What's the best-value way to have a car for six months

eddietheanxiouspoodle

My wife and I will need a second car over the winter - not fussy about what sort as long as it works. Can anyone suggest the cheapest way to go about it? Rental and leasing are quite expensive. Does anyone have any idea how much we would lose buying a second-hand one and selling it when we're done? And any tips on how to go about it? Thanks

Mildly_Miffed

Entirely depends on what and how you buy, and on the other ownership costs.

Buy something cheap, sell it well - it could be free motoring.
Buy something fast-depreciating at main dealer premium, sell to WBAC - it's going to be expensive.
Then there's maintenance, insurance, etc.

Various of the car hire places offer longer-term rates, if you're just multiplying day rates by 6mo.
https://www.sixt.co.uk/rental-services/long-term-car-hire/
https://www.enterprise.co.uk/en/car-hire/long-term.html
etc

darrensurrey

Cheap means risk... cheap cars are cheap for a reason.

That said, the cheapest way into a car for 6 months is to buy a banger with a recent MOT and sell it after 6 months.

Key things to note
-if you're used to pristine cars, then you won't find one; this is not a solution for you.
-you may have to put up with things not working like a/c or central locking or a dodgy window
-it's a bit of a gamble as you tend to buy privately so no come back/legal cover and it may die after 1 month meaning you sell it for scrap (£200) and take a £1-2k loss, or it requires something fixing eg a tyre requires inflating 3 times a week or headlights only work intermittently or it requires a new coilpack.
-you may become addicted to bangernomics like me

tacpot12

I'd buy secondhand and sell on. I don't think you are likely to lose much in depreciation if you are careful not to overpay when buying. A reliable hatchback like a Toyota Auris or Audi A3 is likely to be the most flexible car for anyone to own, so should be very easy to sell on. You could look at Toyota Yaris and Ford Fiestas if a smaller hatchback would work for you. Just be careful not to buy a car with a known problem, like the 1.0 Ecoboost engines in some Fiestas!

Buying from private sellers on Autotrader or eBay (if they have good feedback scores and haven't sold other car recently) is likely to offer the best value. Selling on eBay with a Buy it Now price of what you paid for the car might work as a sales tactic.

Bigphil1474

There's a difference between the cheapest and the best value way to have a car for 6 months. If you know your way around cars or have a good mechanic to hand it's a lot easier to buy a second hand car, run it for 6 months, then sell on in the spring. As above, you might even get your money back. Convertibles tend to be easier to sell in the spring than autumn, so you could always pick one up in decent condition now, and possibly sell for more or at least the same when the sun comes back. If you don't know your way around cars or have a decent mechanic, then the better value all round may be to lease a car then at least you don't have to worry about it going wrong. Costs more, but better than buying a lemon.

Depends why you need it - could you get by with public transport/taxi's etc. or ask any relatives if they have a car they don't use much and offer to ferry them round now and again if you can use it otherwise, and sort out your own lease terms. 

Goudy

The cheapest way as described, is to buy something that you can sell on in six months without losing lots of money.

That doesn't necessarily mean buying at the bottom of the market though, you just want most of what you spent back.

It's true new cars depreciate at a faster rate than older ones, but pick the right car that's gone through the bulk of it's initial depreciation (which is usually at it's highest over the first 3 to 5 years) from the right source and you should be ok.

Forget the badge and look at what models depreciate at what rate, both in terms of percentage and a cash value.

Dacia's tend to depreciate at a slightly lower rate percentage wise, plus they were sold at a lower starting figure, which means the percentage they do lose in cash value is lower.

Obviously dealers will mark up a car to cover their profit and other costs, so if you buy from them you won't get this back reselling later. So it might be worthwhile, if you are up to it, to buy private and haggle as much off as you can.

It might be worth thinking about a 5 or 6 year old Dacia Sandero privately, but haggle hard.
Running it for the six months and then remarket it.

I actually did this myself a few years ago.
Someone stole my car and I needed something quick and cheap enough but with a good chance of getting my money back when the insurance settled and a new car got built and delivered.

I bought a petrol Sandero Stepway and haggled hard on the price. It was very cheap motoring as I got all my money back on it in 4 months.
The market for them is quite active and it was an easy resell.
Sometimes used cars are hard to sell privately, lots of tyre kickers and timewasters but this thing sold in days without issue.

Herzlos

Remember there's the opportunity cost of the money too. Even if you bought a car for £20k and sold it 6 months later for £20k (hugely unlikely) you'd still need to either finance that money or lose the interest on it.

Buying something older that's in reasonable condition will be the least outlay and lowest cost.

If you're not so concerned about practicality, sporty cars are usually cheaper now and more expensive in the spring.

Desmond_Hume

Buy something for £5K with 12 months MOT. Sell it in March for £5K with 6 months MOT. 

Grumpy_chap

eddietheanxiouspoodle said:

My wife and I will need a second car over the winter - not fussy about what sort as long as it works. Can anyone suggest the cheapest way to go about it? Rental and leasing are quite expensive. Does anyone have any idea how much we would lose buying a second-hand one and selling it when we're done? And any tips on how to go about it? Thanks

Buy a two-seat convertible - MX5 or similar.
Sell in Spring for a profit

Goudy

Grumpy_chap said:

eddietheanxiouspoodle said:

My wife and I will need a second car over the winter - not fussy about what sort as long as it works. Can anyone suggest the cheapest way to go about it? Rental and leasing are quite expensive. Does anyone have any idea how much we would lose buying a second-hand one and selling it when we're done? And any tips on how to go about it? Thanks

Buy a two-seat convertible - MX5 or similar.
Sell in Spring for a profit

I've done this a few times in the past.
Bought something like an MX5, Z3/4, even a Porsche 986 in October/November and sold them again end of April or May after putting a few bits right and tidying them up.

Problem is these days the market has fallen out of love with them and there's still a glut of older ones for sale.

It wasn't that long ago every manufacturer had a convertible of some sort, either a proper two seater or something with the roof cut off and nearly everyone loved them.
Today there's only a couple on sale new, they sell in relatively small numbers and for good reason, no one wants them anymore.

To try and not lose out too much, but something currently relevant. 

City cars sell well, the sort of first step cars like Picantos, i10's, Pandas and Ups. But the market for cheap to run, efficient little cars is still rather hot and prices aren't as cheap as they once were.

Hybrids are strong, perhaps an older Toyota Yaris Hybrid might be within budget, anything bigger would likely have been mini cabbed.

B and C segment hatchbacks are another market in a bit of a free fall, they have been overtaken by small SUV's.
There's a version of this market that might be ripe for what the OP in thinking of doing and that's the jacked up (SUV like) versions of B and C hatchbacks, what get called small Crossovers.

Bottom rung of this ladder is the Sandero Stepway but there plenty of other models.
Spend around 3k to 4k would see you into something still relevant in todays market so you won't have trouble moving it on, hopefully for the same sort of money.

I actually hate saying it, but the likes of the Qashqai, Juke (the horror!) and maybe, if it was cheap enough, a Mokka are all still on sale today and punters go mad for them.
I'd steer clear of anything overly complicated, like auto or 4wd though and I would try to stick with petrol unless you are out in the sticks.