Daily hack vs using RX-8 for everything
Discussion
Hi everyone,
I've been lurking here for a while but the high fuel costs of running the RX-8 all week have got me thinking about buying a cheap daily hack and running the rex as a second car. I know the RX-8 is one of the biggest opinion splitters on here but I love it and due to the awful residual values, won't be changing it for a while. I currently do about 220 miles a week at approximately 20mpg so would be looking at something significantly more economical than that. I haven't done the maths yet so not even sure if it will work out cheaper in the long run once everything is factored in. I'm normally in the car on my own so size isn't important as I'll still have the four seater if I need it but would want something that is still good fun to drive as the route to work is a mixture of fast and slow B roads.
Budget would be about a grand and so far I've been thinking about the PH favourites of MX5s and E36 BMWs (325tds?).
Anybody got any experience of doing similar and how the costs work out or any good suggestions?
Cheers in advance for your help,
Milton
I've been lurking here for a while but the high fuel costs of running the RX-8 all week have got me thinking about buying a cheap daily hack and running the rex as a second car. I know the RX-8 is one of the biggest opinion splitters on here but I love it and due to the awful residual values, won't be changing it for a while. I currently do about 220 miles a week at approximately 20mpg so would be looking at something significantly more economical than that. I haven't done the maths yet so not even sure if it will work out cheaper in the long run once everything is factored in. I'm normally in the car on my own so size isn't important as I'll still have the four seater if I need it but would want something that is still good fun to drive as the route to work is a mixture of fast and slow B roads.
Budget would be about a grand and so far I've been thinking about the PH favourites of MX5s and E36 BMWs (325tds?).
Anybody got any experience of doing similar and how the costs work out or any good suggestions?
Cheers in advance for your help,
Milton
Let's assume you buy a car which will do 40mpg instead of 20mpg (not as easy as it sounds) - assuming fuel is a round £6 a gallon, that saves you 5.5 gallons of fuel = £33 a week - £1716 a year.
220miles a week is <12K a year - that's well within the normal service interval so you'd not 'save' any services on the RX (e.g. you'd still service it annually)
We'll ignore tyre and other consumable costs, assuming you'd have run them up on the RX instead (brakes, tyres etc.)
So you have £1716 with which to
Insure another car (remember that you can't have NCB on 2 cars so it will be a full premium)
Tax another car (unless you pick a tax-exempt model)
Service and repair the other car
Cover the interest (paid if you borrow, lost if you use your savings) and depreciation on another car
There's a small kickback in the form of slightly reduced depreciation on the RX - but 6000 miles a year hardly matters in the scale of things.
You'd also save a few quid marking the RX as reduced mileage - tho you could do that anyway as they never check it!!
p.s. you also have to get into a Fabia/Citroen/somethinglikethat everyday instead of your preferred car - you won't like that a bit...
220miles a week is <12K a year - that's well within the normal service interval so you'd not 'save' any services on the RX (e.g. you'd still service it annually)
We'll ignore tyre and other consumable costs, assuming you'd have run them up on the RX instead (brakes, tyres etc.)
So you have £1716 with which to
Insure another car (remember that you can't have NCB on 2 cars so it will be a full premium)
Tax another car (unless you pick a tax-exempt model)
Service and repair the other car
Cover the interest (paid if you borrow, lost if you use your savings) and depreciation on another car
There's a small kickback in the form of slightly reduced depreciation on the RX - but 6000 miles a year hardly matters in the scale of things.
You'd also save a few quid marking the RX as reduced mileage - tho you could do that anyway as they never check it!!
p.s. you also have to get into a Fabia/Citroen/somethinglikethat everyday instead of your preferred car - you won't like that a bit...
PaulGT3 said:
Both the 325tds and an MX5 will do about 35mpg at best, surely you'd need something along the lines of 50mpg to make it worth your while?
Pug/Cit HDI is what I'd be looking at for a grand!
Yeah but Pug/Cit are nasty unreliable turds.Pug/Cit HDI is what I'd be looking at for a grand!
E36 318i is what you need!
http://www.gumtree.com/p/cars-vans-motorbikes/bmw-...
Thanks for the replies, especially johnpeat for doing the figures!
I guess the other thing to take in to consideration is that it would save leaving the p&j in a public car park all week and keep it off the heavily gritted roads during the worst of the winter weather. Liking the idea of the BMW touring as the added practicality and load carrying ability would be useful.
Food for thought anyway.
I guess the other thing to take in to consideration is that it would save leaving the p&j in a public car park all week and keep it off the heavily gritted roads during the worst of the winter weather. Liking the idea of the BMW touring as the added practicality and load carrying ability would be useful.
Food for thought anyway.
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