I'm sorry, another spec me thread...

rossk26

rossk26

rossk26

Soldato
Joined
23 Nov 2009
Posts
5,409
Location
North East of England
Looking to end my love affair with the ST, it's affordable, but it's really not helping me save for other things in life e.g. house, seeing the world etc.

I currently pay every month:

- £224 (loan)
- £150 (petrol)
- £22.50 (tax)
- £41 (insurance)
- £12.50 (servicing)

I've bought 4 tyres since owning the car in 2010, they roughly cost £120-140 each.

So I have £4k in the bank and the criteria is

- Cheap to run car
- Something I will still enjoy driving
- Lower tax than I am currently paying
- 30-40 MPG
- Insurance must also be lower (this rules out most things "Type R")
- Ideally would still like something that is nice to be in, the ST has heated leather recaro's, loads of space, and a very smooth drive ( but I understand this may have to be sacrificed when buying a cheaper car)
- Smaller alloys, 18" are just to expensive to buy rubber!!

Candidates so far:

- Clio 1*2 (ticks most of the boxes really, maybe except for the interior)
- Fiesta ST (not convinced on this car, seems to lack power yet still cost a lot to run)

Any ideas are welcome :)
 
Your figures really don't look bad to me - just for a comparison

You:

- £224 (loan)
- £150 (petrol)
- £22.50 (tax)
- £41 (insurance)
- £12.50 (servicing)


Me: (adjusted for you doing approx 7k miles per year - I've used 25mpg on the ST, £1.43/l so you use 23g per month @ £6.50 / g. I would use approx 11.98g @48mpg x £6.91 / g = £82.78)

- £150 (loan) - obviously this could change massively or be removed altogether if you or me paid the car off or over a longer period etc
- £82.78 (diseasel)
- £10 (tax)
- £41 (insurance, I pay yearly but it was approx £500 so much the same)
- £12.50 (servicing - roughly the same, though a larger service year would see that number be closer to £20/month)

A 225/45/17 CS3 was about £120 a few months ago.

This is for a diesel civic, mine has a theoretical 180bhp but so many less smiles per mile than a focus ST - obviously there's lots missing from here and that loan number you really cant take at face value. For example mine is relatively low as I put a fair % of the purchase price down- anybody could pay anything for a car if they spread it out long enough.

Personally I would pay the car off, then either run it for a few months and see how you get on or sell it and spend exactly what you get back on something else. I can't really see a better option for you though unless you want to get something completely different i.e mr2/mx5 and sacrifice power for chuckability / open air motoring but lower running costs.
 
Last edited:
rodenal said:
Your figures really don't look bad to me - just for a comparison

You:

- £224 (loan)
- £150 (petrol)
- £22.50 (tax)
- £41 (insurance)
- £12.50 (servicing)


Me:
- £150 (loan) - obviously this could change massively or be removed altogether if you or me paid the car off or over a longer period etc
- £82.78 (diseasel)
- £10 (tax)
- £41 (insurance, I pay yearly but it was approx £500 so much the same)
- £12.50 (servicing - roughly the same, though a larger service year would see that number be closer to £20/month)
Click to expand...

But if I were to remove the loan, and get a cheaper run around my figures could be improved significantly...

- £0 (loan)
- £124 (petrol @32mpg)
- £21 (tax)
- £35 (insurance)
- £12.50 (servicing)

= £192.50 per month
= £2,310 per year

Currently paying £450 per month, £5,400 per year to run the ST, so I could save £3,100 per year (and that's excluding cost of tyres too!!)
 
The key figure here is the amount of loan remaining. Tyres will be £100 / corner on any car that matches your criteria, so stop fussing over them :p
 
rossk26 said:
But if I were to remove the loan, and get a cheaper run around my figures could be improved significantly...

- £0 (loan)
- £124 (petrol @32mpg)
- £21 (tax)
- £35 (insurance)
- £12.50 (servicing)

= £192.50 per month
= £2,310 per year

Currently paying £450 per month, £5,400 per year to run the ST, so I could save £3,100 per year (and that's excluding cost of tyres too!!)
Click to expand...

But remove the loan and nothing else sees you saving £2,900 per year yet still own a cracking car. As above decent tyres do not come in under £100 unless you've got something with 14" wheels
 
Is there any reason why you haven't used the £4000 savings to pay off/reduce the loan and then keep the ST considering your "cheaper run around figures" are scarcely cheaper than the ST anyway.

Minus the loan, the ST costs £226 a month to run, where as some unknown car will cost a projected £193. £33 a month and that isn't even taking into account the money you'll need to pay to sell your ST, the admin fees for switching your insurance over to the new car, the time and effort it will take to find a new car, the fact that a "new" car may have unknown problems with it not apparently when you buy it.

The loan payment is the killer, and if you can get rid of that there will be no need to get a new (old) car.
 
Last edited:
So its only needed 4 tyres in 2 years and the biggest expense by far is the loan and you only do 6k a year?

Just use the £4k to clear the loan and you've halved your expenses!
 
[TW]Fox;21772165 said:
So its only needed 4 tyres in 2 years and the biggest expense by far is the loan and you only do 6k a year?

Just use the £4k to clear the loan and you've halved your expenses!
Click to expand...

As far as I'm aware there is no benefit to paying my tesco loan off in bigger chunks e.g. Giving them £4k, it was my original plan to do this when I took the loan out, but I'm not sure it reduces the apr%, so in effect I'm just giving them money sooner. I would be better off putting my £4k into an ISA??

I can pay the loan off in full which I figured is the best way, so I just remove it completely! I will ring to see if paying £4k off will reduce the final payment...
 
The apr will not change but they have to give you a rebate of the relevant interest.

i.e for talking sake the difference in interest between having £6k left to pay over 3 years and having £2k left to pay over 3 years.

Alternatively if you pay off the remainder of the loan you will get an interest rebate on the remainder of the term but will pay some sort of admin fee.

If you checked your total costs on the agreement then compare to any settlement figure plus the cost of installments already paid it will be lower, potentially quite significantly depending on the apr and time remaining to clear.
 
Last edited:
I don't even think that is the case to be honest. I think I have roughly £6.5k left to pay, so if I give them £4k leaving £2.5k left they will just re-calculate the monthly costs... I won't save money by doing this method

I could be wrong but I'm sure I remember reading it
 
I'm sure you are wrong unless the loan started quite some time ago, they have to give an interest rebate on the relevant amount if you overpay.

If you have £6.5k left to pay the settlement figure wont be £6.5k - it also wont be £4k though unless you pay a phenomenal rate of interest.

If you pay a £4k chunk they will either give you the option to reduce the term to x number of further payments at your standard amount or they will recalculate the amount due less any interest rebate and give you a new monthly amount.

I suggest calling and asking them the same question - as far as i am aware they do not have to recalculate payments but they do have to provide a rebate of interest. Either way you will be paying less

Obviously I do not know the numbers involved but as an example:

£6.5k left on loan at standard monthly payments.

You pay £4k

Theoretical £2.5k left, but with the relevant interest rebate you actually have a total remaining of say £2k (though i would suspect it would be less) - that then takes you less than a year to clear or they may give you the option of spreading this through the full term, the amount will differ again by doing this as you will pay a further 3 years (lets say) interest on the sum remaining .
 
Last edited:
Well I just rang up and it didn't make a lot of sense to me at all. Infact I worked out I would be worse off by paying a large chunk now...

Spoke to a lovely lady who ran a quote if I were to pay £2k now. I had 2 options:

- keep the same term date (December 2014) and pay £217 per month Or
- reduce the term date to October 2014 but maintain the same repayments of £224.

So I pay £2k to loose 2 months repayments which would only cost £448 anyway!!! This doesn't seem logical...
 
Some loan agreements have penalties included for "overpayments". Sometimes the only realistic choice you have is to carry on as-is or pay the lot off in one-go.
 
No something is seriously wrong there - are you sure you picked her up correctly?

I don't believe penalties for overpayment are allowable anymore - you may pay some sort of admin fee but I just can't see it being £1500
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom