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

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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?

frogspoon on the other hand, my car does 44mpg (diesel) and costs £140 per year in road tax but only cost £1300 to buy. Assuming your car was £10,000 it would take nearly nearly 18 years to recoup the difference in purchase price through road tax savings and fuel savings alone.

above assuming you do 15,00 miles per year.

at 8,000 miles per year and a £12,000 car it would be nearly 32 years.

Are you absolutely sure you need a second car at all?

Can you commute by bike and use a car share club for the other trips?

SamPull, how old was your car when you bought it, and how much do you think it was worth when new?

I think there are a lot of other factors to consider, you would need to include extra MOT years, and the cost of any repairs that have been carried out. My car has a 5 year warrantee, but I do have to pay for an annual service to stay covered.

Much of it would also depend on how reliable the car was, how well it was made.

Diesel is known for being more economical than petrol, and also manual cars are usually more efficient than automatic (I have an automatic)

It was 9 when I bought it - I might have said 8 earlier on, but it is definitely 2013, so 9 :)

I guess it was £14k or so new - it's a Citroen, so not loads, but it is the 'top spec' one with lots of buttons and a glass roof. Citroen always seem to have deals on, so my best guess that the on the road price was about £14k but list was about £18k.

I did say that the times I mentioned would be if you just saved on fuel and road tax - but over the timescale it works out at I suspect the repairs would be similar. My car has a full service history so I know it's had no major work or parts replaced so it's on the original clutch and turbo, for example. That means that it has comfortably outlasted your 5 year guarantee period without needing one. I reckon the fact that I get my car serviced by a local mechanic saves me a few hundred a year over dealer servicing too.

The only time we have ever had new cars was when my DH was given one with work. We have never bought a new car ourselves as he thinks it is completely a waste of money. The moment you drive the thing off the forecourt it drops thousands of pounds in depreciation. When he retired he bought the Audi A4 which had been his company car, for £7,000 and we ran that until December last year (110,000 miles), when he bought a two year old BMW. We will keep that until it is costing us lots of money in repairs, so probably many years.

Old banger suit people who can afford occasionally to lose and can afford the gamble. We buy old bangers but we have a rule never to pay more than 300 at the garage for repairs, we just buy another. The last two cars cost £2000 between them three years ago and still going strong but you have to be able to save and keep a car fund to go and get another. If it affect your driving confidence and drive better in a newer car that is a whole different question.

I don't know, you can get lucky with a cheap old banger (as I did - 10 years old, £750, good with petrol costs as it was a Polo and spent maybe £600 during that time on repairs, tax and MOT) - so over 3 years it cost me less than £2000 without petrol.

On the other hand, my current car was 1 year old when I bought it and cost nearly £7000 (ouch) plus this year's MOT and tax...it's already cost over £7000 and I've only had it for 2 years, though hopefully it will save me money in the (very) long run.

If you are thinking if buying a brand new car on finance then I'd strongly suggest leasing one instead.
It's effectively the same price, but you have none of the responsibilities and don't get tied in to a single dealer. (Well you owe £7,000 on finance, but you car is only worth £5,000, unless of course you buy another one from us, on finance, and we'll knock £2000 off the asking price, but you have to take our finance deal).

VBisme, how do I go about looking into that?

Oh, a company car is amazing. Despite the tax etc just having everything taken car of is brilliant. My H has just changed jobs and the new company don't provide a company car as they're inner London so they just give a travel allowance. The crap that we've had with our 'new' 5 year old car is unbelievable. I want a company car back!

If something happened to the company car you just called them, they'd arrange collection, a courtesy car if needed and then drop it back to you when it was ready. The tax disc would arrive about two weeks in advance for you to put in when ready.

Just came to add, my H's old company had a car banding scheme. If you chose a car in a lower band that you were entitled to, you got cash back for it therefore saving some money. We always went for cars in lower band as we had no need for huge engines/ extras.

I just got a bargain demonstrator Citroen c4 with 5k miles on it

on a run from Portsmouth to Newcastle we got nearly 70mpg!!!!

round the doors we average 56mpg

tax is £20 a year

it is tge best thing EVER

You need to lease, not buy. Seriously, never buy a depreciating asset. This mostly applies if you want a new car every few years. If you're prepared to keep the new car for, say, 10 years and drive it into the ground, then a purchase may be a good option. Never buy new every few years, as you'll lose thousands in depreciation each time, as well as loan interest unless you are a cash buyer in full

Sorry, just realised someone else already suggested it.
Do a google search for 'contract hire and leasing' which brings you up a website of the same name. This will give you an idea of the cost for different vehicle classes. You can go direct to the showroom and ask for details on a personal lease, or go through a broker.

We always try and buy demonstrators and keep them for five to six years. I bought a six month old Micra last year with less than 2500 on the clock, for £2500 less than if I had bought new. So the hit on deprecation has already gone. Best of both worlds, a virtually brand new car for a second hand price.

I always buy a car that is new but been registered to the garage that I am buying it off.
So technically it is second hand but it only has say 2 miles on the clock. (The most I've had is 5 miles)
That way I have all the benefits of a new car (warranty free year insurance, 1 years tax paid, No MOT, service done) but a big chunk of the depreciation has already happened.

There is no VAT on second hand purchases which is why new-but-the-garage registered it cars are a lot cheaper. They still depreciate rapidly though. My £11k car (above, somewhere) was half price when I bought it at two years old, and it still lost 90% of the money I paid for it in 5 years, which is £165 per month in depreciation - on a car which had already depreciated to half it's new cost by the time I bought it.

It was a lovely car though.

The most my current car can depreciate is 75% because it's be worth £300 as scrap metal :)