I need advice.

Abraxaz1

Abraxaz1

Abraxaz1

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Ok I know some of you are going to question my mentality but I really need advice concerning a future car and financing of said car.

Back story

To be honest I've never had a really had money or a car I could be proud of, I brought a Proton persona 1.5 (yes I know plastic fantastic) with 50k on the clocks two years ago for £300.
I had been fairly cheap costing me only £30 for a new radiator of Ebay and got me back and forth to college and work.
Recently I was accepted into a local companies second year apprenticeship, which has led to my daily mileage rising from 20 miles per day to just under 50 miles (mainly motorway).

The car has started to fail on me, recently the idle control valve has become possessed and sets the car idle depending on Saturn's location in the heavens, which was something which could be dealt with but now if the car is restarted when the engine is warm (such as after getting petrol) it tries to stall at every opportunity, meaning I have to driving like a chav revving the engine everywhere I go till it magically heals it self.
Over the last week since Christmas the stupid pile of crap has decided to develop a miss fire when the engine is cold, which has led to much swearing at 6am when I'm trying to leave for work. Once the engine has reached the correct temperature the misfire stops and the engine runs smoothly.
So I decide to order a full service kit from Eurocarparts (including HT leads, sparks plugs, oil filter air filter and 5 litres of 10w40 oil) and sourced a new distributor cap and rotor arm from Ebay. I went to fit them to the car after work today and low and behold the distributor cap is completely different and the rotor arm was a thermostat (their fault apparently),
So I checked online with the engine number (4g15) and it only ever shipped with one type of distributor cap. The nearest nearest looking distributor cap available from proton or Mitsubishi (the engine, body and electrics originate from a Mitsubishi charisma) suppliers was that off a 1.3 litre colt but has slight differences from the one mounted on my engine such as the placement of bumps and shapes of the feed channel thing....
Another pet peeve with the car is the miles per gallon that I am getting, the car has the performance of a asthmatic ant carrying heavy shopping so I drive it calmly and don’t try to convince my self that its anything but a budget car. I am on the motorway for 40 miles each day and the car is barely returning 200 miles to the tank (tank holds 30ltrs) and even when it was fully functional it would barley hit 220 before the warning light would shine.

Enough of the back story
I have literally had enough of the car, its uncomfortable on any journey, its noisy at normal motorway speeds, getting parts for it that actually fit is like finding a needle in a haystack filled world (since proton decided not to support the older models by making prices stupidly high).
Its starting to fall apart and I know that ill have to bodge and pray for it to pass its next mot (front passenger side brake calliper sliding housing bolt is overly worn due to previous knob not using any copper grease when replacing the pads..

I want to replace the car for the above reasons and a number of personal reasons but I have semi limited funds due to only being a lowly apprentice serving his time.

Controlling factors
Financial
Current savings - £2000 in savings and £1000 in cash isa plus a credit card with £1000 limit, I also have a very good credit rating with my bank and have never gone into debt or entered my overdraft.
Wages I currently bring home £881 after tax (this will rise to £16k a year before tax in august) I pay a combined fee of £250 that covers rent/ water /electricity and food. Leaving me with just over £631 that has to pay for insurance petrol and extras.
Mileage covered
I cover about 50 miles every weekday and can cover up to 150 on weekends.
Insurance factors
Age I am 22, I have held a driving licence since 18 and have never 3 years no claims insurance. I live in a reasonable area, I can insure my step fathers BMW 320d 2004 at £880 fully comp with a excess of 350 and compulsory excess of £50.
random
I’m 6'4 tall and I really don’t fit well into hatchbacks (all legs)
I need to be able to use all 4 seats and have people able to get out without hassle.
It needs to have the ability to have a roof rack fitted
This one may seem weird but I want a car I can be proud of as I really haven’t had a lot to actually be happy to say its mine (sounds stupid I know)
Questions
1) Should I hold out and hope and pray that the car lasts till my insurance runs out or should I get a small loan to raise the amount I have to spend to £5k and get a decent low mileage car?
2) Should I be looking into a diesel power plant in the next car? (current mileage is 50mpd give or take)
3) What type of car should I be looking into that has both the ability to contain 4 grown men and still have the grin factor and stop people taking the **** at what I drive.


Anyway ill don my flame suit as I expect people to call me all sorts.

p.s Sorry about the wall of text
 
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With that level of income after rent but before any sort of expenses like petrol, having a life, holidays, etc etc, I would recommend two options.

a) Spend the £2000 in savings on a new car. Use the £1000 in the ISA as a car fund for repairs and things. Top the £1000 up by sticking say 40 quid a month back into the fund.

b) If you really want something more, consider a loan but try to keep it as a two figure repayment. £3000 over 4 years would be about 80 quid a month I'd imagine. This would give you £5k to buy a car with, provided you retained the £1k ISA for unexpected bills and continued to top it up with £40 a month.

tbh anything more extravagant than that might cause issues. To be honest unless you really really crave a particular car then I'd suggest you are probably just as well spending the £2k rather than getting the loan.
 
Its going to happen,

Mondeo ST220, Fits all of your criteria, but will get you 25mpg, maybe take fox's advice on a 2 figure loan to make up the shortfall, leave that credit card alone unless your getting 0% and able to pay it back in time.

on these go for petrol, DMF failure is costly on the diesels (lots of posts on this forum)
 
Well hes got 80% of his wages left over, plus its going to rise they dont cost that much...

Insurance - £70 per month
Maintenance - £50 a month safe keeping
Petrol - £100-£150

Total - £220-£270 that estimated.


Failing that a standard Mondeo, but its not going to put a smile on your face, maybe meet in the middle with the Ghia X trim.

if you dont want to loan money, do as fox says, spend the 2k on something as a run around, and save for a rainy day when your pay is better.
 
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Why would he want an ST220? Read his post, at no point does he come across as the sort of person who wants a 3 litre car.
 
I don't think the OP is particularly concerned with something that'll put a smile on his face in any other way than keeping as much spare cash in his pocket as possible. A 2.0 Zetec or Ghia is fine, performance cars are only fun to own when you can actually afford to run them comfortably.
 
Depends on how much he pays for the Mondeo & its age...

Sorry, but it'll have to be a pretty poor one for a K reg Ovlov to better it!
 
mjt said:
I'm spamming, but it's worth it.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201045372763052

Much nicer place to be than a crappy Mondeo ;)
Click to expand...

youmads.jpg
 
If you look carefully, it's got a lip over the A frame and rear doors so that you can open the door with snow on the roof and it won't fall in :D
 
Janesy B said:
, performance cars are only fun to own when you can actually afford to run them comfortably.
Click to expand...

and when you love them enough to put up with the increased cost in ownership.

Mate at work is having a bit of a mid life crisis, wants to get something fun to drive. But he's used to driving cheap cars, and is currently baulking at the costs and having second thoughts.

No point setting yourself up for expensive bills unless you really desire that sort of car.
 
In my opinion:

1) Nope, dont spend £5k on something when you have to drain all your savings that you have to do so, and dont have a lot of experience of different types of cars etc.

2) 50 miles a day for 200 days a year or 365? Whats your rough annual mileage? Unless you're doing about 20k miles a year diesel doesnt work out being more economical, and with some common rail engines there can be big repair bills looming that just dont happen with petrols.

3) Difficult to say, I'm 6' tall but fit into most things fine. You've got a big choice of older saloon cars from the likes of Volvo and Audi, through to BMW's and Mercedes if you're going for something a bit more interesting than a Mondeo.

That said, I drive a cheap, S reg Merc. But it isnt falling apart after 145K miles like some cars do :p
 
I'd be going with a mk3 Mondeo for about £2.5k, just a normal 2.0 would do the job well. Should be able to pick up one with the Ghia X trim, IMO they look very smart for the money. Its certainly what I'd be buying if I was in the OP's situation. It'd be a massive upgrade and not cost the earth.

And if Fox's figures are anything to go by from his mk2, you should be able to achieve over 40mpg on a run :)
 
[TW]Fox;18159149 said:
a) Spend the £2000 in savings on a new car. Use the £1000 in the ISA as a car fund for repairs and things. Top the £1000 up by sticking say 40 quid a month back into the fund.
Click to expand...

Makes the most sense by a country mile.

Also it sounds like your finances are on the up. Even if you only keep the £2k car for a year>18 months it isn't going to have lost a huge amount of cash if you fancy another upgrade.
 
I think you'd fit in a Focus hatchback. I'm 6' 2" and there's plenty of room to spare.

You could get a decent mark 1 for your money. I don't have a diesel but you'd definitely get good economy with one. I drive about the same amount as you and my petrol 1.6 Focus gets about 38mpg. I can get into the low 40s if I'm ultra conservative. Diesel would easily get you into the 40s.

I know for a fact that there's a roof rack available. A bonus is that being a Ford, there's a huge market for parts out there.
 
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