Spending saving on a car

[ManishaA]

Hello,
This is my first time here as I didn’t know where else to go as I’m quite new. I am a little stuck with a dilemma. I have had my current car for over two years now and it’s a limited edition corsa 2015. The car is a cat S write off car, which I had bought without knowing. The car drove fine and well until recently. I’ve had to pay £750 to fix the water pump and have some fixes done. Also had to have two new tires . Recently my car stopped as I was coming back from work and it had the engine management light on and showed an engine low power message. I had to keep turning my engine off and on to get to work again and drove home on 20mph. The next day I went to check on my car and the sign was gone, but I’m just so scared to drive it again incase it stops working. I also don’t want the stress of taking it back and forth.

I probably need a new car but will most likely have to use most of my saving. Probably about £10k. I just feel so guilty for using all my saving as it took my just under 3 years to save all that, but I also need a car.

do you think I should continue with buying a car worth £10k and hope it lasts me a good 5 years and not feel guilty. I think I’m just looking for a bit of reassurance that I’m not making a big blunder of using my savings. My sister said to go ahead with it as I can always start saving again.

please be gentle with me. I have severe anxiety and have had a bad expierence with money when I was at uni, worried I’ll be making another mistake.

just want reassurance that I’m making the right decision.

thank you

Maybe the middle ground would be to use £5k savings as a deposit on a car and borrow the rest to repay over 3-5 years allowing you to leave some savings in the bank "just in case", make the repayments, and still save a little each month. You may find this allows you to buy a newer car and settle some worries about how long the car will last.

I would get your car looked at.

Buying another second hand car doesn't guarantee that you will be problem free.

The first thing that occurs to me is that I don't think you need to spend £10k to get a decent car? Am I out of touch?

Would it feel better if you spent more like £6k, especially with a trade in? Then you still have some savings.

I just bought a second hand electric car and admittedly I did spend more than £10k. I just went via auto trader and bought a car that had full service history etc etc.

A Cat S car is one which has sustained structural damage – think of items integral to the car's structure such as the chassis and suspension. While Cat S cars can safely be repaired and put back on the road, they must be re-registered with the DVLA beforehand.

Has it been re- registered? If so it is fine to drive, providing it's also got an up to date MOT.

Before you buy another car have you taken it to an independent garage to work out that error message? It might only cost you a couple of hundred to fix.

Had a quick google and this came up. Have you checked your oil, water and coolants? It might be linked to that water pump problem you had earlier. But definitely take it into a garage before buying another, it could be a simple fix.

Reduced engine power is a failsafe mode used by the car's computer, or engine control module (ECM), to protect the engine. Several things can trigger limp mode, including loose cables, low coolant, fluid, or oil levels, transmission errors, internal engine issues, and failing sensors.

That's exactly what I've just done for fund a new car. I could have paid for it outright from savings but would have left me with little in savings so I put a large deposit down and used finance for the rest, less trade in for my old car.
I got finance through my bank rather than the dealer as the APR was lower and the monthly repayments are low enough to let me build my savings back up, albeit at a slower rate!
But yes, definitely exhaust all options for repairing your existing car before getting a new one!

Thank you for all the responses. My aim issue is my car is always taking a trip to the garage for something and I’m always having to spend money getting something fixed. The airbag sign keeps coming on and off as well. Also the parking sensors are not working. I checked my oil and water level and they’re all fine. I also had a full service done 2 months ago. I’m just so scared getting into that car as I’m always paranoid that it’ll just stop working or something will go wrong. I also have my baby brother in my car a lot and he’s 5, I’ll be gutted if something was to happen and he’s in there with me. I don’t think I’ll go with the finance option and would rather pay outright due to personal reasons. I think I’m just fed up of having to pay a couple of hundred every couple of months for it to just end up in the garage again. Also, the car has two dents and the left side plastic is coming off too.

Ah okay, your last post gives slightly more information. You have lost trust in its reliability due to continuous problems so even if this was fixed you would always be on edge. I get it.

Have a look on autotrader as they have a lot of filters including not showing cat s and n, showing traders only (you have slightly more protection with them), distance, 5 or 3 door etc and get a feel for what is out there for £5k or £6k etc. You might be surprised. I got a high spec 2016 Fiesta for under £8k last year when all cars cost a fortune, however DD got a lovely Mazda for under £4k.

I went to a reputable garage after much research online as they offered 12mths guarantee (whereas a lot of the online companies that just deliver to your door were only giving 3 mths). This might be more reassuring for you and make you less anxious. I got a 3 Yr old fiat that had only done 14 000 miles with one owner for £8,000. A lot of people change their car at the point they start requiring MOTs. I've had it 12 months now and it's just passed MOT with no problems.

To be fair it's only a budget model, but i personally prefer that as I think the less gadgets and gizmos on a car the less things there are to go wrong.

I really appreciate all the responses. Thank you so much for your input. I feel much more reassured. I also spoke to a collegue and she advised it was best if I got a new car and had given me good advice on where to look.

thank you all.

Have you got a good credit rating? I always buy my cars on 0% credit card purchase Barclays is offering 21 months 0%. If you’ve not paid it off you can get a 0% balance transfer.

I would look to preserve 8 k of the 10 k and put the rest on a 0% credit card. You’ll always have the money in the bank to clear it if needed but this is the way I make big purchases.