Help me decide what car to buy.

[Deleted User]

BOWFER said:

tacpot12 said:

Our car cost £900 two years ago and has been totally reliable. It's needed a bit more work doing to it that a younger car would have to pass the MOTs, but it has never let us down.

Not that I watch the awful programme, but I believe this is a 'Trigger's broom' argument.

You mean the most successful British sitcom ever made that millions of people love?

AdrianC

Deleted_User said:

BOWFER said:

Not that I watch the awful programme, but I believe this is a 'Trigger's broom' argument.

You mean the most successful British sitcom ever made that millions of people love?

That doesn't necessarily stop it being awful...

Let's be honest, millions of people have appallingly bad taste and very low standards.

IMHO it was mildly amusing back in the day, but it's now badly dated - and has been massively over-blown and over-hyped since. See also: Dad's Army.

[Deleted User]

It wasn't awful as you put it. It was a masterpiece in comedy. 

Bigphil1474

OP, I used to buy older cars (maybe 7 to 10 years old) ran them until they were knackered, then replaced. Reasonably cost effective although I am lucky that I have a good local indie garage to call on. As I've got older, I've started buying newer cars and (so far) run them longer. My previous car was a 6 year old Fiesta when I bought it for £4.5k, ran it for 5 years and traded in for £1,500. My current car was 2.5 years old when I bought for around £9k, and I'm hoping to run it for at least 8 years, fingers crossed. 

There's always some luck involved as you never know what is going to go wrong on cars, but for me the cheapest option has always been buying what I can afford, and invest in quality servicing and maintenance. Whilst depreciation is a factor, it has never been important to me as I've always expected my cars to be pretty much worthless when I get rid. I was lucky with the Fiesta as it was pretty worthless, but on paper had some trade in value. 

born_again

LisaB56 said:

What does it really cost to run a car per year including depreciation? I need a reliable car and don't know whether to buy a nearly new car and replace it regularly or an older car that I run until it isn't worth anything. I can afford to buy outright but I don't have anything to trade in. I am thinking about all the costs, servicing, etc. Are new cars actually cheaper if you factor these in? Single mum and no dad to ask these kind of questions! 

Buy what you can afford.. Anything that requires you to pay interest is going to cost more. 

What is wrong with buying a new car & running that till it is no longer worth it. 

But without any idea on your usage of a car. All anyone is doing is guessing.

New or old, they can all have the same problems. It's just pot luck sometimes.

BOWFER

Deleted_User said:

BOWFER said:

tacpot12 said:

Our car cost £900 two years ago and has been totally reliable. It's needed a bit more work doing to it that a younger car would have to pass the MOTs, but it has never let us down.

Not that I watch the awful programme, but I believe this is a 'Trigger's broom' argument.

You mean the most successful British sitcom ever made that millions of people love?

Yes that pile of cack.

BOWFER

Deleted_User said:

It wasn't awful as you put it. It was a masterpiece in comedy. 

It was predictable, lowest common denominator pish.
A running 'joke' in it was a guy that repeatedly called someone the wrong name.
Basically it was for people who couldn't understand Frasier.
The end.

Goudy

I would say in your circumstance, a nearly new car if you can.

Running an older car isn't a bad idea if you know how to keep it running for little money, like doing your own repairs where you can and knowing the best place to take it when you can't. Fitting the odd used part here and there and just doing enough to get it through it's MOT.

You could end up pumping money into it when perhaps you really shouldn't, but you've already invested in repairs and servicing and it's now thrown up a bigger repair and you want to keep it because of what you've spent already.

It's a fine line that works for some, but can have high potential costs if you get it wrong and I reckon everyone here that posts they run an old car does as much as they can themselves.

Say you spent £2000 on a car, had the brakes done, new tyres and then the clutch went? You're already in £2500 for a £2000 car and still looking at a £600 bill, what would you do repair it or scrap it?

If you have the money and can buy a nearly new without borrowing, I would look at something a year or so old, perhaps one that came with a longer 5 or 7 year warranty to start with, so you have 4 to 6 years left to run.

If you've only got the money for something 3 to 5 years old, what about a Toyota and their Relax scheme. Every Toyota serviced by the dealer gets a 12 month warranty up to 100,000 miles or ten years old.

Ok the servicing might be a little more expensive at the dealer, but you need to factor in the cost of a 12 months third party warranty as well. A Toyota dealer service starts to look a lot cheaper.

If you know someone that's up on cars, take them with you. Ask them to look at the condition of the tyres, see if they can see the brake pads. If they are worn, insist the dealer replaces them before you buy.

Also, when it comes to the dealer servicing, just get and pay for the basic service your car needs at that time to get the stamp/continued warranty. If they find anything like wiper blades, brakes etc get them sorted elsewhere. Halfords will fit a set of £20 wiper blades for £4, why would you pay a dealer £60 or £70. Personally I wouldn't let Halfords of Kwikfit touch my brakes, but for a local garage it's their bread and butter (or jam if they'll take a bit of folding).

Biggus_Dickus

BOWFER said:

Deleted_User said:

It wasn't awful as you put it. It was a masterpiece in comedy. 

It was predictable, lowest common denominator pish.
A running 'joke' in it was a guy that repeatedly called someone the wrong name.
Basically it was for people who couldn't understand Frasier.
The end.

.........

WaywardDriver

Quick example of how buying old isn't necessarily cheaper due to manufacturer contribution and lower (0%) APR. Here OLD is less than 1 year old.  KAMIQ SE Petrol, 1.0 TSI 110 PS 6G Man
	NEW	OLD
Retailer cash price	£ 20,985	18,950
35 monthly payments of	£ 249.74	329.53
Annual Mileage	10 (000's) miles	10 (000's) miles
My Deposit	£1,875.30	£1,875.00
ŠKODA Contribution	£ 1,250	£0.00
Optional final payment	£ 9,118.80	£8,897.50
Total amount payable	20,985	22,306
Representative APR	0.00 %	8.9 %