Chance for a nice new motor

pepp77

pepp77

pepp77

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I am about to come into a bit of inheritance money and have decided to spend it in the following way

£9k - Overpay on mortgage - most I can pay back this year without incurring any fees - as I overpay monthly anyway.
£10k - New Kitchen

This leaves me about £30k to spend on other things and I have decided to spend about £20k-£23k of that on the new car.

Add on my current car which I plan to part exchange (2012 Ford Focus 1.6 Ecoboost) so about £8k on top. Gives me about £30k to spend on the new car whilst leaving myself enough cash in the bank for emergencies etc.

I have been looking at a selection of cars and think I have narrowed it down to the following shortlist. I am looking at about 1-2 year old cars

2014-2015 BMW M235i
2015+ Audi TT Quattro
2015+ Audi S3 Saloon (This is the toughest one to get in budget and I am not really interested in the Hatchback)
2014-2015 BMW 428i/435i
2014-2015 Mercedes A45

Of the above I think my two favourites are the M235i and the S3 Saloon. I like the power of the A45 but not sure I want another hatchback. The TT is nice with the virtual cockpit thing being awesome, but is just a basic 2litre so no TTS etc. For the 4 series I am not sure if the bigger size over the 2 series/S3 saloon is the way for me to go.

I do plan to get some test drives but am waiting for the money to clear probate and be in my account before starting as I don't want to find a car during a test drive and not be able to actually buy it :)

Any thoughts/comments appreciated.
 
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What are your thoughts on running costs? Yes, you have the capital to buy these. Most them arrive with 17 or 18 inch wheels, special servicing costs etc. Are you prepared for that? It will be noticeably more expensive to run than your 1.6 l Fous.

You'd also want to take out extended warranty after the car is 3 years old. All of these costs quickly add up.
 
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They don't do an M428i or an M435i - just an M135i or M235i. The highest trim level on the 428i or 435i is M Sport.

You might need to rethink your Focus value too, I cannot see a 4 year old 1.6 Focus being worth £8k in PX.
 
[TW]Fox;29588126 said:
You might need to rethink your Focus value too, I cannot see a 4 year old 1.6 Focus being worth £8k in PX.
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This.

My missus bought a 2012 Focus Titanium 1.6 a few years back from a main ford dealer for around 9 - 10k. No way would she get close to 8k in part ex now.

Also, how much space do you need? Going from a Focus to a TT is a massive downsize! You can barely get anyone in the back.
 
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I looked at a 4 year old Ecoboost Titanium X at Christmas and the woman said she was offered £6500 in P/X so I wouldn't expect anything near 8.
 
Ricochet J said:
What are your thoughts on running costs? Yes, you have the capital to buy these. Most them arrive with 17 or 18 inch wheels, special servicing costs etc. Are you prepared for that? It will be noticeably more expensive to run than your 1.6 l Fous.

You'd also want to take out extended warranty after the car is 3 years old. All of these costs quickly add up.
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Running costs are not really an issue, for example my current Focus has 235/40R18 Tyres on it. Mileage wise I do less than 8k a year (last two years have been about 6k) and I often drive to client sites for work getting 45p a mile which offsets petrol costs. I had considered that an extended warranty might be required, but never needed one before on any car, so would cost that up as and when I think it necessary.

[TW]Fox;29588126 said:
They don't do an M428i or an M435i - just an M135i or M235i. The highest trim level on the 428i or 435i is M Sport.

You might need to rethink your Focus value too, I cannot see a 4 year old 1.6 Focus being worth £8k in PX.
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Sorry yeah, writing and not reading, I meant just 428i and 435i M Sport trim. £8k for my car is roughly what I am expecting at this point from part exchange as that is what WeBuyAnyCar offered me last week. My 1.6 is not just a bog standard 1.6, it is the 150BHP Ecoboost in Titanium X with all bar about two options fitted and under 30k on the clock.
 
I'd spend half what you plan and use the extra money to overpay the mortgage for the next 3 years, this is far more important imho.
 
i'd be very inclined to spend less on the car and keep an extra £9k to max out your mortgage overpayment again next year - nice car is nice but ultimately will just lose money but over paying annother year of your mortgage will save you so much on interest in the future.

Firestar_3x said:
I'd spend half what you plan and use the extra money to overpay the mortgage for the next 3 years, this is far more important imho.
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:p

It'd be interesting to do the sums as to what a £40k overpayment reduces your monthly repayment amounts by and then what you could lease with that saving...
 
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Jamesyboyjim said:
This.

My missus bought a 2012 Focus Titanium 1.6 a few years back from a main ford dealer for around 9 - 10k. No way would she get close to 8k in part ex now.

Also, how much space do you need? Going from a Focus to a TT is a massive downsize! You can barely get anyone in the back.
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Just redone the WBAC thing and they offered me £7650, so yes I am expecting £7-£8k in p/ex a 1.6 titanium is not close to the same thing as a 1.6 Ecoboost Titanium X :)

Size, well apart from transporting a couple of long lengths of wood recently, 90% of the time the car has just me in it, so not an issue.
 
A few years ago I got a used approved 4 year old Porsche Boxster S for £24k, it came with a 2 year Porsche warranty and cost me the grand total of £0 in servicing, repairs, and parts in those first 2 years. I had it serviced and renewed the warranty for a further 2 years (at a cost of about £1.5k in total for both) and that was my only expense.

Have you considered spending slightly less on a more premium car (that's a few years older) backed with an approved warranty?

By no means am I suggesting a Boxster S but a nice Boxster could work out to be really good value (compared with everything else on the list) providing you can deal with only 2 seats.

A £25k Boxster could be run for years and years before you came anywhere near to costing you the £5k saved you saved, and it wouldn't look like an Audi A3 TDi Sport Sportback Blackline Black Edition.
 
I've been in a similar situation and eyed up lots of cars but then put it all into a house (used it to help me build my dream house actually). I'm not saying do that but really consider keeping more back to pay off a mortgage over the next couple of years instead of on a depreciating asset especially if you've not got 1 car you're been lusting after for ages.
 
What others have said, clear the mortgage as a priority unless theres anything wrong with your current car
 
It depends on what you want to do, really.

The issue I see with spending that much money on a car is you don't know what's going to happen in the future. You could get a job in a couple of years that provides a car, could get it written off or anything along them lines.

At the same time, I'd be tempted myself. May as well live life to the fullest and if that means a new car, then go for it.
 
To be honest I would go a little higher, and take out something which will hold its value, like a GTR :)
 
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