Sruggling to make a decision on future savings vs new car

danlightbulb

What confuses me is that £8k isnt actually alot for a car. Yes i know you can get old cars for cheap, but most new cars are at least 20k now, and most forecourt used cars are anywhere from 10 to 15k. If 8k is so expensive and 8k is such alot of debt then who is buying all these cars??

Herzlos

Most new private cars are under £15k (Ford Focus and smaller), and probably bought with pension pay-outs. Most of the more expensive cars are company fleets.

Have a look at the top selling cars this year: http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/best-cars/90327/best-selling-cars-2015

Fiesta
Corsa
Focus
Golf
Qashqai
Polo
Astra
A3
Mini
C-Class

£8k is still a lot of money for a car. I've never paid that much.

It's just the cars you want for £8k were all £30k+ new.

Going by your actual requirements, your best bet is a newer Mondeo estate, in diesel if you need the grunt, but in petrol if you're worried about repairs. 12k miles pa is about the breaking even point for diesel/petrol.

danlightbulb

None of thise

danlightbulb

None of those cars are any good for family cars. You cant count the cars that single people with no children will have just in the same way as you cant count supercars that rich footballers have. Family sized cars are 20k + new.

My last car cost 6k and ive had it 9 yearsnow. Pretty good value?

Herzlos

What are you defining as a family car? I know plenty of families that use cars in that list (mostly Focus/Astra).

Presumably your only requirements are 3 child seats and a decent boot? I've no idea about fitting 3 child seats, but you can definitely get 2 into every car in that list with possibly the exception of the mini, though the boot will probably be small.

If you can get your 3 child seats (I don't know of configuration) into a Focus estate, I think you'd be looking at a pretty decent family car. A lot of them are used up here as police cars and they've got a lot of crap to carry about.

Ditto something like a Hyundai i40 Estate.

If you mean a "full size", then the Insignia starts at £17k, so you could probably get one for under £15k with some haggling. It'll be pretty spartan and a 1.8 petrol though but it's a good car.


£6k for 9 years is pretty good. I'm generally around £5k for 5 years. Why don't you get another £6k Mondeo?

danlightbulb

I can get 2 kids withs boosters and my own and 2 kids mountain bikes in my mondeo. Just. That is the size

Herzlos

Stick a £50 bike rack on the back / roof and you can do the same in a Fiesta

I'm impressed you can get an adult bike in a mondeo with the rear seats up, I've got to drop all the back seats to get a bike in my estate.

danlightbulb

Sorry i dont know whats happening with this forum posting half finished posts.

I meant to say..

That is the size i need.

Forgetting the 8k cars for the moment. What if i wanted to spend 4k. I still dont have that so a loan is still needed. If your water company said 'we need a new treatment works because the current one is deteriorated and performing poorly, but we wont fund it with debt instead we'll save up for 20 years to get the 50 million pounds.' Then clearly this is rubbish. So why is it any different having a loan for a large capital purchase instead of saving up for a long period of time?

danlightbulb

Herzlos wrote: »

Stick a £50 bike rack on the back / roof and you can do the same in a Fiesta

I'm impressed you can get an adult bike in a mondeo with the rear seats up, I've got to drop all the back seats to get a bike in my estate.

Na half seats down 1 kid in the front. Front wheel off my bike. Roof racks are too much hassle but will prob have to do that when kids get older and bikes are bigger.

Herzlos

Interest and liabilities, mostly. Save up for 2 years and you'll get maybe 2% PA on your balance and no debt once it's paid. Borrow for the same 2 years and you'll likely pay 10% PA and have an ongoing commitment that you must maintain. Nothing sucks worse than having to make payments on a car you can't use because it's broken or you had to sell it and eat the loss.

Unless you're able to do trickery with assets and tax liabilities you're generally better off saving up and buying in cash, or at least minimise what you're borrowing. Sure it sucks you don't get to drive anything 'cool' but it'll save you a fortune.

Even with a 4k budget (or 2k) you can get something that does what you need it to, it probably just won't be as fast/efficient/interesting as you'd like.

£2k will give you a choice of petrol/diesel Mondeos about 8-10 years old albeit with high mileage.
£4k will get you a higher spec and lower mileage one (there's even a 2.5l 4x4 one for £3500).
£8k will get you a 3/4 year old one with low mileage.

So say you buy an £8k one, you'll get maybe 4 years out of it before it's worth about £2k But if you get more than 2 years out of a £2k one, you'll be better off buying them and replacing them.