Possible to own and run a £20k car for a year and sell for no loss including costs?

Hades

Hades

Hades

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This is only something I'm researching at the moment so I'm not sure how serious I am. I have been thinking of another fun or interesting car for around £10k. But then it dawned on me that I have another £10k available in the house refurbishment fund that I won't need for a little while. I definitely can't spend it forever but I could use it for a year without noticing it.

So an alternative would be to buy an interesting car for a year and then sell it. I would not be able to keep it longer than a year. But only if I can sell it without loss (including servicing costs over that time). My brother has recently done similar with cars at a much higher price point. My budget isn't as high as his. But is this possible at the £20k range? I assume I need to be looking for something that's appreciating slightly so will be older. That's absolutely fine as I'm happy with old cars.

If you had £20k for a year and didn't want to lose money then what would you buy? It has to be something interesting.

Thanks :)
 
Unfortunately if you could truly predict that then everyone would be doing it

There are definitely cars around that will have minimal depreciation or as you say maybe appreciate but typically the risks of unplanned running costs could be pretty high.

At the £10k price point my dads z4 coupe has pretty much lost zero value (maybe even appreciated) in the last 3 years and a lot of s2000 owners will be thinking the same just now too - but if you bought either right now and tried to sell in 12 months it would be much more difficult not to lose out.

I guess you could buy a poor £20k car for not a lot of cash and sort it out with the aim to resell, but you need to pick well and be very handy for that to typically work out.

Alternatively head to auction, buy something ex lease and aim to sell it privately in 12 months - ideally you need someone who won't pay the private buyer fees to "purchase" though
 
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Guess it depends on what you call interesting but Lexus ISFs seem to have been pretty stable around the £20k mark for the last year or so. BMW Z4m Coupe also seem be stable/appreciating at the moment.
 
wouldn't mileage have a bearance on this? surely you'd need to buy a relatively low mileage car so that after a year, it wouldn't stand out as too high or in line with others.

I didn't lose out when I sold my E92, though I owned it for less than a year and didn't put many miles on it.

MK6 Golf R's still seem to be silly money - my suggestion.
 
Hades said:
This is only something I'm researching at the moment so I'm not sure how serious I am. I have been thinking of another fun or interesting car for around £10k. But then it dawned on me that I have another £10k available in the house refurbishment fund that I won't need for a little while. I definitely can't spend it forever but I could use it for a year without noticing it.

So an alternative would be to buy an interesting car for a year and then sell it. I would not be able to keep it longer than a year. But only if I can sell it without loss (including servicing costs over that time). My brother has recently done similar with cars at a much higher price point. My budget isn't as high as his. But is this possible at the £20k range? I assume I need to be looking for something that's appreciating slightly so will be older. That's absolutely fine as I'm happy with old cars.

If you had £20k for a year and didn't want to lose money then what would you buy? It has to be something interesting.

Thanks :)
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The trouble is anything fast/interesting that is old and costs £20k could end up costing you a fortune to keep going or fix. You could have course get lucky and it might never go wrong but no one can guarantee that otherwise everyone would do what you want to do!
 
cheesyboy said:
BMW Z3M coupe.
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Strange you mentioned this. It's one I started looking at last night and partly prompted the thread.

nas said:
wouldn't mileage have a bearance on this? surely you'd need to buy a relatively low mileage car so that after a year, it wouldn't stand out as too high or in line with others.

I didn't lose out when I sold my E92, though I owned it for less than a year and didn't put many miles on it.

MK6 Golf R's still seem to be silly money - my suggestion.
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MK6 Golf R's are interesting but still pretty run of the mill. Also with so many recent lease deals I think they will fall in value quite a lot when those come onto the used market in another year or two.
 
Another thing you'd need to think about is how quickly you might need the cash back - if you're looking at niche cars they can take a while to sell unless you price it very cheaply (defeating the purpose)
 
Hades said:
Strange you mentioned this. It's one I started looking at last night and partly prompted the thread.
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They've been steadily appreciating for about 10 years. You could get loads around £10-£12k, now, they're nearing £20k for a good one, and way more for an excellent one.

Can imagine servicing is reasonably pricey, but it won't depreciate.
 
XJ was purchased for £17.5k at the beginning of the year. Was sold for £19.2k 7-8 months later.

Your "profit" is in the purchase for this game.
 
pepsilol said:
XJ was purchased for £17.5k at the beginning of the year. Was sold for £19.2k 7-8 months later.

Your "profit" is in the purchase for this game.
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Good XKR's seem to be creeping up a little. They could be an option. Agree with the point about purchase price. I would probably avoid dealers (for both buying and selling) for that very reason.
 
Hades said:
Good XKR's seem to be creeping up a little. They could be an option. Agree with the point about purchase price. I would probably avoid dealers (for both buying and selling) for that very reason.
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XK was purchased for around £13.5k and sold on for around £14.5k if I remember that right. I made a minimal amount but certainly broke even if IIRC. I've had good luck with Jags.

It must be a private purchase and you must be willing to travel.

Porsche was also sold for break even cost as was my 330i.

Infact for the last 5 years my chopping and changing has actually cost me extremely little in motoring costs.
 
Theres only a few modern cars that hold their value like that. But you also find parts and servicing are super expensive on most of them :/

Unless you are lucky and nothing needs doing with it for a year.
 
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yes
the mk2 focus RS has been £20k for more than 4 years now.

unless the new one comes out and enormously impacts prices, i cant see it changing things. the RS badge does odd things to people.

Evo X's are going up a bit due to the rarity of them, especially in manual.


speaking from personal experience. I paid £9500 for my S2000 nearly two years ago and could sell it now for £11k+
 
iaind said:
Another thing you'd need to think about is how quickly you might need the cash back - if you're looking at niche cars they can take a while to sell unless you price it very cheaply (defeating the purpose)
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This.

To do this right, you're looking at rarer cars, and they will be harder to sell. Afterall, it wont be a £20k 2.0 diesel S-line.

I was also going to mention just about anything with an RS badge on it.

But something like this : http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...et=usedcars&postcode=dd114tw&page=1&logcode=p

Or this :

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...cars&onesearchad=used,nearlynew,new&logcode=p

To a lesser extent, something like this :

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...earlynew,new&search-target=usedcars&logcode=p

But anything you are looking at, that may appreciate, or not lose too much value, will come with it the inherent risk of throwing an eye watering bill at you. That's why people buy new diesels.
 
Hades said:
Possible to own and run a £20k car for a year and sell for no loss
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This is quite achievable.

Hades said:
Possible to own and run a £20k car for a year and sell for no loss including costs
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This is much harder. To do it you are going to have to take quite a gamble. Interestingly I did a similar thing 20 months ago and purchased a Porsche 944 S2. I am only just down at the moment but the classic car market slows down around this time of year.

TBH the next rising stars of the classic market are going to 90's performance cars, especially 90's Japanese performance cars. If it were my money, I would be getting a very nice, standard, low mileage Toyota Supra MkIV Twin Turbo Manual. Not long back these were about £11k ~ £12, they are now around £15k ~ £17k.
 
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