buying a car whilst still in debt

hohum

Surely a car share club or car hire would work out much cheaper annually than owning a car with all associated costs? If you'd be paying £300/month on hires also have a look at schemes like zipcar which will give you daily hire from £50/day if you're in London.

Then on top of cost of actual vehicle you'll need to cover:

- parking
-insurance
-congestion charge
- fuel
-road tax
- maintenance, repairs and MOT

And as stated above, a car is one of the fastest depreciating assets you can have.

A car club may also give more peace of mind if you want to know that you can access a vehicle quickly/ at a time you choose as you can book online and pick up nearby.

littlegreenparrot

I think it depends on how often you think you'll be going.

If your talking about a one off emergency, then hiring one would probably be the best bet. If your talking about travelling regularly then as others have said you might be better of buying a car.

I know the trains can be a pain, but have you looked at flying?
London - Newquay comes up as £49, then you could pick up a hire car at the airport so as not to bother relatives.

If you do decide to buy, I certainly wouldn't buy brand new as the depreciation is enormous. You can buy very reasonable second hand in good order.

Brightspark87

hi all

after looking at the figures I don't think we should be buying a car.

We hire from a local firm and the reason for the higher charges is that where we travel too is a long way away and that works out the cheapest for the number of miles we typically do at the weekend, as although the hire is more expensive its cheaper than lower cost ones (say like the £77 you've found) and then paying excess milage - trust me we learnt that lesson the hard way!

and yes you are all right about that it looks like the most desirable option, and exciting but of course I need to think about paying down more debt and continuing to save.

the simple matter is flying (good suggestion - its not just the £49 flight tubes and trains add another £40 each) plus the hire car still similar cost of hire car in london.

Also, think we are worried about a second hand car - DH has had some real rotters in the past where you end up spending £3,000 on the car and then £2,000 on the repairs within 24 months so saving up for a 'nearly' new ( under 2 years old) in the future might be the best option....

Mattygroves2

The Enterprise one is unlimited mileage so the £77 is it excluding petrol. Got to be cheaper than buying one.