50 000 miles in a £5k car could mean lots of repairs if you're unlucky. But if you're sure this is the right thing to do then get a good car with a known history as DP has done.
Or alternatively buy a much cheaper car which can you can scrap if the repairs get too expensive. £2K will easily get you an 02 or 03 Citroen Xsara HDI with under 80K miles, and should have a lot of miles left in it whilst doing good MPG
|
Being pedantic, the phrase, "I will be driving about 40 mile round trip" to me means that the mileage per day is, 40, not the 80 that many seems to be basing their advice on.
In my use of words, a 40 miles round trip means 20 there and 20 back.
On the basis of this halving of the expected mileage, it makes even less sense to buy another car.
The distances involved are really quite small, no matter how you interpret the phrase "round trip" and in my humble opinion do not warrent any consideration at all.
|
|
|
A £2k car will be worth £500 after three years, tops. It'll cost £500 pa to tax and insure, and another £500 to keep serviced and in tyres, so a bare min of £1500 pa.
Will your Golf lose £4500 over and above its normal depreciation if you put an additional 30k on?
Edited by oldnotbold on 12/09/2009 at 18:43
|
I appreciate the wise comments regarding the economics of the situation. However, the 40 mile round trip is only part of the story. As mentioned, it will be used for work too......all over a quite large county. The nature of the work means I will have to park up in some of the less salubrious parts of the county dealing with not so nice people. When I got the Golf, I was retired. However, the job offer was too good to refuse. So, I have a nice car I want to keep nice. Hell, I might just buy a carpy old white Escort van just to blend in rather than something for £5k.
As always, I appreciate the wisdom one receives in the backroom.
|
I still think the Golf is your best bet. If you're going to be in it a lot you'll want something comfortable and reliable, and I wouldn't fancy coming back to a Xsara in a rough neighbourhood and wondering whether it would start. A Golf is hardly a pretentious car or the sort that rubs others up the wrong way (see the recent Classless Car thread for thoughts on that) so it strikes me as pretty well the sort of thing you could park anywhere. You know it's a Mk 6 but to most eyes it's just a Golf or even just a car.
I can understand that you probably don't want to tell us here what sort of 'not so nice people' you'll be dealing with, but is there the possibility of getting a pool car from your employer for visiting those places? If not - and admitting that I don't know exactly where you'll be parking it - I'd still rather take the Golf and, in the worst case, trust my insurer to sort it out if any harm came to it.
As a footnote, you don't have to visit unsalubrious places for your shiny new car car to come to harm; when our three-month-old Verso required a bumper respray to fix the damage caused by an anonymous careless parker, it was parked on a metered and CCTVed street in oh-so-salubrious Leamington Spa. Irksome but, assuming the car is viewed as a tool and not as an ornament, worth the risk.
|
|
Get a banger. Had a 2 year old mondeo when i got a contract working 65 miles away from home. Was not that keen putting that much mileage on the car (650 miles per week). A guy at work was selling his wife's 12 year old pug 205. I bought it for £80 mainly for my wife to learn to drive in. She preferred the mondeo. Anyway ended up using it for going to work in it. It was comfortable and cheap to run and lasted 3 years when the clutch started to slip. It was uneconomical to repair so scrapped it. Missed that car. It would do 70+ on the motorway easily.
|
So you buy / have a car that's nice to drive, quiet, comfortable, economical, has a decent audio system and promises to deliver you to work or home in relaxed condition or, at worst, protect you in an accident. Then, when the occasion arises to actually drive the thing, you leave it at home and buy a heap of incipient scrap instead because you 'don't want to put miles on' the proper car. Can someone please explain how this is anything but utterly perverse?
I can understand that people run 'station cars', which live a life of short runs and spend their lives parked in places where they'd rather not attract attention, but such cars spend a minimal amount of time actually being driven. Wazza bought, and Tack is thinking of buying, a banger to get a lot more use than the car chosen on its own merits.
I intend to cause no offence, so my apologies if I seem to be pointing fingers, but this sounds as if a newish car is a treasured possession, to be put on the drive to impress the neighbours, and be polished on Sundays but kept for best rather than used, for fear of spoiling it. I could understand if it was a Ferrari or a 1971 Alfa Spyder, but a Mondeo or a Golf is the epitome of the sensible-shoes car, designed and built to get you where you need to go with the minimum of fuss and bother. Please help me out, because I really, really, really don't get this.
}:---)
|
|
A grand will but you a perfectly good Vectra /Mondeo / Primera with plenty of toys - certainly not 'incipient scrap'. Having run 100K+ Vauxhalls for 8 years on my 100+mile round trip commute, I think I've had 3 non starting situations in all that time. It's a perfectly reasonable solution if you don't want to leave the golf in dodgy areas.
|
snip>> 8 years.....3 non starting situations in all that time....
I'm afraid if my car as parked in a less than salubrious area, and I was dealing with not-so-nice characters, then even one non-starting situation would be one too many.
Tack - use the Golf, you have the perfect car for the job - something modern, reliable, crash-worthy and comfortable. A Golf blends into the background everywhere, although if it's a bright red GTI you might want to de-badge and fit some less eye-catching alloys ;-)
|
>> snip>> 8 years.....3 non starting situations in all that time.... I'm afraid if my car as parked in a less than salubrious area and I was dealing with not-so-nice characters then even one non-starting situation would be one too many.
A newer car is no absolute guarantee of reliability, plenty of postings over in technical to prove that!
Edited by SpamCan61 {P} on 13/09/2009 at 19:14
|
|
That would be a good argument if you were trying to talk someone with an older car out of buying a new one. But that's not what we're discussing here.
|
I understand totally why tack doesnt want his pride and joy in dodgy places.
Theres nothing worse than having a pride and joy and seeing a mark or scratch on the bodywork as its all you see everytime you go to it.
Theres no way i use my car to work either and mines old.
Spending £5000 is the hard bit as it encompasses so many cars that will do the job.
Personally i find the idea of a comfortable vehicle like a berlingo van appealing, as parked anywhere with clear glass back doors for the scroats to look into will blend in lovely and it will still have a value with a few scrapes when the time comes to sell it.
|
|
My apologies to you WillDeBeest if I am causing you sleepless nights worrying about my vehicular "economics" As a matter of fact, I have enjoyed every one of the 4000 miles driven since I took delivery at the end of July!. I don't care a jot what my neighbours think of my car.
Without wishing to appear "vulgar" or "arriviste", the economics issue is not a problem. My wife works, I have a pension and now I also have a job. The analogy I use is this; I wear my BHS suit, shirt and tie for work until they fall to bits or fray or go shiny at the backside. I'd save my M&S gear for nights out, weddings and other special times. I make no apologies, but it is what I can afford to do. The car is my M&S gear. It's my choice as to whether I use it for work or not.
So, as previously said in this thread, I am happy to receive wise advice re economics of the equation, best car for the job etc. A lot of posters here (politely) talk a great deal of sense. I didn't really expect someone to froth at the mouth over my choice of mode of travel to work.
|
Tack. You are being a little sensitive.
Like many on this forum I think using the new Golf makes sense for the miles you need it to cover. You asked for advice on got some you did not perhaps expect. We were meant to tell you to get a Mondeo TDCi or similar and then you'd complain when it blew up or something ;-)
|
I can see Tack's point perfectly clearly.
Tack, my choices would be either something unassuming such as a 7-year-old Almera or Mazda 323F for reliability and ubiquity, a Skoda Octavia in mould green or doom blue for the same reasons, or as mentioned above a Berlingo-type van. Good running costs, quite reasonable comfort (remember these things are built to be driven all day every day), and your "customers" will think you've come equipped to start carting stuff away...
Dave TD
|
|
WillDeBeest... The reason why i advice on a banger because
1. it does not matter what happens to it bodywise
2. cheaper to repair. All i did was to pop down to the scrappers to get bits that was faulty. The only thing that went was the throttle cable. Picked one up for a couple of quid from scrappers. The only reason i got rid of it was because of the clutch slip, it was an engine out to replace engine which i could not do
3. leave the good car for family outing etc
|
I can see Tack's point perfectly clearly.
Tack has a nice car in the Golf. Factor in two insurance policies and everything else and it will be cheaper and better to drive the new Golf.
Edited by rtj70 on 14/09/2009 at 09:25
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
