to want a brand new car?

[ValiantMouse]

I've always driven older, used cars. Current car is 13 years old and is coming up on 80k miles. It's not running well and there's a chance that the repair could cost up to £1000.

I want a new car. I want something that I don't have to worry about, that doesn't suck down a gallon of oil every month. Something that I can go where I want in, when I want. (To be fair, my current car is very reliable.)

I'm not on a great wage- just under £7 an hour. The car I've been looking at is around £14k. It would be about £150 a month- I could afford that. I just feel guilty because I'm used to watching every penny I spend. AIBU?

Sorry op hadn't read your later post

I bought an 18 month old Toyota, still 3 and a half years warranty and 2/3 the price of new. You're really better looking at that sort of age than new.

Hi OP. In terms of reliability, I believe the far eastern manufacturers come out best, and you certainly get a lot more for your money.

I'm another one saying buy nearly new - I get my buzz from someone else getting the massive depreciation hit while I get all the benefits of a nearly new low mileage car!

I could afford a new car at a stretch but wouldn't buy one - they depreciate so much in the first year or two.

I would always go for a two year old car with a long warranty. Hyundai or Kia both offer a 7 or 8 year warranty so even if you buy at two years old you still benefit from years of hassle free motoring (but make sure the car is low mileage as the warranty is usually x amount of years OR x amount of miles).

Just be aware that while you might only be paying 150 pm, there's a balloon payment at the end of the term that you either have to cough up or give the car back and hope it has some equity to pay the deposit on another car. Look very carefully at what's losing value massively and what's retaining some fairly well.

"Ford Focus, 2007 (57 reg) Estate 48,032 miles, Manual 1.6L Petrol, £5K on AT right now - knock a couple of hundred off the asking price with a bit of negotiation."

And after three years it's worth nothing and has cost you £1500 in tyres and servicing, exhausts etc if you are lucky

So assume you can still get a grand for it come trade in and have been lucky and only spent out £1500 on consumables and repairs. And of course you have paid road tax.

So assume 6k over three years all in.

There will be better deals about as I only picked the first Google took me to but for the same money you can have a brand new Seat Ibiza estate fully maintained (tyres, puncture cover etc) under warranty for the duration, taxes etc etc.

Which would you rather drive now? A 7 year old focus with 50k miles or a brand new Seat? In three years and 10 year old focus with 75kmiles or a three year old Seat.

Leasing is the most cost effective way to run a car by miles and completely hassle free.

Budget 6k for three years and you can have a brand new trouble free car.

Compare to nearly new as many have suggested and it is a much cheaper way of running a car when you factor in depreciation, repairs etc etc

www.nationwidevehiclecontracts.co.uk/Seat_Ibiza_Estate-1-2-tsi-110-fr-68590.htm

Your choice clearly, but £14k car on £7/hour would be similar to your annual salary... That's a huge amount! Also, £150 per month? That's an 8 year payback period even if there's no interest?

YANBU, I get a brand new car every 3 years. It really doesn't matter if some people see it as a waste of money. It's my money to waste. I have very cheap road tax and have never had to put a car in for a MOT. Hassle free driving is worth it to me.

You can get something very reliable for a lot less. What size car do you need? A one year old toyota, honda or seat would be very reliable and depending on model...

If we are talking about value, and assuming a car less than three years old can someone explain why I would ever buy rather than lease? The figures don't stack up and get loads of people still do it. Is it just because that is what they have always done?

Anyone buying a car on finance clearly can't afford it.

Orda1 - do you or have you ever had a mortgage?

I do - they're not really comparable though, are they? I think student loans and mortgages are the only necessary (for most people) debts, anything else is choice.

Orda it is a choice, but if you can afford to pay for the credit it's not much different to putting aside money each month to save up for something. (Though obviously there is an element of risk in that it may become unaffordable if, say, you lost your job.)

That's exactly the point Wheres. I dunno, I am a little old fashioned in that I think you should save first as opposed to pay back after.

Each to their own though.

Anyone buying a car on finance clearly can't afford it.

I can, I just don't see the sense in giving a chunk of my savings to a car company when I could keep that money in my ISA and earn more in interest than I pay on the car

But when you lease a car you never stop paying for it. When you buy a car outright you get a few years without any cost. Surely that's the advantage of buying over leasing? Don't people just lease because they don't want to save up first and like the service packages dealers offer?

Moob OP has said earlier she's paid off her mortgage, and her pension's sorted :-)

Also, she's not going to buy this car, and is going to look around for something newer but not new.

Moob
"Ford Focus, 2007 (57 reg) Estate 48,032 miles, Manual 1.6L Petrol, £5K on AT right now - knock a couple of hundred off the asking price with a bit of negotiation."

And after three years it's worth nothing and has cost you £1500 in tyres and servicing, exhausts etc if you are lucky

So assume you can still get a grand for it come trade in and have been lucky and only spent out £1500 on consumables and repairs. And of course you have paid road tax.

So assume 6k over three years all in.

Hahaha what a load of bollocks! £1500 in servicing and tyres?! Fuck, if you're paying that they saw you coming. You'd be unlucky to go through one set of tyres on a 1.6 FWD in three years, even so it's no more than £200 to replace for a mid-range brand, fitted. I got nearly 40k miles out of the OEM tyres on a diesel Passat, and that's heavier than a petrol Focus. Servicing at a quality indie garage would be about £200 a year, so that's £800 running costs, not fucking £1500!

After 3 years it's going to be £2k in a private sale if it's been looked after.

Tax is bugger all in the grand scheme of running a car, especially compared to depreciation on a new car - even the most expensive of my cars to tax (currently £490 a year) is less than two months' rentals on a half-decent new lease car (and about 3 months' worth on the eensy weensy 1.2 Seat you linked).

Then you come out with this gem:

"Leasing is the most cost effective way to run a car by miles and completely hassle free."

It's usually the cheapest way to run a new car but still more expensive than a secondhand car, and it's not "completely hassle free" if you end up with a car like the poster above with the brand new S-Max.

That deal you linked is £8194.14 over 4 years and 32k miles or 25p/mile (assuming you use the whole mileage limit) - on a 1.2 Ibiza! Two of my cars cost less than that total, and the other was still less than that. Plus I can sell them any time I want and recoup some of the capital. My god, I can't imagine being stuck in an Ibiza for 4 years, I think I'd die of boredom.

NoArmaniNoPunani

I can, I just don't see the sense in giving a chunk of my savings to a car company when I could keep that money in my ISA and earn more in interest than I pay on the car

If you earn more in interest in savings than you pay in interest on a rental, why doesn't the finance company just put their capital into savings? Given their resources they'd earn even more interest than they're making from customers!

14k? Absolutely not on a £7 per hour job. I wouldn't get one of that value and I earn more than that. There are much cheaper models out there that are new too.

Which is why I'm passing on that car. :) I just really liked it, and it was exactly what I was looking for but the numbers just don't add up.

YANBU but I got my car when it was a year old and still in warranty, no MOT needed etc, for about half of that! I like it. It's not flash but has half leather interior and heated seats so I'm pretty pleased, plus it's really economical.