To think £15K is excessive to spend on a car?

[SunflowerOwl]

DH and I seem to disagree massively over what a 'reasonable' budget is for our new car.

Our requirements are that it will last us a good 10-15 years so not too old (I cant be doing with having to car shop again in a few years time!), is safe and has a big boot as we have a large pram and a dog.

Every car he sends me that he likes seems to be in the region of £15K whereas I was thinking we would need to spend half of that! He tells me I'm out of touch and that's just what decent cars cost these days.

Is this true? Is this really what the average family spend on a family car?!

Just remember to take running costs into consideration- you might want the size but an SUV is likely to cost way more to run than an estate.

I came on to say basically exactly what @AnotherEmma's said! We'd never spent more than about £5k prior to two years ago (£12k on a nearly new Octavia) but we love it and I can't tell you how nice it is to know we won't have to car shop again for about 7-8yrs! Other than scheduled services/cam belt, we haven't spent anything on it really.

All depends on your budget and what you can afford, surely.

We just paid £35k for one recently (second hand!).

We just bought a Volvo V40, 4 years old less than average mileage, 1 previous owner, full service history for £10k.
Our previous Volvo C30 lasted for 185,000! Both diesel.

Generally smaller is cheaper and some brands are cheaper than others. My last 2 cars were that kind of price though (2-3 years old, under 40,000 miles, decent size for a family). Pre children I drove a £4k Nissan Micra which lasted forever.

I have just bought a new car (2nd hand), Toyota Corolla petrol automatic Hybrid 2020 Reg with only 1k miles for £21,000. my husband spent £19,000 on a similar one a few months ago. But we factored in the saving in fuel, I'm averaging 60mpg. Plus I have 4 years standard warranty and Toyota are now offering extended warranty on the battery and cars for up to 15 years or 100,000 miles as long as its serviced by Toyota every year (I have a service plan where I pay by instalments every year so its easier). So to me paying extra is well worth the cost.

Cars like the Yaris Hybrid are equally as good and can be picked up around 13-14k. My apologise but our household if a bit of a fan of our Toyota's.

@AnotherEmma

I'm afraid that's about right. We spent about £13k on a nearly new car (less than 1 year old with very low mileage) from a dealer a couple of years ago. It's a Skoda Octavia and we've been very happy with it. Massive boot which is extremely handy for all the baby/child-related paraphernalia.

As a general rule you'll get a better deal if you buy nearly new as opposed to brand new. I'd be looking for something that's 6-24 months old.

Do consider Skoda as they're good value, excellent cars for the price.

Snap! It was a good deal IMO.

@Girlintheframe

We just bought a Volvo V40, 4 years old less than average mileage, 1 previous owner, full service history for £10k. Our previous Volvo C30 lasted for 185,000! Both diesel.

I know diesel cars last longer, but I'd not buy one nowadays - there'll be pollution tax etc. coming in before too long.

Bought mine brand new three years ago for £15k. I don’t think you’d get what wasn’t for your budget.

Our 08 plate Ford Focus cost us 6.5k in 2013.

I would like to think when the time comes I can get another 5yo Focus for a similar amount.

The car is now 13yo and has been exemplary.

Kia Sportage second hand, fantastic cars, decent price and pretty economic, yes an SUV but not obscene in size

Could you swap to a smaller pram? You won't be needing to carry a pram around forever, unless you plan on having a lot of babies over the next 10-15 years. Big cars cost more to buy and run than smaller ones, you should also consider what fuel. Are you somewhere where diesel is likely to become subject to extra restrictions and road charges over the next 10-15 years? Or if you do high mileage, would a large petrol cost too much to run?

As to what is reasonable to spend, that depends on your budget. If you have £50k sat in the bank doing nothing, spending £15k probably isn't unreasonable. However, if you have to borrow to buy the car, you'd probably want to spend less.

Second the recommendation for a Skoda though, they're great cars. What about looking in auctions for 3 YO ones. You might meet in the middle price wise and get something that's 3 years old and well looked after for about £10-12k?

I think Golf estate and Passat are going to be expensive as they are VW. We have a Mazda estate which gets great reviews or at least did when we got ours a couple of years ago. Ours was over £20000 though as DH likes all the mod cons, leather seats, big tyres etc. I'd prefer the basic model which would be just as good. I drive a 12 year old mini which I've had for 11 years! A more basic Mazda model might be within your budget.
Otherwise I seem to remember Ford Mondeo estate being ok and better value.

I’m afraid I agree with your DH and our last car cost £1650 we didn’t need a family car as we were young and didn’t have DC, so we got a 54 plate Fiesta that a dealership needed to shift as a part Ex.

We’re now looking at a new car (actually the front runner is a nearly new Skoda Scala, so thanks for the recommendation @AnotherEmma!) and I think we’ll be looking at about 16 - 18k. But we’re planning on having it last us for ages, so it’s worth it. The Fiesta was a good bargain, but it’s probably time for it to go to the big car park in the sky....

If you want your costa down stay away from VW and buy a Skoda or a SEAT (same VW engine and slightly cheaper).
If you want a car that lasts forever get a Toyota.
You need to buy a decent car to keep it for a long time.

Yes but you might be able to get a good deal

We got a brand new Seat Toledo in 2019 for £11.5k It’s an amazing car for the money. The boot is bigger than a lot of SUVs, great for a family. But it got discontinued so was heavily discounted. We use hardly any petrol on long distances and it drives like a dream, really roomy inside. Popular with taxi drivers and I think not sexy like an SUV hence why it didn’t so well on the market.

But it’s still a Seat with a VW engine and build quality so we still think we got a great deal.

I’d definitely buy this car again now we holiday in the U.K. and have lots of luggage plus buggy

You could just stop speculating and arguing over who's right or wrong and look on autotrader for an idea of what money buys you!

Sorry Seat Toledo is not an SUV - it’s a saloon hatchback but just saying it’s a lot roomier inside than an SUV. We were considering a quashquai but it didn’t drive as nicely and much smaller insider

We got a 3 year old VW golf estate for £13k a few years ago Low mileage and no problems. We hope it will last 10-15 years so I think if you buy cheaper it might not last

If you want a Volkswagen then £15k is about right. You're paying for the brand there.

That said we got a BMW 3 series estate a couple of years back for about £10k but it's a 2015 plate so a bit older.

Our current one, Ford focus estate with just 5k on the clock, was £14.5k in 2013 which shocked me a bit. Have had no problems with it, looks like new when it gets a valet, and hopefully will last at least another 5+ years (as long as they don't ban diesels!!)

Previous car was well below £5k and lasted as long, but that was nearly 20 years ago now!!!!! We have started a savings fund for the next one already!

15-20k, imo. But for that money it would be brand new. And I would get a brand new one, I've had second hand cars before, if you have a pram and a dog, and are looking at it lasting for quite awhile, go for new, not used.

It depends entirely on the car! I bought a two year old Dacia duster with 20,000 miles for £4,000 on eBay and then a three year old Fiat 500L for £6,000 with 7,000 miles with three years of warranty. I still have the Fiat, it fits both dog and pram in (the boot has two platforms - pram goes under one, dog on top). They are both pretty unfashionable cars but I genuinely couldn’t care less!

We also have a 65 year old Land Rover that’s still going strong so I disagree that old cars are worthless (it did cost significantly more than my new ones though 😂).

Bloody hell! My car was just over £1000 10 years ago and it's still chugging along. I think I'm going to be in for a shock when I replace it if that's true - I'd have thought the same as you!

If you are wanting 10-15 years out if it and don’t buy new then I’d be looking at a demonstrator model.