Is it any wonder people lease/PCP?

dipsomaniac

You are thinking HotUKDeals. Money savingexpert is about saving money and suffering depreciation is not saving money. You will be talking vanity plates next.

If you are anywhere near Glos you can drive my £200 focus and then make a more informed judgement

motorguy

dipsomaniac said:

You are thinking HotUKDeals. Money savingexpert is about saving money and suffering depreciation is not saving money. You will be talking vanity plates next.

If you are anywhere near Glos you can drive my £200 focus and then make a more informed judgement

Nope.

You're wrong, sorry.

MSE is about not spending more than you need to on the things you want.

I dont see anywhere that MSE advocates avoiding depreciation by everyone driving old cars?  In fact they've a Car Loans section about the different options you might want to use including PCP on a new car.

i've three vanity plates if you want to talk about those

motorguy

dipsomaniac said:

If you are anywhere near Glos you can drive my £200 focus and then make a more informed judgement

I sold cars for several decades either full time or part time.  Among that, I've probably sold 1,000+ cars under £1,000 and i've certainly had 2-300 cars worth £0-300 taken as trade ins, etc (many of those were sold on as cheap runabouts) so i'm more than happy to give you an informed judgement.

I've nothing against ultra cheap motoring.  Some of my most fond motoring memories are of dirt cheap cars.

fred246

I have had my new car for 16 years now. Just out of interest I looked to see what it would have cost me if I had taken out a new lease every 3 years. It would have cost 6x as much. Long term it's a bad idea. Apart from mortgages I have only ever borrowed money once for a car when I started work. I had a 12 month contract so took a loan I could easily pay off after 6 months. I only had that car 8 years. After that I always bought with cash except once where I took finance and immediately paid it off.

BOWFER

fred246 said:

I have had my new car for 16 years now. Just out of interest I looked to see what it would have cost me if I had taken out a new lease every 3 years. It would have cost 6x as much. Long term it's a bad idea. 

No it isn't.
Not everyone wants to drive a 16YO car, I certainly don't.

Herzlos

fred246 said:

I have had my new car for 16 years now. Just out of interest I looked to see what it would have cost me if I had taken out a new lease every 3 years. It would have cost 6x as much. Long term it's a bad idea. Apart from mortgages I have only ever borrowed money once for a car when I started work. I had a 12 month contract so took a loan I could easily pay off after 6 months. I only had that car 8 years. After that I always bought with cash except once where I took finance and immediately paid it off.

You'd have paid more if you'd changed car at some point as well, it's not unique to leases.

fred246

I buy a lovely new car that is perfect. It's still perfect. Am I supposed to start hating it at some point? Is it only cars or are all possessions supposed to be thrown out and replaced at 3 years old?

BOWFER

fred246 said:

I buy a lovely new car that is perfect. It's still perfect. Am I supposed to start hating it at some point? Is it only cars or are all possessions supposed to be thrown out and replaced at 3 years old?

This is the whole crus of the debate, really
It won't be perfect, not at 16 years old, it'll be far from it.
Worn suspension, worn bushes, worn this, worn that.
Loads of worn bits on it that will, at any possible moment, fail and have the potential to give you grief and expense.
Renewing every three years mitigates the risk of that.

fred246

I replace anything that is worn so it drives perfectly. The last time I was left stranded was by a car less than a week old that hadn't been manufactured properly. A hose clamp was missing so the cooling system emptied on the road.

motorguy

fred246 said:

I have had my new car for 16 years now. Just out of interest I looked to see what it would have cost me if I had taken out a new lease every 3 years. It would have cost 6x as much. Long term it's a bad idea. Apart from mortgages I have only ever borrowed money once for a car when I started work. I had a 12 month contract so took a loan I could easily pay off after 6 months. I only had that car 8 years. After that I always bought with cash except once where I took finance and immediately paid it off.

Thats your prerogative Fred.

You seem to think that your way is the only right way and any variation that other people chose is wrong - to the point of making sneering comments about other peoples choices.

When you're retired and want to spend your free time working at some old car then no doubt your solution suits you perfectly.  Not everyone fits that narrow criteria.  Personally, i'd rather use my free time to relax with my wife and family, and i'd certainly rather pay someone to do the work that take time off work (self employed) that would cost me more money.