Should I downsize car?

zoso34

I bought a Ford Focus 13 reg (1.6 automatic petrol) 5 months ago and then 5 weeks later out of the blue was laid off work. I'm in late 50's and even if I do get another job it will only be part time. So car is now being used to get weekly shopping and doing about 50 miles a week!

At the moment Focus is all paid for but getting less than 30 mpg on short trips and £145/year to tax. Also not sure if the short trips are gonna have any adverse effects on the engine?

Would probably loose around £1500 on what I paid for 5 months ago but would maybe recoup that in running costs over several years.

I still want the convenience of having a car. Question is should I consider downsizing to a smaller manual drive with better fuel economy and £30/year (or less) tax?

molerat

It would probably take you a long time to recoup the costs of changing.

marlot

Having a petrol is good (modern diesels don't like lots of small trips).

At the moment, you're spending about £10 a week on fuel. Even if you have a car that did twice the mpg (unlikely on short trips), you'll save £5 x 52 weeks = £260. No point changing.

If money is tight, consider getting rid of the car altogether?

Herzlos

You're not going to save much on fuel with short distances, and you'd be mad to take a £1500 loss to save £115 a year on tax.

The only thing that'd make sense is if you sold the Focus privately, and then bought something much older, which would give you some cash in hand.

Jackmydad

Can't really see that short trips in that car are going to be much worse than with a smaller engine. As long as it's regularly serviced, and given a good run occasionally, I wouldn't worry.
The less mileage you do, the less the mpg you are getting is relevant.
As already said, changing it is going to cost.
I'd keep it, at least for 12 months and see how it goes.

zoso34

Thanks for opinions. Pretty much what I was thinking. Probably best to keep car for the foresee-able.
It is a nice car after all :T

BeenThroughItAll

Just remember, doing 2500 miles a year does not mean the car doesn't need servicing. Get an annual oil and filter change at the very least.

kmb500

not sure why your car does such terrible MPG but I don't see you saving much money from changing car especially if you do such few miles.

andrewf75

kmb500 wrote: »

not sure why your car does such terrible MPG but I don't see you saving much money from changing car especially if you do such few miles.

all cars get terrible mpg on short trips

AnotherJoe

zoso34 wrote: »

I bought a Ford Focus 13 reg (1.6 automatic petrol) 5 months ago and then 5 weeks later out of the blue was laid off work. I'm in late 50's and even if I do get another job it will only be part time. So car is now being used to get weekly shopping and doing about 50 miles a week!

At the moment Focus is all paid for but getting less than 30 mpg on short trips and £145/year to tax. Also not sure if the short trips are gonna have any adverse effects on the engine?

Would probably loose around £1500 on what I paid for 5 months ago but would maybe recoup that in running costs over several years.

I still want the convenience of having a car. Question is should I consider downsizing to a smaller manual drive with better fuel economy and £30/year (or less) tax?

No. It would take you years to recoup the small savings on tax, and since you hardly do any mileage, savings on fuel would be tiny also.

The only way you might save is if you sold it and used public transport and taxis. Then you can offset car insurance as well as tax and petrol. But then if you got a part time job which needed a car, you'd be buying one again.

System

zoso34 wrote: »

Would probably loose around £1500 on what I paid for 5 months ago but would maybe recoup that in running costs over several years.

Not even close. I do 100 miles to work a week now and my diesel Mondeo averaging 55MPG costs just £2.50 a week less than doing the same mileage in my 2 litre petrol MX5 which returns around 37MPG. Doing 50 miles a week based on that the difference wouldn't even be £50 a year in fuel saving. I doubt very much you'd ever recoup the £1500 you lose let alone the additional cost of purchasing the replacement car.