Keep my high mileage car or buy a slightly younger, lower mileage used car?

wyldeandfree

Hi all, I'm struggling to work out the maths/tipping point on this one. We have a 2007 Citroen Xsara Picasso at about 187,000 miles. We do up to about 17-19k miles a year. Not counting tax, insurance, breakdown cover and petrol but including MOT, services and all repairs we have spent £3723 on the car in the last three years (about 35k miles because covid brought out mileage down). We have saved £4000 towards buying a used car to replace the Picasso, we could probably stretch to 5k - but for that price we can only get a car a few years younger (in the 2010 to 2013 range) at still pretty high mileage (60-80k) - for a Kia Ceed Sportswagon, a Citroen C4 Picasso or a Ford Focus. Petrol engines - 1.6 or above. Also interested in Skoda Octavia but they are more expensive. I cant figure out if it is worth it. If we hold off we can save about £500/month towards this purchase but it is money I would rather be putting towards our house deposit savings! We are also doing a huge mileage summer so if we are going to buy a more reliable car it would be nice to do so before mid July instead of sinking more money into this. Our current car has no resale value. Any thoughts?

wyldeandfree

PS I forgot to say something important which is that if we keep the car over the summer we will need to add a towbar - another 500 quid or so.

Also just to add if I work out TOTAL running costs (I.e. anything and everything we spent on the car) and divide by miles done we are spending something like 22.5p per mile. This doesn't include depreciation as at this point that is nil for our car! That doesn't seem too bad of a price per mile to me...so when you look at it that way I wonder if it is worth spending a lot of money on a car that maybe won't do much better??

cymruchris

wyldeandfree said:

 I wonder if it is worth spending a lot of money on a car that maybe won't do much better??

You're answering your own question there really. 

Your current car you know inside out to an extent. You know when the tyres were last changed - when the brakes were last changed - when the oil was last changed - you get the picture. When you buy a new older used car, you really don't know what's been changed when. Even having a service history doesn't guarantee everything that needed to be changed was changed. Purely on the economics, I'd keep the car until it dies (or gets very close to it). 

If you wanted a change for cosmetic reasons, fancying something different, wanting new features or stuff like that - it can make it a different comparison, but on £ notes alone I'd stay as you are. 

wyldeandfree

cymruchris said:

wyldeandfree said:

 I wonder if it is worth spending a lot of money on a car that maybe won't do much better??

You're answering your own question there really. 

Your current car you know inside out to an extent. You know when the tyres were last changed - when the brakes were last changed - when the oil was last changed - you get the picture. When you buy a new older used car, you really don't know what's been changed when. Even having a service history doesn't guarantee everything that needed to be changed was changed. Purely on the economics, I'd keep the car until it dies (or gets very close to it). 

If you wanted a change for cosmetic reasons, fancying something different, wanting new features or stuff like that - it can make it a different comparison, but on £ notes alone I'd stay as you are. 

Thanks for your advice. Yeah it's a purely (or at least primarily) economic decision. The prospect of paying 500 quid or so to add a towbar to the old car, so we can tow a (light) caravan this summer has given me pause though. Do you think that would change your calculus at all?

Grumpy_chap

wyldeandfree said:

including MOT, services and all repairs we have spent £3723 on the car in the last three years (about 35k miles because covid brought out mileage down). 

You'd have spent £1,200 or therebouts on MOT and routine services for any car over three years.
That means only £2.5k over three years (<£1k per year) on irregular maintenance.  How much of that was also routine maintenance - tyres, brakes, etc?  That would occur on any car also.
Really does not look like this car is costing you anything unusual to run, nor more than any alternative car you could have (even a brand new one over three years).

Keep the car for as long as it is reliable.
Check the cambelt was done, or get it done if needed.
Save as much as you can for the house deposit.
If the car deceases before you've got in the housing ladder, spend as little as you need to for a replacement car.

EDIT:. Ignore the cost of the towbar - you'd probably have to incur this even if you change the car.  Think of the towbar as a sunk cost of this year's holiday.

wyldeandfree

Grumpy_chap said:

wyldeandfree said:

including MOT, services and all repairs we have spent £3723 on the car in the last three years (about 35k miles because covid brought out mileage down). 

You'd have spent £1,200 or therebouts on MOT and routine services for any car over three years.
That means only £2.5k over three years (<£1k per year) on irregular maintenance.  How much of that was also routine maintenance - tyres, brakes, etc?  That would occur on any car also.
Really does not look like this car is costing you anything unusual to run, nor more than any alternative car you could have (even a brand new one over three years).

Keep the car for as long as it is reliable.
Check the cambelt was done, or get it done if needed.
Save as much as you can for the house deposit.
If the car deceases before you've got in the housing ladder, spend as little as you need to for a replacement car.

EDIT:. Ignore the cost of the towbar - you'd probably have to incur this even if you change the car.  Think of the towbar as a sunk cost of this year's holiday.

Thank you so much, really helpful. Timing belt was replaced in Dec 2020. Good point on the towbar - I suppose I was thinking that we'd then have the car for longer *with* a towbar but better to think of it as a holiday cost. Also a good point that it's not costing us much over and above what any car we can afford would. Thank you!!

SteveJW

wyldeandfree said:

PS I forgot to say something important which is that if we keep the car over the summer we will need to add a towbar - another 500 quid or so.

Full tow bar kits on ebay around £160
Bolts on

• Bumper removal required? No
  
• Bumper cutting required? No
  
• Requires bypass relay? -
  
• Bypass relay is sold separately

Bigwheels1111

I would aim to keep the car I know and trust.

Plus car prices are still very high.

I plan to look for a new car in 2026, Euro 7 will be around then, plus the car shortage sould be over then new and old car prices should have droped.

By then you might have 8k for a new car. Who knows.

wyldeandfree

Bigwheels1111 said:

I would aim to keep the car I know and trust.

Plus car prices are still very high.

I plan to look for a new car in 2026, Euro 7 will be around then, plus the car shortage sould be over then new and old car prices should have droped.

By then you might have 8k for a new car. Who knows.

Thanks - not sure this one will last till 2026! It's pretty battered though the engine just keeps going!

There definitely seems to be a consensus emerging, thanks for taking the time to input.

greyteam1959

Always 'better the devil you know' !

wyldeandfree

greyteam1959 said:

Always 'better the devil you know' !

Lol. Indeed.