Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

To want to spend £16k on a new car....

34 replies

Dru77 · 12/10/2011 19:11

...when it'll wipe out our possible savings? We don't actually have any savings but will shortly receive some inheritance money, enough to pay off one of our additional borrowing mortgages leaving approx £11k left over. I sold my car at the weekend for £3k and our other car will fetch approx £2k as a trade in.

We do need to replace our car as it's starting to cost too much to keep it on the road but I seem to have lost my head over the prospect of getting a Mitsubishi ASX or Nissan Qashqai. Both these are quite new models so used prices aren't much lower then RRP.

I've always thought a car is just a tin can to get me from A to B but I can be impulsive with large purchases! Have managed to convince DH so now having doubts and thinking it'd be more sensible to keep some £ in savings and get a lower spec car.

OP posts:

FabbyChic · 12/10/2011 19:15

Far better for you to buy a car that is not brand new, but still new to you.

I'd never spend that much on a car to be honest unless I drove more than 300 miles a week.

I only do a 100 miles a week so my £545 car with new MOT and Group 1 insurance is enough for me.

You are trading in two to buy one? Do you only need one car then?

I'd spend half what you are spending if I had it but never buy new they lose too much when you drive them out the showroom.

Factor in cost of insurance and repairs when it needs repairing in a few years time.

I'd go on holiday with an inheritance, buy new sofas, new beds, I'd rather a nice house than a nice car.

I guess it depends if you already have all that.

Original poster

Dru77 · 12/10/2011 19:21

Yes we are moving to just 1 car as we really don't need 2. We only had 2 for the last 18 months as an experiment and whilst it can be handy it's unnecessary for us. I bought a brand new car 7 years ago, kept it for 8 months and lost £££ selling it so swore never to buy new again. I have no problem with a used car but would want it to be fairly new i.e. 1-2 years old. I can't be arsed with dealing with a car that's likely to break soon and we need a car to get the kids to school. We tend not to look after them too well (i.e. I drive them into things) so would have to keep it for 5-7 years most likely.

Choice is either the car or put it into savings as there's no way we'd waste it on a holiday as that's so fleeting. Too frugal at the mo!

OP posts:

FearTricksPotter · 12/10/2011 19:26

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ShellyBoobs · 12/10/2011 19:58

...never buy new they lose too much when you drive them out the showroom.

I'd go on holiday with an inheritance

So on the one hand, you wouldn't buy new because some of the money would be lost as soon as you drove the car. On the other hand, you'd spend it on a holiday which would be (potentially) thousands gone in a couple of weeks with nothing to show for it.

I like it Fabby

troisgarcons · 12/10/2011 19:59

Buy one 6 months old that has been traded in - low milage and you save about 6K

SazZaVoom · 12/10/2011 20:02

My last 2 cars have been 1 & 2.5 yrs old so still in Warranty and sold by a garage (I found one which deals with ex lease cars). The 11 month old one had £8k on the clock and 25% off the new price. The 2.5yr old one was almost half list price . Lease cars, although may have been driven hard, they will also have a full service history/main dealer etc.

Backtobedlam · 12/10/2011 20:05

YANBU-if you like the car, and that's what you want to spend your money on then go for it. There's something quite special about driving a shiny new car out the showroom, with that new car smell. Most of what we spend money on (holidays, days out, food even) is gone in a matter of hrs/days with nothing to show for it, but if it's something you enjoy, it's worth every penny

herbietea · 12/10/2011 20:05

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

vicks71 · 12/10/2011 20:10

If you are going to spend that kind of money on that type of car, I can highly recommend the new Kia Sportage. It only came out last year so there isn't a used market in them really yet. Entry level model should have been £17,000 but we found somewhere doing a deal and got it for £15,000. I would never have thought that I'd buy a new car - but we'd also been looking at the Qashqai and the brand new Kia was roughly the same price as the 2nd hand Qashqai and it seemed much bigger inside too. I'm very pleased with it. 7 year warranty too which is really attractive. Here endeth the promo for Kia !

SingleMan25b · 12/10/2011 20:22

Same issue here with the headroom on a Qashqai.

FabbyChic · 12/10/2011 20:25

I said what I would do.

I have not been abroad for 19 years, I have not had a holiday for 19 years, both my kids have left home I could go on holiday alone for £500.00 so not thousands.

It depends on your perspective, personally for me it would be buying stuff for the home.

The OP says they dont look after cars then buying one a year or two old is pointless as they will just ruin it and it will go down in value faster than a led balloon.

upahill · 12/10/2011 20:31

I get what Fabby is saying.

I have always had new cars every two or three years (well for the last 19 years anyway) and I keep saying I won't get a brand new showroom shiney car again (always do though)

However I can remember more about my holidays over the years than any of cars! (except my Saab peraps!!)

chickentikkatellmethetruth · 12/10/2011 20:36

I wouldn't spend the lot if you don't have savings, no.

I'd buy something sensible and reliable like a second hand honda and stick 5k in savings.

MrsAmaretto · 12/10/2011 20:39

Could you lease a car instead of buying new? How long do you intend to keep it?

Personally i'd be boring and pay off debts etc first

Original poster

Dru77 · 12/10/2011 21:43

The only debts we have are the mortgage; the main one + 2 further borrowing accounts, one of which we will be paying off. Have looked a bit at leasing but there's no way the car would be in good condition after 3 yrs, I have a kerb problem, they always seem to get in my way .

We're test driving the ASX and Qashqai on Saturday and testing whether 2 boosters + baby seat fit in the back. Have been considering the Kia Sportage as I love the 7 year warranty but thought it looked a bi too big. Will probably have a proper look at it though. Hmm, decisions, decisions.

OP posts:

eurochick · 12/10/2011 22:28

Personally I don't feel content unless I have a decent amount of savings squirrelled away and prefer to have a more modest car (I am a complete petrol head but tend to find high performance older cars that don't cost a bomb to play with).

ShriekingLisa · 13/10/2011 00:21

Buy a used car.

upahill · 13/10/2011 07:58

We often wait until the new registration plate rush is over, then we get a phone call or email from the garage telling us they have some deals on.
We buy a car that has been pre registered to the garage and only has done less than 20 miles on so it is still new as it is only about 3 weeks into the plate being issued. It is therefore a current plate and we have saved a fortune.

discobeaver · 13/10/2011 08:25

Not U if that's what you want to spend the cash on. I would spend maybe 5 grand probably on a car, you can get something great for that surely? Given that my current car cost a tenth of that and is going like the clappers.
But it's your money, spend it on what you want.

malinois · 13/10/2011 08:46

If I only had 16k savings I wouldn't be looking to spend more than 1k on a car.

valiumredhead · 13/10/2011 08:56

never buy new they lose too much when you drive them out the showroom

I agree!

stripeybump · 13/10/2011 09:03

Please don't spend 16k on a shiny new toy which by your own admission, is going to get trashed anyway!

Spend about 10k on something lovely, get it second-hand off Auto Trader, get advice from a mechanic if necessary but it really is money down the drain buying from a dealer, even if second hand.

Work out what say spending 6k on a car and putting 10k into your mortgage would do, too.

Original poster

Dru77 · 13/10/2011 09:38

We've never had any savings, We both have fairly safe jobs (although that's not so true these days in the public sector) and DH would get a rather large redundancy payout if it came to that so I guess we've always been a bit lazy about it. Whenever we've had spare income we've addedd to the mortgage payments rather than save it but we drew all that back down last year to do some work on the house. It does worry me sometimes so maybe we should save some of it instead. The trouble is that if I see a pile of money in savings I start to think about holidays??.

OP posts:

HellonHeels · 13/10/2011 10:03

Kind of off your OP really but if you have no savings how do you manage if unexpected expenses crop up? (Broken down fridge, big repair bill for car etc)

malinois · 13/10/2011 10:10

Personally, it would terrify me not to have any savings. I think 6 months of income in cash (instant access) savings would be the bare minimum that would let me sleep at night.

We tend to spend no more than £15k on 5 year old, high mileage, high spec BMWs and then run them to about 180-200k miles. We buy privately from autotrader or pistonheads and get servicing done at an independent garage. Over the time we have the car, this works out much cheaper than buying a used car from a dealer, and of course the savings over buying a new car are immense.

Just to give you an idea how massively overpriced new cars are, a quick search turns up something like this for the same price that you would be willing to pay for a new Nissan or Mitsubishi.

Flip

1 2