How much have you lost, or expect to lose when considering a new car ?

stickyfiddle

I bought my current car new, because finance is blindingly cheap where we are, and bangers are a massive pain in the arse out here. We paid under 20k sterling for a fully-specced Golf including all the finance costs for a 3 year loan. It also came with multi-year servicing packaging and warranty. I wouldn't have bought new in the UK, but having something modern is a humongous contrast compared with my old '98 Corsa. I got 3 years out of that Corsa at a cost of zero in parts and my sister has been running around in it for 18 months. The only trouble I had was a half-dead battery caused by my not using it for a couple of weeks in the winter. 

That said I love my Golf and I won't go back to anything that old. I won't necessarily buy new again, but would look for something 1-3 years old, which gets you a nearly-new car for 60% of the cost. Also, I don't want to be running one of today's cars in 10 years, as they'll start needing to be written off for "minor" electrical failures that render them undrivable.

musicegbdf

Exactly, buy it new and you know the whole history of the car. The first 3 to 5 years are covered under warranty. Also nowadays you can buy good service plans that will cover you for 3 or more years for a simple lump sum . (My daughter had one for her A1 for £250 for three services).

Then keep it for a reasonable time so you even the depreciation. In my company we operate a fleet of HGV's and that is what we do. There is a point of age/mileage that you should change.

I am a low mileage user , but for me that point is 7 years. I once stretched that on a Honda CRV to eight years , but started getting reliability issues and increased repair costs...

There are still a lot of deals out there. The current one is "deposit contribution" . You do that then cancel the deal one month later and only pay a small fee. On my mother in laws Polo we paid a £60 fee for a £1500 "contribution" , we also got around 10% discount on top of that via Car Wow. The end price she paid was less than a one year old Polo...

So look carefully , the adage that you lose by buying new is not always true. Bangernomics of course can be the real cheap way , but it depends how much you value any aggro you might get.

I am at the stage of life where I can't be arsed . Time and a stress free life is more important.

menamestom

richardhomer said:

I've had some decent company cars (Golf GTI, various Audis and BMWs) and some indecent company cars (Vauxhalls in particular).

I now run my own car, as I took a job which doesn't provide one. I'm in an industry which pays less (certainly to new-starters) but which involves working from home, shorter hours and less stress. In other words, I've got more 'life' in exchange for less money.

I bought a brand new Ford Focus Ecoboost 1.0 Zetec.

It's brilliant; quiet, handles like its on rails, very economical (mid-40s MPG round town - 50+ on motorways - it's petrol btw) and enough guts when you put your foot down to fool you into thinking it's quicker than it is.

I paid less than £15,000 for it - the list with the options mine has was close to £19,000. Yes - it will drop like a stone as it's not a premium brand - but I could easily loose as much running something older but more up-market, which the risk of of high (and unpredictable) repair costs.

The simple fact is owning and running a car costs money.

Our Cmax has the same engine, it's a great. I don't get quite as good mpg as you (the Cmax is probably heavier tbf) but for a 1 litre it's great and pulls well. Sounds good too, after 10 years of diesels it's nice to hear the 3 cylinder warble of this engine. Reminds me of the growl my in laws dachshund used to make whilst playing tug-of-war with one of his toys. When the family Cmax is payed off, I'll upgrade my shitty old Astra for a Focus ST or RS. I know Fords don't have the kudos of the big german manufacturers but they do feel great to drive.

sinbaadi

I've got the Zetec S 1.0 Fiesta, had it for a fortnight, and it is seriously impressive.  I've driven, and owned, all manner of cars, though never had a new one before.  This little Fiesta is a lovely little car.  It doesn't really do "throttle response" unless you're holding it at just the right rev-range, but you really have to keep reminding yourself that it is a <1000cc engine.  It's a flat feeling engine for the most part, and a 6 speed box would work wonders (It will easily hit 65mph in 2nd gear!), but it's wonderfully smooth and once it gets up and spinning it's remarkable just how fast it gets down the road.  Lovely steering feel too.

It's all relative, of course.

Iamnobody

badlydrawnbanjo;592890" said:

My new car arrives on Thursday, a Lexus CT200h advance+ which we're leasing through my wife's work scheme. It's going to cost me less per month than my current 5 year old Alfa 159 once you add everything up. Ok, I won't own the Lexus at the end but that doesn't bother me. The Alfa is currently worth less that I owe on it after three and a half years.

It will probably be more reliable as well!



I like those Lexi - although I don't think I can justify the outlay on one at the moment and probably wouldn't get a greyhound in the boot?

I'm hoping to run my current 11 year old Merc estate for another couple of years...

Snap

cars are money pits, in one form of another. Its just something you have to accept.

I've bought 2 cars from new, ever. One was a mini, in 2002, it cost us about 11500 and we kept it for nine years, it did 34k and we sold it for just shy of 4k. Bargain. Never had a fault with it ever. Sailed through every MOT. Obviously it wasn't getting hammered.

Other new one I bought was a proper mid life crisis - a new BMW X6, which I have had for just a month over three years. I got about 15% off the list price by using comparisons from 2 other dealers and a couple of brokers. Also they were doing this cracking finance deal where I put about 45% down (including my old car) and paid the rest off 2 years later, or handed back, with no interest in between. I paid it off. I've still got some of the service pack I bought new (£400) too, and that's more than paid for itself.

Just before it was 3 years old I looked at trading it in for a new X6. Mine has done 55k and they offered me 56% of what it cost me new trade in, and this was without any attempt to negotiate. I've decided to stick with it a while yet.

The other nearly new we bought was a pre reg mini, which was a great deal. Can't fault pre reg tbh. Again bought the service pack too, for 400 quid, 3 years service or 60k miles.

The last used I boyught was a Jeep grand Cherokee. YOu'd be mental to buy one of those new. THis one was around 33k new, and I got it at I think about 18 monhts old with 13k on the clock for £15k. I traded it in 4 years later with 60k on the clock and got 8k. That's cheap motoring, even with the nutty mpg you get on those lumps. Again, no faults with it.

I think next time I will probably buy one that;s a year old or maybe less. The first year depreciation is high, and makes sense if can be avoided. ALl depends on the deal though. New Audis have recently been crazy cheap on finance.

thomasross20

Wow, you've all had some great cars!

I've only had a Ford Fiesta and Focus! 

Surprised so many have bought new!

Sub-20k to me says "almost 20k" which is practically a house deposit! So expensive.

badlydrawnbanjo

Iamnobody;593461" said:

[quote="badlydrawnbanjo;592890"]My new car arrives on Thursday, a Lexus CT200h advance+ which we're leasing through my wife's work scheme. It's going to cost me less per month than my current 5 year old Alfa 159 once you add everything up. Ok, I won't own the Lexus at the end but that doesn't bother me. The Alfa is currently worth less that I owe on it after three and a half years.

It will probably be more reliable as well!



I like those Lexi - although I don't think I can justify the outlay on one at the moment and probably wouldn't get a greyhound in the boot?

I'm hoping to run my current 11 year old Merc estate for another couple of years...[/quote]

Tell you something, I've had my Alfa for 3.5 years and so long as it lasts till Friday (and I'm not back in the country till Thursday!) it hasn't missed a beat in all that time. The newer ones are as reliable as they come and I reckon they look one of the coolest cars on the road.

Snap

yes Alfas do indeed look cool and I think they have improived the reliability a lot. Pal of mine had a 159 which he said was v good, but it was dead plascticky inside. Nice styling though

I have an itch for a Maserati Ghibli atm, but the sensible voice in my head is saying to wait a while to see if they fall to bits after a year or two, or are actually reliable. Look so cool though and I bet will be a good used buy