best way of reducing loss on buying/owning a car......

carpy

in true moneysaving style what's the best method of minimizing losses of buying/owning a car? (apart from the obvious and not having one!! LOL)

i'm sure i heard martin talking about this a few years ago now, i think it went somewhere along the lines of;

buy a car of only one year or so old from one of the car supermarkets where prices are generally low ( can't remember if there was a certain type/manufacturer to go for, as best)

only keep it for year, in which the value shouldn't fall too much. sell before it's 3 years old so you don't have to MOT it. sell it privately to get a better price for it.

a car of that age shouldn't need any money spent on it in 12 months so in theory you sell for pretty much what you paid and you repeat the process again and again. changing your car each year and hopefully not losing too much money on it.

as i say it was a few years ago but it was roughly something like that.

is there anywhere on this site or elsewhere that explains how to do or anyone with experience of it.

any advice or opinions welcome:T

anewman

The absolute best way is to buy one that's already depreciated to it's full extent, i.e. a banger for under £1000. WIth most cars near new your depreciation alone will be more than £1000. I got a car over a year ago for £0, paid £100 to get it through MOT plus usual MOT fee, road tax etc. Replaced a set of wheel bearings myself - and am trying to keep on top of servicing it myself. Total cost to me excluding insurance for one year is under £500. Never broken down yet.

You can also get some great cars at under £1k, plenty of big engined luxo barges if you can afford the insurance.

If you can keep a sub- £1k car for long enough, it may even come out of the banger end and start being a classic and worth more than you paid for it. But most people as soon as they see a big repair bill scrap cars.

Any cars out of warranty may need money spent on them. Nearly new car does not mean faults won't happen.

As for car supermarkets I think some of their prices are laughable compared with new prices, but I suspect some haggling would get the price down.

Wig

I find car supermarkets expensive. And your 1 year old car is going to drop quite a lot in the next 18 months. You then have to sell it and hope you can find a buyer for its street price, or take a trade in offer which is going to be less than it's value - thus you lose again. I don't see the point of buying a car with manufacturers warranty from a dealer, you should always look at private sales first to see the cost of the same cars, you will still get your manufacturers warranty. but you might save £1000 on price.

I think the best ways to save are to buy 3 - 4 year olds from autotrader for as near or below the street price as you can find. OR compare the autotrader price with the price the car is selling for at auction, some models go quite cheaply at auction, other models will cost roughly what you can get one for on autotrader.

Or get an older car for about £1000, you won't lose much on value.

Lord_Lardington

Agree with Anewman, I bought a "Luxo barge" (Lexus LS400) for £3000 4 years ago, it's still worth the best part of £1500 and has cost me about £1200 in servicing and repairs. It's a bit juicy of course but for the power, comfort, equipment levels and space, its been great. My insurance, fully comp, 39year old, 6 yrs no claims is just £400/year.

PS I'm a bit dull and as such keep a spreadhseet of the running costs. It's currently just over 12p a mile since I got it. That includes insurance, consumables ... everything but fuel. The fuel costs send it to nearly 30p a mile ... still not bad.

anewman

Lord_Lardington wrote: »

I bought a "Luxo barge" (Lexus LS400) for £3000 4 years ago, it's still worth the best part of £1500.

Wonder how much that would have cost at new and nearly new prices

amcluesent

FYI, a Nissan 200sx would have cost you £24K when new but because they were unfashionable you get a mint one on 'V plate for ~£4K. Not bad for 200hp, turbo, RWD with an easy tuning potential of 300hp.

michaels

Try ebay for bargains - got my stilo for 2k 18 months ago, have added 25k miles spent 100 on a sevice and 200 on repair and 80 on 2 tyres and it will still likely fetch 1800 privately or 1500 on ebay if I can't be bothered with the hassle. Also get free insurance using quidco and switching every 3 months if you have full ncd.

carpy

michaels wrote: »

Also get free insurance using quidco and switching every 3 months if you have full ncd.

how does that work then?

rich68

With older cars you can save an absolute fortune. But newer cars have the advantage of better safety features. That can put a bit of a dampener on buying a banger.

anewman

rich68 wrote: »

But newer cars have the advantage of better safety features. That can put a bit of a dampener on buying a banger.

True, but you can still be killed or seriously injured in certain accidents in the safest cars I'm sure. Remember when people couldn't be bothered putting on seat belts and the nation needed Jimmy Saville to tell us all what to do? Such a basic safety device.