Is changing car every year madness?

[VPXavier]

Hi!

As stated in other topics, I arrived in UK some months ago and I am trying to figure out how the car market will work for me here.

I am that type of petrolhead that change car every year or less than that In Brazil I never could buy a car that get me truly satisfied, so I got bored really fast.
Changing car in less than a year could be risky, because insurance prices change a lot between companies and maybe my insurance will not offer a good quotation for the new car, and breaking the contract can be expensive, as far as I researched.
But I really did not understood how depreciation works for used car. Its not uncommon to find two cars, one 2009 and a 2010, same model&trim, and the 2009 being more expensive. What do you guys think that affect more the depreciation? Mileage? Car condition? Age? All of this factors have impact, of course, but I'd like to know your opinion about the order of the factors...

For what I have searched in classifieds I really feel that I can buy a car, keep it for one year (I don't do many miles), and sell it with minimal depreciation.

Cheers

[Yipper]

High mileage = low price.

Old age = low price.

Everyone has their own preference. Some change at 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10 years, or never.

Tend to find 2 years strikes a reasonable balance between costs and boredom.

[exelero]

It also depends on the cars you are comparing, one might be the very base spec the other one fully loaded

[Ian Geary]

Question: what is making you get bored with your cars?

I tend to hang onto mine until they're not viable to repair, but am pretty easygoing in terms of accepting compromises when choosing cars.

My thought is: given you'll lose cash with each sale, why not try to get the "right" car and hang onto it for a while.

Very few car appreciate, or even resist depreciation unless you either: fix faults that caused the car to be cheap, or garage them for 30 years (which kinda defeats the point of owning a car if you need to use it)

Ian

[Pistom]

Life is too short to worry about depreciation. It's just part of owning a car. If you can afford it, do what you want with the money you've earned.

Insurance might be an issue if your insurer stings you for changes. Mine doesn't.

[PositronicRay]

The trick is no emotional involvement and "buying it right"
The downside of this is you may not end up with the car you want.

[Shrimpvende]

I had a very fortunate run of swapping cars every year and hardly losing on them. All BMW's, all in desirable colours and specs and bought well.

I like changing often too, so tend to buy privately in the highest/most desirable specs I can as these tend to hold their money better and the right buyer will pay a premium for that car. 3L white M Sport BMW's with the big option wheels, iDrive and HK audio <40k miles are a good bet for example.

Be careful buying cheaper cars to fix up, I bought an Aston as a bit of a project over summer, but it backfired and I ended up spending £5k on it over 6 months and sold it for only £2k more than I paid - I won't be doing that again! It's normally cheaper in the long run to just buy the best you can possibly afford.

[ZX10R NIN]

It's not madness but spec condition mileage & history will all be factors in the depreciation curve if you plan on changing yearly then do your homework.

[daemon]

ZX10R NIN said:

It's not madness but spec condition mileage & history will all be factors in the depreciation curve if you plan on changing yearly then do your homework.

Thats the trick.

[VPXavier]

Thanks guys, really appreciate your opinions


I could lease/finance something I would like now, but insurance would be really expensive, and also I do not like the idea of paying monthly (because of bad car changing/financing in the past).

So mainly my idea would be improving at each car change, and accumulating NCB until I get something I would really like.

For the fellow who asked why I get bored,I think it's because I couldn't afford a car that I really liked, always made compromises.

Then, after I can get THE one car, my next challenge will be keep it for at least 5 years

Thanks one more time!

Edited by VPXavier on Thursday 28th December 11:10

[Mr Tidy]

I can relate to the desire to change - the first 15 years or so of my driving life I tended not to keep anything longer than 18 months, because there was always something else a bit newer and/or better I wanted to buy!

Now after 40 years of driving there isn't so much I like (I'm an RWD fan) so I've had one of mine 3 years and the other 3 and a half years!