Downgrading to save costs

[Liquid_Entity]

I currently own a Mondeo 2.5T Titanium X and I am now trying to save money rather than waste it. I get about 26mpg and pay £300+ on road tax a year.

I can't afford to pcp or lease as 1. No decent deposit and 2. Commuting would mean i need 15k miles minimumso pcp/lease pushing it high monthly payments.

All I'd like to see/do if possible is swap this turbo version for a standard mpg/tax friendly vehicle.

I don't want the hassle of selling mine private and then buying one so would forecourts/garages be my best bet to see if car + cash ia better?

What are good eco/low tax alternatives same size as mondeo?

 

[Dr House]

Wait. You want to sell your car to buy one that will save save you maybe £1k in running costs but you want to sell your car cheap and buy expensive because you can’t be bothered with the trouble to sell and buy Privately

 

[Liquid_Entity]

Wait. You want to sell your car to buy one that will save save you maybe £1k in running costs but you want to sell your car cheap and buy expensive because you can’t be bothered with the trouble to sell and buy Privately

Not quite, I want to swap my 2008 2.5t for an economic car of similar size and age. I'm not talking about selling mine in for £1k and then spending £5k on a newer car. I meant maybe my car + say £500 to get in a slighter newer car.

 

[Joe T]

The margins on forecourt cars in this price segment are £1000-£1500. So for example, if you traded in a Mondeo 2.5T Titanium X against a similar Mondeo 2.5T Titanium X of similar value, it would cost you £1,500.

Therefore you need to be making quite an extreme change for the transaction to make sense.

 

[tamzzy]

Man-maths says your return on investment would take quite a few years no?
How long are you planning to keep the newer car?

 

[Liquid_Entity]

The margins on forecourt cars in this price segment are £1000-£1500. So for example, if you traded in a Mondeo 2.5T Titanium X against a similar Mondeo 2.5T Titanium X of similar value, it would cost you £1,500.

Therefore you need to be making quite an extreme change for the transaction to make sense.

Let's say I'd be trading mine in for say a 1.6 ecoboost focus of similar or newer age. Say mine is worth £2000 and the focus is £1500 so that would benefit me as £500 saved and more economical etc.

 

[tom_nieto]

Isn’t a £1500 focus going to be nasty?

 

[Liquid_Entity]

Isn’t a £1500 focus going to be nasty?

probably no more nasty than my mondeo on paper.

Basically I can't afford to run this car and need a cheaper alternative.

 

[Raymond Lin]

Better the devil you know.

 

[lordrobs]

probably no more nasty than my mondeo on paper.

Basically I can't afford to run this car and need a cheaper alternative.

On paper being the key words. Better the devil you know comes to mind in situations like this.

The only way I can see this working financially is if you buy and sell privately but unless you can fund the replacement car without releasing cash from the Mondeo you are going to have to go car less while you buy the replacement. This may also push you into having to just get whatever is available rather than waiting for the right car.

 

[sanaxe1]

probably no more nasty than my mondeo on paper.

Basically I can't afford to run this car and need a cheaper alternative.

So don't be lazy and sell it privately. You will be giving up around £1000 or more by trading it in as opposed to selling it private and i'm guessing you would have to work a decent amount of time to earn that. Whats more of a hassle, showing some people your car or basically working for 100 hours for free? As that's what you will be basically doing by trading it in.

 

[Liquid_Entity]

Screw it then I'll just carry on as is.

 

[Cookeh]

I got a car that on paper yielded nearly double (80% more) mpg and was in a £20 VED bracket. I paid nothing for the car, and yet I only saved £100 over the course of 4 months. For the record I do 14-16k mi pa. The car I went from was reliable, I knew it, and it was well maintained. The supposedly much cheaper runaround cost me £400 in routine maintenance in those 4 months, needed another £200 spending to get it through its MOT, needed 4x new tyres within the next 2-3k mi, and needed some rust treatment on parts of the underbody (exhaust hangers and surface rust on the subframes). I went straight back to my previous car and am no worse off.

Bear in mind, this is a car that supposedly does double the mpg and costs £200 less in VED. It is very rarely worth it, especially when you're aiming to get something on the cheaper end of the market. I would honestly stick with what you have, even more so when the car you are wanting to swap to will only get another 10-20% mpg real world and is a vehicle that you have no knowledge of mechanically.

On a side note, unless you're in sold stop-start traffic you should be getting a lot better mpg out of that engine. Have you tried adjusting the times you commute and your driving style? I can get an additional 3mpg out of my 2.3 turbo just by leaving 10 minutes earlier in the morning, and a further 4-5mpg by cruising at 65mph on the dual carriageways/motorways rather than 70mph.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

I got a car that on paper yielded nearly double (80% more) mpg and was in a £20 VED bracket. I paid nothing for the car, and yet I only saved £100 over the course of 4 months. For the record I do 14-16k mi pa. The car I went from was reliable, I knew it, and it was well maintained. The supposedly much cheaper runaround cost me £400 in routine maintenance in those 4 months, needed another £200 spending to get it through its MOT, needed 4x new tyres within the next 2-3k mi, and needed some rust treatment on parts of the underbody (exhaust hangers and surface rust on the subframes). I went straight back to my previous car and am no worse off.

Bear in mind, this is a car that supposedly does double the mpg and costs £200 less in VED. It is very rarely worth it, especially when you're aiming to get something on the cheaper end of the market. I would honestly stick with what you have, even more so when the car you are wanting to swap to will only get another 10-20% mpg real world and is a vehicle that you have no knowledge of mechanically.

On a side note, unless you're in sold stop-start traffic you should be getting a lot better mpg out of that engine. Have you tried adjusting the times you commute and your driving style? I can get an additional 3mpg out of my 2.3 turbo just by leaving 10 minutes earlier in the morning, and a further 4-5mpg by cruising at 65mph on the dual carriageways/motorways rather than 70mph.

I was going to post something similar in regards thinking about his driving style.
My TT returns around 44mpg (per computer) on my commute this time of year. Just by playing slightly more, using 1 or 2 lower gears more (ie not changing up but keeping the revs up for faster in and out of corners) on the same drive I can drop 10mpg off the average. Unless I am in a hurry I tend to lift off in advance of the corners, saves fuel but also brakes, and just makes the drive "nicer". For the normal day to day its just "better"
When I want to play more I do as I said, hold lower gears, break right upto the corners etc. Its amazing how much difference it makes to fuel consumption, makes little difference to the time it takes to commute.
If I come in later (say leave 30 minutes later) it will take 10 minutes longer to do the journey, importantly those 10 minutes are sat in traffic, or stop starting.

Particularly in that car (mondy 2.5) should be able to change gears early, pretty torquey from memory (I drove one some years ago).

 

[Liquid_Entity]

You've all convinced me that I am in fact a dumb dumb and it's far better I keep the mondeo. It is a refined, if gas guzzling, drive.

I'm better off ploughing £500 in to it on next service and give it some further TLC

 

[Liquidfox]

On a side note, unless you're in sold stop-start traffic you should be getting a lot better mpg out of that engine.

I had the same engine in my Focus, 26MPG is good going for it! Stop/start traffic would see around 18-21MPG...! On my 20 mile commute with a mixture of A-roads and traffic, if I drove like a saint I'd manage at most 28MPG. On a long motorway run I'd eek out 36 tops.