Changing from a Focus

ATiRubyfan

ATiRubyfan

ATiRubyfan

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26 Dec 2020
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157
I work in the City and my car stays sat on my driveway all week. It only gets used when I take a trip to the supermarket or when I jump on the motorway to see family in Southend.

I drive a 2007 2L Focus and I absolutely love it. The 2L helps it accelerate rapidly to 70mph and the car flies on the motorway. Now, road tax is over £300 and the 'combined' mpg is 35.
I am thinking of getting a newer car and have eyes on a 2010 Audi A3 hatchback ( £165 + 43mpg )and a 2010 BMW 318i business edition ( £205 + 43mpg ). Both are around the £5k mark.

Now, there are some things you should know about me. I have an automatic only license and I cannot do parallel parking. I learnt it with great effort before I passed but I prefer not to do in a residential street as a car comes up behind me and I take too long.

Should I get the Audi or the BMW? And, is either the same size as my Focus?
 
rodenal said:
Internally they feel much the same sort of size but externally a bit longer - if you're genuinely nervous about parking etc then you might also find a saloon body style quite a change as you need to allow for the boot that you can't actually see.

Having said that almost all newer cars have at the very least rear parking sensors. I wouldn't personally buy either of your listed cars (your money could about get you into a 2014ish on Leon for example which is vastly a more modern design than either) as both are based on cars released a number of years before (the A3 in particular feels utterly ancient inside now), don't have a particularly good reliability record and tend to be pretty poorly specced due to being lower rung engined models. Ultimately you like what you like but go into it eyes open.
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My Focus has parking sesnsors and I will install sensors on the new car as well if it doesn't have them.

chaparral said:
If you absolutely love the focus so much why not just buy a newer model of the focus ?
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My budget is 5k. Ford stopped doing 2L models after 2009 from what I can see. Only C-Max, Convertibles and Mondeos beyond 2009 have 2L engines.

mccarf said:
Is it worth spending £5k on something that barely does any journeys? Especially as the cost of running them seems quite important to you, you'd just be swapping a bit of tax and fuel savings for depreciation. If it's about money then stick with what you have.
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tom_nieto said:
I don’t see what you’re gaining by upgrading a car that you absolutely love for another completely unknown 10 year old car that hardly gets used.

If it’s money saving that you’re after (VED features prominently in the original post), then the £135 saving between the A3 and your current focus will take 37 years to be realised if you’re spending £5,000 on a new car.

I agree with previous posts that if you love your focus and want a new car, I’d buy a newer focus. The latest model really is excellent to drive. I would buy neither BMW, nor Audi at this budget.
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I guess I am looking for a small upgrade, one that will not burn my wallet in this COVID and unemployment era. 2009 2L Focuses are selling for 4k. So, I thought why not a 2010 Audi or a BMW instead for 5k.
 
ShiWarrior said:
what's the mileage a year ?

sounds like very little, so you will not save money on changing car
if your car is getting to the point it needs work done all the time, or there's another good reason to change, then change it, otherwise id keep it

Nissan Leafs can be picked up for 6K (1K over budget) , Acenta spec have reversing camera , but no sensors

but no tax, no worry about mpg
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2000-3000 a year :D
The Focus needs new brake pads and discs and I also need to do a wheel alignment and wheel balancing as it has been a year. So, I was thinking of all the money I have spent so far on the car as well. I bought it for £2300 in 2017 and I have spent £1500 on it so far ( new tyres, alternator, battery, suspension shake )
Btw, how much do you chaps reckon I can sell my Focus for ? £1500? It's got some scratches here and there ( made by other people at car parks ). Should I get it fully painted ? How much would that be then?
 
Mart2912 said:
Have you thought about getting a manual licence? Opens the door to a lot more cars, and will be cheaper compared to the auto equivalent. Also, do you need a car as large as a Focus? Giving how often you use it, maybe something like a Fiesta (Or similar) would be better suited?
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Passing the driving test as like walking across the Sahara for me. I am never going down that route again! :D I drop off family regularly at airports so space at the back is essential.

Gaygle said:
I absolutely do not think I would make this swap.

You're going from a car which you like, which is cheap as chips to run with no faults, to an absolutely bottom of the line 10 year old Audi/BMW which could give you all sorts of headaches. No disrespect, but you don't sound like a "car guy" so it means that any faults these new cars may have (and they likely will have some) means you'll have to take it to a mechanic to fix, even minor things.

You only do 2-3k miles a year, so miles per gallon is pretty much irrelevant. My calculations are that your Focus costs you a mind blowing £374 a year in fuel. A 318i will cost your £306 - that's a saving of a whopping £5.67 a month. With the car tax factored in, this rises to a dizzying £14.64 saving per month.

Of course, a service on the Audi/BMW is likely to be more, the tyres will be more, the brakes will be more - and that's assuming that when you buy it there nothing will be wrong with it whatsoever, which IME is very unlikely.

If it's a cost saving exercise, you are likely to lose more money by buying one of those cars. If it's an upgrade you want, trust me, you are barely upgrading at all.
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You are absolutely right, I am not a car guy at all. Does completing every Burnout and NFS game count?

I thought servicing is required every 20,000 miles or every 2 years. Is this different for Audi/BMW's? Road tax for my Focus is currently £305 p.a. while the Audi I looked at was £165 p.a.

Btw, these two BMW's caught my eye :
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202008021985696
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202012106970254

Now, if I really wanted an upgrade that was worth it, which BMW or Audi should I save up for ? The new Focuses seem to have been redesigned and don't have much space in the boot.
 
Bah! It's been 4 years and I am still stuck with the same bloody car!
Covid , unemployment, divorce etc. really screwed me up.

Anyway,
which of these two is a better option?

2015 AUDI A3 Petrol - £7k
or
2017 Merc CLA220d Diesel - £10k

Both have 80k miles on the clock
 
[TW]Fox said:
Well what sort of car do you need, a petrol hatchback or a diesel saloon?
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Hatchback or a saloon of a similar size.

I feel that I have reached the peak of my life at 40 and life will only go downhill from here. And, with the way the economy is, if I don't spend on a decentish car, I will never get round to doing it.
 
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