New, cheap to run cars.

MikeHiow

MikeHiow

MikeHiow

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After reading a few comments in the i10 thread, seriously, what are people's gripes with <3 year old cheap to run cars?

You always get "LOL YOU SPENT £X for cheap servicing, tax, insurance and fuel".

Well no, they spent £X for a new/nearly new car, and one of the requisites was cheap tax, insurance and decent economy.

Then there is "You could have bought a £1-2k Fiesta that will have done the same job"

Sure, but then, they wanted something newer - Who is the bigger fool, someone who spends £2k on something they don't want, or someone who spends £7k on something they do want?

Then there are the other benefits to newer cars - they are generally more reliable, and when they go wrong, for the first 3-7 years (or 100K!) there is no stress of diagnosis, and cost of repairs - you take it to the garage, and they fix it under warranty.

My Grandmother owns a late 2009 Yaris, which was chosen because its so ridiculously cheap to run - but was bought because they wanted a new car.

So seriously, what is so bad about doing this? Is it just that the motoring enthusiasts here can't understand that some people don't want what someone else perceives as value or a good/fast car, or is it something else?
 
my mother has a VW Fox, it is ridiculously crap car with no redeeming features. But on finance it costs here under £100 a month and has free servicing etc. Bought it as a pre reg in 08. (Got a feeling it was £5999, £2500 down then hers after 3 years.)
 
There's nothing wrong with a good value, second-hand small car, if that's what the person wants, and can afford.

However, when we get examples of people who use the "it's £xxx per month and I don't want to spend more than £yyy per month" and use that as their entire financial reasoning, ignoring the overall costs, that's when we ask questions.

The thing is people only care about what numbers are printed onto a bit of perspex on either end of the car, and the numbers that light up on the dashboard. They let this cloud all other rational judgement, and then try to "justify" based on insurance, tax and servicing costs, ignoring the fact that those are far outweighed by the depreciation and finance fees.
 
Nothing wrong with it. It is just the different mindsets of Joe Average and your average motor enthusiast. Joe Average wants something cheap to run yet doesn't want to buy anything too old in case it is knackered, abused or both. Mr motoring enthusiast would rather buy an old "interesting" car and sees the increased running costs as part of owning something they see as being a bit special.

When we replace our Polo we will get another small car, my gf wants something fairly new so that it has a bit of warranty so it will end up being proper money yet I won't be doing the "lols, I'd tell her to get a £2k Fiesta cos it does the same job" line because I see it as fair enough that she wants something new and cheap to run where as I'm prepared to go older and live with increased running costs.

TBH I can't see either as being wrong, just different priorities is all.
 
The problem isn't people wanting new, cheap to run cars.

The problem is people buy one of these cars with the intention of minimising their motoring expenditure. Not a bad idea in itself, if motoring isn't your 'thing', but most people can't see past the £35/yr road tax when they go and drop £15k on a brand new Nissan Micra. A surprisingly large number of people think the best way to save a few quid is to start by spending tens of thousands. Depressingly, the place I work at is full of people like this.
 
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MikeHiow said:
Who is the bigger fool, someone who spends £2k on something they don't want, or someone who spends £7k on something they do want?
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The biggest fool is the one who spends £7k because they "want" to save money on fuel and tax.

No one wants a small cheap Korean supermini because they are good cars, people want them because they are (relatively) cheap to buy and cheap to run. But a used car beats it hands down.
 
MrFunex said:
The problem isn't people wanting new, cheap to run cars.

The problem is people buy one of these cars with the intention of minimising their motoring expenditure. Not a bad idea in itself, if motoring isn't your 'thing', but most people can't see past the £35/yr road tax when they go and drop £15k on a brand new Nissan Micra. A surprisingly large number of people think the best way to save a few quid is to start by spending tens of thousands. Depressingly, the place I work at is full of people like this.
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But for some people they simply won't buy any thing older than 1,2,3,4,5.... years old and in some cases they won't consider anything other than new. In that case a £15k Micra is still cheaper than a £20k X, a £25k Y or a £30k Z
 
Or go half and half, I just bought my girlfriend a top spec 06 Aygo (full leather, aircon) which isnt a bad car at all for £5000, it does over 50mpg, £35 tax for the year and is insurance group 1.
 
Well you aren't spending tens of thousands though, in the grand scheme of things, you are spending money on depreciation, more over, this depreciation tends to replace repair and maintenance cost of an older car.

So if you add up the increased tax etc., the maintenance/repair costs and other little niggles with an older car then the depreciation can be at least partly (or maybe even completely if you end up with a nail) offset.
 
lordrobs said:
But for some people they simply won't buy any thing older than 1,2,3,4,5.... years old and in some cases they won't consider anything other than new. In that case a £15k Micra is still cheaper than a £20k X, a £25k Y or a £30k Z
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But this is the 'problem'. If people want a new, economical car within the bounds that it's less than x years old, that's fine.

The people who this thread is getting at* are the ones who own, say a 2.0 7-8yr old BMW, that's not worth much, and gets, say, 35mpg. They've heard tell of these new Hyundai 1.0 things that get 50-60mpg and cost almost nothing in road tax. In order to save a few hundred quid a year in fuel, and the same in tax, they'll pony up ten thousand quid or so to get a '10 plate Hyundai. All the time convincing themselves that they've saved money.

Madness!



*if this thread isn't getting at people like this, I apologise. I am merely having a rant at all these little Korean ####-boxes that now infest our roads, drive everywhere at 40mph, barely watch where they're going, and treat you as some sort of child molester when you pitch up at the petrol station with a loud V8 burble and pop £110 of V-Power in!
 
MikeHiow said:
So seriously, what is so bad about doing this? Is it just that the motoring enthusiasts here can't understand that some people don't want what someone else perceives as value or a good/fast car, or is it something else?
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Because if you can afford to dump £10k on a new car, worrying about whether it will cost £125 or £155 to tax is so far beyond irrelevant it's not even funny. Same with fuel, unless you're choosing between a 1.2 and 2.5T, fuel costs are going to be in the region of a couple of hundred quid year different.

If people are really that hung up on these costs that it is the primary influencer on their purchasing decision, you really have to wonder if it's a sensible idea to be spending so much money on a new car?

If they can easily afford a new car, why is £30 difference a year in tax such a sticking point in the first place?
 
Because people's monthly "liquid money" and savings are two very different things, although I'd suggest reading my previous post.

The other thing to consider is that just because someone has money, does not mean they want to spend it simply because they can afford it.
 
No but the point is, the amounts of money we are talking about are usually so tiny, that the idea of buying new to attain these savings is just massively flawed. Want a warranty? Buy 6-12 months old then, when the initial hit has been taken.

There's just very little in logic behind buying a brand new car that will depreciate by £2000 the moment you turn the key to save £30 a year on your tax bill.

If you're that desperate for a new car but £30 a year in tax and £10 of fuel a month would put you in financial difficulty it might be time to consider that you haven't got the financial backing to afford to buy into a new car just yet.
 
MikeHiow said:
Because people's monthly "liquid money" and savings are two very different things,
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So it's a good idea for people to scrimp and save for years in order to be able to buy a base spec Korean hatch, even though they can barely afford to actually run it day to day?
 
Those aren't the people I'm talking about at all. My Grandmother has plenty of money, and doesn't scrimp and save on anything, but she still chooses to run a cheap, but nearly new car.

Also, I wasn't necessarily talking about brand new, as people generally buy a brand new car because they want a new car. This discussion includes (As the OP states) anything < 3 years old.
 
Ultimately it all comes down to what the person says they want.

The guy who appears and says 'I really can't afford to drive my 30MPG Focus anymore, so i've spent £7000 on a brand new Hyundai which will save me £17.36 a month!!' is going to get torn apart.

It's entirely circumstantial. I don't recall seeing anyone on here who bought a 2 year old car that happened to be frugal just because that's what he wanted ripped into.

It's just mentality of spending thousands to save tens is backwards. As is the mentality of lettings running cost differences of tens of pounds influence a purchase decision of thousands.

If you just happen to save tens as a side effect of doing what you want then no one will care.

People only get ripped into when they let comparatively insignificant costs hugely influence a massive purchase cost.

edit - i've only just noticed Flukester's thread, which I guess prompted this thread, my mention of Hyundai was entirely coincidental :p
 
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A girl who works for me just got one of those little Mitsubishi things, 2006 car for about 4k. My bad hers is a 2007.

How does buying a 2008 Hyundai for 7k on the drip make more sense than that?
 
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