To trade up or to not trade up

loskie

OP I think your mind was made up when you asked the question.

scaredofdebt

Your Megane isn't worth £5,995 - who told you that?

Plenty of '11 plate Meganes on Autotrader for £4k or so.

dcouponzzzz

Hey guys, so I went ahead and traded in the Megane for a Polo Bluemotion, and even with a negative equity of 1.6k it works out. I decided that there are other areas of my life that I can save significant amounts of money, but the reality of the Megane being a moneypit wouldn't go away. Only had it 2 days but I've averaged 80-85mpg on the work run from lpool>Mancland. I'm going to post the numbers below which helped me decide:

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Megane (60months @ 7.8% unsecured personal loan):
Petrol - £225 p/m, Loan £157 p/m, Tax £12
Total p/m - £394
Total spend from purchase to month 60 - £23,851

Final payment date: May 2019

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Polo (36 months @ 4% flat 9%APR secured loan):
Diesel - £130 p/m (possibly less), Loan £265, Tax £0
Total p/m - £395
Total spend from Megane purchase through to end of Polo loan: £20,394

Final payment date: July 2018

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So my total saving is £3457. If I keep the Polo until the initial end date of May 2019 and include the cost of diesel it's a saving of £2287. Worth noting also that from July 2018-May 2019 I can add the £265 p/m to my savings account (£2385) and the polo should depreciate at a slower rate than the megane, hopefully saving another 500 or so. This would give me £2385 plus the car as a significant deposit on my next vehicle.

dcouponzzzz

There is a downside.... the Polo I bought was £500 cheaper than others like for like, which I queried with Arnold Clark multiple times. After getting home (and noticing the tracking is sliiiightly off to the left), I had a chance to look at previous MOT certs, which were not presented to me during the sale. This car has had up to 1.5k of repairs in the past 2 years.... The 2014 slip stated that the two front tyres and front brakes will need attention on 27/05/15, however the servicing document from Arnold Clark on 14/07/15 doesn't mention that these were replaced.

I plan on scheduling in to fix the tracking, but do I have a case to request for the tyres and brakes to be replaced as their servicing team should have seen the suggested replacement date? Their service didn't even mention the level of wear on the tyres or brakes..

colino

You do realise that delivering the car on a trailer doesn't count towards your mpg?

AdrianC

What did a two-second glance at the tyres tell you?

I'm very sceptical about you getting a real-world 85mpg from the Polo. Where's that figure come from?

dcouponzzzz

Not following you there Colino, you'll have to be more clear if you're pointing out a mistake in my reasoning

colino

It really is very simple. Take a thread with lots of details gained from the net/top trumps cards and make up a story for no apparent reason. Add in specifics about a relatively recent purchase, mix with a highly undesirable car traded in to a trader known for offering bottom dollar for TI but resulting in an amazing result for the canny poster, then put a cherry on top of a detail that doesn't exist in the real world. Can only be Darkmatter or an acolyte who has married his mother/sister.

dcouponzzzz

I've never been keen on speaking in riddles or being spoken to as such, but from what I understand of your post you don't trust the facts and figures I've posted.

The canny poster was offered 4.7k TI, as the trader was unwilling to budge on the price of the relatively recent purchase item, so he negotiated it to 5k based on a shaky online estimate. The undesirable car then appeared the next day on their site for 5988. I can't vouch for the amazing result being real until I know the extent of pending repairs on the recent purchase item, but please see below for the 38 mile journey from my home to work this morning (m62).

dcouponzzzz

@Adrian, I'll take a look on my lunch break and see what's going on under there, but at a glance the tyre walls looked new, which could just be an illusion.