Probably a what car - barge dilemma

[funkyrobot]

Thanks to PH and the 'Best Smoker Barges 1 - 5 Large' thread I've developed a hankering for a barge. My situation, however, isn't an easy one as I'm currently saving all of my spare cash for a house. I have a dilemma.

I currently run a 57 Mazda 3 Sport (2.0 litre petrol, for those who don't know). It's a nice car. It isn't massively quick, but it's no slouch. It's the sort of car usually driven by old people . However, it isn't a V8 barge.

I have sort of convinced myself that I can sell the Mazda and use the money to get myself a tidy barge. I could also get myself a snotter/shed for daily use if required, without costing any more money than that made from the sale of the Mazda. I live 15 miles from work so commuting mileages aren't massive.

My workings are as follows:

Sell Mazda for £5.5k (Autotrader shows vehicles around the £6k mark for low mileage examples like my car, so I'm going for the absolute lowest i'd expect).
Buy, insure and tax barge for £3.5k.
Buy, insure and tax shed for £1.5k.
Pocket £500 for rainy day.

Are my man maths correct? Or am I letting my heart rule my head and I will indeed be losing some money? Am I overvaluing my current car too?

In relation to barges, do people find them expensive to fix? I know it depends on which barge you have (BMW, Honda, Mercedes, Volvo, Alfa etc), but are they quite expensive to run?

My OH thinks that i'm mad and thinks that by doing the above i'll be losing more money than if I just kept the Mazda. A little part of me says she has a good point, but my blood is slowly turning into petrol and I can't help myself.

Help!

(If the above seems like a good plan, I'll be barge hunting soon)

[funkyrobot]

PaperCut said:

I don't understand why you need a shed too? Why is this barge not able to everything you need to do?

Just in case the barge breaks.

I need my car for work as it is out in the middle of nowhere and there are no public transport links.

[funkyrobot]

illmonkey said:

2 cars =

2 insurance
2 tax
2 service cost
2 tyres cost

etc

Aboslutely. I've factored the initial insurance, tax and purchase price in. Tyres and servicing etc should (if all goes well) happen in time.

[funkyrobot]

richardxjr said:

Agree with the 'why 2 cars' question.

£2k will buy a decent V8 barge

Pre 2001 to insure against future silly VED rises.

LS400 Mk4 to insure against future silly big repair bills and give mid-30mpgs on a motorway run.

Sounds good to me.

[funkyrobot]

PaperCut said:

Plus your £500 rainy day budget is a bit laughable! Bear in mind that a (presumably German) old, big barge compared to a modern, small Japanese hatchback - everything from tyres, fuel, service, repairs(!), parts and everything else in between - insurance/tax...! will be more expensive.

But you knew this already, right? (i hope!)

My current road tax is £245 per year. My last service was done at Mazda. My 3 isn't that fuel efficient.

I would have more than £500 available for repairs etc, but this would be eating into my other funds slightly. If I got more for the Mazda i'd be happy.

[funkyrobot]

I do have one concern re servicing and repairing barges though. I don't seem to have many indy specialists around where I live (Spalding, Lincolnshire). Is barge servicing something that can be done by a competent local mechanic, or does it need a specialist?

Thanks.

[funkyrobot]

richardxjr said:

funkyrobot said:

richardxjr said:

Agree with the 'why 2 cars' question.

£2k will buy a decent V8 barge

Pre 2001 to insure against future silly VED rises.

LS400 Mk4 to insure against future silly big repair bills and give mid-30mpgs on a motorway run.

Sounds good to me.

In my circumstances this is the cheapest motoring possible. Seriously.

Very good. I do like the LS400

[funkyrobot]

Mr Roper said:

There you go.....

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/3887391.htm

Only 13k on the clock? Blimey

[funkyrobot]

richardxjr said:

funkyrobot said:

richardxjr said:

Agree with the 'why 2 cars' question.

£2k will buy a decent V8 barge

Pre 2001 to insure against future silly VED rises.

LS400 Mk4 to insure against future silly big repair bills and give mid-30mpgs on a motorway run.

Sounds good to me.

In my circumstances this is the cheapest motoring possible. Seriously.

Piss easy to service yourself too. It's not rocket science

I'm useless with spanners though. Or maybe not useless, it's just that I've never done anything on cars.

I know, I know. I'm on PH and I haven't done anything more than check fluid levels and tyre pressures etc.

[funkyrobot]

PaperCut said:

Well as long as you've worked it out. I didn't mean for that last post to sound patronising and i'm not trying to put you off the idea, i just think having two cars is a bit unnecessary and you will be fine with a barge on its own if you buy carefully.

What barge are we talking about BTW? For some reason i have an E38 7-Series in my head?! That would be my choice!

No worries I'm noting everything that is said on here. That's why I thought i'd post this thread as I may be kidding myself.

I do like the E38 and the E39. I also like the Lexus LS400. Honda Legends also seem nice. I'd even go for something that isn't a V8. Smaller engine E38 and E39's, Merc W124's, big Volvo's, Jags and the like. I only said a V8 as it, to me, is the ultimate engine I'd go for. Saying that, the 750 V12's look nice.

So, erm, anything bigger than my Japanse hatchback and good for wafting around in. I'm 6ft 4in tall so it will need to be big for me to feel swallowed up in it

[funkyrobot]

richardxjr said:

You might have seen this one in the BB thread.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2012...



If not into spannering, any garage will be happy working on these

Thanks.

That looks lovely.

[funkyrobot]

richardxjr said:

That's a long list. Some of us have been working through similar for a while now Don't bother with anything less than a V8 though; it's not right

Thanks.

Have you noticed that the more time you spend on threads like the barge one, you become incredibly beardy?

I walked through town yesterday evening with the OH and saw an E38 parked in the local supermarket carpark. It was quite clearly a facelift one as it had the curves under the front lights (I'm still new to this so apologies if this is incorrect). It had some nice M Sport wheels on too. Anyway, when I told her about it and said it was a facelift one and it had the sport wheels on etc, she just looked at me blankly . To her, it's just a big car.

We even had to take a little diversion to have a closer look at the car. From what I could see it was a 735i with nice black leather inside. I'm not beardy enough yet to understand what trim of leather it was though.

[funkyrobot]

richardxjr said:

Don't know what you mean

Being a 735, it probably didn't have the tv/nav screen though.

Hmmm. I'll have to look at it in more detail if I see it again. Without getting arrested, obviously.

[funkyrobot]

djt100 said:

I've been running a 3.0 S-type for a coming up to a year, Cost £2150 to buy and another £250 for a service. It's just coming up for it's MOT and in that year nothing has gone wrong with it, and it's averaged 18mpg. I brought carefully,with Full History, low owners, etc.

So running a barge as a daily is not outside the realms of possibility, When you take into account the cost of running 2 cars as opposed to one.

So I'd say go with one car the insurance,tax etc on the second car will be more than the fuel on a barge.

OR

If you really want 2 cars,You are spending more on a barge than a shed, I'd say swap that around, Spend £2000 on the barge and £3000 on the Shed, if your not handy with the spanners then spending the money on the daily driver is the sensible option, and you'll get a good barge for £2k.(I know of a nice S-type that will be for sale soon for less that £2k)

Just my 2p worth

Thanks for that. Duly noted.

[funkyrobot]

Are these good in 3.0 litre guise? Not technically a V8 barge, but a V6.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2011...



http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2012...

Edited by funkyrobot on Thursday 17th May 13:22

[funkyrobot]

bigdom said:

Too small for a barge, that's only just bigger than the Mazda

Ok. Thanks.

[funkyrobot]

Ok, thanks. I'm loving the suggestions above (especially the one about car hire, hadn't thought about that).

My next question would be this. If I were to sell the Mazda, what would I do until I got a barge? I think that would be car hire too, wouldn't it?

[funkyrobot]

deltashad said:

Two are far better than one. Unless you have very large pockets, a cheap run-around is great when you are fed up stopping at petrol stations.
You can also have a bit of fun picking a snotter.
That didn't sound right.

Micra K?

[funkyrobot]

DJC, that is excellente!

[funkyrobot]

deltashad said:

Two are far better than one. Unless you have very large pockets, a cheap run-around is great when you are fed up stopping at petrol stations.
You can also have a bit of fun picking a snotter.
That didn't sound right.

The OH really, really wants a small van as a runaround. She does a lot of ferrying around of toys and things as she works for a family shelter charity. A small van as a second vehicle could tick the boxes, and divert the telling off that would ensue if a V8 appeared on the scene.

Actually, a large old bargish estate would probably tick loads of boxes. It could be used as my barge and when required, we could fold down the back seats and shift the toys and things around.

Hmmm.