To buy a car outright?

[tumericmasala]

I'm in a conundrum. We need a new car - our car is 10 years old we've spent a lot on it this year. The manufacturer and an independent mechanic have both said that the repairs are not with it.

My family say buy a car outright. So we're looking at 3 year old cars (to take into account depreciation but to account that it's still fairly new). My BF always leases but it doesn't make sense. I suppose we've always bought a car about 3 years old then just ran it til it's end of life.

But now I'm thinking rather than a huge £20k outlay on a new car (I want a decent and safe SUV) are we better off leasing?

I run a 2004 Seat Arosa 1.4 sport (a massive engine for a car that only weighs 998KG) and I'm not a mechanic. I drive it sensibly as not to put more wear on it and do the usual service and general maintenance at my local garage.

It's quite a rare car (seen about 7 on the road in the 3.5 years I've owned it), so all replacement parts have to be ordered directly from Seat, yes that makes repairs more expensive but it keeps the quality good, and like I said since purchase I've spent £600 in repairs, that coupled with the purchase price of £1300 works out at £450 a year of motoring.

If you do a low mileage, and having an impressive, shiny new car with lots of high-tech toys on the drive every 3-4 years is important to you, go for a lease or PCP. Do not be misled by low monthly payments. They are a marketing gimmick to hide the true cost. When you calculate the total costs involved, this works out very expensive because you are paying for the steepest part of a new car’s depreciation curve, and then getting another new car and repeating the exercise.

If you’re not bothered about those things, buy outright at 2-3 years old (letting someone else pay for the high iniitial depreciation) and run the car until it dies. You will save £££££££ in the long run. Hyundai & Kia have the best long-term manufacturer’s warranties on the market making them a great bet for long-term ownership.

The you’ve been lucky and / or buying quite older models? I work in the auto industry and they are well renowned for this, especially the mid age models circa. 2005-2012.

1991(P309), 2000(P306), 2003(CC3), 2006 (RScenic), 2008(CC3), 2009 (RScenic), 2015 (RScenic).

Never understood the attraction of leasing a car. You have all the stress of keeping it in good condition and with a low mileage.
I've always bought outright and never more than £6000.
Not worth having a nice car in the areas I work and live as everything gets vandalised!

We buy ex fleet Toyota. Our first one got to 125k on the clock at 8 years old before bits started to rust off, underneath, after some horrendous winters.

Replaced that with a mazda, which was a false economy.

Back to Toyota. Had been used as a fleet car within Toyota, itself, for 18 months. 50% of new price with 13k on the clock. Still within the 5 year warranty and extending the warranty was inexpensive. Now almost years old with 75k on the clock and only cosmetic issues.

Buying new or leasing doesn't make sense to me, I can't see the logic.

Buying new, your car will lose 25% of its value as you start the engine for the first time, and another 25% of its vlaue the following year. Your car could be worth half its original value in just under 3 years time.

Leasing, you run into the problems of having to jump through all the hoops and stress over mileage restrictions.

If you really want a newish car, best bet would be to take out a bank loan at a lower interest rate and buy a car that is 3-4 years old.

I run a fleet of 15 Renault vans and over the last 15 years not had any “electrical faults” thats vans up to 7-8 years old when we sell them and from 02-18 plates

As a family my parents had Renaults, Simcas, Citroen, Peugeot’s (504,104,205,309,405,206, 207 and 308) and Fiats from the 70s to date and never really had any issues with any of them. Must be lucky I guess

I feel actually maybe I don't need to go for a brand like a Volvo then and save myself some cash?

I'm a huge Toyota fan. Wouldn't touch a Volvo.

We always buy cars 6mths to 1yr old. Usually from motorpoint as we tend to find the price good.

Example is paying £18k for a 6mth old car which had a list price of £31k. Win win for us.

We are fortunate to save up and buy cars outright though. Car above is still worth £13k ish so could sell if we needed the money.

Buying new, your car will lose 25% of its value as you start the engine for the first time, and another 25% of its vlaue the following year. Your car could be worth half its original value in just under 3 years time.

We bought brand new but with scrappage on our old car (which was literally worthless to trade in) we got just over £5k off the price. We also looked at secondhand and would have had to buy a car over 3 years old to pay any less than our brand new one cost.

OP as your car is over 10 years are there any scrappage schemes still running?

op sqaid 3 years old thats the best age to but it at its alrfeady had the most in ratio depr4ication
op i dont think you'll get a volvo xc60 for 20k but by all means have a look round

If safety is a major concern (it is for me) then I would go for Volvo every time. The XC90 has got a 5 star NCAP rating and is notable because it is designed to be less dangerous to pedestrians or other cars in the event of an accident which was a real selling point for me.

Another Toyota fan, wouldn’t drive a Land Rover even if it was free !

256 xc60 3 years old and under on auto trader for less than 20k.

Another bonus of pcp is that if the engine blows or similar that isn't a normal wear and tear fault the company providing the pcp has to replace the car.

This gives you a little extra insurance that if there is a flaw with the engine etc you won't be paying out thousands to repair it.

Buying new, your car will lose 25% of its value as you start the engine for the first time

Not if you haggle/negotiate with the dealership and get 20/25% discount, it won't.

My 12 year old Volvo estate is still going strong

Another bonus of pcp is that if the engine blows or similar that isn't a normal wear and tear fault the company providing the pcp has to replace the car.

Most new cars come with a 3 year warranty which is effectively the same as your new PCP car will also be less than 3 years old.

Driving an SUV is vulgar

Rubbish.

Sorry that having to have a car that isn't too low and can carry my wheelchair and sticks and family is easier for me to get in and out of makes us vulgar.

I can't help thinking you're limiting yourself by saying you don't want a car more than 3 years old, and you will inevitably pay a significant premium for an SUV, because they're currently fashionable. You'll be no safer in an SUV than in an ordinary car, you'll just be more dangerous to other people.

If you want to pay £20K, then feel free, but you can get a very good five year old car for about £5K, and expect a good 10 years out of it with proper maintenance.

My last car was a Honda Accord - bought for £5K at five years old, and kept it for almost seven years before some twerp drove into the side of it trying to exit a roundabout from the wrong lane. Happily he admitted he was at fault, but the insurers insisted it was a right-off despite the minimal damage. They paid me £2K for it, meaning that capital depreciation over 7 years was £3K. There's no way you'll achieve that paying £20K, and it was still in tip-top condition.

Now running a Citroen C5. A really boring car, but it cost me £3K at 9 years old, plus about £1500 more to fix a couple of issues and add a tow bar. Had it for a year, everything works beautifully, will keep it as long as I can.

We bought a Vauxhall Insignia outright for about 11k. It was about 6 years old with one previous owner who had really taken care of it.

When we do decide to get a new one, we’ll probably do the same and buy outright.

@wintersjh I think my husband doesn't want older than 3 years. But I totally get it - deffo no xc90 that price.

But a few xc60

We also will consider other cars. It doesn't have to be a 7 seater.

I just think we would be able to take mum on hols with us.

I just think we would be able to take mum on hols with us.

If you only need a huge car for the odd week, just buy a normal one for daily use and hire a car for holidays - it'll work out far cheaper.

What mpg does a XC90 do?