Family car- how to approach when to buy new

[lking12]

Hi all,we are now a family of 5. Our car is a 2019 Citroen c5 aircross so 3 car seats can go in the back.

outside of our mortgage our biggest finance item will be a car. We currently own the 2019 one it’s worth about £15k. I really like it and suits our family well.

Given the cost to our family my plan is (in todays money) swap our cars at 6 years old with approx £6000 part exchange, £9k from sharesave scheme at work (I save this every 3 years so would use money from every other scheme 36 months at £250 a month). And then do a 5 year hire purchase for about £350 a month. The 6th “free” year would go to cover the costs of the car from years 3-6 I.e MOt and extended warranty.

then at 6 years repeat so part ex for £6k, £9k from savings and hire purchase for 5 years.
I don’t really want to lease and by owning the car if the kids wreck it it’s not a big deal we could say keep it longer?

but it’s still a lot of money. We do 8k miles a year and use trains to commute.

so… is there a cheaper way of doing it?
thats a £32k citizen c5 or equivalent. Which would be a new or nearly new up to 1 year old car.

Btw £6k part ex and £9k sharesave are conservative estimates based on the minimum. If the part ex was higher our hire purchase loan would go down obviously.

Why do you need to replace your current car?

FWIW we buy our cars for cash outright, usually 3 to 4 years old and have never spent more than 10k. We tend to run them into the ground. That said I don’t know what used car values are like post pandemic- 10k might not go far these days.

We won’t change this one until 2025 when it’s 6 years old. We bought it outright in 2020 at 1 year old. We can’t afford to change until our childcare costs come down significantly (£1600 a month currently!) At the moment our savings only covering basics.

I’d aim to change every 6 years because I don’t know much about upkeep of cars and at this age the cost of ownership just seems to go up and up. Our 2025 car will probably be diesel but after that would look to electric or phev. I like the Kia niro but you can’t get 3 car seats in. Alternative would be a multimac in the back but they’re about £1500. Larger cars are too expensive.

The extended warranties I buy are for cars up to 7 years old with less than 100,000 miles. After that pretty sure any garage would see us coming and charge us crazy costs.

We always bought cars new then kept them as long as possible. Then earlier this year my wee trusty car just couldn't be fixed. We ended up getting a 3 year old car from a dealer near by for £12,000. I couldn't justify a pcp and went for HP. The car was really low mileage for its age and was roughly what I was looking for.

The dealer is a huge company where they take all the trade ins from the chain and sell on, they gave me £2000 for my car when I expected to have to pay for it to be scrapped.

Our first car we upgraded within 2 years due to having a baby. Then we upgraded 4 years later and it was a great family car for 8 years but we wanted a smaller car and went for a car that lasted 10.5 years. So we keep them as long as we can.

Our current car is from Arnold Clark but used prices went up massively after 2020. They don’t seem as good value now. Would be open to a 1 year old car if it was worth it.
I don’t think we’d keep a car longer than I could buy an extended warranty for, we’re both hopeless when it comes to cars.
I changed a Hyundai Tucson for this one when 4 new tyres were going to cost me £500 never mind all the other costs, and that was on its second MOT.

Actually the c5’s that are from 2022 are around £24k even the phev ones. So 3 years younger than our current car. I’d probably swap for something that’s 1-2 years old then and then keep that for 6 years under extended warranty. Thanks 👍🏻

The way you do it is pretty expensive.

Why do you think you need to know about cars? That’s what mechanics are for!

I bought my car a year old with 1200 miles on the clock ten years ago. I have it serviced every year, and it just sailed through its MOT again. You don’t do much mileage so really you should be able to keep your current car for at least ten years if not longer.

I took my Hyundai Tucson for its second ever service and MOT though (actually might have been its first) and the cost of all the stuff to have to put right just seemed crazy. Biggest being £500 for new tyres and I couldn’t tell if it was really all needed or not!

The cheaper option is to keep the car longer.

I drive a 20 year old Golf, this year it needed nothing doing at it’s MOT, it did need a £700 exhaust fix a couple of years ago though.

I don’t understand your thinking @lking12

Of course cars need new tyres regularly. Other things need replacing or fixing as the car gets older.

It’s still loads cheaper than spending out £££££ the way you are.

I think you should find a reputable garage for repairs. I understand not knowing the ins and out of mechanics and what's required to keep a car going but new tyres is easy as pie to check and they do need replacing every now and then. For 8k a year and still using trains I'd say don't waste the money.

8k miles I mean.

I don’t get the buying every 6 years thing. Seems really silly to me! I bought my A4 in 2008 brand new and it’s still going. I just look after it.

I bought a 2 year old car 11 years ago. We have just got rid of it because of Ulez but if that hadn't come in would have expected to keep several years more. Yes it has needed new tyres and had servicing costs but much cheaper than buying a new car.
We plan to replace with a 3-4 year old car that should last us until the kids have left home (9 more years) at which point we will move to a campervan.
I don't get why you'd need a new car every 6 years

Put your car through its next MOT without an expensive service? You can check things like lightbulbs , indicators, tyres etc yourself. If the car passes - job done, if it fails you have a list of problems to hand to the mechanic to fix.
I just bought a 6 year old car for £10k in cash. I’ll drive it until it gives up the ghost. Car finance is a waste of your money.

If you work out the likely cost of changing your car regularly as you propose, and divide it into an annual figure, you will have a basis for how much an older car can cost in service and upkeep before it is cheaper to change it.

Some years ago we had a figure of £1000 in mind for "some years it might cost this much to repair and still be ok".

Even with the used car market so much stronger, depreciation on new /nearly new cars represents a signifcant loss of asset value compared with an older car.

Oh and I agree, at 8k miles per year, you may not need an annual service. Once you are out of dealer warranties find a trustworthy local garage to build a relationship with.

I have a 10 year old Audi. No extended warranty (ever). Service and MOT carried out by local independent garage at a fraction of the dealership prices. I will change the car when it dies...... Don't understand the expense or hassle of changing it earlier.

If you don't do many miles a diesel engine is not a good idea - they need to do miles!

You are spending a lot money on a car… I bought my first ever new car, a fiesta, 10 years ago , needs replacing now and looking for a hybrid.
I run cars into the ground!
You need to hang onto current car and fix as needed with mechanic.. it’s much cheaper.

Like most, I don't understand why you wouldn't just keep the car that you have, and like, and that you know has really low mileage

What you would be better doing is asking around family / friends / colleagues / neighbours for the name of a local garage with a reputation for honesty and fair pricing.

I don't know much about mechanics, but I have an excellent local garage I've been going to for almost 40 years, so I don't need to know anything about mechanics.

Oh, and my 20 year old car just passed it's MOT without needing any work.

Ask around for recommendations of a good garage. Tyres vary in cost - most places I’ve used have said “do you want these tyres at x cost or these cheaper ones at x cost”. But if you’ve got a big car and need all 4 at once it can be pricey.

I also think the extended warranty thing is really annoying. The only time we looked into it, seemed like you have to jump through so many hoops to keep it valid and it felt a bit like buying insurance for your dishwasher or something. An expensive and constrained way of looking after something that’s usually ok.

Your way of doing things is the opposite way to mine. For our “nicer” cars we normally buy about three years old. Doing that means that we paid £40,000 rather than £100,000 for our current Range Rover, which we are extremely happy with and which is still worth £35,000 three years later.

I completely understand buying new if having the latest model and being the first owner is worth the extra cost, but it’s definitely the most expensive way to go.

We buy outright and keep them until they are no longer financially viable , which is usually end of life for the car . Our current cars are nearly 1 and 12 yrs old . The 12 yo Kia passed its MOT this year with no advisories and has had a custom rear exhaust at £250 . In the interim we save for the next one .

Put money aside for car maintenance every month - everyone needs new tyres and brake pads etc. at some point. Six years is just an abitrary number. My car (Citroen C3) is a 2019 and no way am I thinking about replacing it already! Our other car is 2016 (a Kia) and hasn't cost us anything other than usual wear and tear stuff like tyres etc. which we budget for anyway. It still feels pretty new to me I'd hope to get at least 10 years out of a car. We buy second-hand at a couple of years old and keep until no longer financially viable to fix, but replacing tyres is just a normal part of owning a car - you don't have to buy a new car every time it needs new tyres!