Opportunity cost of newer cars

Zola.

Our neighbour's friends, both bought two shiny new cars, a Porsche and an Audi. Within two weeks, both cars stolen one night they were burgled. Porsche recovered, Audi not...

Sometimes its better to be unnoticed and generally understated!

System

To be fair only one incident has been at new house, used to get a lot more in my old flat where drunk people would pass by, and some of it happens at work, but now I am in a council estate and we are somewhat resented for being owners, if I could afford to retire I may not need a car so much. Investing may enable me to upsize in the future but it's not the highest priority

silverwhistle

It's been an interesting discussion. I'm not interested in cars and only do about 8k a year, although that is likely to drop. I'm not very mechanically minded, practical enough and strong enough to change my winter tyres every year but need my servicing done.

My previous two cars were 12 years old when I got rid, but only because I was moving countries and the bureaucratic and administrative costs were too high - I was quite capable of dealing with the RHD/LHD issue.

My last car I bought at 4 years old for £4k four years ago and, touch wood, no issues. I could have bought a more expensive car but instead used my spare cash to buy solar panels. Now, I thought the OP was optimistic with a 9% return in his calculation but with FIT and fuel savings and greater awareness of usage I'm doing better than that.

My old bangers used to take me back and forth from the Alps to the UK every year, so I'm not too worried about reliability. Snow and ice are probably a bigger risk, but that's why I put on the snow tyres.It would be nice to have a larger and more comfortable car than a Hyundai i20, but it's amazing how much wine you can tuck away in one!

missile

It is all about choice. You could get even more wine in a Tucson or a Sante Fe :rotfl:

System

Silver whistle - you can outperform 9% (unreliably) with a high enough risk stocks&shares isa and long time frame

It does look like a good return for your own solar panels, I personally would sooner invest in a renewable energy fund so you're talking big solar or wind farms in the parts of the world where they're best placed, and no work on your part - but your price to net asset value won't be the same

Likewise I'd sooner buy into big farms than grow my own veg, as I believe they could do it more efficiently than I could, but again the shares would be worth more than the underlying assets

atush

missile wrote: »

It is all about choice. You could get even more wine in a Tucson or a Sante Fe :rotfl:

Gah! I just sold my 13 yr old Santa Fe and my new car boot wont fit the same amount of wine!!! I may have to give up bringing beer, olive oil and chocolate home?

Uxb

This is an interesting thread.
Here are some more figures for you
Previous vehicle bought 1 year old from a franchised dealer, a decent trim level family hatchback type as at that time I was doing lots of miles and did not have the time for hassles and 'problems' at MOT's.
I used the car for the next 20+ years and clocked up 200,000 miles in it.
(The end came when the suspension mountings failed the MOT test).
Up to around 100000 miles it was serviced professionally, after that I did most of it myself bar the complex stuff like cam belt replacement and brake issues as by then I was doing less miles and had more time.
I've done all my finances on Quicken for eons so finding out the full costs of everything: service, tax ,mot, insurance and fuel plus the purchase cost of it was easy. Excluding AA membership the total running cost came out at 24 pence per mile. Petrol costs amounted to around 40% of the total.

I'm now drive not exactly a banger but £1K priced similar later model with similar engine from a used car dealer and I will see how the economics of this work out.....over the next 10 years!

Glen_Clark

MatthewAinsworth wrote: »

I personally would sooner invest in a renewable energy fund

Depends on subsidies, planning permissions etc. Politics again.

mgarl10024

Forget the car. Get a (push) bike. Lower costs; maintain it yourself and learn new skills; meet great people; get fitter; significantly lower environment damage.
Plus, lots of money saved for investments. :-)

(Alright, I know it can't work for everyone, especially those who travel long distances. But, if you can make it work, it certainly helps in lots of ways.)

Zola.

mgarl10024 wrote: »

Forget the car. Get a (push) bike. Lower costs; maintain it yourself and learn new skills; meet great people; get fitter; significantly lower environment damage.
Plus, lots of money saved for investments. :-)

(Alright, I know it can't work for everyone, especially those who travel long distances. But, if you can make it work, it certainly helps in lots of ways.)

As nice as that sounds, it rains more often that its fair weather, some of the roads are treacherous for cycling to work, and it takes a lot longer. Plus you arrive in work needing to shower again.