Mondeos

Frozennova

Frozennova

Frozennova

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This thread is probably a little sooner than later it needs to be but I'd like to get my research done early.

For those who don't know I currently drive a mk2 golf, however my annual mileage may be going from around 6k a year to around 30-35k. This leaves me needing something reasonably economical and comfortable as I'll be spending approx 3 hours a day commuting plus travelling between clients.

My budget isn't going to be huge which leaves me looking at mondeos. Ideally I don't want to spend any more than 2k but would prefer closer to 1k. Is a £1000 to £1500 mondeo with 70k ish miles likely to be a liability. For reference I'm only looking at petrol engines for the time being as I am happy to trade some economy to not drive a tractor.

Anything I need to be looking out for when the time comes. I assume to 2ltr makes more sense than the 1.8
 
You do realise you will spend a fortune keeping it up and running, Any car on that budget and that mileage are very likely need a 1000's thrown at them every year, you'll be coming up to cars needing all the expensive stuff, don't just think buying a Mondeo will solve all this, if your looking at purchasing a £1k Mondeo then you might want to narrow your choice to ones that have had most of the expensive bits done.
 
This is exactly why I came here asking for advice.

I've done 20k miles over 2 years in the Golf and its needed nothing bar servicing a set of tyres and a speedo cable. A car which I was slated for buying in the first place after paying £1000 for it.

It's also worth saying I do my own repairs and pay trade prices on parts.
 
What macca says, 1k on a car thats going to do 30-40k a year wont be reliable for long, Desiels seem to last longer than petrol engines which maybe something to consider. Also fuel costs will come into it doing that sort of milage too.

I detest driving desiels but on motoways they are not far different tbh.
 
To be honest I'd be picking up a diesel that's had some of the common work (cltuch/dmf or injectors) done recently. That's crazy mileage that will actually see you benefit quite a lot from a diesel motor.

Your budget is far too low to be able to easily pick up a car that will do the job without potentially costing a lot of cash over the next couple of years but I guess you could get lucky.

Could be an idea to look at the stinky old td-di too. It's horrible to drive but they go on and on.
 
I'm not sure on car allowance etc yet. interview is tomorrow, I'm just forward planning. injectors dmf etc is what puts me off diesel, which brings us to the tddi however there doesn't seem to be that many for sale at all.
 
ManLoveRulesOK said:
This thread is probably a little sooner than later it needs to be but I'd like to get my research done early.

For those who don't know I currently drive a mk2 golf, however my annual mileage may be going from around 6k a year to around 30-35k. This leaves me needing something reasonably economical and comfortable as I'll be spending approx 3 hours a day commuting plus travelling between clients.
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That is going to incur a substantial increase in outgoings even if nothing goes wrong, and a corresponding reduction in quality of life. Please ensure you do the sums to ensure any pay rise will cover your transport costs with enough over to justify the utter ball ache of spending hours in your car every day.

Insurance will be more expensive
Consumables like tyres and brakes will require replacement more frequently.
Servicing is likely to be at least twice a year.
Even if you could get a suitable diesel for your budget (and I doubt it) your fuel costs will be significantly higher.
 
This is exactly why I'm asking now rather than in two weeks when I've accepted the job and realised the additional pay doesn't cover the additional costs.
 
Just be careful, that's a stupid amount of miles to put on any car that you own on a yearly basis unless you're being very, very well reimbursed for it.
 
rodenal said:
Just be careful, that's a stupid amount of miles to put on any car that you own on a yearly basis unless you're being very, very well reimbursed for it.
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Im hoping to sway a company car as your quite right, I will also need insurance for business use etc which at 20 isn't going to be cheap.

Brookert said:
What sort of work is it op?
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Field engineer in IT
 
Calculate how much money you'd need to earn before tax to pay for all of the additional costs of commuting. You'll be absolutely amazed at just how much bigger the salary needs to be just to break even let alone benefit from enough of a wage increase to justify the horrible, nasty world of spending 3 hours of your day, every day, driving to or from work.
 
Infact lets do some maths based on 35k a year at 40mpg.

Fuel: £5561
Tyres: £500
Unexpected bills: £1000
Servicing: £200 (Assuming you just do boggo oil and filter changes)

Yearly cost: £7261

But of course thats after tax. Assuming you pay 20% tax rather than 40% in order to just BREAK EVEN your new job needs to have a salary thats more than £10k a year better than your current salary. And thats in order to have NO financial benefit from the new job at all and not taking into account your 3 hours a day in the car.

When you sit down and value your time and allow for a useful amount more money to be worth the stress unless the pay rise is quite literally 15-20k a year before tax then financially (ignoring career advancement) it makes no real sense.

Energy prices are going only one way. Do everything you can to avoid saddling yourself with a monster-commute.
 
I have done exactly as you have said already Fox, you are just the person I was hoping to post in fact.

I already have a target salary in mind and will decline the job if it is offered below this, I'm quite willing to sacrifice 2-3 hours a day communting for a job I'm going to enjoy rather than being stuck in my current job which I currently despise being payed marginally better than minimum wage for a skilled job, which is currently sucking the life out of me, demotivating and giving me no reason to get out of bed in the morning.
 
[TW]Fox;21943441 said:
Energy prices are going only one way. Do everything you can to avoid saddling yourself with a monster-commute.
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Thanks for putting those numbers together, I really hope it makes people think twice about taking on the tedium of big commutes.

Driving early in the morning on a fine summer day isn't so bad, but the novelty very quickly wears off in the winter when you have to drag yourself out of bed early on a dark, cold and wet morning to be faced with an hour and a half of driving before you even start your days work, followed by a long miserable drive home in the dark.

3 hours per day is 15 hours a week and 2.5 days every month that you've effectively flushed down the toilet.

ManLoveRulesOK said:
I have done exactly as you have said already Fox, you are just the person I was hoping to post in fact.

I already have a target salary in mind and will decline the job if it is offered below this, I'm quite willing to sacrifice 2-3 hours a day communting for a job I'm going to enjoy rather than being stuck in my current job which I currently despise being payed marginally better than minimum wage for a skilled job, which is currently sucking the life out of me, demotivating and giving me no reason to get out of bed in the morning.
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Hating your current job is certainly a strong motivator to move on to pastures new, but even if you love your new job the commute will eventually do it's own fair share of life sucking. If this is intended as a relatively short term thing rather than a permanent career move, or you intend to move closer if you like the job then perhaps it could work out.

Almost without exception all the employees we have taken on that committed themselves to lengthy commutes did not stay for more than a year. That includes one person that commuted from Cardiff to Paignton every single day in his camper van. Loony.
 
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I set my self a rule when I started my current job that if I had made no progress in terms of real world pay rises/promotion in this or any subsequent jobs after 12 months I would begin looking for something new.

If I do take the new job it is more than likely to be 12 months only then I will begin to look for something closer to home.

On a side note while 46 miles each way isnt exactly close I wouldn't consider it a monster commute either.
 
ManLoveRulesOK said:
On a side note while 46 miles each way isnt exactly close I wouldn't consider it a monster commute either.
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3 hours a day (its the time not distance) is a monster commute.

It increases a typical 7.5 hour working day by almost 50% for no extra pay - infact, negative pay because it costs a fortune!
 
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