Buying a Car - How Do You Do Yours?

thescouselander

Yes, I am serious. The purpose of the site is to help get what you want at the best price, its not about spending as little money as possible.

If someone buys something they don't really want that's wasting money.

There are plenty of people (including me) who would not consider a battered old banger appropriate for any number of reasons.

jimjames

thescouselander wrote: »

If someone buys something they don't really want that's wasting money.

There are plenty of people (including me) who would not consider a battered old banger appropriate for any number of reasons.

I think the key point correct to me would be the last sentence. I'd phrase it as :
If someone buys something they can't afford then that's wasting money

rather than something they don't want. Plenty of people want a new car, I think the number that can afford it is way less than the number that want one. Afford isn't just an immediate, "is it covered by my salary now" but does it give me sufficient capacity to absorb financial shocks in future.

Older cars don't need to be bangers but do need to be appropriate to needs. I think the old saying cutting your coat to suit your cloth is probably relevant. Buy what you can afford.

thescouselander

jimjames wrote: »

I think the key point correct to me would be the last sentence. I'd phrase it as :
If someone buys something they can't afford then that's wasting money

rather than something they don't want. Plenty of people want a new car, I think the number that can afford it is way less than the number that want one. Afford isn't just an immediate, "is it covered by my salary now" but does it give me sufficient capacity to absorb financial shocks in future.

Older cars don't need to be bangers but do need to be appropriate to needs. I think the old saying cutting your coat to suit your cloth is probably relevant. Buy what you can afford.

Are old cars really affordable though? My wife was just hit with a £400+ bill recently when her old banger failed MOT. Not something she has budgeted for or a bill she can really afford right now.

I'd rather have a new-ish car, that's still within warranty, for a known monthly payment which I can plan to pay with some certainty.

racing_blue

I decide roughly what I want and then buy used, approx 3 years old and approx 30,000 miles. My last 2 have been ex-motability and ex-fleet, both from car supermarkets. I pay cash on the barrel and expect a 1 year warranty.

I bought my last 2 cars this way, paid about £12k each and ran them for 10 years each (10 years and counting in the case of my Volvo, see "selling a clapped out car" thread)

So since 1996 I have spent £24K to drive around in two very fine chariots. To buy them new would have cost over twice as much and all I missed out on was the first 3 years of ownership in each case.

I guess this is the exact mirror image of a PCP approach, which I cannot ever imagine doing. But good luck to those who do, and please look after those PCP wagons so that they are in mint condition when people like me buy them later!

jimjames

thescouselander wrote: »

Are old cars really affordable though? My wife was just hit with a £400+ bill recently when her old banger failed MOT. Not something she has budgeted for or a bill she can really afford right now.

If she can't afford £400, how would she be able to afford a new car? £400 to get a year's motoring doesn't sound a lot when that's probably a month or two payments for new car.

thescouselander

jimjames wrote: »

If she can't afford £400, how would she be able to afford a new car? £400 to get a year's motoring doesn't sound a lot when that's probably a month or two payments for new car.

A new car can be had for monthly payments of slightly more than a quarter of the repair bill and this can be budgeted for quite easily. There is no guarantee another bill won't be just around the corner - or maybe the car will die completely and a replacement will need to be funded.

Bangers are a financial time bomb if you ask me; they can throw up unexpected costs at any time and on top of the financial impact there is the time element having to use up leave at work sorting out problems. In our case it's usually me that ends up sorting out problems with my wife's car so when she changes I'll be insisting she gets a new one as I'm not prepared to underwrite the risk any more.

takman

thescouselander wrote: »

Are old cars really affordable though? My wife was just hit with a £400+ bill recently when her old banger failed MOT. Not something she has budgeted for or a bill she can really afford right now.

I'd rather have a new-ish car, that's still within warranty, for a known monthly payment which I can plan to pay with some certainty.

My car is 13 years old but definitely isn't a banger and offers a similar comfort and driving experience as a brand new car. Like you said your wife hasn't budgeted for her car, there is nothing stopping her saving a set monthly fee for things like that. I have a set monthly amount that i put into an account which covers insurance, tax, fuel, repairs and MOT. I have been doing this since i owned the car and always have enough for any expense. I even have a surplus in the account because i have recently been driving less and lower than expected expenses.

My car will do everything i need a car to do including things most people don't need it to do such as towing a caravan. I doubt you have anything you would need a car to do that mine can't!.

But the main thing i have picked up from your post is that you say your wife can't really afford that bill right now, so i assume you can't either because most couples have shared finances. So this shows that your attitude of buying what you want instead of what you need has left you with little savings to cover essential costs!.

thescouselander

takman wrote: »

My car is 13 years old but definitely isn't a banger and offers a similar comfort and driving experience as a brand new car. Like you said your wife hasn't budgeted for her car, there is nothing stopping her saving a set monthly fee for things like that. I have a set monthly amount that i put into an account which covers insurance, tax, fuel, repairs and MOT. I have been doing this since i owned the car and always have enough for any expense. I even have a surplus in the account because i have recently been driving less and lower than expected expenses.

My car will do everything i need a car to do including things most people don't need it to do such as towing a caravan. I doubt you have anything you would need a car to do that mine can't!.

But the main thing i have picked up from your post is that you say your wife can't really afford that bill right now, so i assume you can't either because most couples have shared finances. So this shows that your attitude of buying what you want instead of what you need has left you with little savings to cover essential costs!.

No, we dont have shared finances. My wife is a grown adult and should be able to look after her own financial affairs. I will of course bail her out if needs be but I'd really prefer she didn't expose herself to unexpected costs or the risk of breaking down at an inconvenient time.

Mr.Generous

with a brand new car depreciation is your biggest cost, thats why people do pcp's.

example new nice shiny car £26k
sold at 4 yrs old for £12k

cost per year = £14,000 / 4
so £3500 per year.

If you own or lease some costs will be similar, fuel, insurance, tax, servicing.

So if the PCP cost is less that £300 per month it could be cheaper to lease and walk away. And that's assuming no kind of tax advantage running it on the business.

I have never done a pcp, but maybe I should have, I bought an Astra SRI sporthatch on a whim when they first came out and sold it after 2 years for £6k less than I paid. If I'd leased it I would have paid out less.

takman

thescouselander wrote: »

No, we dont have shared finances. My wife is a grown adult and should be able to look after her own financial affairs. I will of course bail her out if needs be but I'd really prefer she didn't expose herself to unexpected costs or the risk of breaking down at an inconvenient time.

But like I said you just need to save a set monthly fee into a separate account to cover all costs. Older cars don't have to be bangers and my car has never broken down and it has 186,000 miles on it.

With a new car your loosing the same amount in depreciation in the first year as a whole years motoring cost for me!.

But I'm the kind of person who enjoys getting the most for my money!. I could go out next week and buy a brand new car without any kind of finance but the best and most knowledgeable salesman in the world would never have a good enough argument to convince me to do that!.