Check My Thinking

scaredofdebt

OK so just wondering about a few things, would find comments and suggestions interesting.


We currently run two cars, I use a Kia Rio 1.1 CRDi, it's a 62 plate with 105k on the clock. I do a LOT of miles, 25-30k a year so need fuel economy, with the Kia I am getting around 70 MPG but that is still £200-£250 a month in fuel alone.


Recently the car has had a few expensive-ish garage bills, in total for the last 12 months I have spent around £1k on it, servicing, tyres, brakes and EGR/DPF issues. I do a daily commute of ~80 miles mainly motorway so surprise the DPF is clogged up, we avoid using it for short/start-stop journeys.



My concern is it's now getting towards new clutch, injectors territory, ie expensive stuff, or certainly will be in the next couple of years. I still have 30 months to pay on the finance at £140 a month.


I know, not a good deal but my credit rating isn't great and they cane you for that, need the car for work so had to get what I thought would be a reasonably reliable and cheap car to run.


Our other car is a Nissan Elgrand, it's a V6 3.5 litre petrol (8 seater, we have 6 kids) and it is costing £300-£350 a month in petrol alone, 20 MPG if you are lucky. Car is lovely but again, starting to have issues (it's a Y reg with 80k on the clock) ie the gearbox (auto) has started to leak and I know how expensive that can be.


Now, we don't really need an 8 seater any more as kids are leaving home, a decent sized family car plus the Rio would be OK.


I have been looking at leasing an EV - I can get a Kia Soul for about £300 a month through work, problem there is range isn't great (110 miles), OK for my commute (80 miles a day round trip) but it's not quite usable daily as I do the odd ~120 mile a day run. I've test driven a Nissan Leaf which has a better range around 150 miles that would be fine for 99% of the time and that is around £400 a month to lease.



I could also get a Tesla Model 3 for just under £500, which has a range over 200 miles which would be great.


Also considering the Hyundai Kona, range is close to 200 miles cost to lease is £380 a month.



If I got rid of the Elgrand we would save about £350 a month on fuel and tax/RFL plus whatever it costs in repairs/servicing etc, probably £50 a month or so. My wife is due to start a new job next week which means she is going to be doing an extra 200 miles a week and would use the Elgrand as my commute is longer, so obviously the fuel bill is going to go up.



The Kia will be having an easier life with less miles, my wife would use it 2-3 times a week on her shorter commute (20 miles each way).


All the lease prices include all servicing, tyres, repairs etc and also enough mileage if we shared cars, it's through work so the price is in effect discounted as I would not pay NI or tax on it, they take the payment before any deductions straight from my salary.


I work for an electricity company so am allowed to charge the car at work for free, so electricity bills wouldn't rise much as I would plan it so the car is charged at work whenever possible. This arrangement may end but currently only a handful of people do it and there are usually spare chargers.


Just kicking some ideas around really, but overall leasing is going to cost no more than my current arrangement, probably save me a little bit and mean fewer unexpected bills.

a.turner

I can't believe you still owe £4200 on a 7 year old Kia.

scaredofdebt

Well it's true. More or less. Car was £5k at 4 years old with 40k on the clock, one of the cheapest available at the time for age and mileage, interest is high due to my credit rating. Didn't have much choice, I have bought the odd cheaper car and they don't last long with my mileage.

forgotmyname

Or you could buy something cheaper and save a lot of money?

£300 a month, thats £250 more than my last car cost per month over 5+ years. OK it was a high mileage car that may not suit you and i did less miles so it averaged out for me but it would not have cost an extra £250 a month over the 5+ years.

So your Kia may need a clutch at £1000. Thats less than 4 months of payments and it should last 100k miles. Still a huge saving.


EDIT: EV whats the range in heavy traffic during the winter with the lights and wipers and heater and stereo going?

Alanp

Maybe look at a petrol/ electric hybrid...

scaredofdebt

Alanp wrote: »

Maybe look at a petrol/ electric hybrid...

I'm currently driving a hire car and it is a petrol/electric hybrid. Lovely car, but it only does 60 MPG so the figures don't really stack up.


As I say, I can charge an EV up for free so that's a £300 a month saving on the current fuel bill for starters, probably more as the Kia will then be doing less miles. Hybrid would still need me to pay for fuel.

scaredofdebt

forgotmyname wrote: »

Or you could buy something cheaper and save a lot of money?

£300 a month, thats £250 more than my last car cost per month over 5+ years. OK it was a high mileage car that may not suit you and i did less miles so it averaged out for me but it would not have cost an extra £250 a month over the 5+ years.

So your Kia may need a clutch at £1000. Thats less than 4 months of payments and it should last 100k miles. Still a huge saving.


EDIT: EV whats the range in heavy traffic during the winter with the lights and wipers and heater and stereo going?

I see your point, I always used to buy older cars/bangers, the thing is the EV is going to cost me almost zero in fuel, so it's a £300 a month + saving straight away, before you factor in maintenance etc.



Second hand EV is worth considering but the older EVs have less range and I have the maintenance costs to think about etc.



EV (Leaf) in bad conditions is around 100 miles worst case scenario, which is fine for the commute, the Soul would need charging at either end of the commute, so not really an issue.

jimbo6977

Nissan env200 combi.
And a Suzuki Celerio.

scaredofdebt

Thanks, we don't need an 8 (or even 7) seater any more, just a decent sized family car plus the Rio is OK. Not sure how big the Soul is, going to see one in the next few days, the Leaf is big enough and I think the Kona is similar size? Tesla looks big enough too, may test drive one.

Mercdriver

Soul is about the same size as the Rio but more boxy

forgotmyname

Zero fuel but it costs money to recharge... Not free miles.

Leaf 100 miles in bad conditions is that the more expensive one?

Just checked some road tests and they used 108 miles of range in just 66 miles. (70mph at night in ECO mode).

Not seen anyone mention a range whilst crawling along in night time traffic with the heater and wipers going.

I would say that range is pushing it unless you can charge between journey's.

Any a normal car doesnt need to be an old shed. The car i bought was just under 5 years old. Recently repeated that with another sub 5 year old car for £3k.

High miles but what a comprehensive service history. Seen taxi drivers take these to well over 200k miles so no worries for me.