Brand New or Banger?

FlowerBob

Last year I bought a brand new Nissan Micra 5 door 1.2l Sport from a car supermarket :
http://www.motorhouse2000ltd.co.uk/
The very best price my dealer offered me was £7800 for a 3 door 1l model. I paid £7000 for the car, plus tax and a £40 fee.
It's under warranty, so my local dealer were happy to replace the aerial which turned out to be faulty. I get 11+ miles/litre (about 50mpg) and my insurance is cheap (little car)
This is my third micra, and I expect it to last at least 8 years before I buy another. (My first is 14 and still being driven round by my little brother).
You can check the stock on the website and there's no haggling - it was a perfect solution for me.

robin

Kay-UK

I don't think you can win with cars whichever route you take. Whenever you are buying one its the one which is very popular and everyone wants it, but when you come to sell it, then the tale is they are very dodgy and gone out of favour!

beaker141

I have inherited an N reg Corsa 1.2 from the Wife. She bought it new, years before I came along, so it is paid for,history known,low insurance and not bad on petrol. Mileage has only just passed 50k.

Drives a bit like a dog but I only do 12 miles a day. I always dream of a flash car, but logic kicks in, why fork out another couple of hundred a month for nothing more than a faster more comfortable car to thrash about in rush hour at 15mph.

The other bonus about an older car, you are not as protective with it. This has scratches etc and the interior is a bit shabby from using it as a van to get stuff from b&q etc. but I dont care - it goes from a-b.

The best justification I ever saw for a banger was a colleague I used to work with, he had an old Astra, welded a panel from a washing machine into the passenger footwell as a repair for mot, then ran it for a year - the money saving aspect was he was doing company mileage at 30 odd pence a mile, doing Surrey - Nottingham twice a week, he ended up making quite a bit of cash/profit out of the deal !!

lowsonig

I used to drive bangers. I had a banger rule - £500. Had to be under £500 with a 12 month MoT then drove it until it failed it's MoT. Regularly serviced them myself and only had any work done at a garage at MoT time if it was under £500. Every morning had a bit of excitment on whether the car would get me to work or what part would suddenly stop working or spontanously work again. Electric windows are good for that.
Two years ago I broke down and got wet through and someone asked me why I go through all the hassle. So I splashed out £7500 grand on a 3 year old motor, thinking it would be a bit more reliable. Having now spent over £2500 over the last two years getting stuff fixed at a "dealer" garage to keep up my "warranty". Obvisously all this work wasn't covered by the warranty and they wouldn't release the car as it was unsafe. I'll be driving this car until it fails an MoT!

So I could've had a fleet of bangers for the money I've spent. Which I have to say I am seriously considering!

Just as an aside a mileage seems to be stuck in English culture, anything over a hundred thousand miles is worthless. Well I was in Qatar and used taxis to get about. A lot of them had very high mileage on them. One of them had about 180 thousand kilometers on the clock and I got chatting to the driver and pointed out the low mileage compared to all the others I'd been in. He said that it had gone round once already! This car had nearly 1.2 million kilometers on the clock (660,000 miles). Yep it was a Nissan.

Sumostar

The cheapest car I ever ran was a Hillman Imp. No - not in the Sixties, but up to about 5 years ago. The reasons it was so cheap were as follows:

1 It was pre-1973 so no road tax to pay
2 Fully comp insurance was only £75 per year
3 Depreciation was nil as I only paid £200 for it and could get that back selling off in bits.

The service and spares were ridiculously cheap, and it did around 40 to the gallon. I ran the car for about 3 years and paid less than £150 in servicing & repair bills.

So, the best thing to do is get a pre 1973 car in good condition and CONVERT IT TO LPG! I'm currently paying 34.9p per litre!

Keep smiling and saving.

114th_Mort

I work for one of the largest car dealerships in the UK, I drive around in new Vauxhall Corsa design, but am I buying it, not on your nelly, a new car looses the most in its first year.

The way it works is I lease it, fair enough I still have to pay £130 a month but how much does a new car cost a month in repayments? They even pay the road fund license, then after 12 months I get another brand new shiny car to play with.

I don’t have to worry about reliability, MOT’s and all the other things that come with running an old car. I also don’t have the hassle of trading the car in to find it’s lost three to four thousand pounds in its first year.

Now here’s the good bit, the car I get is on a staff scheme but it is open to the general public, the only difference is you have to keep the car for two years and pay for the servicing before it’s return.

Just thought I’d share it with you while I’m picking the colour of my next new car

thehandsomeone

Well, as much as I would love to drive through the streets, getting to lectures is much easier by foot or bike. I guess that's the beauty of a uni... My college doesn't even have designated parking places!

Not to mention that buying a new car is completely out of question. Would be easier to go to the continent and buy an used one there...

scheming_gypsy

i'll go for an older car if you don't mind. New cars these days are all grim, either too boxy or too round.
Last car was a 4 year old Celica GT when i got it and was still going strong when she got written off last year after 4 years of me owning it. Very few repairs needed and did 60miles a day. Had 1 service in that 2 years and passed every MOT without work.
Replaced that with a Golf VR6 and again nice and reliable, although had a few repairs. I'd rather pay for a decent spec second hand motor than get a brand new low spec car, it's a lot more fun

FLEX24

If there was one way that was best we'd all do it!

I'd put car buying into 3 categories:

New - Never done it but I'd say benefits are you know the car from day 1, you get full warranty/backup and its completely straight. Worth doing if you keep the car till it dies, depreciation works out the same after all those years(sort of) but you have had to stump up more money to start with. Supermarkets/Internet Co.s keep the cost down and you can go to dealer for servicing/warranty purposes I think. Also you dont traipse round 2nd hand/private houses for weeks on end to find a car you are happy with which must save a bit.

Nearly/Few years - I have read buy at 2-3,sell at 5-6 years. You get the remnants of warranty and cars usually pass the first MOT without trouble(dont they?). You missed the big depreciation and its still reliable and in good condition and the parts are still available. But I still go to a dealer for this cos I dont fancy giving large sums to people I've never met before and I cant raise the finance otherwise so I guess I pay more than I should.

Banger - There are Bangers and there are cheap cars. Bangers to me mean smoke, noisy exhausts, things falling off...clapped out. Wouldnt touch them unless I knew all about it(and pay < £100). Cheap can be bargains if you know what you are doing but needs experience(what little I have I've usually paid for along the way so probably defeated the object!). I only buy private for these. I expect to do everything but the most difficult repairs/servicing myself(indie repair shops charge £40+ per hr never mind main dealers). Bro was in motor trade, Dad is Mech Engineer and I buy the Haynes manual :rotfl: .

Cars cost money, there are no 2 ways about it. You just have to decide how much.

Try "Honestjohn" on Internet and Torygraph.

mariegriffiths

My first car was a polo banger £100
It ran for 3 years, needing a clutch and carborettor in that time.

My Second car was a polo cheap car £1600
I ran it until I wrote it off. after 3 years.
I din't have to pay much on it at all.

My Third car was a polo medium priced car £6000 2 years old.
This has been vary reliable and has now had to have a ne clutch after
80,000 miles.

My Fourth car arrives Thursday, brand spanking new, you guessed it , Polo.
At £7,250. It is hardly more expensive than the last car a I bought.
2 year old polos are about £6000 and I'd rather pay the extra £1000 for the new model (greater resale value in years to come) and the peace in mind that there is nothing dogey about it.