That spending circa £25k on a 2nd hand car is not frivolous

[Pipsquiggle]

Looking at replacing my 12 year old car which I have had for 10 years. When I bought this car it was about £16k

I am looking at buying another second hand car, probably a Mazda or Volvo so not a super premium brand. Looking around the £25k mark. Hopefully, I'll pick well and keep it for around 10 years.

My DH seems to think I should get a cheaper car around £16k again. He thinks £25k is too much.
Over the last 10 years our income has gone up a lot, we have lots of savings. Financially we are in a good position.

I am not sure why my DH is being stingy over this. He's not really into cars so probably sees it as wasted money.

YABU - listen to your DH he has a point
YANBU - £25k is ok as you can afford it and it's for a mid range car

@Pipsquiggle
I've just spent 23k on an 18month old Skoda Kamiq (SUV crossover type)
It's the Monte Carlo edition, heated seats, large infotainment screen, parking sensors and cameras. 1.5 DSG. 10k miles.
Electric tailgates are optional extras on some, there was one that was 26k with one, newer with less miles but a bit over our budget.

Absolutely love the car, very happy with it!

it will be worth virtually nothing as most people will be buying electric

I disagree and it's likely to be a commodity as there should be good trade in deals to incentivise people to change to electric.

But in any case, there will be many many people unable to afford or unable to justify the cost of electric cars so there will still be a market for well maintained 10-15 YO petrol cars, unless you think the majority of the population is going to become well off enough to buy a new car in that timescale?

With that wish list I'd also consider the VW equivalents - Tiguan/Touareg, particularly reliable and great on safety.

What? This is ridiculous. Of course you can.

Apparently 25k would be an investment if you bought a 20 year old Subaru Impreza according to the Yorkshire Post yesterday!

I think to get a young car, 25k is about right. We spent 17k a year ago on a 4 year old Lexus. We bought it for the 10 year warranty-so 17k over 6 years plus residual value seems ok. But 5 years ago, I bought a 3 year old Golf estate for 12500. Car prices are shocking now.

I have a 2015 1L Toyota Yaris bought for the kids to drive - 6k second hand in 2019 - as @CarGirlStar said they are brilliant - it passes its test every year and has only broken down once a couple of months ago when the clutch went. Looking at the book price, we could still sell it for almost what we paid for it!

Looking at what you want, have you considered a Lexus/Toyota hybrid? They do SUV shapes, are extremely reliable and provided you service them in house, have a 10 year warranty. I ran my old Toyota Prius into the ground, never spent money on it until it was 11 years old.

That seems massively expensive for a secondhand car.

I got my secondhand corsa in 2021, 6000 miles on the clock, 2 years old (the previous owner had bought it just before covid, so it hadn't had the chance to do many miles), and I paid just over £12K, which seemed massively expensive!

£25K for a very average brand of car seems a huge amount!

I spent £2.5k on a second hand car in 2015. I still have it. It’s twenty years old, it runs fine, is ulez compliant and ok doesn’t look immaculate but cost 9 times less than what you are proposing.

I think 25k on a second hand car is outrageous.

But that’s fine if a small car is what you want, it if you want a larger family car with boot space for luggage, holidays, camping, taking kids to and from uni, and is comfortable for long journeys and a bigger engine which is better if you do longer motorway journeys or towing a caravan or trailer, then you need a different larger car which will of course be more expensive.

Im not sure I would class £16k as "stingy"

Must have heated seats and leather steering wheel! My DH was a motor vehicle technician for over 40 years. We got rid of my 16 years old astra diesel estate, actually gave it to my son. November sailed through it's MOT. we have an 8 year old Kia Sportage, 2 dogs, gardening hobby, grandkids. It's brilliant,a lot of friends have gone over to them because they're older, have had hip and knee replacements and it's easy to get up into them.

It's a lot but if you can afford it the car will last a lot longer than one you pay £15k for 🤷‍♀️

That's partly because cars are better made and last longer now

So what do you think cars that are £80k new should sell for second have?

Of course £25k isn't outrageous. It depends on the car

The OP isn't looking for a Corsa. She's looking for a reasonably high spec Volvo type car.

We replaced our 16 yo Mazda 5 with a 2019 plate MX5 three years ago and have had no problems or regrets. IIRC it cost us 22k from a dealership. Meanwhile BIL has had endless problems with his Volvo XC90 including the engine failing!

This is an exceptionally stupid question. You have loadsamoney and want to spend it on a status symbol which will depreciate in value like nothing else I can think of but your husband thinks you could spend less. This is the very definition of a first world problem and something that you need to thrash out with your husband.

Maybe bear in mind that someone working full time on NMW (of which there are many on MN) doesn't earn more than £25,000 in a whole year so your question just reeks of privilige and makes you look crass.

Obviously living in a parallel universe here...I bought a 10 year old car for 1.8k 5 years ago and it's been had only one breakdown, passed all mots with very minor repairs needed (£20 this year for example) and no issues with rust either.

The key with second hand cars is buy a decent brand but above all else ensure it has been maintained. If it has had an annual service every year it will probably last forever. Any repairs needed have been dealt with during the service but nothing particularly expensive, about £300 was the dearest last year, mostly stuff like tyres and brakes that need doing on any car.

I don't believe cars are better made now than 5 years ago to the extent that a ten year old car would be worth more

My mum just bought a 2021 Honda CRV with 28,0000 miles, leather seats and all the jazzy bits for £17,500. Its a honda, she could set it on fire, drive it into the seat and put washing up liquid in the oil and it would still run and be rust free.