Thinking of getting an EV

danlightbulb said:
Yes I could do this. I'm a bit loathed to though because obviously it's a good thing to be putting more into my pension fund.
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Look at the rest. A 1.2 litre engine, and three 1.5's.

There is no way I would want to spend £14k on those cars. I wouldn't buy them new and I don't want to buy them used.
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You really do sound like you want to have your cake and eat it.

I was talking to a friend of mine a few years back and for whatever reason the conversation moved on to mortgages. When he found out that I'd chosen to pay mine off it was like I was suddenly some kind of multi-millionaire when in reality he had exactly the same means to do so with the money he had in premium bonds. I'd chosen to use the vast majority of our savings to remove the final debt we had hanging over us in a calculated risk that both my wife and I wouldn't lose our jobs in tandem. I'm not advocating it (although it was probably one of my better financial decisions) but it was my choice to do so. It meant that I couldn't then go out and buy myself, for example, a new car.

You make these life choices, normally with the best of intentions at the time, but they do effect things later on down the line. That money going in to your pension pot could have been going towards another car or repair pot for the current one. That house you bought could probably have been cheaper. That mountain bike you bought years ago could have been money in the bank etc. etc.

TBH putting money into a house and pension seem like a very good idea to me, more so than spending it on a car, but you can't now complain that you can't have the car as well.

Also, you don't just want a car. It has to be an estate, a large one, and an automatic, and have decent performance, and look good....

Lose the auto requirement (unless there is some medical reason you can't) and watch those hundreds of suitable cars on AT become thousands.

The fact that your justification for the change in the first place is running costs and then you are considering a used Audi E-Tron and questioning about what happens when it is 8 years old shows that you are at risk of sleep walking into the exact same position further down the line.
 
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[TW]Fox said:
There are 13,000 cars on Autotrader with less than 60,000 miles, newer than 2018, for between £8500 and £11000.
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So firstly you need to filter down much more. There is no point including Corsa's, Fiat 500's, Limo's or any number of other types of cars in the list.

Secondly lets say I buy something on 60k miles. In 3 years time its on 95k miles and when cars get to that age they start needing a lot of work. Suspension parts, timing belts, exhausts, clutches/DMFs. I think the 60-70k mile mark is a terrible point in a car's life to buy used.
 
danlightbulb said:
I think the 60-70k mile mark is a terrible point in a car's life to buy used.
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Have to disagree with you there, based on experience.

Entirely comes down to the history of the car and how well it's been maintained and serviced. I've had used cars with 12k miles on the clock that have given big bills (albeit covered by a used-approved warranty thankfully), and have bought used cars with 65k miles on the clock that have been bulletproof. You can also get lucky/unlucky with any car.

However you cut it, you're going to have to compromise somewhere or suck it up and keep your existing car on the road by spending as you need to.
 
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danlightbulb said:
So firstly you need to filter down much more. There is no point including Corsa's, Fiat 500's, Limo's or any number of other types of cars in the list.

Secondly lets say I buy something on 60k miles. In 3 years time its on 95k miles and when cars get to that age they start needing a lot of work. Suspension parts, timing belts, exhausts, clutches/DMFs. I think the 60-70k mile mark is a terrible point in a car's life to buy used.
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Just get the SS EV.

To say that the point where a car has halved in value (saving lets say £12k for arguments sake) is the worst point to buy a car because in another 30 or 40 thousand miles, and three years of use, it might need a grand or two spending on it is a car finance companies wet dream of a statement.

You said the decision making process is making you ill... what's the point?! It's a car at the end of the day.
 
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Spleen Sauce said:
Have to disagree with you there, based on experience.
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lordrobs said:
To say that the point where a car has halved in value (saving lets say £12k for arguments sake) is the worst point to buy a car because in another 30 or 40 thousand miles, and three years of use, it might need a grand or two spending on it is a car finance companies wet dream of a statement.
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My experience is that this is true. Obviously the sample size is small. But my 3 year old Mondeo needed a DMF replacement after a year of ownership. It needed a power steering pump, a steering rack, brake lines, exhaust, broken suspension spring. Numerous other things that I can't remember now. All around the 100-120k mile mark. The one thing it never needed was any engine work, which was ironic because all the reviews warned about injector problems on that car and I never had any issues with the engine. I kept this car to 190k miles and the electrics were playing up.

Honda Accord estate after this, bought at around 110k miles I think and I kept it to about 140k. Clutch pedal failed whilst driving. Also rear arches went badly rusty and fell apart. Car was scrapped.

This was replaced with another Mondeo, estate, Engine failed at 115k miles (timing belt was done at 95k). Car was scrap value after that.

This car, the BMW, the previous owner had the water pump fail (common fault) at approaching 100k miles. I think that cost him nearly a grand too.I had to have the valve cover gaskets done, replace the ignition coils, battery, aux belt. It is lumpy starting up now and I don't know why.


Its not just the cost of doing this work. Its finding a garage where I don't get ripped off, that does a proper job and considers any work that could be done at the same time (none of them ever do consider this), getting to and from the garage and having to take time off work for it.

Im fed up of having to deal with repairs on old cars, I don't want it any more.
 
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danlightbulb said:
Only one of those cars is an automatic (the Corolla) and its an import.

Look at the rest. A 1.2 litre engine, and three 1.5's.

There is no way I would want to spend £14k on those cars. I wouldn't buy them new and I don't want to buy them used.
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Ok well you need to put in more effort than nil because I found those with 30 secs of effort. Add another filter on and fill your boots.
 
danlightbulb said:
Im fed up of having to deal with repairs on old cars, I don't want it any more.
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I can understand that, it's stress that you don't need with everything else going on.

All of these are used-approved so will have warranty (at least a year of worry-free motoring, plus many will have the option to extend said warranty). All automatic gearboxes too. And a big boot. Anything that would suit?
 
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dlockers said:
:cry:
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Spleen Sauce said:
I can understand that, it's stress that you don't need with everything else going on.

All of these are used-approved so will have warranty (at least a year of worry-free motoring, plus many will have the option to extend said warranty). All automatic gearboxes too. And a big boot. Anything that would suit?
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I think the reason I am not getting any vibes from any of these is because deep down I liked the idea of getting an EV and saving on the petrol.

Anything ICE now feels like old tech and therefore not value for money. And I just don't want the risk of mechanical failure, however unlikely I know it is, I just can't help not wanting to carry it any more.
 
danlightbulb said:
I think the reason I am not getting any vibes from any of these is because deep down I liked the idea of getting an EV and saving on the petrol.
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OK fair. Based on everything you've said, the MG is the best option, even if the seats don't fold completely flat. Outside of that, you're going to need to adjust your budget expectation.
 
What I find annoying about choosing a car is that I just want something with a 6 litre V12 but also modern tech and newer than 2021 and it just seems impossible to find anything for my budget. Where am I going wrong? It just seems impossible to find a car these days. Nothing exists.
 
Spleen Sauce said:
OK fair. Based on everything you've said, the MG is the best option, even if the seats don't fold completely flat. Outside of that, you're going to need to adjust your budget expectation.
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This. It really doesn't sound like you're going to get a better option than the MG5.

It's in budget
It's an estate
It's an EV

If you want to pay more overall for a brand new one/convenience/less risk, get it on salary sacrifice.
If you want to pay less overall with slightly more risk, get a loan for couple of year old one.
 
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