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?!

Take a look at the Focus estate if you have a dog, lots of room in the back, 15k will get you something quite new.
My last one had 150k miles on it before I got an SUV, which has a smaller ‘boot’ area

You can have my old banger for £7.5k.

Shake up for me. I've spent under £3K for my last two which both went 10-14 years each. Now need to consider buying. Happy to hear about the Skoda. But just need a car that works and can carry dog and luggage.

To get a reliable car with low mileage and not so old, from an approved dealership will cost £15k.

Unless you buy french...then £10k tops...but good luck with the reliable part.

@Horehound

My brother just bought one for 64k I was for a week.

I had no idea how much range rovers actually were until I looked on their website recently.... around here, it feels like every second or third car is a range rover. I'm completely shocked that there are so many people, many of whom I actually know, who have that kind of money!

Toyotas are known to last forever. Smaller crossover suv model is a rav4
other models are camry and corolla.

Skoda Superb is an excellent family car too.

if you haven't already, take a look at different car reviews on autoexpress.co.uk

The best car I ever had was a 25 year old Peugeot 106 £400 and lasted me 5 years until I decided to upgrade.
I miss that car

Your DH is correct on this one. I’d tend to avoid VW/Seat/Audi/Skoda as reliability is mediocre according to most surveys. The latest Which reliability report issued today considers these brands to be 3/5 at best for 3-8 year reliability which they also describe as mediocre. If you want a car to last for 10-15 years buy a Toyota. There’s a reason that Lexus/Toyota come top year after year in just about every survey you can find.

They probably don't have that kind of money, it's all on credit, and for show.

But it's all relative.

My most expensive car is £7000, and second hand. Because that was in my budget. A range rover might be peanuts in someone else's budget.

@Triffid1 yeh I know, it's shocking how expensive they can be. The one he bought was a lexus. it does look amazing right enough but still...I can't see me every spending that. I like doing 3yr pcp deals because I get bored of my car's too easily!
I have a VW Jetta at the mo. Was 2014 plate with only 12k miles on it when I bought it 3yrs ago. Bloody love it. £10k and it's a work horse with a great sized boot.
This car I may like enough to keep for a while :D

@RantyAnty

Toyotas are known to last forever. Smaller crossover suv model is a rav4 other models are camry and corolla.

Skoda Superb is an excellent family car too.

if you haven't already, take a look at different car reviews on autoexpress.co.uk

I second this.

But I think OP will struggle on a budget of £15k for a good used toyota or skoda. (Unless you go for one of the smaller models)

Nissan and mitsubishi might be more within range

@TurquoiseDragon

They probably don't have that kind of money, it's all on credit, and for show.

But it's all relative.

My most expensive car is £7000, and second hand. Because that was in my budget. A range rover might be peanuts in someone else's budget.

Well some people do actually..

@SunflowerOwl

We are thinking along the lines of an estate car, perhaps a VW golf estate or Passat. I'm not keen on going down the SUV route as I'm not a fan of them but do need the space.

We're car hunting too! and honestly, in terms of boot size we were more impressed by a passat/mondeo/insignia than an SUV and they were much cheaper. We've found some really good not too old Mondeos and insignias for 10-12k. But your husband is correct unfortunately :-( 7k wont get you very much

P.s I agree with you about how rank car shopping is!

We bought a car in September, and prices are very expensive!

We spent £13k on a top of the range large Audi, but it's still 10 years old even though it has low mileage (60k). We expect to keep it for 5-7 years then get something newer.

For that we could have bought something that wasn't an Audi, VW, Mercedes but considerably newer - but dh and I couldn't agree on anything! I would have happily kept my 15 year old Nissan X-trail!

@TurquoiseDragon

They probably don't have that kind of money, it's all on credit, and for show.

But it's all relative.

My most expensive car is £7000, and second hand. Because that was in my budget. A range rover might be peanuts in someone else's budget.

I have a pretty good credit rating but I think it's unlikely I'd be approved for a car of this sort. And even if I was, there's no way I could afford those sorts of car payments. the reason my "new" car will only happen next year is that's when our financing on the Skoda finishes.

Like another poster we have a second hand Skoda Octavia estate. They are great cars, reliable with huge boots. We have just bought a 4 year old high mileage diesel one for around 6k. We expect it to last 6-10 years. 10-15 years is optimistic! Also, technology moves forward so fast, you may want to change your car after a few years (will petrol/diesel cars be mainstream in 10-15 years?).

@cravingthelook

I bought my Volvo V40 with very low mileage (and top range trim) at almost 4 years old for 11.5k ... as it's a diesel Volvo I'm expecting it to last me 10 years. It's very very economical, lovely to drive with a great size boot and plenty of space inside.

Look at the brands that typically last well.
I would say you need to spend at least 11k for what you want.

We have a Focus estate, built in 2008, and it's been great. Bought it 2nd hand, it's done over 200,000 miles with no bother, though we do service it regularly. We bought it because we needed an estate for my work, and it is wider between the wheel arches than some larger cars (like the Mondeo) which was necessary for the stuff I have to transport. Much more space than the Nussan equivalent of our previous car, which was a Primera, because the Qashqai, which replaces the Primera, is rubbish for boot space. I would very seriously consider a Ford next time, we've liked this one and the parts are cheaper than some other brands. When our Primera needed replacing, our garage said, Ford or Volvo estate, but Ford would be cheaper to service.

We just spent £6.5k on a 13yo car. I expect it to last 5 ish years by which time we can hopefully afford something newer.

If it's boot space you want look at the Skoda superb estate, it's huge. We got one end of last year for less than 15k. The interior is virtually the same as our golf too

To me £15k is excessive.

We spent £8k on a 4yo Skoda estate. Massive boot, modern, safe, reliable... Haven't had it long enough to know how long it will last though, sorry.

Our last car was a Ford and lasted us about 10 years. We bought it second hand (think it was about 4/5 years old) for about £4k. It only got unreliable right at the end, which is when we replaced it.

Prior to that I had an older and cheaper brand second hand car, which I paid about £1.5k for and it lasted us a good 5 years.

Our car is a 2005 Octavia. We have had it 9 years and it cost £3K. It had 91K on the clock when we bought it and now has 184K on the clock. It has gone through the last two MOT's with no advisories.
You don't need to spend a fortune to get a good car, but it helps if you know a bit about them or know a friendly mechanic.

I spent £26,000 on mine but I absolutely love it so won't be selling anytime soon & mine is fairly rare & is holding its value well, we've had it nearly 4 years (it's 5 years old) & I could sell now for around £20,000, will totally depend on what you want.

My car is way over 15 years old but it's a pukka Land Rover and my husband can service and maintain it properly. I looked at the new Defender and that's £41,000 !!!!!!!.

If you are looking for long term ownership I'd look at Mazda or Toyota.

The car I’m driving cost £25,000 😬, luckily I didn’t pay for it (it’s on lease), I can imagine spending that amount on a new car but now I have been driving it a while I know why people do spend out on a new car, it’s great on fuel, it’s a hybrid so better for the environment (not as good as fully electric) and it’s so much better to drive than all the old bangers I have owned. You might get a 2nd hand car that’s ex lease as they are usually replaced after 3 year, some won’t have done many miles and would cost a lot less than buying new. If you want it to last 10-15 years then you need to seriously consider what make of car you get, German cars seem to go on forever whilst a Ford might only last 8-10 years.

I wouldn't spend that amount on a car, but I know a little about them and am able to do basic maintenance. I have a 10 yr old pick-up and 21 yr old jaguar xk8 and I didn't pay that for them combined. Both going strong, I do buy from and negotiate with private sellers though.