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krooton

krooton

krooton

Caporegime
Joined
9 May 2004
Posts
28,760
Location
Leafy outskirts of London
If you were in the market for a new car (not second hand) in which you would be doing 22-25k miles a year (mainly motorway), what would you say has the best balance of looks, drive and economy?

Setting an upper limit of £29k (based on the A3 Black Edition that my wife has her eye one), would you spend that, or are their diminishing returns and something not far off for a fair bit cheaper?

I really don't know much about cars, but when speccing the A3 (and a Leon) the estimated fuel (diesel) costs were coming in around £2.2k a per year.

Please solve for x :D
 
If I had to do 25,000 miles a year probably the last thing I'd do is spend 30 grand on a brand new Audi A3.

It'll absolutely haemorrhage value making any discussion of fuel economy a sheer irrelevance in terms of overall costs and it's hardly the best choice of car for big miles anyway.

A 4 year old current model A3 S-Line with 100k on it - ie where you'll be in 4 years time - is worth around £10k meaning it'll have lost £20,000 in 4 years.

That's a lot for a small hatchback no matter how many S-Line badges it has.

If you absolutely must have a diesel A3 Black Edition then this 2018 car is considerably less than the £30k a new one is:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classi...e=125000&sort=sponsored&year-from=2017&page=2
 
krooton said:
The depreciation is kinda moot, as this will be a keep until it dies kinda thing
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But if you keep it x years and it's then worth £2000 say (the 5k miles, few months older model isn't going to make any difference to resale when it's 155k Vs 150k), it's cost you £21k instead of £28k. You're still paying the depreciated at some point, no matter how long you keep it. It's going to be your biggest cost, so if makes no sense to disregard it, but worry about tax or fuel costs.
 
krooton said:
The depreciation is kinda moot, as this will be a keep until it dies kinda thing
Click to expand...

I'd still rather buy nearly new or up to 1 year old, like the one Fox posted, and shave a good chunk off purchase price and thus total depreciation figure at the end.
 
I'd tell the Mrs to go whistle and look at something like a used e class or 5 series. Nice, comfortable places to be for that kind if mileage.
 
[TW]Fox said:
Seems unfair to run roughshod over her opinions like they don't matter.
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When someone suggests a small hatchback for doing 25k per year of mainly motorway driving their opinions aren't being based on sound logic.
Clearly that's why nobody in the thread so far has said 'Oh yeah, that's a great idea'. Infact you rather comprehensively destroyed it in the first post (with completely sound logic I might add).
 
Thanks guys , we have agreed nearly new is the way to go , so that instant drive off the lot depreciation is someone else's problem :)
 
krooton said:
the estimated fuel (diesel) costs were coming in around £2.2k a per year.
Click to expand...

It's pretty tough to get under 10p a mile in a car you'd be comfortable doing long journeys in without deliberately adjusting driving style, that basically means 60mpg real world average based on current diesel prices. Yes it can be done (before everyone piles in with their examples) but I would budget at least £2.5k/year for fuel.
 
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