To think new cars may actually save us a lot of money?

[CalculatorCalender]

DH and I have always tried to be sensible with money, have no debts bar mortgage and save as we can. we have always had old cars that we own outright.

However, we no longer save much at all due to 2 mat leaves close together and me now working a lot less plus childcare expenses. Our cars are costing us insane amounts to keep on the road and still problems crop up ie they occasionally don't start or a warning light appears, so I have no confidence in them and worry about long journeys etc.

DH's role is changing, so he is being given a company car. I thought this would save us money but when you look at the tax on the car and fuel allowance it's not going to be a massive saving (unless I'm missing something) so no extra money coming from there to sub mine.

I only need a fairly small car for local trips and local commute to work. I just looked up the monthly cost of a brand new car and it is way less than we have to take out of savings to cover MOT and repairs. We would have a good deposit with our current cars and the insurance would always be less. I know you never own it outright, but AIBU to think this may be the lower cost option?

YANBU.

I recently swapped my banger for a nearly new car and it is saving me a fortune, the petrol is less, the tax is minimal, there's no MOT for a few years and it is much less likely to need repairs.

Plus it's shiny.

I replace my car every five years with a new car. It makes me feel confident with my driving and aside from new tyres I have luckily not had to pay for anything else. Also negotiate hard and you get a good deal - I got 4 years free servicing and you don't have to pay for a new Mot fr four years. you also get it taxed. Never pay full price - play off different dealerships and you should get thousands off the price of a new car.

It might be lower costs if your cars are really that bad and your garage charges so much.

I find it hard to understand why yours are costing so much though. In the past two years I've had two cars - first was £700 ( 11 years old, 95k miles when bought) and the second was £1300 (8 years old, 150k miles when bought) to buy. I took them both to the garage from the off and both needed about £200 of work doing - cambelt on one and a few loose/worn bits on the other. Apart from that and servicing and tyres (which all cars need) they've cost nothing in repairs and each did about 15,000 miles / year. I only got rid of the first one because it was written off.

So in summary, second-hand cars are cheaper, if you have good ones.

And tyres wear out on cars no matter how old they are.

Don't forget that in most of those car-ads they monthly figure assumes you pay a big deposit and don't do too many miles. After the three years you are left with no car to sell as a deposit for the next one.

I don't know, but I think once a car has had a good innings parts are going to need replacing and they can cost a fortune depending on the model.

Why do you say you never own it outright? Do you mean buying on HP or something?
I'm thinking of trading in my current car for something newer and am trying to do the maths. And failing...

I guess it depends on how reliable and old your current car is. Dh has the newer car now and it costs a lot less to service and MOT. But, his does eat up petrol a bit more.
Hope someone who actually knows can help!

It depends on whether you can do run of the mill servicing and repairs yourself, as the labour costs are what pushes the bills up. That is what DH and I do, and we have run a succession of second hand Mercedes very cheaply, driving about in comfort and some luxury. DH's current car cost just over £1000, mine was a newer one at £6000, I've ran mine for 3 years and it has never ever needed a repair. Similar to previous ones in the past. DH has had a few minor repairs on his but it is 13 years old, if it needed an expensive repair, he would just scrap it and buy another one.

Obviously they have needed things like new tyres and winter tyres for the snow, but all cars need those.

YANBU. We are thinking of doing similar. We have been incredibly unlucky with our cars in the past couple of years, but even so older cars do cost a lot in upkeep.

Murdermystery good tips for getting a good deal. I will remember your points.

I think you have been very lucky sampull. I will always buy new after being charged £6,500 for a new gear box on a car which was a month out of warranty. (It had to be fitted by the manufacturer, I couldn't have got it cheaper elsewhere). The car wasn't worth much more than that

Dont buy a brand new car. Buy a car that is two years old. It will still be a good car, and a new car, but the previous owners will have taken the biggest hit on appreciation. Car loose the biggest chunk of their value during their first two years on the road.

WorldPeace has convinced me I need a new car by saying 'shiny'

CalculatorCal - have you chosen and bought yet?!

And whatever you do, dont opt for Peugeot. The electrics invariably start failing after 5 years....

I have used those schemes for the last 12 years, having a new car every 3 years. It works well for me. I've never paid more than about £140 per month and I like the reliability factor. The downside is if you want to finish you have nothing to part ex for the next one but there are plenty of deals that have low deposits too.

Te good thing about a company car is that if something goes wrong or you need new tyres or whatever, it doesn't cost you anything. (Well, that's certainly the case with DH's company car). He does pay more in tax, but it still works our cheaper.

I swapped my 2008 Astra (because it had high mileage and was eating petrol) for a 2008 Picanto.

Yes it's not particularly cool but it has free MOT and servicing whilst I own it, its tax is £30 (the Astra's was about £220) and it's much better on petrol. It had really low mileage and only 1 OAP owner and it not knackered (unlike the ragged Astra).

People are definitely looking for cheaper decent cars these days it would seem rather than big cool cars as they cost too much.

You may be right but think it through very carefully before you commit to anything. We had the same idea, and bought a new car, thinking it would be more reliable and save us money. It ended up costing us more. It had to be serviced at their garage, which was more expensive, and further away than our local garage. At 3 years old, and just out of warranty, it then broke down. It turned out the turbo had gone, and the repair cost was £1800!

I have never had a repair bill higher than about £500 with an old banger, and if it was that high you probably wouldn't pay it anyway. It was cheap on fuel, but when you add in the monthly payments, we really didn't save anything. I am now back to an old banger, and happy with that!

I know your right backward I just (naively) though "oo, free car" and was disappointed!

"wow" quick browse shows me it's v doable. Feel a bit of a plonker for draining our savings to hold onto such a heap tbh.

Scurry that's great to hear. You're not taking the hot for depreciation though either.

Quint we bought a "nearly new" ex demonstrator, loved it, but had to service it at main dealer etc and it still depreciated hard. Would have been worth it if we'd kept it forever though.

Quint have been stung with a second hand peugeot before, massive, massive electrical issues. Will never go there again. We have always had a better time with VW/Seat/Skoda so am looking that way, or maybe Ford or Vauxhall - so many people have them they must be ok?

Yorkie food for thought. If I try with Murder's tips maybe I can get some servicing thrown in. I won't keep it out of warranty though, I want low anxiety car ownership.

rachy I would have been on to Citizens Advice about the gearbox - I'd suggest that The Sale of Goods Act (fit for purpose) would apply. I don't know though. I've had a few arguments about warranties on newer cars with dealers before, and I've always won - never anything as expensive as a new gearbox though.

If I'm lucky, I've always been lucky. I've never had a brand new car and have driven about 300,000 miles in 20 years. I've had no bills that were unexpected and have had the breakdown people out four times. Three of those were to the same car, and none of them were a 'proper' fault (flat battery, something not fitted properly at a service that fell off, fuel cut-out switch activated by me accidentally were the three on the same car - the other one was another flat battery - they do fail with age)

The more I've spent on a car, the more (as a percentage) I've lost on it:

Car 1 - bought @ 2 years old for £4995. Sold at 4 years old for £1800 - lost 64%
Car 2 - bought @ 2 years old for £10,995. Sold at 7 years old for £1100 - lost 90%
Car 3 - bought @ 11 years old for £700 Written off at 12 years old, valued at £1200 - gained 71%

Car 2 was the one that cost me the most to run - on two occasions a routine service on it cost me over £1,000.

The most I can lose on my current car is £1300 because that's all I paid for it. I've done 10,00 miles in it already, all of them in a comfortable seat with climate control and a nice stereo. Apart from shininess I'm not sure what extra a new car could have added to those journeys apart from a worry that I might be doing too many miles for the contract and a slight unease that would come with worrying about the inside of a new car mixed with wet/muddy/sandy/sun-creamy kids. Maybe that's just me? I like knowing I can chuck whatever I like in the car and that it doesn't really matter if DD gets mud on the seats - it will clean off after all, and who cars if the seat of an 8 year old car has a little stain - it's not like it's going to be inspected for damage like a leased car will be on return.

Quintessential I know a friend who reluctantly sold her Peugeot 205, complete with tiny engine and four speed gear box with 120k miles on it at 15 years old. It had had nothing other than routine servicing, still worked perfectly and had no rust, but sadly it had no back doors, which is why she got rid. Newer Peugeots may be different I guess.

Sam That's great, I get your thinking, I agree with it, except - where you are "always lucky", I am always "unlucky" and I cannot afford these unexpected, massive bills that I am practically black mailed into paying as I need a car to work. I have paid nearing 120% of what my car is worth just to keep it going.

I would be far less anxious about breadstick on the seats than being stranded by the roadside, waiting for the RAC, raiding our savings and still not knowing if it's going to start!!

Your OP says you need the car for local trips and a local commute. Could a combination of a new bike and kit (£500)and taxi rides when carrying stuff (say £15 a week) be even cheaper overall? Roughly £1300 in first year, cost of bike service and taxis thereafter. Also removes the stress of having to deal with things like big repairs, parking, massive insurance bill etc.

Thesun I did that for a year, bought a bike via the tax scheme, but unfortunately, one of the DCs is not well and has multiple hospital admissions/appointments, sometimes at short notice etc and I found the dashing about v stressful, plus the bike not great for her when unwell. Taxis to the hospital were what led me to buying my current car - the car seat never fitted, they went the wrong way, I had to try hard not to shout at them to go quicker and not let everyone out....!

My childcare arrangements are really tight too, and I resented how much time I "lost" through cycling. I liked the ideal but the reality was different!

We are on our third Peugeot - we love how practical they are. We just forget that we need to get rid of them and get a new car before it is 5 years old.

Dh has a company car and whilst he pays tax for it and petrol we don't have to worry about it at all.

When (touch wood it never has yet) breaks, we take it to the dealer to be fixed, when it needed four new tyres (£1200 worth) in the week dh was in hospital I took it to the tyre shop and got them replaced. It's worth every penny in peace of mind.

CalculatorCalendar - If you can afford a decent deposit on a new car, and don't want an older one as you feel you might be unlucky, why not spend half the deposit on a car and put half to one side, so if you are unlucky and something goes wrong, you can just sell the one you have and buy another?

Older cars are always cheaper - no amount of reliability can make up for the depreciation on a new one. I dreaded big bills more with the newer car (Car 2 in my list) because I was spending £200 a month to buy it (paid half and financed half) so I knew that if the turbo failed, or some other expensive failure occurred, I'd have to get it fixed because I still owed on the car for three of they years I had it, and besides it was too valuable not to fix.

Twice I paid almost as much on servicing that car as I did on buying this one - and that was an independent dealers too.

Buy a new car and you've lost 20% as soon as you turn the key because of the VAT on it. So as soon as you start a new car, it's depreciated by more than my totally reliable, comfortable, economical (44mpg average) car cost to buy or would cost to replace.

YANBU

My new car is very economical with petrol (about 50 MPG) and I pay no road tax.

I bought it on interest free finance as well (paying about £130 per month) so it's easy to budget.