Car suggestions?

[TACottle]

Dear PH,

First off - Apologies for the long post, I'm struggling to make a decision.

My 2011 MKII Skoda Superb 1.8TSI is poorly, and the costs associated in repairing it are uneconomical. My mileage and fuel costs have risen over the past year also due to house move, so this gives me the opportunity to get something with better MPG.

As such, I intend to part exchange the Superb, which is unfortunately valued at around £3800.

For reference, my Superb gets around 380 miles to a tank and averages 35MPG and I spend approximately £250 a month on fuel. Not to mention £30 a month on oil for the bloody thing...

I have two young kids, a dog and enjoy mountain biking. I'm also 6'8''... So I could do with a roomy estate again.



Unfortunately, I have a loan that costs me £240 a month, with 3 and a bit years left. This was prior to the house move, in order to consolidate debts I had.

Years ago, before I got married and had kids (Good times ) I had a couple of cars that were only a 2-3 years old and cost me around £12-15k. Never had any issues with them.

That changed with the need to save for house etc, and the last 3 cars I've bought have been around 8-10 years old and cost around £5-7k. They have all been absolute dogs and I've lost a fair bit of money on them, through either attempting repairs or selling for something else of similar age and cost.



I would be increasing my loan in order to purchase a new car (Unless I go shedding?) but I would prefer to keep that to a minimum.

However, and this is the crux of it, I'm worried that buying another £5-7k car will just end up being unreliable, and end up needing costly repairs - even the thought of which makes me shudder.

At the other end of the spectrum, I've seen a '65 plate Superb Estate, all the gadgets you could want, reasonable mileage and a diesel engine that should net me 50+MPG. However this would obviously increase my monthly loan repayment significantly, to the tune of £400 - Which is a bit strong... but on the flipside I can't imagine this throwing up any major repair bills.



If I'm honest, the new Superb is the car I really want, and my current one has suited my needs perfectly - but £400 a month is really scary.

Any advice or other suggestions for cars?

I've over thought this haven't I...

Sorry and thanks,

TAC.

Edited by TACottle on Saturday 3rd November 20:01

[swisstoni]

Firstly I would like to explore how uneconomical the repairs are to keep your current car going.
This would have to be stacked up against replacing it with something else.

[JonDerz]

A used car between 5-7k doesn’t have to be a money pit but luck does come into it at times. The best thing to do is go for something with the lowest bork factor and with parts avalaible relatively cheap.

So your criteria is decent mpg around 35 mpg combined? Spacious, does it have to be an estate or can it be a saloon etc?

[TACottle]

Thanks for quick replies so far.

Skoda quote £3000 to repair. I suppose an independent garage may be worth exploring as I assume cheaper?

I'm just concerned at ploughing that much money into it, to have further issues down the line... It's happened to me before and it's soul destroying.

I would personally rather cut my losses and move on.

Here's the Superb I'm looking at;

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

Although, a bit left field, I have just found this Seat Exeo;

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

It fits the bill, albeit interior space is less compared to the Superb. It's rather ugly though isn't it... But should that matter so much?

I sound like a proper fairy - Talk about first world problems.

[Pica-Pica]

..but you don’t say what the issues are that need £3k repair.

[JonDerz]

It’s going to be a gamble either way, you could put 3k into what you have and have no issues or something else crops up or you could cut your losses and buy something which then has some big problems. It also depends on how long you’d be planning to keep a new car. In my experience, going from car to car will always cost more than fixing a problem on an existing car, it’s not really an economic decision in my opinion. An indie is always going to be cheaper than a dealer. What’s up with it?

[ZX10R NIN]

You'll probably spend 2k repairing your car at an Indy vs spending another 12k on top of the repair cost to buy a newer car.

Edited by ZX10R NIN on Saturday 3rd November 22:04

[Pica-Pica]

..but you don’t say what the issues are that need £3k repair.

[Mo28]

Thought about getting a Toyota Avensis estate? You should be able to pick up a 13/14 plate one for around 7-8k and they're known to be pretty reliable and they can pretty easily do 200k+ miles.

[anonymous-user]

this lease deal looks good.

https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/skoda-octavia-hat...