Keep MC or lease a new car?

bensz4mc

Member
 Twickenham
Hi All,

I am after your thoughts and advice please.

Currently I have well specced Z4MC 07 with 38K miles and have just under £20K left to pay on it. The finance will be paid off in 1year and 9months and I will owe £12,000.

I have a new job so expect to average 15,000 miles a year so will have around 65K when my term ends. Any ideas what you think it might be worth then?

Currently I pay £670 (£583 plus £87 warranty) per month.

My thoughts on options are:

1) Do I keep the car and have additional cost with things like Brakes, Clutch, service(inspection2) ect and what will it be worth?

2) Sell the car now (take the 2k hit)hopefully get £18k? for it and then lease a brand new car something like a 335d for £550 per month.


What do you think? Any ideas, alternative suggestions?

Cheers

B
 
For the mileage you are going to do, Option (2) is far more sensible (320d will be even more sensible than 335d).

The running costs of Z4MC will be too high and depreciation will be too deep if you use it daily.
 
Hmm well if you sell it now you're looking at a £2K hit at best I think. At least if you keep it, you probably won't see much more than your £12k back for it seeing as it will have around 65k on it, but at least you'll be able to walk away from it without paying.

What's the allowed mileage on your Select agreement? What's the full spec of it?
 
It's on a balance payments scheme so no GFV.

The spec is Silver, Red Leather and all options bar full leather, folding mirrors and sun protection glass.

Cheers
 
If I'm understanding correctly, it sounds like you are in negative equity with the car - you owe more than it's actually worth. If you have paid more than half the cost, can you not simply hand it back to the finance company - voluntary terminate (VT) it and get out of the agreement?

I would suspect a dealer might be keen to get you into another agreement and maybe clear the finance for you...?

Shame - sounds like a cracking car. The 335d is an animal, but as said above, a 320d might be a bit more sensible!
 
Wondermike said:
Hmm well if you sell it now you're looking at a £2K hit at best I think. At least if you keep it, you probably won't see much more than your £12k
This sounds sensible to me.
- if you hand it back now you'll be instantly £2k out of pocket
- but if you keep it until the end of the term it will surely still be worth £12k (a 4.5yr old ZM4C with 65k miles), so you wouldn't be out of pocket.

To me, keeping the Z4MC sounds like a winner. Obviously there'll be additional fuel costs compared to something like a 335d, but would the difference be enough to account for the £2k you'd lose if you get rid of it now? Plus you'll have a further 1yr 9months of fun...
 
ksher said:
For the mileage you are going to do, Option (2) is far more sensible (320d will be even more sensible than 335d).

The running costs of Z4MC will be too high and depreciation will be too deep if you use it daily.

Dunno about that. I'm doing 120+miles a day at the moment and sometimes 400 at weekends...getting my ££ worth out of the car is what I call it :driving: . It's mostly fuel cost which is high, the service intervals are pretty good as is the cost of tyres if using the conti's. Depreciation, all cars suffer that, especially when new.

I wouldn't worry about putting 15k on the M a year, it's a car that serves best when used :)
 
My two cents: What's the benefit in ending one long term financial commitment you are near to completing to enter a new one? Surely an instant 2k hit outweighs any servicing/fuel costs in any event and as DarrenM says 15k a year ain't exactly high. If it were 20k+ then the diesel economy starts to play out but your losses here and the higher retail price of a diesel would far outweigh your M running costs I would have thought?

If I were taking a new job I'd be more hesistant about new financial commitments anyway...but that's just my cautious side.
 
I'd keep the M if it was me, savings will be negligible selling over the long term. You'll just be stuck with a longer term financial commitement, and if you stay as you are your neg equity will soon be reduced and with time be gone.

Going for the diesel will save you about £100 a month, maybe £150 inc fuel. You'll still have to service the diesel so not a massive saving there (only saving £500 a year). So over the 2 years remaining, you'll have spent max £4.5kish over the diesel (remember you will have lost 2k going to the diesel from the sale of the M), but you if you went for the diesel you will still have the finance millstone around yoru neck even if you want to get rid. You may even be left with equity at the end, reducing this further... And you don't have 2 full years anyway so the figure just got even smaller...
 
I have a different view to most, having owned a diesel tank (A4 Cab 2.0 tdi), I prefer something that makes you smile, so yes I could save £30 a month on fuel with that tdi, but then, if it was just down to money I would own a fiesta. That said,the 335D engine in a Z4, hmmm that would be a difficult decision.

So my advice is, go with your heart and sole, not with what makes commercial sense, because cars don't make any
 
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