Buying a Car - How Do You Do Yours?

fred246

My last car I bought brand new from a car supermarket (was about a week old with 50 miles on the clock). £4K discount. I paid cash (debit card). I kept it for 17 years. No major repairs. No unexpected bills. Just servicing, brake pads, exhaust tyres etc. When I was going to replace it I went to the VW dealer. "What are you trading in?". "Well it's 17 years old I don't think you'd be interested. I'll sell it privately". "Bring it in, we'll give you a price and the monthly payment on your new car will probably be less than your current monthly payment". I think I laughed out loud at him. He'd obviously just been on some training course but it just sounded so funny.

jimjames

thescouselander wrote: »

The wife has spent something probably approaching £1000 over the last 12 months by now (including repairs, servicing and tyres).

It's a bit misleading to include servicing and tyres in a list of costs to prove that an older car is more expensive. Hopefully you're aware than new cars need servicing and tyres too, even brand new ones will unless you change yearly before a service is due and that would probably be very expensive.

thescouselander

jimjames wrote: »

It's a bit misleading to include servicing and tyres in a list of costs to prove that an older car is more expensive. Hopefully you're aware than new cars need servicing and tyres too, even brand new ones will unless you change yearly before a service is due and that would probably be very expensive.

Incorrect. The deal I was talking about included servicing (which is infrequent anyway on today's long service intervals) and unless my wife suddenly turns into a boy racer the tyres should last the length of the lease. Also there would have been no VED payable on the lease car.