2nd car conundrum

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Discussion

Basil Hume

Original Poster:

1,274 posts

253 months

Friday 29th July 2016
quotequote all
After a decade of my wife trying to persuade me of its merits, we've recently bitten the bullet and bought a VW T5-based Danbury camper.

The existing, sole family vehicle is a 2015 Golf SV (fat, slidey seated Golf) in a high spec: DSG, leather, nav, LED lights, upgraded audio etc.

At the same time, my parents are trying to pass on their 2004 Clio, which I suspect would be free and has only been owned by them - but requires a couple of bits sorting. It's slightly dog eared but has a/c, auto lights and a few other niceties.

We could afford to keep the Golf as well as the Camper. However, neither of us commutes by car and I suspect the Camper is capable of taking over almost family trips apart from town driving. The scenario I'm thinking of is to sell the Golf and use my parents' old Clio as our town runabout (we live in a city centre).

Selling the Golf would be painful due to the depreciation on a less than 1-year-old car - but I am wondering if it's otherwise just going to sit around depreciating even more, without getting much use from it?

Basil Hume

Original Poster:

1,274 posts

253 months

Friday 29th July 2016
quotequote all
Not trying to tighten the belt - but I just suspect that the Golf may end up sat around idle!

Basil Hume

Original Poster:

1,274 posts

253 months

Wednesday 3rd August 2016
quotequote all
Thanks guys. I'm taking a look at the Clio in the next few days.

My man maths tells me that the running costs (insurance, tax, maintenance etc) will be more on the older car. Hence, it's all about the Golf SV's depreciation.

The Golf SV has probably lost £9k in its first year (ouch!), but will probably lose only another £5k in the next 3. It's all about the further £5k depreciation of the SV and whether I can get much use from it during that time - I'm looking at an annual mileage of 3-4k (if that).

The question is whether it's worth £5k more over, say, 3 years... bearing in mind it'll be an urban runabout used 1-2 times per week, mainly by my wife.

Basil Hume

Original Poster:

1,274 posts

253 months

Wednesday 3rd August 2016
quotequote all
I suspect that the T5 can be used for most - if not all - driving.

To put it another way again: I think the Clio would cost £5k less over 3 years.

Not having a car at all and using City Car Club would save a similar amount, but no more (the Clio would not cost anything to buy).

The question is whether it's worth c.£5k over 3 years to keep the Golf, considering that it's a lovely car (even if it doesn't get used much). It's starting to sound like a "no"...