensors on a 1.9PD? Apart from the MAF there aren't any which would cost more than about forty quid and take more than half an hour to fit.


Whatever you decide to do about cars (I fundamentally disagree with the idea of spending thousands to buy a new car when you could make yours capable of another 100K cheaply, but it's your money!) I would suggest you find another garage to look after it.

King_Nothing

I'd just keep running the car you have, seems senseless to replace it for a slightly newer version for all that money. Also, 100k miles on a 1.9 diesel VW engine is !!!! all. Take the £3.3k you would pay over the 12 months, plus the £1-2k you were going to spend and put it in a savings account incase anything goes wrong, if nothing goes wrong (which it probabley won't), use it towards your next car a few years down the line.

Wh05apk

"I'm currently considering what to do with my next car, at the moment I have a 2005 Golf 1.9L diesel. Love my car but it's close to 100,000 miles on the clock now and it's probably best to start thinking about changing it before anything goes catastrophically wrong ... again!"


"so I do need a car that will be reliable (hence the German brand!)"


I always find posts like this amusing, German "brands" are no more reliable than any other "brands" despite what the pr leads you to believe, from the issues you have had, and your confidence in your car, it sounds like a good reason to avoid German "brands"


In our house we have 3 cars, all just over 100,000 miles, a Toyota Yaris, which drives like new, and give no problems, a Hyundai Santa fe, which again drives like new, without even a rattle, and a BMW 323i which feels the most fragile of all, I certainly would not feel comfortable using it for long journeys.

DominicH

I don't think your current car is worth £3,500, sorry. In fact you'd be lucky to get near £2,500 for it, maybe quite a bit less.

As for the two options, the lease would be more expensive because presumably you're talking about a new car, which will depreciate much more than a £8,500 used car. About twice as much, in fact, and it is you who pays for the depreciation, through your leasing costs. However, the used car would also cost you a bit of interest on the loan and probably a bit more in maintenance, with MOTs to get through and age-related repairs. Overall it should still be considerably cheaper than running a new or nearly new car.