Financial Considerations when buying a car

i don't mind taking out loans to buy cars. it's no different to taking out a mortgage for a house.

people who say ''i will never buy anything i can't afford to pay for outright'' annoy me because by saying this, especially if they have mortgages. hypocrites?

my 4th brand new car is being delivered to me next week, and as long i can afford to repay the monthly payment, then i can afford the car.

if you buy a used car, then you have the worry of repairs, maintenance etc. buy a new car and you don't. obviously you pay more, but then it's hassle free motoring, and you don't have to drive around in a banger.
 
Just a focus 1.0 ecoboost. Its for the other half to use for the work commute and then driving to our families at weekends.

Trading my 11 plate woefully underpowered fiesta in for it. The zed is staying for a long while yet!
 
ben g said:
if you buy a used car, then you have the worry of repairs, maintenance etc. buy a new car and you don't. obviously you pay more, but then it's hassle free motoring, and you don't have to drive around in a banger.
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Most new cars that have defects will generally reveal them in the first year or so. So yes they are covered under warranty. But the trade off. Esp for BMW. Is a 50% depreciation in 3-4 years. That is more expensive than a repair that a typical 2-3 year old car would need. Using the wife's 2008 328 as an example. New it was 37,000 USD. Bought it at 2 years old for 25,000 USD with 12,000 Miles on it. Have owned it for 2 years and now have 47,000 miles on it. Total cost of repairs so far. 300 Euro for a front drive shaft rubber coupling. I saved 12,000 USD by letting the first owner pay for the depreciation.
 
true. it's all relative though.

i paid £8495 for a brand new fiesta zetec and the trade it value ford gave me was £6400. £2000 for 18 months driving isn't too bad in my eyes, especially when it was trouble free.

i paid £2000 for a 10 year old ford puma and spent £300 fixing the starter motor, then the gearbox went 6 months later.
 
This 1.0 engine looks interesting, is it the 125 version you got? Putting it in the facelifted Fiesta too.
 
yes, 125ps. supposed to be a very good engine and was recommended to me by my dads friend. was going to get the 1.6 tdci 115 as that's the engine i make in work, but the other half wasn't keen on diesel :(
 
pvr said:
But you are a tight ar*ed Scot :rofl: :fuelfire:
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Your point being?! :D

ben g said:
i don't mind taking out loans to buy cars. it's no different to taking out a mortgage for a house.
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Not quite. Car = depreciation (99% of the time at least). House =/= depreciating asset (well, you'd hope not...). That's quite a large difference in my eyes.
 
It's definitely the depreciation that kills, including that all important drop in value the second a new car is off the forecourt.

I bought a second hand cooper S for 8.5k as my first venture out of our company car scheme. Kept it a year, put 20k on it and lost £1000 on value when I traded it. By far the best deal in my car history

Traded it for a Golf edition 30. Dealer demonstrator, 6 months old for which I paid 23k and it had every single option available on it plus it was chipped. That dropped £5k per year over 2 years (actually just under but close enough)

I bought the S max from Ford direct. 3 months old with 5k on the clock for 25k. Book price on that config was close to 35k on fords online configuration tool. Still got it and no plans to change it 2 years on. It's probably worth about 17k now

I used my car allowance savings to buy #69 :)

Paid cash for all my cars. I've been in debt before, don't want to be there again but as SARS said, it's all about personal circumstances

Edit - my view on cars, if they depreciate less than my car allowance, or at no more than, I'm getting a free car
 
And as I said, most financial advisors will tell you, not to use our own money when buying expensive cars....use your money elsewhere.

Not that I would know where to use my money elsewhere :rofl:
 
Whichever way you do it - just do it and as long as you can afford the payments or have the cash to splash out, it really doesn't matter one iota!

Have you ever thought about how long you will spend looking at the inside of your coffin lid and your last shirt has no pockets anyway!!!!
 
kevinmarkwhite said:
Surely how you buy it is irrelivent....the depreciation is still the killer?
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+1
It doesn't matter if you go straight cash, normal finance, or PCP.
It all pales into insignificance when you factor in in how much your new car depreciates a few years down the line.

Its a money pit whatever route you take.
 
Money pit yes, but digging is so much fun.

in my opinion its about value and improvement in quality of life rather then outright cost (as long as you can afford it).i get a real pleasure every time i get in my z4c and hearing that initial vroom from the straight 6 ignition. i feel i am getting value out of my spenditure as i can afford it and its not impacting on anything else.
 
Stuart Truman said:
Edit - my view on cars, if they depreciate less than my car allowance, or at no more than, I'm getting a free car
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Precisely. This is my approach too. Built a decent amount of equity that way too.
 
Ive bought over 60 new cars in my motoring career,and only made money on one-------a 2001 mini cooper.I think it must have been one of the first ones on the road.I exchanged it for another one and got an extra 1200 over what I paid for it.
 
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