Buying a Car - How Do You Do Yours?

thescouselander

takman wrote: »

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!.

I guess you must have more time than I do then. New cars are definitely better than old though, in particular:

DAB Radio
The ability to read out texts and emails
LED headlights lights (actually one best features on my current car)
Head Up display (also very good)
Keyless entry (really useful if you have young children)
Better safety
More modern styling
Lower emissions


There's no way you can compare a 13 year old car with a new one.

Bewar3them00n

Just bought my first car, relatively painless, went to Motorpoint, price I paid for Citroen C4 Cactus ( top of range, 17"Alloys Satnav etc) was £1500 less than on Parkers, paid cash, instead I got a loan from bank at 3.3% to make up the difference from what I'd already saved, instead of the 10% or whatever they usually offer you.

takman

thescouselander wrote: »

I guess you must have more time than I do then. New cars are definitely better than old though, in particular:

DAB Radio
The ability to read out texts and emails
LED headlights lights (actually one best features on my current car)
Head Up display (also very good)
Keyless entry (really useful if you have young children)
Better safety
More modern styling
Lower emissions


There's no way you can compare a 13 year old car with a new one.

I don't disagree that they have extra features but none of those justify paying thousands of pounds extra a year for!. Anything extra that I wanted on my car I've just added myself such as a Reversing Camera and Sat Nav. Which is done properly and looks factory fitted and I bet your new car doesn't have a reversing camera!. But I didn't fit it for reversing I fitted it so I could see the towball to make it easy to hitch up the caravan (which only range rovers have this as an option from the factory).

New cars may have extra features but they definitely arnt worth the extra money!

But I should be thanking people like you because your the ones who buy the new cars and loose thousands of pounds in depreciation. So then people like me can come along and buy them for a reasonable price. So please carry on as you are

gzoom

The biggest cost of newish/new car ownership is depreciation. You can PCP/Lease/cash buy, one way or another your paying depreciation.

Older cars cost money to fix, but given most new cars loss 50% of their value at 3 years, you have to spend ALOT of money at a garage to justify a new car on the basis a older car might need repairing.

But new cars do have more features which some people may feel is worth paying extra for. I'm currently in such a delima, buy a cheaper 18 months old model, or spend 20-30% more on the latest model with all the new features. At the moment I seem to be changing my mind on that topic evey other day, I can afford the extra cost but at the same time the new car will not only cost more but also deprecate quicker relative to the oldler car :eek:.

The question of just how 'afforable' a new car is versus a used car is simply down to income/spending/savings. As long as people are sensible and know the exact financial commitment, new or old, cash versus finance, no one is right/wrong. Variety is the spice of life. If we all thought the same way there woudlnt be need for any 'forums' :rotfl:

thescouselander

takman wrote: »

I don't disagree that they have extra features but none of those justify paying thousands of pounds extra a year for!. Anything extra that I wanted on my car I've just added myself such as a Reversing Camera and Sat Nav. Which is done properly and looks factory fitted and I bet your new car doesn't have a reversing camera!. But I didn't fit it for reversing I fitted it so I could see the towball to make it easy to hitch up the caravan (which only range rovers have this as an option from the factory).

New cars may have extra features but they definitely arnt worth the extra money!

But I should be thanking people like you because your the ones who buy the new cars and loose thousands of pounds in depreciation. So then people like me can come along and buy them for a reasonable price. So please carry on as you are

Yes, my new car does have a reversing camera and it has a trajectory display that shows where the car will end up relitive to the steering wheel position. I bet your after market bolt on doesn't have that. The after market stuff is never as good because it doesn't usually integrate with the cars other systems.

Personally I don't mind paying for the extra features as I find them useful. Then there's the other features like the new automatic gearboxes which are miles better than those of old and new cars are generally quieter and more refined.

racing_blue

thescouselander wrote: »

New cars are definitely better than old.There's no way you can compare a 13 year old car with a new one.

Not so fast, sir.

My Volvo is 13 years old, and has these excellent features that are difficult to find in a new car:

1. ParkAnywhere TM paintwork. If granny scratches it in the library car park, I don't care.
2. Unlimited lifetime dentability (similar)
3. Familiarity. After 10 years behind the wheel I know exactly how it will perform on corners, in the wet, overtaking- quite a safety feature.
4. Limited gizmos. It's a warm dry motorised chair on wheels, not Tim Peake's International Space Station.
5. £130 to insure for a year
6. Special "discretionary repair" feature. If something goes wrong, I don't have to fix it.
7. Anonymity. My car is invisible to theives, and if it suddenly becomes visilble then good luck to them.
8. CarryAnyStuff TM. Lawnmowers, bikes, compost, firewood, oily boat parts, guinea pigs in a hutch. The car is not too proud to transport anything.
9. Amphibious. Drives through 1-2 feet of water. Maybe a new car could do this too, but would you want to risk it?
10. Zero depreciation. I was recently offered £250 for it, so in my mind depreciation is now ZERO. Free car.

And did I mention that it doesn't make any monthly demands on my salary? Freeing up cash to spend on labradors and elbow pads for an extensive wardrobe of corduroy jackets.

takman

thescouselander wrote: »

Yes, my new car does have a reversing camera and it has a trajectory display that shows where the car will end up relitive to the steering wheel position. I bet your after market bolt on doesn't have that. The after market stuff is never as good because it doesn't usually integrate with the cars other systems.

Personally I don't mind paying for the extra features as I find them useful. Then there's the other features like the new automatic gearboxes which are miles better than those of old and new cars are generally quieter and more refined.

No my camera doesn't integrate with the steering wheel position but it does show me the tow ball which is what I wanted it for. So it does exactly what I need.
I know that new cars do have fun features and I do like gadgets but I don't have a need for them. I've driven cars which can park themselves but I found that I could park in spaces manually that were too small for the system to work, so it's fun but not actually useful.

But I really would never be happy loosing so much money in depreciation. Some people seem to be happy with it because it's paid in monthly payments, but the total loss is still the same.

mcjordi

some people prefer new some prefer older..

i prefer the older ones simply because i dont want to loose thousands over a few years..
current car was £350 lowish miles a few months test ( sailed through another) only spent £4odd on brake pads as discs came with it (pads were trade cost)
unless i win the lotto i only intend buying older ones

1. sat nav i either use my tom tom or my google maps on the phone
2. dont care for reversing camera i use the mk1 eye ball

jimjames

thescouselander wrote: »

I guess you must have more time than I do then. New cars are definitely better than old though, in particular:

DAB Radio
The ability to read out texts and emails
LED headlights lights (actually one best features on my current car)
Head Up display (also very good)
Keyless entry (really useful if you have young children)
Better safety
More modern styling
Lower emissions
.

Out of that list the only item that might have any possible benefit are safety features. I have a radio that works so DAB is irrelevant. Keyless entry just seems like a gimmick to me that is another item to go wrong and paying tens of thousands to get a car that is barely better fuel economy than a 15 year old Golf TDI doesn't seem great economics.

By all means choose a new car if that's what you prefer but I don't think you can reasonably justify it on the grounds of being cheaper as it will be much more expensive.

thescouselander

jimjames wrote: »

Out of that list the only item that might have any possible benefit are safety features. I have a radio that works so DAB is irrelevant. Keyless entry just seems like a gimmick to me that is another item to go wrong and paying tens of thousands to get a car that is barely better fuel economy than a 15 year old Golf TDI doesn't seem great economics.

By all means choose a new car if that's what you prefer but I don't think you can reasonably justify it on the grounds of being cheaper as it will be much more expensive.

I didn't say it was cheaper to have a new car. I was saying new cars are easier to budget for because the costs are known in advance.

On the DAB thing I often listen to stations that aren't available on analogue to its worth it to me. Also keyless entry makes it a whole lot easier to open the car when you're carrying/controlling a small child in the other hand. All of these things are useful in the right circumstances.