Buy outright & DIY vs PCP

fred246

I have had my large family car now for 15 years and done all my own servicing and repairs. The only repair I paid for was a new clutch and dual mass flywheel for £750. It works absolutely perfectly. I have kept all my receipts and was adding them up recently. I wondered how much a similar car on PCP would have cost with main dealer servicing. I would have had 5 news cars in that time. My car has suffered £15K depreciation and cost just over £4k in servicing & repairs. A similar car would have cost £94K in PCP payments, just under £5K for main dealer servicing with a new set of tyres for each car. I didn't include any over mileage charges or cosmetic repair charges. So that works out at a saving of £80K, less than a fifth of the price of PCP. I call that MONEY SAVING.

DUTR

That's assuming, others want a car for the same reason as you, I certainly enjoyed my 1999 Golf GTI in 2002, as I did the earlier ittertations, but more so enjoyed having the newer versions and the tech that goes with it. It's good to save money but only if it is due to be spent and enjoyed.

wymondham

That is really good, decent savings. Remember though that probably 5% of car drivers are happy to repair and maintain/service the car themselves so your saving is dramatic, but quite rare..

photome

not really surprising that owning one car for 15 years compared to 5 new ones in that time is cheaper.


not everyone can do or wants to do their own servicing


not everyone wants to own the same car for 15 years


on the flip side if you do your own servicing you could have bought 5 £2000 cars in that time and possibly saved even more money

TheMoonandBack

That must be some fancy car, with high annual mileage ? £94000 over 15 years to pcp it is £522 per month.

bengalknights

What car is it? If moonbacks calculation is right you could have actually leased cheaper depending on the vehicle.

motorguy

fred246 wrote: »

I have had my large family car now for 15 years and done all my own servicing and repairs. The only repair I paid for was a new clutch and dual mass flywheel for £750. It works absolutely perfectly. I have kept all my receipts and was adding them up recently. I wondered how much a similar car on PCP would have cost with main dealer servicing. I would have had 5 news cars in that time. My car has suffered £15K depreciation and cost just over £4k in servicing & repairs. A similar car would have cost £94K in PCP payments, just under £5K for main dealer servicing with a new set of tyres for each car. I didn't include any over mileage charges or cosmetic repair charges. So that works out at a saving of £80K, less than a fifth of the price of PCP. I call that MONEY SAVING.

Yup buying new / close to new and running for 15 years will work out cheaper than PCPing 5 cars over the same timeframe, or buying and replacing cars every three years for that matter. Hardly a surprise though.

Nowhere near the amounts your talking about but it will be cheaper yes.

Doesnt suit everyone, and i certainly wouldnt want to sit in smug judgement over people doing a cheap lease or PCP deal if it works best for them.

System

photome wrote: »

on the flip side if you do your own servicing you could have bought 5 £2000 cars in that time and possibly saved even more money

If they were lucky. Once you get down to £2k unless it comes with a raft of history there's likely one or more expensive repairs in its near future, ones which the OP will have already done and which would outlive the car.

motorguy

Tarambor wrote: »

If they were lucky. Once you get down to £2k unless it comes with a raft of history there's likely one or more expensive repairs in its near future, ones which the OP will have already done and which would outlive the car.

I suspect it was more of a tongue in cheek comment rather than literal and retrospective advice.

fred246

When I was a child my dad always bought cars that were a few years old. Triumphs and Rovers with powerful engines, leather seats and walnut dashboards. My friend used to have brand new cheap cars like a 1.2l Vauxhall Chevette. Maybe at this stage in life I learned that new didn't necessarily mean better. I have never thought of a new car as being important. My cars have always been as reliable at 12 years old as they are at 3 years old. (to be fair my dad's Rovers and Triumphs weren't very reliable) If you HAVE to have a brand new car it will always be on the steepest part of the depreciation curve and those costs will dwarf any servicing or repair costs. Are people really still obsessed with age of vehicle? I remember my wife telling me that the neighbours with older cars all put private plates on them so you couldn't tell how old they were.

motorguy

fred246 wrote: »

When I was a child my dad always bought cars that were a few years old. Triumphs and Rovers with powerful engines, leather seats and walnut dashboards. My friend used to have brand new cheap cars like a 1.2l Vauxhall Chevette. Maybe at this stage in life I learned that new didn't necessarily mean better. I have never thought of a new car as being important. My cars have always been as reliable at 12 years old as they are at 3 years old. (to be fair my dad's Rovers and Triumphs weren't very reliable) If you HAVE to have a brand new car it will always be on the steepest part of the depreciation curve and those costs will dwarf any servicing or repair costs. Are people really still obsessed with age of vehicle? I remember my wife telling me that the neighbours with older cars all put private plates on them so you couldn't tell how old they were.

I'm not. I cant speak for the rest of the nation of course, nor would i like to make any broad brush assumptions about other people.

Theres something like 42 million cars on UK roads, and something like 3.7 million new cars sold annually, so only roughly one in 11 cars on the road is "new".

I guess a lot of people who put personal plates on do so because its then "their plate" and its a little bit of individuality, but again, each to their own. With new car shapes changing so regularly, it would be hard to make someone believe an old car is a new one just because it has a personal plate.