£9 per day in Diesel or £20 per day on the Train…Spec Time

[Butters]

Well for a car to deprecate he needs to sell it doesnt he


There is no need to factor in depreciation, even if after the 3 years the car is worth £0 then you have covered it in your sums.

It is its gonna be worth about 5k and so he will be £4k up from the calculation you have meaning the car will be £18k to run for 3years if he sells it then. If not then it will have cost him £23k with still an asset in the form of the car.

Absolutely, the depreciation was added to show the OP how much the car has really cost him (theoretically) to that point in time much like businesses have to with machinery. However, as you have mentioned the car is clearly an asset so if hes sells the car at year 3 then its worked out cheaper, though this is assuming he has to either buy a new car or he stops work.

 

[[TW]Fox]

No, you add depreciation as thats what its costing him to own that car over 3 years. £2500

You either show depreciation over a period OR the total cost of an asset, not both. Becuase you are not liable for depreciation until the asset is sold. If you never sell it, depreciation is zero but cost is total purchase price...

 

[AthlonTom]

It might be worth enquiring about future fare rises on the train route your going to take.

 

[AthlonTom]

You either show depreciation over a period OR the total cost of an asset, not both. Becuase you are not liable for depreciation until the asset is sold. If you never sell it, depreciation is zero but cost is total purchase price...

Business students 4TW

 

[sigma]

Money aside, by driving to and from work you will save roughly 45 minutes each way, that is a relatively large amount of time! You'll also never have to worry about late trains etc, the car will probably be more comfortable. If you're happy with driving one hour to work each day then i'd say the car is your best bet.

Car > Public transport

 

[wesley]

why 3 years?

if i was you, i just spotted 2004 Mondeo TDCI 130 Ghia 5drs, 28K miles for £7,500 at autotrader. Loan of £7500 from bank of scotland, monthly payment of £172 with payment protection for 5 years (to sprend out the cost)

the car WILL last you 5 years easily!!!

 

[233]

ex taxi octavia tdi

pick one up with 100-150k miles on it for a grand will run forever(personally have one in the fleet sitting on 360k miles and has only ever needed a gearbox and a leccy window switch.


on the octies your looking at servicing every 10k for peace of mind but they tend not to go wrong.

 

[z0mbi3]

I'd say follow the advice of Telescopi or Sormicoft as far as a vehicle is concerned.

The train is excellent when it works perfectly but if there are any delays it starts to be a real pita. Then again the same is true when you're stuck in traffic.

What about moving nearer work?

 

[[TW]Fox]

You'd have to be absolutely bonkers to consider an ex-taxi at any price. I'm all for high mileage but most ex taxi's will have rocked up their 150,000 miles in the harshest environment around - city driving.

 

[Butters]

why 3 years?

if i was you, i just spotted 2004 Mondeo TDCI 130 Ghia 5drs, 28K miles for £7,500 at autotrader. Loan of £7500 from bank of scotland, monthly payment of £172 with payment protection for 5 years (to sprend out the cost)

the car WILL last you 5 years easily!!!

But would have ended up paying back over £12k or there abouts! Madness.

 

[Skree]

Taxi's last because the engines arent being turned off between journeys. A lot of engine wear is caused by cold running.

I agree with others - Use the disposable car. You're doing a lot of miles so you'll not want a small car. Any bigish diesel is going to sort you. There's loads of mondeos, old passats, etc available for >£1500. I personally would advise you to avoid vauxhalls. they spend too much time in the garage and do not (generally) do a lot of miles compared to other vehicles - because they are carp, generally.

Yep thats right i said it. I dislike vauxhalls, and having worked as a vauxhall mechanic some years ago, i will never, ever own a vauxhall again.

Nissan do seem to make good diesels - there'd be nothing to stop you getting some scrap yard special seats and bolting them in if you got a really cheap one - a mate of mine's got a hyundai accent(vom) with fiesta seats
Skoda octavia d's use VW engines, and.. VW diesels tend to last forever.

When i was on holiday in serbia last year, i saw Mk2 VW Golf diesels with over 400,000 miles on them... driving across bombed roads you'd think a land rover would struggle on. Now i know about diesels and stuff but even i was like that's done HOW many miles?

my mate Dr Rich has had a Mk2 mondy TD for a couple of years now, he just buys a cheap car and abuses it to the fullest. Like, never washing it.. never, ever cleaning anything on it really.. I know he services them though. His last mondy, a mk1, looked a bit like a bulldog because he used it to push a land rover.. and by push i mean he drove up to it, and nudged it along the driveway. those cars have hard, hard lives. The current MK2 was cheap(£500), gets good mpg, and has been reliable for the 2 yr, 42k miles he has put on it - which is like 80-90k of anyone elses driving - It's almost sickeningly wanton like he really desires to kill the car.. He's sadistic to his cars and the mondeos just keep taking it

and if you really want to save cash... drop a few bottles of vege oil in with a nearly full tank of diesel... every diesel i have ever seen can run 10% vege with no problems - it's 30+p a litre cheaper than diesel

EDIT: This is not empty congesture. My current daily ragger is a ford ka i paid £350 for, 3 years ago. I do a lot of town miles so it is more suitable than a larger car. It has done 48k miles for me, faultless. I do my long journeys in other vehicles.

Nevertheless i am looking elsewhere as it is getting rusty now. I'm looking at a Saxo 1.5D - which can be run entirely on vege oil

 

[pitchfork]

318d/320d, you can lease them for less than £400 pm.

 

[AthlonTom]

318d/320d, you can lease them for less than £400 pm.

You might be able to get maintanence all in for that too - not sure on the milage though

 

[wonder_lander]

I commute 100 miles a day, 1hr each way and as I've always driven for work purposes I don't find it a hassle.

Your servicing costs look a bit low to me, the Alfa requires 12k services so that's twice a year for the mileage I do and at the dealer that works out at between 500 - 600 per year on servicing.

Fuel I use is about £50 per week, so on a par with what you are doing.

Personally I wouldn't take the payment protection. It normally doesn't kick in for 60 days after you are made redundant and often only lasts a year. If you are redundant for > 60 days and < 1yr do you really need a car?!

For me the ease means the car wins everytime.

In your shoes I'd be looking at either a lease although these soon add up when you up the mileage and include servicing or a cheap sub 2k diesel motorway mile muncher.

As an aside is there anyone else you could potentially share the trip with and thus potentially reduce your costs?

 

[Le_Petit_Lapin]

OK, I've come up with this using a 3 year plan.

Car = £7500. Consider a personal loan from the bank as these are invariably cheaper than finance although you can get some very good deals. Over 3 years this is £261.86 a month with loan protection which covers you under unemployment, redundancy and death. Total amount repayable = £9426.96

Depreciation is variable but over 3 years on a diesel car you could expect the value to be around £5k.

Cost of car over the same period:

Loan = £9426.96
Fuel = £9360
VED = £390
Servicing = £3000

= £22176.96

plus depreciation of £2.5k

Total Car cost = £24676.96

Surely if the value of the car at the end of the 3 years is approx £5000, you have £5000 worth of car, to subtract from that?

= £19676.96

You just seem to be implying that at the end of 3 years the value of the car means nothing. Its still a car, and if sold is worth £5000. you say that depreciation only applies if you sell the car...but if you sell the car, you also get a lovely wad of paper marked with the Queens face.

I just can't get why you're adding depreciation to this. Yes....the car is £2.5k less than it was originally. But why are you adding that on as a cost?

 

[Butters]

Surely if the value of the car at the end of the 3 years is approx £5000, you have £5000 worth of car, to subtract from that?

= £19676.96

You just seem to be implying that at the end of 3 years the value of the car means nothing. Its still a car, and if sold is worth £5000. you say that depreciation only applies if you sell the car...but if you sell the car, you also get a lovely wad of paper marked with the Queens face.

I just can't get why you're adding depreciation to this. Yes....the car is £2.5k less than it was originally. But why are you adding that on as a cost?

Read the whole thread.

Is the realistic cost of owning that car whether he sells it or not. If he sells it he gets £5k off the total price but still has to consider another car as a replacement. If he doesn't sell it, depreciation does not apply, but, rather total cost as I mentioned earlier and as someone else pointed out

 

[[TW]Fox]

Taxi's last because the engines arent being turned off between journeys. A lot of engine wear is caused by cold running.

The engine is not the only component of the car - I would be more concerned about the rest of it after 150k of abuse as a taxi. Engines are actually reasonably cheap to buy and replace.

 

[Le_Petit_Lapin]

Read the whole thread.

I did. I can never get my head around money related things.

 

[[TW]Fox]

I did. I can never get my head around money related things.

Dont worry, because neither can Butters

You can't count both depreciation and original purchase price.

You either still own a car, in which case it has cost you Original Purchase Price, or you have sold a car, in which case it has cost you Original Purchase Price - Price Sold For.

Thats it. Pick either, but not both, when factoring out ownership cost.

 

[Dave M]

I wouldn't buy a car that had been a taxi - they lead hard lives.

Rather you should look at the kind of cars taxi drivers use, they're not daft, they know they do lots of hard miles and the car has to be reliable, cheap to service and run.