Advice needed on short term Depreciation

Rogerrabbit777

Looking for some advice as I find myself in abit of a different situation. Iam looking to buy a car but will probably only need it for 6-9 months as theres a good chance I will be returning overseas where i have lived for many years.

My main question is should I buy cheap with low mileage or should I spend abit more and look for a low milage  car that will hold its resale value more in 6-9 months. Will it hold its resale? I was looking at a vauxhall viva mid 19 plate with only 3 plus k on the clock for just over. £8,000. But Iam abit put off as it was only made for a few years and doesnt get the best reviews. Is there a resale market and how much value would it drop?

at the other end iam looking at say skoda fabias 19 plate onwards  for  upto £11,500 maybe. Or a kia picanto upto 10 plus k Is it worth paying more even for a short term ownership. Will the car hold its value. Ive laways bought brand new so dont like the idea of spending alot on a car that may have marks ,wear and tear etc but realize buying brand new isnt really worth it for a short term ownership (or is  it???)and because of brexit i cant export a brand new car which was originally an idea.

so as you can see Iam quite confused and would appreciate any input. Ontop of that i really do need a car ASAP and the uk second hand market doesnt have the cheap deals and options it once did. Thanks. 

WellKnownSid

How many miles are you planning to do in those 6-9 months?  What kind of usage?  Do you live or will you be travelling into a LEZ area?

I'd personally find something under £2k - run it for 9 months, then get a fresh MOT and flog it on Facebook for more than you paid for it.  Something which I've done a few times now as the kids have been learning to drive and then wanted to 'upgrade'.

CKhalvashi

Assuming you're not looking at a ULEZ area, you may be best off looking at Bangernomics in terms of moneysaving. I've run some very cheap cars over the years on specialist high mileage projects where I wouldn't want to depreciate my own car/my own car wasn't suitable (VW Passat estate to use as a van for example, I see that car regularly still around the local area some years on).

Even if you are, Euro 4 petrol goes as old as 2004 for petrol models, including some older vehicles than this, so it's likely worth finding something that fits this bill to not pay the additional charges. Focii and older Rovers are popular for being cheap with decent availability of spare parts, and having been outside major cities in Poland and Ukraine this year, they're still popular cars out there, likely for this exact reason.

Rogerrabbit777

WellKnownSid said:

How many miles are you planning to do in those 6-9 months?  What kind of usage?  Do you live or will you be travelling into a LEZ area?

I'd personally find something under £2k - run it for 9 months, then get a fresh MOT and flog it on Facebook for more than you paid for it.  Something which I've done a few times now as the kids have been learning to drive and then wanted to 'upgrade'.

Thanks for your reply. I wont be going near any congestion areas. There will be some motorway driving down to
The london area from yorkshire and around the motorways of yorkshire but not a huge amount. Probably more local driving just getting from A-B and possibly getting to work locally. Maybe a few K in miles although im not to sure. One issue is,if i dont end going back abroad i dont really want to be stuck with a car thats not great for the longterm. Everythinng is abit up in the air at the moment and this is adding to the confusion

Herzlos

Why get something with low mileage?

I'd just buy something in reasonable condition, as cheap as you can find, drive it for 6-9 months and then sell it before you go.

The less you pay for it the lower the depreciation will be as there's more demand than supply at the bottom end, and depreciation is a percentage of value - if you assume you'll lose about 30% on the transaction you'll do better with a £4k car than a £12k car.


Or you could look at a long term rental, that'd get you something new or virtually new, but it'd likely cost you more than buying and selling.

Rogerrabbit777

Herzlos said:

Why get something with low mileage?

I'd just buy something in reasonable condition, as cheap as you can find, drive it for 6-9 months and then sell it before you go.

The less you pay for it the lower the depreciation will be as there's more demand than supply at the bottom end, and depreciation is a percentage of value - if you assume you'll lose about 30% on the transaction you'll do better with a £4k car than a £12k car.


Or you could look at a long term rental, that'd get you something new or virtually new, but it'd likely cost you more than buying and selling.

Thanks for your opinion. Low mileage because presume it will be in better condition. Less chance of any issue etc. some that are a few years old and literally have four or five on the clock appear to be pretty brand new in all but words. Or are these sort of cars not as good as they sound? I have looked at leasing but they have minimum contracts.

born_again

Why not look at the likes of onto & monthly lease of a car.

Plenty of others that do short term leasing,

comeandgo

Rogerrabbit777 said:

Herzlos said:

Why get something with low mileage?

I'd just buy something in reasonable condition, as cheap as you can find, drive it for 6-9 months and then sell it before you go.

The less you pay for it the lower the depreciation will be as there's more demand than supply at the bottom end, and depreciation is a percentage of value - if you assume you'll lose about 30% on the transaction you'll do better with a £4k car than a £12k car.


Or you could look at a long term rental, that'd get you something new or virtually new, but it'd likely cost you more than buying and selling.

Thanks for your opinion. Low mileage because presume it will be in better condition. Less chance of any issue etc. some that are a few years old and literally have four or five on the clock appear to be pretty brand new in all but words. Or are these sort of cars not as good as they sound? I have looked at leasing but they have minimum contracts.

I would never buy a car a few years old with four or five thousand on the clock, they have either been sitting somewhere for months on end or been started and driven a couple of miles and stopped.  I was told it’s better to get a young high mileage car with evidence of services.  

CKhalvashi

Rogerrabbit777 said:

Herzlos said:

Why get something with low mileage?

I'd just buy something in reasonable condition, as cheap as you can find, drive it for 6-9 months and then sell it before you go.

The less you pay for it the lower the depreciation will be as there's more demand than supply at the bottom end, and depreciation is a percentage of value - if you assume you'll lose about 30% on the transaction you'll do better with a £4k car than a £12k car.


Or you could look at a long term rental, that'd get you something new or virtually new, but it'd likely cost you more than buying and selling.

Thanks for your opinion. Low mileage because presume it will be in better condition. Less chance of any issue etc. some that are a few years old and literally have four or five on the clock appear to be pretty brand new in all but words. Or are these sort of cars not as good as they sound? I have looked at leasing but they have minimum contracts.

Not necessarily the case.

I've disposed of 3 year old stuff with 180k miles on it in the past. The 2 cars in question had rarely been out of 6th gear and even more rarely run cold.

The first one went to a colleague who sold it some years ago, but is still MoT'd, 4 months ago with 393162 miles (it's an '07' plate car).

Both had been serviced properly, at least during my ownership. That's likely the key here and far more important than mileage.

Rogerrabbit777

Thanks for your advice so a low milage 3-4 year old car isnt as good as it sounds. Thanks. 

One thing that has confused me is insurance prices. They have gone up ALOT since i last insured in 2013. But i have been looking at one make and model from 2019 and then exactly the same make/model which is three years older and the same insurance firm are quoting me almost double the price of the 2019 plate. I thought newer cars would cost more to insure but how can they justify almost double for the exact same car but three years older

Herzlos

Most of the insurance cost is in the external liability - injuries and whatever you crash into, so newer cars with more safety features tend to be cheaper to ensure.

If the cars are identical then I don't know.


Mileage is an odd one - everyone seems to think that lower mileage is better, but it's only a factor and the type of mileage is important. Average UK mileages is about 8k/year, anything with mileage much above that probably spent its life cruising on motorways and thus will be in better than expected condition (or was a taxi which will be worse) and anything much below that probably spent it's life driving short stop start errands (which is terrible).

The last thing you want to do is buy a car that's only covering 2k/year because none of the possibilities are good for an engine.

Low mileage cars are also priced higher.

You really want to just buy a car based on condition - what one looks like it's been looked after better? What one will be easier to sell in 6 months?