To buy a car or not....Opinions please.

[MisterTommyH]

So...

I currently have an Ibiza on PCP which means I never truly own the car...which I'm used to and I accept because I like a new car.

I previously had a Leon. Loved the Leon, hate the Ibiza. I have 6 months left on my PCP before I either have to hand it back or buy it.

Been looking around at equivalents - Focus (not bad) Giulietta (also not bad) Leon (a known quantity, but while I like the Leon I didn't think it was worth the £18K it costs now compared the the £13.5K I paid for the same model in 06). The issue is these cars have gone up since I got my first one in 06 and the monthly payments are well over £100 more.

But.... I've just had a call from Seat saying that if I buy a Leon before the end of March (model and spec I like etc) then there is a £3k discount (bringing it down to the price I think is fairer given a little bit of inflation), they'll clear my current costs (so no negative equity or carry-over), and I get a new car for similar monthly price (£10 more) than I was paying in 06.

I think I've convinced myself with this ramble, but any comments from anyone would be welcomed.....

[yorkie_chris]

£13.5K for a box used to transport sh*te around that's bigger than a tankbag or to ferry people about. Buy something for £500 and spend the rest on a bike...

[MisterTommyH]

That is the other option.

Before this I was considering letting the PCP run out and then just see what happens (either just use the bike or get something second hand). Earlier in the year I was considering not replacing a car at all, but my trial run showed that just didn't work for me.

I have a terrible track record with second hand cars BTW.

[ravingdavis]

Why not get a second hand car from an authorised dealer if you have a bad track record? spend £10k, get it on a loan that you pay off fully and therefore own the car. You will pay less in interest, loose less in depreciation and you will still get a warranty. I bought my BMW 1 Series not so long back second hand and thus far it has been great. Plenty of options for very good second hand cars, golfs etc.

[-Ralph-]

Buying new is a recipe for loosing money. My Toyota Avensis bought 9 months old with 10k miles was £12995. Advertised at £13,995 I went into the dealer and negotiated a grand off screen price, plus the trade in value I wanted for my old car. New list price of the car 9 months earlier was £22k. Toyota come within the top 3 manufacturers on pretty much any reliability or customer satisfaction survey you care to look at, and it came with the balance of the manufacturers 5 year warranty so is under warranty until July 2015.

http://www.bandbvehiclecontracts.com/userfiles/image/2009-toyota-avensis-tourer.jpg

http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd82/colinbal4/229174_1974330431492_1040001972_32315085_7576514_n .jpg

[Specialone]

Tom, a bloke of your calibre should have a porsche ;)

The leons are great cars tbh though.

[Biker Biggles]

£13.5K for a box used to transport sh*te around that's bigger than a tankbag or to ferry people about. Buy something for £500 and spend the rest on a bike...

That is the cheapest way to run a car,but if you must have something newish,Ralphs method is so much cheaper than the brand new way.

[-Ralph-]

but if you must have something newish

In my case it's not that I must have something newish, I'm not a car snob at all (I know your not suggesting I am, I'm just saying). In fact I couldn't care less what 4 wheels I have.

Mine is financed by a company car allowance, so they dictate I must always have something less than 5 years old, so I go through a cycle of buy a year old or less, and change every 4 years. Still I'm spending 9 grand cost to change every 4 years and pocketing the car allowance payments, so it's win win.

Lots of my colleagues go out and get a new Audi/BMW/Merc on PCH or PCP and spend the whole allowance and see nothing in return, but flashy badges are just not important to me and I think it's just stupid. My Toyota is more spacious, as comfortable, as quiet, more reliable and better equipped than an A4/318/C180K, and half the price of an A6/520/E220. A Lexus is just an expensive Toyota with a different badge on it.

My wife's Seat Ibiza we've had since it was 3 months old and it's now 9 years old. It has never let us down once and only has 65k on the clock, so although it looks like an old skip because she hasn't looked after it, and she moans like hell because all her friends have chelsea tractors, it's so good mechanically I'm loathe to change it, it still drives like a brand new car. It never goes further than the local town anyway, because I work from home and my wife uses the Toyota most days!

[DJFridge]

In my case it's not that I must have something newish, I'm not a car snob at all (I know your not suggesting I am, I'm just saying). In fact I couldn't care less what 4 wheels I have.



Hence the Avensis, I presume;)

[-Ralph-]

Hence the Avensis, I presume;)

Indeedy! Excellent build quality, 5 year warranty, massive boot, comfortable, and CHEAP! :cool:

If the Koreans carry on improving build quality the way they are going, I'll have a Kia next time :lol:

[Sabarius]

We've just bought a Golf. It's an ex-courtesy car, 10k miles and for that we got £8k off the new price. For us it's about reliability, I have not had much luck with second hand cars whereas my mrs has had her clio from new for 7 years and only spent £60 on it - beyond normal servicing and whatnot.

So it's been a history of buy cheap, but twice. The plan is the golf will see us through the next 5 years or so until the family is a bit older.

[DJFridge]

Indeedy! Excellent build quality, 5 year warranty, massive boot, comfortable, and CHEAP! :cool:

If the Koreans carry on improving build quality the way they are going, I'll have a Kia next time :lol:

One of our directors has a Kia Sportage (not the new shape one)- he absolutely loves it. Or get a C'eed (also a bl00dy good vehicle) and be your own Star In A Reasonably Priced Car. And a year old one is sensible money

[maviczap]

Never buy new!

Ralph's method is the best if you want peace of mind

[andrewsmith]

Never buy new!

Ralph's method is the best if you want peace of mind

This!

[fizzwheel]

so I go through a cycle of buy a year old or less, and change every 4 years.

After our recent experience I'm starting to see alot of sense in this. Our A6 was 9 months old when we bought it, it was the Demonstrator from the local Audi dealer.

I worked out roughly what it would have cost new and I reckon we saved somewhere in the region of 10K possibly more by doing what we did. Or another way to look at it, was that we bought 9 month old A6 for the same money a brand new A4 would have cost us. Coupled in with that was because we took the Audi finance we got two years worth of servicing chucked in to the deal as well.

[Sir Trev]

PCH/PCP has always been a very expensive way of buying a car. It became very popular when a lot of companies started offering allowances instead of cars as if offers some of the same benefits of new car and low(ish) risk. For people buying and keeping a car though it only works if you "have" to have a new car every three years or if you don't have a reasonable deposit. Leaving a large chunk of the capital as a final baloon payment however really whacks you on interest which a lot of people either don't get or forget.

Another +1 for Ralph's method. Buy nearly new and haggle on the financing to see if you can get servicing or accessories thrown in to make it even better. Oddly enough an Avensis estate is on my list of possible for my car change this year...