How to work out what car to buy?

drewwa

I've gone the bigger older diesel car route. I have an W-reg 2000 Audi A4 1.9 TDI with 145k miles on it now after 8 years. Still just the same as when it was new. Now worth a piddling £3,500-4,000 with the mileage on it.



I'd recommend anything with the 1.9 TDI VAG engine. They can hit 300k miles without trouble if maintained properly.

Cheers,

Drew.

kitchpoo

ness_w wrote: »

We don't have a huge amount to spend, but would have about £5,000 to put down on a car and would look to be paying off the rest as quickly as possible using his mileage allowance.
Many thanks for any thoughts and advice, Ness.

One car to consider, if you can find it is a Vauxhall Astra Eco4 - it did all the things the 'new generation' VW's do - but a lot cheaper and about 5 years ago! - your breakeven point will be sooner - I think mid 60's mid 70 mpg wa achievable from the 1.7 CDTi engine as it had higher gearing, lowered suspension, underside aerodynamic tray, rear spoiler and low resistance tyres.

Just reading some reviews - on a jounalist economy run it achieved over 90mpg average on a Lands End to John O Groats run! and is currently £35 per year to tax.

Not the cheapest version - but a good example with reasonable miles - Look to spend no more than this one...http://atsearch.autotrader.co.uk/www/cars_popup.jsp?photosOn=1&dealerid=22089&did=22089&pageid=1&modelexact=1&make=VAUXHALL&model=ASTRA&min_pr=75&max_pr=&dealersearch_full=Go&start=3&distance=0&adcategory=cars&channel=DEALERPAGE&id=200813306567462

kitchpoo

Any update or thoughts Ness?

ness_w

Kitchpoo, the car you mention seems like the perfect vehicle for us, thank you. Unfortunately, since my original post, our Galaxy has died, so it looks as though we may have to keep the ka for another year and spend every penny on an 8 seater - a really tough purchase to make as they are hard to come by. There may be some magical way of replacing both cars though, will have to see what we can do.

Ness.

AdrianHi

Ness,
I have a spreadsheet I've been playing with for a long time now which I use to calculate a pretty accurate average monthly cost of use for a car over a given period and monthly mileage. It takes into consideration all the things the what car method does, plus a few it misses. This actually results in a higher monthly cost for a car compared to what car.
Interesting thing about the excercise is that it sometimes proves an older car is not neccessarily cheaper in the long run even taking into account lost interest on capital tied up in a car and / or finance charges. The biggest thing tracking the costs like this has shown me, is that if you pick a young car that holds it's value well, say better than 45% retain value at 3 years, it can be cheaper to sell it and buy a nearly new version of the same back under warranty than keep it in years 4, 5 and even 6.
The biggest costs on cars are 1. depreciation (unless you pick up a reliable 6+ year old car) 2. fuel IF you do a sunstantial enough mileage and 3. cost of out of warranty repairs IF they occurr. The cost of finance charges or lost interest on savings tied up in a car are further down the list, so I say don't be shy about using finance you can afford at keen interest rates wisely to meet the purchase price of more fuel efficient cars or cars with higher price tags but slower depreciation. How much a young car costs to purchase is less important than how fast it depreciates. A £13,500 Mini 1.4 is cheaper than a £11,000 Skoda Fabia 1.4 in the long run.

For a Ford Ka replacement with a longer wheel base for better comfort I really cannot think of anything better than a 5-6 year old 60-80,000 mile Skoda Octavia diesel for £3000 to £4000 which is also fitted with the excellent 1.9 TDI VAG engine drewwa mentioned.
Is a 6/7 seater MPV big enough? Mazda are offering 50% deposit and then 50% interest free credit over 36 months on the Mazda 5 range right now. You should be able to get around a £1000 discount too. You would have to pick the same car up at 5/6+ years old to get the monthly total cost of use figure back down to what this gives you during the first 36 months of it's life. A 4, 5 or even 6 year old Galaxy will be no cheaper long term and may be more expensive.
If any of the above sounds interesting I'll stick some numbers in the spreadsheet and work it out for real.

ness_w

Thank you very much Adrian for that post.In terms of cost we have maybe £8000 maximum to spend but would rather spend less as that would clean us out. The vast majority of mileage is done for work, and my husband claims this back. However, we are starting to think that we will need to put this by to cover the replacement car in the future as don't want to be in the position of using our savings up again.

Unfortunately we must have an 8 seater (six kids) really, and have probably decided on a Previa, just need to work out which models have fixed the problem they did have with the head gasket, then it will be easier to know how much we have left over for the next car. If we can get the Previa at a decent cost, we might have enough for a Skoda as you recommend or the Eco mentioned earlier.

I imagine that any newish car bought on finance would quickly depreciate given the miles (and driving style) it would be subjected to! Thanks for the spreadsheet offer, if there's anything left over after the big car I might take you up on it!

Ness.

AdrianHi

ness_w wrote: »

Thank you very much Adrian for that post.In terms of cost we have maybe £8000 maximum to spend but would rather spend less as that would clean us out. The vast majority of mileage is done for work, and my husband claims this back. However, we are starting to think that we will need to put this by to cover the replacement car in the future as don't want to be in the position of using our savings up again.

Unfortunately we must have an 8 seater (six kids) really, and have probably decided on a Previa, just need to work out which models have fixed the problem they did have with the head gasket, then it will be easier to know how much we have left over for the next car. If we can get the Previa at a decent cost, we might have enough for a Skoda as you recommend or the Eco mentioned earlier.

I imagine that any newish car bought on finance would quickly depreciate given the miles (and driving style) it would be subjected to! Thanks for the spreadsheet offer, if there's anything left over after the big car I might take you up on it!

Ness.

Sounds like the Previa is the only way to go. No diesel, but if your not doing many miles in it that hardly matters.
The main reason I started doing my spreadsheet is because I wanted to be buying cars at a grade which I could sustain long term, i.e. replacing with a similar type car next time around. I could buy and run a top of the range executive car for 3 to 5 year, but that would bleed me dry financially and leaving be in a "banger" next time around. I like to know the combined cost of depreciation and all running costs on an average monthly basis fits inside my monthly budget so I know a car is not quietly bleeding me dry as it depreciates. Using savings to pay for a car might be OK so long as you can replenish the savings over the period you have the car.
Another option worth looking at for the "cheap" commuter car is leasing. Leasing companies are able to negotiate big discount on the cars they buy in to lease, a saving which at least partly gets passed onto the end customer. Sometimes a car manufacturer will let a certain number of cars go to leasing firms at silly low prices, such as end of life models which customers can lease at very low prices. Advantage of leasing is you don't have to sink any of your own cash in, your car expenses are very predictable, maintenance is usually included, no worries about costly repairs out of warranty, breakdown cover included. A basic Vauxhall Corsa for example can be leased for £147 a month including VAT based on 10,000 miles a year. Will be more for higher mileage but well worth comparing this option with the long term average monthly cost of buying, selling and paying for the higher running costs of other cars.
Some people will say "but you never get to own the car". My answer is you never really own a car as eventually it gets taken to the scrap yard (unless its a classic). You just get to have the use of the car and while you do you pay out for the expenses, depreciation, running costs etc. and if leasing it makes that monthly figure equal or lower than other ways of doing it, why not?

ness_w

Thanks for all the advice I was given on this thread. We are now the proud owners of a Skoda Octavia, as recommended by Adrian, which eats up the motorway miles so much better than the Ka. I can never find it in the car park because it looks the same as all the others but that's about the only minus point. We will still have to find an eight seater in time but we can manage at least for now.

AdrianHi

Thanks for posting back, I always find it interesting to hear what people do in the end :cool:

Inactive

Likewise, a good choice.:T