Budgeting for cars?

Triumph13

k6chris wrote: »

...My initial plan involved an 11 year old Volvo, with 110k on the clock, FSH and a tow bar!! Bought it for just under 3K - already spent £900 on new timing belt etc, tyres and a power steering issue.

For me the sweet spot is buying them AFTER the timing belt has been replaced as that is always a big cost.

k6chris

Triumph13 wrote: »

For me the sweet spot is buying them AFTER the timing belt has been replaced as that is always a big cost.

I thought I had! But in looking through the paperwork and phoning the garage where the service stamp claimed the timing belt had been done, they had no record. The cost of 'checking' and the ability to be completely sure if the work had been done, meant I had the work done again to be safe. All part of the 'long term car' strategy!

zagfles

I bought my Mondeo brand new, straight off a dealer's forecourt (via a broker who got me 20% off), and the depreciation has been under £1k a year. It cost £12k, and I've had it for 12 years and intend to keep it for another 3 or so.

I've always bought new and kept for a long time. I seem to get far less maintenance issues than people who've bought a 1 or 2 year old car. Probably because how you treat a car you intend to keep for a year is different to how you'd treat it if you intend to keep it a decade, like going over speed humps, mounting kerbs etc.

jimi_man

zagfles wrote: »

I bought my Mondeo brand new, straight off a dealer's forecourt (via a broker who got me 20% off), and the depreciation has been under £1k a year. It cost £12k, and I've had it for 12 years and intend to keep it for another 3 or so.

I've always bought new and kept for a long time. I seem to get far less maintenance issues than people who've bought a 1 or 2 year old car. Probably because how you treat a car you intend to keep for a year is different to how you'd treat it if you intend to keep it a decade, like going over speed humps, mounting kerbs etc.

Agreed. I bought a Citroen Picasso from new in 2005 - fair amount of haggling got it down to £10700, from around £13000 and kept it till now, so around £7-800 a year depreciation.
The beauty of buying new is that you know the history, however I probably wouldn't again. But I will always keep cars until they die - the depreciation curve really flattens at around 8-10 years, making from then on cheap to own.

Keep_pedalling

ex-pat_scot wrote: »

we are a one car family, much to Mrs XPS's frustration at times.
I cycle everywhere (and using trains) so it's pointless to have a car sat for use only at the weekend or parked all week at the station.

i normally say that my bike is my second car. (I have 10ish of them though).

We do stupid amounts of miles, but they are mainly child activity related. This will drop off drastically when they leave home and stop dance /drama/ theatre/ music stuff.

I buy cars at 18m to 3 yr old, then run them until 200,000+ miles or they die.

Then bump up again when grandchildren come around

Marine_life

Lol - my brother (who is good with cars) paid £400 for his car 5 years ago and it's still going strong.

mgdavid

brewerdave wrote: »

One important factor to account for, is the reduction in annual mileage after retirement - I was doing ~ 12000 miles pa private mileage prior to retiring - now the total mileage for 2 cars is less than 7000 pa !!
So I have a 10 yr old car which has only done ~ 35000miles and my wife dives a 7 yr old car which is up to 31000miles.

...or not, as the individual case may be.
I've done 48000 in the motorhome alone in 5 years (from new so now just nicely run in) and another 60000 in the trusty Volvo estate over the same period. I have a busy and active retirement!

Ganga

jerrysimon wrote: »

Forty years ago cars were rust buckets after 10 years. Amazing how far reliabilty and rust protection has come.

How very true,i said to my son a while ago that you hardly ever see a rustbucket in the supermarket car park these days.

lexington013

jamesperrett wrote: »

I tend to buy something at around £2.5-3k and run it until it dies. I had my last car for 6 years so it cost less than £500 per year in depreciation and probably between £300 and £600 per year in servicing. It really helps to have a friendly mechanic who can look after it and sort out the MOT's.

I do the same, bought a 57 plate Volvo V70 D5......£2800 a year ago.
Will run it till it dies......it's 12 years old now, I reckon I will still have it at least another 7 years.

MarkCarnage

I tend to buy about 2 years old and have kept the current one longer than usual as my mileage is now 8k a year not 18k when working. Now 9 years old and just over 100,000 miles. No big unexpected spending so far, timing belt changed a year or two ago, usual tyres/brakes etc.

Wife changed hers this year for one just over a year old so my turn next! I still need a fair bit of room in mine to transport son and rugby team colleagues occasionally, and junior cricket team too, not to mention fishing gear.....was thinking next car might be electric (current one is diesel) but not so sure yet. I know someone who has a Tesla and thinks it's awesome as well it might be at the price....