Stick... or Twist New / Used?

vinceremedy

Hi all

Just want to get some opinions and thoughts from the community on a question that i no doubt everyone has some advice on.

I drive 18000+ miles a year on mixed roads mostly to an from same place of work. I have a 6 year old Mondeo that is showing its age now when compared to modern cars in terms features etc.

Within the next next few months its due a service, MOT and by summer a new timing belt at £400 approx. Ive gotten it valued and base don mileage its not worth more than £3500.

What should i do .... keep it, save spending out on another car Used or new and run it further into the ground for another 1/2 years. Downsides are that its not most comfortable to use daily and i no doubt will have something else go wrong on it soon.

Or ... Buy another car

New - have the warranty and get used to motoring becoming a monthly bill asa lease or buy for long term over pcp/finance

Used - start again, buy another car and start the story again

Open to suggestions and advice as I have never been in this position before where I can afford new.

Herzlos

Keep it and put the money you would be paying towards a new car into a savings account. Any time you need a repair, decide if you should upgrade yet and either pay the repair for savings or use it as a deposit.

parking_question_chap

6 years old. Thats nothing.

vinceremedy

completely agree - 6 years isn't old, yet the car valauations sites tell me it's becoming worthless very quickly! My old Audi was worth at least 2k with over 180k on he clock at 10 years old.... damn fords such a shame especially when a cam belt cost will be the equivelant of 10-15% of its value lol.

forgotmyname

What features does a 6 year old car not have that a new one will?

£400 for a belt or £20k+ on a new car that will depreciate £3k before you arrive home?

10% of its value is nothing, how about fitting £400 worth of brakes and little niggle items to a £250 car?

maximumgardener

the reality is that 6 years is not old BUT all cars do have a lifespan for each owner.

you have to make that call & its based on lots of factors, emotions and decision processes.

you could also consider buying used ...something around 2 or 3 years old which has had the early depreciation hit ??

once you decide what to do..stick to it and negotiate hard. walk away from any deal you don't like.
there are '000's of cars out there.

gabitzul

It's a reliable (so far) car and is one of the most confortable around when doing big mileage.

Keep it and put the money in a SIPP instead.

It has now lost most of its value but still works, it would be crazy to sell it.

Once it becomes a money pit (and I mean expensive things like ABS pumps, ECUs, fuel pumps etc start to go) then it's a different story.

Johnmcl7

I don't think it makes any sense financially because your fixed monthly bill on a new lease simply guarantees you'll pay out a lot of money whereas currently you may have a large repair bill that unless the car becomes chronically unreliable is likely dwarfed by depreciation costs.

I'm in a similar position with a Mazda6 that's six years old but I wouldn't even consider changing it from a financial point of view. The only maintenance costs it's had aside from servicing/MOTs are new discs/pads and a minor issue with the fan system (£40 to sort). I don't think any big unexpected bills are likely but even it did have some major failure, that would still pale in comparison to the amount I'd pay to get a new car like this.

Also I do wonder when seeing about various massive repair bills people are faced with or repeated repair bills whether it's genuinely an issue with the car or just not a very good mechanic. I had trouble with a noticeable deep vibration when I turned the fans up to high, I put it into the dealer as it was at the tail end of the warranty and the car had a full service history. They charged me £40 to tell me they didn't know what was wrong so they quoted me £600 for a new air handling unit plus fitting plus VAT (well into the thousands) or a full day's labour to dismantle the car further and try to find what was wrong. I put it into my own back street non-Mazda mechanic who did a little digging and found a build up of leaf material which he cleared out and car's been fine since plus he fixed another issue with the brakes Mazda couldn't sort. I thought it was just incompetence but I see now it works well in their favour as when faced with a big potential repair bill I'm sure people are tempted to go one of the 'cheap' leases they have plastered across the sides of cars as you come into the garage.

I keep money set aside in case I do hit any big bills but haven't had to use it and it's not just the cost, it's the inconvenience. On my last car a £50 sensor failed and put the car into a limp home mode the night before I had a 900 mile drive which meant having to get a hire car as I didn't have time to get it repaired. The total cost of repair was only £100 and not unusual on sub three year old cars either.

Obviously it's your money and you drive the car so if you're not that keen on your current one and a new one, it's your choice whether it's worth forking out the money for it.

John

motorguy

vinceremedy wrote: »

Hi all

Just want to get some opinions and thoughts from the community on a question that i no doubt everyone has some advice on.

I drive 18000+ miles a year on mixed roads mostly to an from same place of work. I have a 6 year old Mondeo that is showing its age now when compared to modern cars in terms features etc.

Within the next next few months its due a service, MOT and by summer a new timing belt at £400 approx. Ive gotten it valued and base don mileage its not worth more than £3500.

What should i do .... keep it, save spending out on another car Used or new and run it further into the ground for another 1/2 years. Downsides are that its not most comfortable to use daily and i no doubt will have something else go wrong on it soon.

Or ... Buy another car

New - have the warranty and get used to motoring becoming a monthly bill asa lease or buy for long term over pcp/finance

Used - start again, buy another car and start the story again

Open to suggestions and advice as I have never been in this position before where I can afford new.

The work you're describing is standard maintenance on any car, so buying a new one wont get you away from that.

All a new one will do is get you similar running costs and a large amount of depreciation each year. :eek:

Stick to what you have

vinceremedy

Everyone has been extremely helpful - thank you for all your input. The car's MOT is due next month so Ill pop it for that and it should then be due to another service to give me time to see how i feel.

I must admit the tempt of getting brand new car is emotionally driven given my long commute each day (1.5 hours) ... I guess somewhere in the back of my mind i believe that a nice shiny new Audi will take all the pain away... I guess the likelihood of this actually happening is pure fantasy though! .

parking_question_chap

motorguy wrote: »

The work you're describing is standard maintenance on any car, so buying a new one wont get you away from that.

All a new one will do is get you similar running costs and a large amount of depreciation each year. :eek:

Stick to what you have

Totally agree.

OP, just remember that a car (99% of the time) is a liability and not an asset. They depreciate, thats what they do. As long as yours isnt needing fixing all the time, its cheaper to keep what you have a there will not be much value left to lose.