Buying a new car

ma9gm

I was hoping to get some advice. I know there are risks and each car is different. But I'm trying to work out how much risk it would be... let me explain a bit more...

We are looking to buy a new car. We have been looking at cars up to millage of 50k miles. My wife and I have been disagreeing on things, mainly because our budget doesn't stretch for us to "tick all the boxes".

However, we've just found a car (sold from a garage) which ticks pretty much all the boxes, with the exception of the millage. It has 116k miles on the clock. But is also £1.5k below our budget.

What's the big risks, and how big are the risks from buying a car with this many miles on the clock? It's been regularly serviced, and apparently was an ex business lease car. It's only 4 years old. It might be worth noting we don't do much driving. We drive roughly about 4k miles a year!

[Deleted User]

At just 4000 a year you'd probably be better off with a bus pass!
Seriosly I would look at the smallest, newest car you can afford. At 116k things will start falling off and wearing out.

bigisi

ma9gm wrote: »

It has 116k miles on the clock. But is also £1.5k below our budget.

So most likely to be diesel then, correct?

In which case:

ma9gm wrote: »

We drive roughly about 4k miles a year!

It's a really bad idea, at those miles you should really be looking at a petrol.

ma9gm

bigisi wrote: »

So most likely to be diesel then, correct?

In which case:


It's a really bad idea, at those miles you should really be looking at a petrol.

This is really helpful. I'm very ignorant of these things. Why would a petrol be a better idea for these sorts of miles? When comparing the MPG, the diesels are significantly less.

foxy-stoat

ma9gm wrote: »

This is really helpful. I'm very ignorant of these things. Why would a petrol be a better idea for these sorts of miles? When comparing the MPG, the diesels are significantly less.

Modern diesels do not do so well with short trips.

Go for a petrol.

ma9gm

foxy-stoat wrote: »

Modern diesels do not do so well with short trips.

Go for a petrol.

Thank you for this. We do lots of 2 mile trips with a couple of little ones. So a bus pass wouldn't help getting all the bits around. So we need a car big enough to get all our stuff around. The difference for urban miles on autotrader between the petrol and Diesels is about 30 mpg. Which seems like a lot. But you're saying the actual urban mpg for the diesels is a lot less?

DUTR

ma9gm wrote: »

Thank you for this. We do lots of 2 mile trips with a couple of little ones. So a bus pass wouldn't help getting all the bits around. So we need a car big enough to get all our stuff around. The difference for urban miles on autotrader between the petrol and Diesels is about 30 mpg. Which seems like a lot. But you're saying the actual urban mpg for the diesels is a lot less?

Two cars same size model etc one petrol one diesel, then round town a few mpg difference, on a run 15% more for the derv.

parking_question_chap

ma9gm wrote: »

This is really helpful. I'm very ignorant of these things. Why would a petrol be a better idea for these sorts of miles? When comparing the MPG, the diesels are significantly less.

You will spend way more than the fuel savings replacing the DPF when it fails due to the low milage you will be doing.

photome

ma9gm wrote: »

Thank you for this. We do lots of 2 mile trips with a couple of little ones. So a bus pass wouldn't help getting all the bits around. So we need a car big enough to get all our stuff around. The difference for urban miles on autotrader between the petrol and Diesels is about 30 mpg. Which seems like a lot. But you're saying the actual urban mpg for the diesels is a lot less?

For your mileage , forget diesel , you will have problems. Even if you didn’t the difference in fuel costs over 4000 miles is minimal

izzy65

As has been stated go for petrol, a diesel needs it's DPF run at a high temperature for a good journey , so motorway driving sort of speed, so it can burn off the particles it's accumulated, if you don't then an engine management light is next and limp home mode, and an exspensive part to replace if it's needed, your expected mileage you will have very little saving on the diesel mpg.

AdrianC

If you're looking at a 4yo diesel, then a 116k one is likely to have a far lower chance of developing DPF issues than a 50k one.

But at 4k/year, the fuel cost difference to a petrol is going to be minimal, and your chances of ongoing problems far lower. Please don't buy a diesel.

Another factor is that a 4yo car is 2015 - it may well be Euro5 emissions rather than Euro6, which if you're anywhere near a city that's considering introducing emission restrictions should definitely tip you towards petrol.