Bangernomics: Is this the cheapest possible motoring?

markelock

Surely if you only have a couple of hundred pounds, but you get a car that will do twice the mpg, you'll halve your fuel costs. therefore you can stretch your spending out, and reclaim it via fuel savings?

as others have said, I'd go japanese. get a fsh, check for the next MOT, Service and tax due dates & do a check on the vehicle.

beautifulgorgeous_2

Junk yard tryes could be ok. A year last Sept I picked up our zafira after its MOT with three news tyres. That was at 1.30 did the schoolrun and parked outside my friends house, at 7 o`clock somebody ran into it and it was a writeoff, the tyres had done less than 7 miles and the insurance company didn`t settle the mot bill! incidentally we paid 16 grand for it and were paid out 6 and it was just 4 years old. Last new car I shall ever buy!

anewman

Be sure to check the age of the tyres as well as condition. My GF recently had a tyre blow out on her although the tyre was in good condition and passed an MOT not long ago, and the tyre pressures had been checked recently. The breakdown recovery aid the tyre failed just because it was an old tyre, think it was something like 10 years old.

Tyre age is printed on the sidewall somehow in some sort of hidden code.

lincroft1710

Beautifulgorgeous - sorry to hear about the accident, BUT if you'd shelled out £78k for a 6 litre Audi A8, 4 yrs later you'd have got about £27K max, a little over one third. The percentage drop in values for 4 yr old cars is about the same with a few exceptions - Honda Jazz is renowned for low depreciation. If you don't want the depreciation of a brand new car, best bet is 1/2 yr old car with fsh and pref 1 careful owner.

steven77

That was the sound of me jumping on the "Bangernomics" bandwagon. I have had a brand new Seat Ibiza for the last 3 years which I have given back recently, so basically I have leased it, which isn't too bad as they took my old car as deposit. Now they are charging me £400 to fix the dents etc and a £75 "option to purchase fee" when I'm not purchasing it!! I don't know any other shops that charge you a fiver on the way out on the basis that you might have bought anything! That'll teach me not to read the small print.

Anyway, my plan now is to buy a car from ebay for around £250, and to raise the money entirely by selling other bits and pieces around the house. Hence begins the "Garbage for a Car" challenge... :beer:

thestealer

Interesting thread, I've just done the Bangernomics thing too.

Previous vehicle: Citroen Xsara Picasso. Cost: £4995

Finance: £113/month
Tax: £11/month
Fully comp Insurance: £21/month
Fuel: £86/month
MOT + repairs: £33/month
Servicing: £18/month
Sundries (car wash, air fresheners etc.) £15/month

Total: £297/month

New car: Toyota Carina 1994. Cost £280

Finance: £0/month
Tax: £16/month (bit more to tax)
TP, F & T Insurance: £14/month (paid in a oner)
Fuel: £90/month (petrol instead of diesel)
MOT + repairs: £10/month (doing minor repairs myself)
Servicing: £4/month (do it myself)
Sundries: £3/month (not worth keeping sparkly)

Total: £137/month (Yay!)

Admittedly, there are a couple of one off costs. I bought a trolley jack and axle stands for £35 for servicing, but even supposing...huge saving

And to be honest, it's a nicer car, well appointed, electric everything, sunroof, REALLY comfy.

It's like getting the thick end of a £2000 per year pay rise!

jaygrunt

steven77 wrote: »

. Hence begins the "Garbage for a Car" challenge... :beer:

This I like :-)...I is gonna do dis so I can give my daughter a car on her birthday next year !!!! or this depending on how well it goes

Now to suss out how to do this ebay thingy

Any suggestions PM me or put em here PLease ....thanks

jaygrunt

thestealer wrote: »

New car: Toyota Carina 1994. Cost £280

!

Could I ask where you got such an amazing bargain?
Please tell cos I is wanting one of those cars especially at that price

big_gay_kirk

try the auctions.. thats about the going price.. lets be honest, t reg mondeos are only getting up to about 600 -700 round here...

philhuff

I can't pretend to fit entirely in with the Bangernomics thing, as I've got three cars, but one definitely fits the bill.

I picked up a Renault Safrane for £51 on eBay back in March 2007 for the specific reason of entering the Staples 2 Naples banger rally, raising money for SPARKS as I did so and happily supported by Martin here at MoneySavingExpert.com.

Now 16 months on, the car has just passed it's second MOT. Costs so far have been...

A bit of servicing that I just didn't have time to do myself, and the parts/fluids required: £200
Two MOT's: £80
Rocker cover gasket: £25
It also needed tyres, but they were donated by Micheldever Tyre Services. Value was circa £320.
A surprise fuel leak was also fixed by my good friends at ASAP in Huntingdon for free.

That's all that was needed over that time. I'll ignore the ridiculous paint job, unnecessary scoops and vents, the stickers supplied by Mitchell Signs in Kent, and a dashboard mounted overide switch for the cooling fans at the front, as none of those were strictly speaking needed.

Insurance is almost nothing, at around £100 a year. Tax is £185 a year.

The only downside is the fuel economy, which hovers around the 23mpg mark.

Total cost of £625 (inc tyres, tax, insurance, etc) over 16 months leaves a cpm of a little over £60 a month thus far. By way of comparison, one of my other cars costs around £350 a month in depreciation alone.