Shortest time you have kept a new car!

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
View Threaded
Wed 25 Apr 2012 20:43
Shortest time you have kept a new car! - parkman

Bought a new Suzuki Swift 2 months ago - great little car and I love it BUT just found out today my gf is pregnant!!!!!!! In 7 months we are going to have all the usual baby paraphinalia to squash into a car which is spacially challenged and I know I am probably going to have to get something more practical so have to be prepared for a financial hit in the not too distant future.

Just wondered what was the shortest time any of you guys kept a car before you swapped it - would make me feel better if I knew there were others out there who have made a quick swap too!

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 25 Apr 2012 20:45
Shortest time you have kept a new car! - a900ss
A month.

The car gave me bach ache, I told HR and I ordered a new car the next day.

Thankfully I didn't have to pick up the bill!!!!
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 25 Apr 2012 20:53
Shortest time you have kept a new car! - Leif
A month. The car gave me bach ache, I told HR and I ordered a new car the next day. Thankfully I didn't have to pick up the bill!!!!

Did they not suggest a back support?

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 25 Apr 2012 21:17
Shortest time you have kept a new car! - a900ss
Nope.

They took leg, arm, torso and many other measurements whilst I sat in the car and agreed that I could change it.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 25 Apr 2012 21:18
Shortest time you have kept a new car! - daveyjp
Congratulations.

X type diesel about 18 months. I stopped doing high mileage and the car didn't like it!

Don't rush in too quickly to change just because a baby is due.

We managed with an Aygo for three months when our daughter was about 9 months old. A colleague copes with a VW Fox. The trick is to buy a compact pushchair as this is the bulkiest item you are likely to carry on a regular basis. Quinny zapp extra will fit the bill.

Edited by daveyjp on 25/04/2012 at 21:19

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 25 Apr 2012 22:16
Shortest time you have kept a new car! - Bobbin Threadbare

My mum used to fit two kids (with baby seat/booster seats) and a dog into an A reg Mini.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 25 Apr 2012 22:29
Shortest time you have kept a new car! - gordonbennet

Agree with above, its a child (and all the best for the arrival), your car will suffice quite adequately for as long as needs be, get a top box for longer trips for the extra kitchen sink you won't need...:-)

3 kids plus us in our mk 2 Cortina, Rover P6, Land Crab and umpteen others, mind you pushchairs in those days didn't come with off road tyres or disc brakes.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 25 Apr 2012 22:42
Shortest time you have kept a new car! - unthrottled

Agree with above, its a child (and all the best for the arrival), your car will suffice quite adequately for as long as needs be,

But what about all the threads that start with: "I've got a second child on the way and desperately need a seven seater MPV..."?

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 2 May 2012 13:46
Shortest time you have kept a new car! - TeeCee
A month. The car gave me bach ache, I told HR and I ordered a new car the next day. Thankfully I didn't have to pick up the bill!!!!

Did they not suggest a back support?

A piano stool might be more appropriate.....:-)

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 25 Apr 2012 22:30
Shortest time you have kept a new car! - NARU

3 Months and a day.

I resigned the day after the new Saab 9-5 Aero Estate was delivered. But I got to take it on holiday!

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 26 Apr 2012 00:50
Shortest time you have kept a new car! - Avant

"The car gave me bach ache...."

I hope you didn't fly off the Handel, or you'd have been on a Haydn to nothing.

Seriously, Parkman, I do sympathise as the Swift has a particularly small boot. Does yours have a split-fold rear seat? If so you could have room for the push-chair as well as the baby (or baby in the front in a facing-backwards seat and one of you in the back) - and be fine unless and until another happy event happens.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 26 Apr 2012 01:19
Shortest time you have kept a new car! - jamie745

The Mrs pregnancy seems to be a surprise to the OP. Someone didnt pay attention at school :P I mean honestly, she couldve mentioned this before you bought the car!

I love this moment, seeing once free and single people have to buckle to the demands of family life and buy a 'practical car.' Somebody I work with had to get rid of his MX-5 due to impending child addition and pitched up recently in a Kia Ceed, oh that was a fun day. Me standing beside my car with a big unsubtle grin on my face as he pulled up.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 26 Apr 2012 11:49
Shortest time you have kept a new car! - jc2

The shortest time I ever kept a car had little to do with me-my local dealer phoned and asked if I would be interested in a new car,same size,lower payments,cashback-I paused long enough to ask what colours he had available-two days later I was in my new one.He must have had a customer for the exact spec. of the one I owned.I saw one of my previous cars many years after I got rid of it.Spoke to the owner and found he'd bought it on the Saturday after the Friday evening I'd taken it back to the dealer-that salesman seemed to be very pro-active in lining-up new customers against existing.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 26 Apr 2012 11:52
Shortest time you have kept a new car! - concrete

Congratulations on your happy news. Like most have said, you can manage quite well with what you have until you are sure what to buy next. No need to take a big financial hit on your Suzuki just yet.

The shortest time I had a new car- new Cortina in 1982, company used to buy their vehicles then and policy was to change at 30000 miles. Weeks after the new car arrived I was given Scotland as well as the North of England to cover. Just over 9 months later; bingo, 30000 miles and another brand new Cortina! Cheers Concrete

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 29 Apr 2012 10:28
Shortest time you have kept a new car! - Craigdm
My last Nissan Juke lasted 10 months and 15k miles, very kind dealer (who needed to hit his end of year sales targets) offered me the chance to swop for a brand new 2012 model for the princely sum of £150.
Obviously I bit his hand off!!!
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 29 Apr 2012 11:58
Shortest time you have kept a new car! - Roly93

Saab 93 Vector 2.2 diesel, kept for only 16 months from new due to the sheer rubish and troublesome nature of the car.,

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 29 Apr 2012 16:26
Shortest time you have kept a new car! - Trilogy

Shortest time I've had a car is 2 days, but it wasn't a new one!

Edited by Trilogy on 29/04/2012 at 16:31

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 29 Apr 2012 21:38
Shortest time you have kept a new car! - rpmmatt

It wasn't a brand new car when I bought it, but...

19 minutes, or about 23 miles. Bought a 540i Sport and crashed it on the way home from picking it up.

Remember kids, never turn your traction control off.

Edited by rpmmatt on 29/04/2012 at 21:39

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 29 Apr 2012 21:52
Shortest time you have kept a new car! - oldroverboy
Not personally, but friend of mine who worked at a volks dealers bought a new jetta, after collecting it at work, drove away, got 400 yards, car written off, got new car couple of weeks later and had an accident in that one at the same place. Sure helped the sales figures. Personally had an astra estate got tail-ended after 4 weeks, car written off, but pregnant wife ok, (uninsured driver wrote off 3 cars,after hitting the one behind me at a traffic light.)Funny thing after that one, dealer registered wrong car for me and wanted me to take the one he had registered wrongly.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Mon 30 Apr 2012 11:48
Shortest time you have kept a new car! - Ethan Edwards

Bought using my own money....seven months and nine thousand miles.

Citroen ZX 1.9d not TD you note. I swapped it for the TD version after I found it ran 'out of go' on a trip to hilly yorkshire.

Bought by someone else's money (which I think doesn't really count) don't know never been that lucky.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Mon 30 Apr 2012 11:59
Shortest time you have kept a new car! - parkman

Thanks for all your interesting replies. I have worked out that if I keep the car until Dec. ( just short of 1year) and swap it for one of the cars I am interested in I would take a hit of about 2K - significant, but not outrageous in the new car depreciation scheme of things. Sounds daft, but if I'm going to change it, I don't want to do it in 2013 - superstitious I'm afraid!

Wonder how many others feel the same about '13 - will car sales slump??!!!

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Mon 30 Apr 2012 12:05
Shortest time you have kept a new car! - gordonbennet

''Wonder how many others feel the same about '13 - will car sales slump??!!!''

More than they would anyway as the depression finally starts to bite you mean?

I doubt it, enough people crave number plates with 666 in them and then drive like the subject of the number...a bit too clever for their own good, you couldn't pay me to own that number plate, the number 13 on the other hand doesn't bother me in the least or the colour green, the very darkest shades of which are my favourite.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 2 May 2012 11:45
Shortest time you have kept a new car! - Happy Blue!

We bought a very good value Honda CRV for SWMBO to drive when we had two boys. 12 months later she gave birth to our daughter and neither of our cars was suitable for a family of five plus luggage. So we swapped my car for a 7 seater and I took over the Honda. I kept that two months, but couldn't get comfortable, so swapped that as well.

With one child, A suzuki Swift will be fine. Those of brough up in the 1950s and 60s will have been driven around in cars without airbags, cages, roll bars etc etc and certainly not strapped into baby seats! Hence ability of parents to drive smaller cars with more internal space to carry us around in.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Tue 15 May 2012 21:00
Shortest time you have kept a new car! - Buster Cambelt

Skoda Yeti - 38 weeks and 2 days and that was 38 weeks too long!

Unreliable, uncomfortable and zero support or interest from dealers or the importer.

I'd let SWMBO write her shortest-lived new car (Yaris) but her opinions on that junk heap are beyond my typing skills.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 16 May 2012 11:27
Shortest time you have kept a new car! - skidpan

a

Not the shortest time I have kept a new car but the newest "used" car I have bought privately.

Spotted car in classifieds, 2 weeks old, 21 miles, must sell due to company car. Did all the checks and it was all clear. Made him a stupid offer which he rejected but we agreed an a very sensible price which was about the same as a 2 year old one on a forecourt.

He must have be desperate for the money, he picked the car up on August 1st for the new reg (it was a few years ago) drove it home and put it in the garage, went on holiday and was offered a new job with a car on his return.

I kept the car 2 years, did not spend a penny on it other than routine servicing and sold it privately for £150 less than I paid, cheapest motoring ever.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 16 May 2012 12:24
Shortest time you have kept a new car! - Falkirk Bairn

Son's next door neighbour had a brand new Audi all-road for 2 weeks - local yoof came round a blind bend on the wrong side and wrote it off. 7 months waiting and a new one arrived 2 weeks ago.

2 months after the accident the yoof was convicted of speeding / dangerous driving, banned 18 mths, fined + community service and re-sit his test.

Best bit

The 3rd party insurer was contesting liability up until to a 2 x months ago!

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

Our honest used car pricing is a little bit different to all the others. You can get to our values through make or model - you don’t have to follow a prescribed route. Plus, it’s live, which means we can react to changes in the market quicker than any printed price guide.

Honest Used Car Prices

From which small car to buy at which price point to the best UK-built cars, our Top 10s have the lot. Click now for your shortlist.

Unsure of what to buy? Our Top 10s are here to help you....