2k Budget - 30,000 Miles A Year

s_b

Iceweasel wrote: »

I can't see many employers giving someone a company car solely for commuting to work every day.

The OP hasn't made any mention of the car being used for work - only for 90 miles a day getting to and from work.

it was a bank holiday joke by the way...........

Herzlos

Deleted_User wrote: »

Would a Ford Mondeo not be a better value option than a VW at this sort of money?

Definitely; VW's command a premium (despite not being any better). If you want to go VAG, at that budget you should be looking at Skoda.

But really you just want a Focus sized diesel in good condition that looks like it's been looked after, and ignore everything else.

I'd probably have a look at Rover 75 diesels too, comfortable, cheap, and using a BMW chain-driven engine. £2k should get you one of the latest ones (2005/2006) in pretty good condition with about 80k on the clock (engine at least is good for 200k+). Or you can just buy a £500 one and replace it every time it fails an MOT.

Iceweasel

s_b wrote: »

it was a bank holiday joke by the way...........

Oh dear, I was taking things too literally - again.

Note to self -Lighten up.

bigjl

Let's be perfectly frank when considering the kind of vehicle you need to do 30k a year.

When I was doing Courier work back in the early 90's people tended to have Pug 205's, the 3 door commercial version with metal panels instead of windows.

This was an out of London firm and these vans could easily cover 80k a year.

I know of couriers that use Toyota IQ's usually for locals stuff but regularly getting runs up the road, average mileages will be 6/700 miles a week minimum.

I have seen some couriers using 107's aswell.

Security Companies put huge mileages on their vehicles, often on the go doing mobile patrols 24/7.

Again these will often be small cars, sometimes 5 door but not always and they are rarely bigger than a city car, at least from what I have seen.

The G4S meter reader blokes seem to have either the Skoda Citigo or Seat Mii ( have seen them a couple of times and never paid much attention but I don't think they were VW UP!)

A comfy seat, a driving position that works for you, AirCon, a half decent stereo and the ability to get mid to high 40mpg are what I would m be looking for. Though many will be happy to not bother with AirCon.

Along with being as simple to maintain as possible.

Korean cars give good value as it is only in the last few years that they have become more popular.

As a wise man once said.

KISS

Keep it simple stupid.

Or buy something brand new on HP with as long a warranty as possible.

Like the entry level Dacia Sandero.

Basic no frills motoring. I think you would have to pay extra to increase the warranty coverage to 100k though.

It comes down to the overall cost you are happy with.

If you paid for a £6000 car over 4 years and after a small deposit you had payments of £160 PCM it could work out cheaper due to the car being new and more than capable of doing 5 years at 30k pa.

If you paid £2000 for a fairly old car it may or may not prove reliable.

For £2000 you can get a very nice Clio mk3.

Cheapest option is of course to drive the current Clio till it needs a big repair.

londonTiger

s_b wrote: »

£2000 and 30,000 miles a year has to be a wind up,no sane person would buy a banger to do this
OP go back to your employer and tell them you want the finest wines cake and a company car or you quit

trust me its for the best

I would suggest a cheap £2k car is the best option. I bought my car for £2k 4 years ago and done 30K miles over 4 years since then and it's worked absolutely fine.

cars from 10-14 years ago are the best balance for reliability over efficiency. I hardly ever see any mk4 golfson the hard shoulder/side of the road broken down but routely see "luxury cars" that are <4 years old with their hazards on at the side of the road.

Plus with 30K miles a year, they will put a LOT of depreciation on the car. 90K over 3 years on a brand new car will depreciate OPs money from £20K to £4k doing that sort of miles in 3 years.

A VAG diesel bought with 100K on the clock will easily get to 190K on the clock in 3 years and will give trouble free motoring.

If you're worried just get a very good roadside relay recovery with complementary car to complete your journey. If OP gets away without any breakdown for just 6 months then the "banger" would have paid for itself fully compared to the deprecation cost of a new car.

It's ridiculous how some people think cheap/old cars are ticking time bomb. Most decent cars will do 200K miles just fine as long as they'e looked after. Only reason people buy newer cars is the price of old cars deprecates fast due to our consumer culture. Car finance makes it very easy decision for people to buy a brand new car.

jimjames

londonTiger wrote: »

It's ridiculous how some people think cheap/old cars are ticking time bomb. Most decent cars will do 200K miles just fine as long as they'e looked after. Only reason people buy newer cars is the price of old cars deprecates fast due to our consumer culture. Car finance makes it very easy decision for people to buy a brand new car.

Exactly. My Golf had 250k on the clock when I sold it and passed next MOT with no issues. That engine is common for doing massive mileages unlike some of the later TDI variants.

andygb

s_b wrote: »

£2000 and 30,000 miles a year has to be a wind up,no sane person would buy a banger to do this
OP go back to your employer and tell them you want the finest wines cake and a company car or you quit

trust me its for the best

Oh dear, the price of "bangers" seems to have suffered from inflation nowadays.
There are plenty of cars out there at the £2K mark which will happily do 30K miles a year, without costing an arm and a leg.
If you are trying to cut costs at that price/mileage range, then you have to consider servicing costs and the replacement of basic parts - tyres, brake pads and discs, possibly a clutch and of course suspension components (our roads are pretty awful and take their toll), so best to go for a base model with cheaper parts.

foxy-stoat

Is this OP ever coming back?

bigjl

londonTiger wrote: »

I would suggest a cheap £2k car is the best option. I bought my car for £2k 4 years ago and done 30K miles over 4 years since then and it's worked absolutely fine.

cars from 10-14 years ago are the best balance for reliability over efficiency. I hardly ever see any mk4 golfson the hard shoulder/side of the road broken down but routely see "luxury cars" that are <4 years old with their hazards on at the side of the road.

Plus with 30K miles a year, they will put a LOT of depreciation on the car. 90K over 3 years on a brand new car will depreciate OPs money from £20K to £4k doing that sort of miles in 3 years.

A VAG diesel bought with 100K on the clock will easily get to 190K on the clock in 3 years and will give trouble free motoring.

If you're worried just get a very good roadside relay recovery with complementary car to complete your journey. If OP gets away without any breakdown for just 6 months then the "banger" would have paid for itself fully compared to the deprecation cost of a new car.

It's ridiculous how some people think cheap/old cars are ticking time bomb. Most decent cars will do 200K miles just fine as long as they'e looked after. Only reason people buy newer cars is the price of old cars deprecates fast due to our consumer culture. Car finance makes it very easy decision for people to buy a brand new car.

One small point.

If you put 90k in 3 years on a £5995 Dacia Sandero it will still be worth £2000 minimum, so depreciation is £4000.

If the car lasted 5 years and still runs well it will probably still go for £1200/1500.

So depreciation is £4500/4800. Or less than £1000 a year.

The cheapest Dacia is only an example as clearly it won't give as good fuel consumption as a more modern car of that size or a more modern engine at higher cost in a Dacia.

And once a car gets over 100k things will wear out, when you get towards 200k then the risk of bills is even higher.

I got loads of miles or of my mk3 Mondeo and V50, both bought with high miles at just over three years old, but I am not going to pretend they were as tight as they were at the end as when bought.

To be honest an awful lot of the newish cars you see broken down will likely be due to an engine management or DPF fault rather than an actual broken part. And if they are under warranty then the bill will likely be getting taken car of by the dealer. The caveat being if you have repeatedly not taken a DPF equipped diesel for a run when the first warning came on and clogged it up. Another reason to avoid a modern diesel if you can get similar economy from a small engined petrol vehicle.

Older cars that are broken down will likely have a big bill awaiting the owner in a few days.

kev25v6

A MK3 Golf Tdi 1.9. They go forever, easy 50mpg and cheap to maintain. I've had the golf and a Passat and had a lot less problems with the golf.