Old Car - False Economy?

AdrianHi

Your old Golf may well cost you similar or more money to a 3 year old Fiesta broken down as average total cost of ownership per month... even taking into account depreciation.
If you still like the Golf, keep it since any possible saving is not going to be huge, just get rid as soon as it throws a repair bill of several hundred pounds plus at you.

MrSmartprice

I have a 7-year-old Berlingo which I have had from new. It has done 65k miles and has just sailed through its MOT with no problems. It costs very little to run and my insurance is less than £150. It is a wonderful practical car and totally reliable.

I have been very tempted by the new Berlingo as they are great cars. But I just cannot justify spending £11k or so on a new car. There is nothing wrong with the one I've got, I'm not a petrolhead (or even a dieselhead:o) and it's very MSE to keep it.

I think you need to know the right time to get rid of a car, usually when it starts letting you down or you are throwing good money after bad. What I do find galling is that my road tax is going up to about £250 in 2010 - how does it help the environment if I ditch it and buy a new one?

bargain888

I have just yesterday p/t exchanged my 8 year old Zafira for a 4 year old Lexus. Price to change was £4700. But it was worth the money. Why you may ask? Ok for economy wise mpg, the Zafira uses alot of petol because it was an automatically; the Lexus on par with Zafira. So in fact I am not saving any money on that. However, in terms of SAFETY...it was worth it. The number of times I thought the Zafira was not going to brake even though I was not going fast, was scary. The brakes were fine because I had it checked out. Only 2 airbags, 2 * NCAP. With the Lexus, 8/9 airbags. With 3 young kids, I felt that safety was paramount over economy and practicality. With there was going to be a crash, I know which car I would rather be in. Old bangers do not provide that safety protection. Insurance cost, not much difference eithe, only £50 extra for the Lexus.

AdrianHi

bargain888 wrote: »

I have just yesterday p/t exchanged my 8 year old Zafira for a 4 year old Lexus. Price to change was £4700. But it was worth the money. Why you may ask? Ok for economy wise mpg, the Zafira uses alot of petol because it was an automatically; the Lexus on par with Zafira. So in fact I am not saving any money on that. However, in terms of SAFETY...it was worth it. The number of times I thought the Zafira was not going to brake even though I was not going fast, was scary. The brakes were fine because I had it checked out. Only 2 airbags, 2 * NCAP. With the Lexus, 8/9 airbags. With 3 young kids, I felt that safety was paramount over economy and practicality. With there was going to be a crash, I know which car I would rather be in. Old bangers do not provide that safety protection. Insurance cost, not much difference eithe, only £50 extra for the Lexus.

This post has reminded me of reasons against the older cars, crash safety is not up to modern standards. When you then consider depreciation expenses on a newer car replace and often exceed for sure, repair and higher fuel costs on the older car the key is by how much. The answer is not by very much so long as you buy nearly new up to 2 years old.

Volcano

AdrianHi wrote: »

This post has reminded me of reasons against the older cars, crash safety is not up to modern standards.

You think a modern supermini is safer than my 10 year-old Volvo V70? There's plenty of big old Saabs, Mercs, Volvos, Audis etc if you want a safe old banger.

Your chances of dying in a car accident during your lifetime is around 1 in 75, compared to 1 in 6 for heart disease and 1 in 2 for smoking. Somewhere there's a guy in a McDonald's drive-in in his £35,000 Volvo with a burger in one hand and a fag in the other saying "This car was a good buy, I feel really safe!"

I feel safer.

anewman

Volcano wrote: »

You think a modern supermini is safer than my 10 year-old Volvo V70? There's plenty of big old Saabs, Mercs, Volvos, Audis etc if you want a safe old banger.

Your chances of dying in a car accident during your lifetime is around 1 in 75, compared to 1 in 6 for heart disease and 1 in 2 for smoking. Somewhere there's a guy in a McDonald's drive-in in his £35,000 Volvo with a burger in one hand and a fag in the other saying "This car was a good buy, I feel really safe!"

You make an interesting point about people sticking themselves in what they believe a safer car yet consuming poor diets and smoking. However, apparently the new highly rated Euro NCAP cars will obliterate the old cars that you would ordinarily think of as sturdy and safe like the ones you mention. See http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=k3ygYUYia9I

But the way I see it is if you're not crashing and avoiding crashes you have nothing to worry about in terms of safety. Yes sometimes you can't avoid it, but I'm sure there's many people in their "safe" cars driving like cvnts because they feel invincible. If you'd have crashed enough to risk serious injury your car's a write off anyway so if you're buying a safe car for safety reasons you'd better be expecting to write it off

bargain888

But the way I see it is if you're not crashing and avoiding crashes you have nothing to worry about in terms of safety. Yes sometimes you can't avoid it, but I'm sure there's many people in their "safe" cars driving like cvnts because they feel invincible. If you'd have crashed enough to risk serious injury your car's a write off anyway so if you're buying a safe car for safety reasons you'd better be expecting to write it off

My reason for buying a car with good safety NCAP ratings is not so that I can drive recklessly and then be protected if I have a crash. It is to protect myself from people who drive reckless and crash in to me. You can not stop other people from driving reckless but you can give yourself the extra safety protection there was a crash.

lauren_1

I chose my current car due to the rear passenger space, i would like to keep my son rear facing as long as possible, its the law in sweeden that all under 4's should be rear facing and i strongly agree it should be adapted over here as well. Watching crash tests of forward and rear facing car seats it is safer hands down.

You can have the safest car in the world but putting your child in a forward facing seat too early is just bloody stupid....i hear all these 'horror' stories about babies being too big for the baby graco....they might break their legs in a accident so they must go in to a big seat asap! What parents dont understand is the pull on the babies head and neck in an accident, they are still hugely out of proportion until they are around 4 years old.

You can buy combination seats which flip both ways, you can buy special rear facing seats which last until 4 years old or if you are lucky enough to have a voyager or galaxy the middle seats can swivel around to keep them safer for longer.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=K62Ea8Fs4ng

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2DVfqFhseo&feature=related

please watch them!!!

lauren_1

The crash tests start at 1.20 in the second video

AdrianHi

Volcano wrote: »

You think a modern supermini is safer than my 10 year-old Volvo V70? There's plenty of big old Saabs, Mercs, Volvos, Audis etc if you want a safe old banger.

Your chances of dying in a car accident during your lifetime is around 1 in 75, compared to 1 in 6 for heart disease and 1 in 2 for smoking. Somewhere there's a guy in a McDonald's drive-in in his £35,000 Volvo with a burger in one hand and a fag in the other saying "This car was a good buy, I feel really safe!"

I feel safer.

If memory serves this age of V70 made 4 stars on the NCAP tests (which is superb for 1998) when there are superminis that make 5 stars today, not that there is much difference between 4 and 5 stars.
I'm not criticising the old V70 at all, bit there are superminis around to day at least as safe and less costly in terms of long term cost of use than a 10 year old V70.
Myself, I would sooner have the 10 year old V70 than a supermini as it's more my kind of car.