Morning all,
Went to trade my car in at a large supermarket at the weekend.
I commute Manchester to Leeds every day, and am finally getting around to getting a diesel (6 months too late...)
Unfortunately, the trade-in I was offered has made me re-think. Essentially the message was that there is no market for high-mileage cars, with the consequence that not only would this purchase be more expensive than I'd hope, but that I'd be in the same position in a few months if I bought another second-hand car.
(As a side issue, my car is just over 3 years old and has 45K on the clock. If 'average' mileage is 12K/year, I don't see 15K/year as that dramatic...).
Anyway, the fella's recommendation was to buy a new car on a PCP deal, and just give the (by then low value) car back after 3 years to start again.
Based on the depreciation I've seen whilst I've had my current car, I reckon I've effectively been 'spending' £312/month - so I'm not far off what a PCP would cost.
I've always they were to be avoided in the past, but given my mileage, I'm re-thinking. Any pointers/warnings/observations on PCPs? Alternatively, what is my best option, knowing that I'm likely to be doing 25-30K miles a year?
|
Sorry to go a bit off topic straight away but as mentioned in another thread, car supermarkets do not like taking cars with 'high' milages (even though yours is perfectly reasonable for the age), and are likely to offer you a pretty low part ex valuation.
Depending on the make and condition, a main dealer might be more than willing to take your existing car in part ex if it is saleable on his forcourt. If you can get a good deal on a 1-2 year old diesel the cost to change might work out lower than at the supermarket, and you would have (at least) a year of main dealer warranty on mechanicals, which is nice to know if you are doing 30K a year.
|
|
Why not just use your own car for a few years? You KNOW your car, and presumably it has already suffered quite a bit in terms of depreciation. changing cars always mean that £2k or so dissappears with dealer margins. That buys a lot a of petrol.
|
|
What are you driving now, what is it worth in PX, and how much fuel are you using?
|
Beware of how mileage affects PCP deals. Headline figures are usually based on annual mileage limits, sometimes as low as 6000 p.a. You can adjust the contract to differing mileage limits such as 15K p.a. but this will obviously raise the costs. Should you return the car after the term of the contract with more miles than agreed you will get charged an excess: sometimes as high as 8p per mile. PCP is an expensive way to have a new car.
Think about how much you are thinking of committing to in order to save three or four hundred pounds on fuel.
|
|
You will struggle to get a good PCP deal on 25-30K miles per year - even personal leasing will be expensive. Unfortunately you just have to take the hit, but as long as you keep all paperwork in order you will sell a 100,000 mile three year car. My father runs a driving school and does similar mileage - his diesel Fiestas he uses have always sold without the need to trade in. I'd be looking at a nearly new rep mobile (Mondeo, Focus) which has lost 30% of it's list price in the first six months. Local Ford dealer has new TDCi Mondeo LXs for just over £12,000. Remember new reg in a few days and pre reg 06 cars will be cluttering up dealerships.
|
|
|
|
|
You don't say what your present car is so it is unclear what mileage you get. Changing the car is always the most expensive part and you have to weigh this against what you would save in fuel costs and of course the depreciation spiral starts again when you renew the car....only steeper! I now hang on to cars longer ..at present a diesel....until the repair bill is more than the car is worth and spend the money saved on other things.
|
My current car is an 03 plate Honda Accord tourer 2.0 - the two trade-in quotes I've had are £7.5K and £8K.
The one time I filled up on consecutive days, to see how much I'm spending on petrol a day, it was around £17-18.
|
B
45k on a 3 year old car doesn't sound excessive. But then my opinion doesn't count 'cos I'm not buying it.
Beware of PCP if you're doing a high mileage. A friend was talked into this and ended up owing an arm and a leg.
If you're going to clock up a high mileage, can you spread it over 2 cars? Are you married / is there another car in the family that's not clocking up much? Failing that the cheapest option is probably going to be get something that is cheap to buy and to run and use it until the wheels drop off. Or move :-)
JH
|
Manchester-Leeds = about 45 miles, so you are doing 90 miles/day. The best you are going to get in commuting driving is 45 mpg, roughly, and the Accord ought to be doing 30 mpg. So the most you'll save is about £4.50/day, say £1,000/year.
Do the sums - is that mileage reducing the Accord's value by more than £1,000 a year?
|
|
|
|
My current car is an 03 plate Honda Accord tourer 2.0 - the two trade-in quotes I've had are £7.5K and £8K.
Bingo - you don't give a full description but assuming manual / SE trim then the £7.5K to £8K look about right
glass's trade in prices are:
Honda Accord VTEC SE
2.0 Petrol 5-door Estate
5 Speed Manual Front Wheel Drive
Year: 2003 03
Mileage: 45,000
Part-exchange Price:
Excellent condition:
£8350
Average condition:
£7480
Below average condition:
£6570
Switching to diesel might save you 30% on fuel - based on £18/day this equals £30/week or £1500 per year so don't spend £2K to change cars!!
If you need to change , sell the Honda privately - 45K & 3 years old will not put buyers off if it's been serviced properly and is priced right. Then buy a diesel for whatever money you get..
But don't spend money to save money!
|
As you have a car that's eminently capable of getting well into six figures with proper maintenance, if I were you I'd hang on to it and, if it comes to it, run it until it drops -- that would put the depreciation in perspective.
HJ's road-test figures suggest you ought to be getting mid-30s mpg on 90-mile round trips. Diesel fuel used to be cheaper than petrol; don't bet on it not rising in relative terms as Greedy Gordon and his elves secure their revenues as the percentage of diesel cars increases inexorably.
"So Honda can tick all the boxes. With the new Accord they?ve got out of the mass-market D sector and back to where the Accord used to be. The engines are good to drive and environmentally friendly. The controls are light. The handling is excellent. Noise levels are low. And everyone is well protected. Not bad at all." That's a car I'd keep and enjoy.
|
I'm in a similar position: SWMBO has clocked nearly 30,000 miles since buying a petrol Scenic last year. Even at that rate, it wouldn't pay to trade it for a diesel equivalent unless we were certain of continuing to do such mileage for the next 3-4 years.
Don't forget that diesel is at its cheapest (in the annual cycle of fuel prices) at the moment: prices will rise as winter approaches because home heating oil and kerosense are refined from the same fraction of crude oil as diesel.
Also, as diesel cars are becoming ever more popular, so the cost to change gets higher.
Around these parts, petrol and diesel were both ?1.25/litre last Spring. Petrol is now ?1.18/litre and diesel ?1.14/litre. In midwinter, diesel prices briefly peaked above petrol.
So the annual saving probably isn't as high as it looks now, and as Roger points out, the price difference between petrol and diesel may well narrow as more people turn to Derv - if the treasury doesn't see to it, the oil companies will.
|
|
I'd consider getting a second car, a cheap diesel you can afford to run until it drops,. They aren't necessarily less reliable, I see plenty of new cars at the side of the motorway on the way to work.
|
Right then... sounds like I don't want to be changing car then!
For what it's worth, my actual commute is 120 miles (west Manchester to east Leeds), but even so it doesn't sound like the savings in fuel costs would compensate for the cost to change the car.
Speaking hypothetically, and given that folk clearly do want low mileage cars, what is the best way to go in future (and/or when I start getting problems with my current car)? A. Buy a low-mileage 18-month old car and sell it when my mileage brings it up to average or B. Just run whatever I have into the ground and then start again?
|
If you are going to do a large mileage, there isn't much point in beginning with a low mileage car - it will end up as a high mileage car soon enough!
Number_Cruncher
|
|
Your best bet would be to buy a late, but high miles car. It's taken the knock, so the miles you add will do less for the value. Eg three year old Mondeo with 60k on it, say £5k. You drive it for 2 years, put 50k + on it, so it's then a 5 year old car with about 110-120. Still a market for that, prob worth £2k tops. So it's cost you £1.5k pa - not too bad.
|
|
|
|
|
|
I'm not sure I agree with the majority here.
My car is on a PCP calculated on the basis of 20,000 miles a year - the monthly payments are
only about £25 more than if I'd put it on for 10,000. Out of interest, to make sure I wasn't talking rubbish, I looked on www.drivethedeal.com where they give you a quote for a PCP. Assuming you like Hondas and go for a diesel Civic, it was something like £270 pm on 10,000, £305 on 25,000.
You'll get a decent price for your three-year-old Accord (through not from drivethedeal) while the mileage is still reasonable; if you keep it for another 3 years /the cost to change will be very high, not to mention repairs and replacements.
And with a new car you'll get a 3-year warranty, and you will have the minimum guaranteed future value at the end of the three-year contract.
Finally, finance isn't the only consideration: you need a reliable car for that commute. I'm sure the Honda is fine now, but after another 3 years it'll have a six-figure mileage and even a good car like
an Accord may go wrong. If you can't run to another Tourer, or a Civic, something like a Skoda Fabia diesel estate will do the job almost as well for much less.
|
|
|
