How much have you lost on a used old car in a short period?
Discussion
BEAMS 162 said:
993kimbo said:
Beams, that was a good read but...jesus you were unlucky. If it's any consolation I would have done the same as you. That's really bad luck on what's supposed to be a reliable VW with low-ish mileage. (Wimmin don't help in our hours of need either.)
Similar happened to a friend - she bought a new Skoda Octavia estate and at about 70,000 miles everything started to go wrong - replaced turbo twice, fuel pump, oil pump, everything that could go wrong did.Ended up replacing the entire engine and after a couple of months something else major went wrong she was so fed up she sold it for scrap for £150. I would have bought it off her and tried to save the car but it was a wrong-un from the start.
Hope you've found something more reliable now. Fingers crossed for you.
Well yeah,bit of a story but hey,passes the time for you LOL.Similar happened to a friend - she bought a new Skoda Octavia estate and at about 70,000 miles everything started to go wrong - replaced turbo twice, fuel pump, oil pump, everything that could go wrong did.Ended up replacing the entire engine and after a couple of months something else major went wrong she was so fed up she sold it for scrap for £150. I would have bought it off her and tried to save the car but it was a wrong-un from the start.
Hope you've found something more reliable now. Fingers crossed for you.
Yeah the VW reliability thing has been a thing of the past for a long time from what i know. Saying that we have a 2011 VW engined Fabia 1.6D as the wifes car.Had it 6 years now and its actually been pretty golden.Uninspiring,agricultural but been a good car.Still running the dodgy VW emissions software too.
Reason for the towcar was because we had a caravan.. (yeah,yeah I know ). After the Passat wen,t we sold the caravan as well.I've always had my Beams engined 1987 Celica as a weekend car,but I needed another daily-ish ride. I work local so dont need to worry about a regular miler.So bought another ST205 GT4 instead
. Though with my recent need to pick the grandkids up from school and practicality reasons,I sold it on for a 4 door car. So now i run a Honda Accord Euro-R import 
Best of both worlds.And I dont have to tow anything either,ha.Sounds a similar thing with the Passat to the Skoda your friend had.You can do your due diligence,but when a car is a lemon,its a lemon .Like any bad relationship.....At some point you gotta get rid.
Maybe not ....
Op I have also lost money on two Alfa GTVs!
For some reason they were the hardest cars of all to sell! But they are brilliant.
First one I purchased for £1850, spent about £1600 and sold for £2450, a loss of £1,000 over two years so not bad at all.
Second one I paid £2800, spent £50 and sold for £2200 a loss of £650 over 2 months so not so good.
Over 24 cars and 15 years I've lost about £7k, though I stand to make that loss back on my next car sale, so it will effectively cost me nothing to have owned all those cars.
For some reason they were the hardest cars of all to sell! But they are brilliant.
First one I purchased for £1850, spent about £1600 and sold for £2450, a loss of £1,000 over two years so not bad at all.
Second one I paid £2800, spent £50 and sold for £2200 a loss of £650 over 2 months so not so good.
Over 24 cars and 15 years I've lost about £7k, though I stand to make that loss back on my next car sale, so it will effectively cost me nothing to have owned all those cars.
When I was young and daft I'd turned 20 and insurance was starting to become affordable, I decided I needed to replace my faultless, trusty old Polo with a hot hatch. I wanted a 205 GTi but with £1000 budget, most were knackered. So when I saw a gleaming Rover 220GTi for the right money, I decided to go for it. I paid £950. I owned it for 18 months and spent £3k on repairs (HGF and gearbox mainly) in 10k miles. When I'd finally had enough, I part exed it and got only £70 because by that point the exhaust manifold had a crack in it that meant it was ticking like an episode of countdown. The dealer suggested I take the head unit out to get a little more cash by selling separately. He was just going to scrap it by the sound of it. So it cost me about £4k! And it wasn't really much good to drive. Despite owning much more expensive cars since, I don't think any other car has actually cost me as much as that, especially if you take into account that those numbers could probably be doubled to be equivalent to today's money.
Most annoyingly, my 87' Polo remained on the road with various other owners up until only 5 years ago. Oops.
Most annoyingly, my 87' Polo remained on the road with various other owners up until only 5 years ago. Oops.
Still smarts though it happened 12 years ago.
Bought a new Discovery 3 for £33000 in 2005. Sold 3 years later for £11000.
2008 height of the 4x4 hate in London.
The next year they had bounced back to £16000 or more.
In a nicer story I bought a Mercury Grand Marquis for £3200 which I sold on 9 months later for £4500 after doing nothing to it apart from drive it.
Bought a new Discovery 3 for £33000 in 2005. Sold 3 years later for £11000.
2008 height of the 4x4 hate in London.
The next year they had bounced back to £16000 or more.
In a nicer story I bought a Mercury Grand Marquis for £3200 which I sold on 9 months later for £4500 after doing nothing to it apart from drive it.
I bought an e92 325d for £7500, spent around £1500 on repairs and consumables and sold it 9 months later before the gearbox shat itself for £5k
So a Loss of £4000 over 9 months. Considering I was unsure wether to get an older Car Vs leasing / PCP'ing a new one I think I lost out here. £450/ month I could of had a new one!!
So a Loss of £4000 over 9 months. Considering I was unsure wether to get an older Car Vs leasing / PCP'ing a new one I think I lost out here. £450/ month I could of had a new one!!
Edited by MrAverage on Tuesday 20th October 08:45
Bought a low mileage C30 D5 back in Nov last year for 4800 and sold at the begining of lockdown for 4400. Didn't need a diesel and the lazy auto box made it dull as dishwater to drive on my local routes.
Sold it to guy who specialises in dealing in low mileage cars, finally saw it up on their website for 6995. No idea if he sold it for that but annoyed me some what.
Ended by buying a cheap Mini Clubman which i have ended up upgrading and spending all the money I thought I saved on the purchase price.
Im not the greatest in buying and selling cars.
Sold it to guy who specialises in dealing in low mileage cars, finally saw it up on their website for 6995. No idea if he sold it for that but annoyed me some what.
Ended by buying a cheap Mini Clubman which i have ended up upgrading and spending all the money I thought I saved on the purchase price.
Im not the greatest in buying and selling cars.
sosidge said:
Average age for a scrapped car in the UK was 13.9 years (in 2015). Perhaps a bit higher now, can't find the stats.
There are a lot of desirable-but-15-years-old cars on Autotrader for 3-7k (and more). So there is a pretty good chance you'll lose it all quickly if you buy any of them.
Definitely some truth in this, however like buying any car you need to try and find the wheat amongst the chaff, more chaff than wheat down there but wheat exists!There are a lot of desirable-but-15-years-old cars on Autotrader for 3-7k (and more). So there is a pretty good chance you'll lose it all quickly if you buy any of them.
Something clean, lower miles and up together won't fetch much more than a 20% premium over the masses and so can represent great value despite the higher initial price. The price might feel (too) high to the buyer as they have a specific budget range but in the long run it might be the better purchase as one reasonable issue with the car might cost that initial extra cost and more. It doesn't always follow that lower miles themselves help but I think in general it does as does decent servicing and other indicators you can look for.
At 15 years old every common issue with a car is known and so you are able to process a worse case scenario and can be prepared for the likelyhood of partial/total loss. Used cars you can never just stroll up with total confidence it's all ok, that's part of the hassle or fun depending on your outlook and what you're spending relative to your own circumstances.
All classics/sheds were once 15 years old not all die, lots more would still be around if they hadn't got so cheap that people won't spend a few hundred on upkeep.
The lower the price, the older, the higher the power, the higher the cost when new, the higher the risk, but you couldn't get them at these prices if there was no such risk so be plucky, picky or lucky or all three, or derisk and go newer in warranty etc etc but then your absolute known cost is depreciation and you should be free of 'blip' costs and difficult decisions.
Frequent changing can hurt, at least one part of the buy/sell cycle being private can help this though and if you don't keep cars long then I'd advise you do this.
I recently got a Clio in decent nick, low mileage, tidy interior and a recent spend in suspension, exhaust, discs, pads, service, cambelt and dephaser, new tyres. It wasn't cheap at 4k but I felt it was reasonable.
Of course at this age and mileage lots of other things are about to die. Alternator and/or battery seem to be on their way out, steering has a bit of play and whatever refurbishing the wheels had is coming off. ABS rings probably need replacing too.
2 months in and £400 poorer I only got some of these addressed, car goes in next week for the rest and I'm bracing myself for at least another £500.
Of course I didn't HAVE TO fix most of this stuff and could have kept driving it until it broke down, but that's not me.
I better hold onto this car so I get paid back in fun drives at least...
Of course at this age and mileage lots of other things are about to die. Alternator and/or battery seem to be on their way out, steering has a bit of play and whatever refurbishing the wheels had is coming off. ABS rings probably need replacing too.
2 months in and £400 poorer I only got some of these addressed, car goes in next week for the rest and I'm bracing myself for at least another £500.
Of course I didn't HAVE TO fix most of this stuff and could have kept driving it until it broke down, but that's not me.
I better hold onto this car so I get paid back in fun drives at least...
Worst for me was many years ago I purchased a Renault 19 for £1500 as a private sale, soon discovered loads of issues sold through auction 4 weeks later for £650.
Best for me was the 07 Mini, got a cracking deal private @ £1900 with 56k on it, sold it 14mths later for the same price, all I had done it in that time was a small service and mot.
I think buying a car for £2k or less is gamble but you can get lucky
Best for me was the 07 Mini, got a cracking deal private @ £1900 with 56k on it, sold it 14mths later for the same price, all I had done it in that time was a small service and mot.
I think buying a car for £2k or less is gamble but you can get lucky
MrAverage said:
I bought an e92 325d for £7500, spent around £1500 on repairs and consumables and sold it 9 months later before the gearbox shat itself for £5k
So a Loss of £4000 over 9 months. Considering I was unsure wether to get an older Car Vs leasing / PCP'ing a new one I think I lost out here. £450/ month I could of had a new one!!
Spookily similar to me. Same car, same length of time and spend on repairs. Rear diff on mine was starting to grumble, and lots of DPF regens every journey so I shifted it on at a £1500 loss plus the £1500 in repairs. Leased an Octavia vRS for 2 years on a £220 per month deal, was actually cheaper than keeping the 325d. So a Loss of £4000 over 9 months. Considering I was unsure wether to get an older Car Vs leasing / PCP'ing a new one I think I lost out here. £450/ month I could of had a new one!!
Edited by MrAverage on Tuesday 20th October 08:45
Ratae said:
MrAverage said:
I bought an e92 325d for £7500, spent around £1500 on repairs and consumables and sold it 9 months later before the gearbox shat itself for £5k
So a Loss of £4000 over 9 months. Considering I was unsure wether to get an older Car Vs leasing / PCP'ing a new one I think I lost out here. £450/ month I could of had a new one!!
Spookily similar to me. Same car, same length of time and spend on repairs. Rear diff on mine was starting to grumble, and lots of DPF regens every journey so I shifted it on at a £1500 loss plus the £1500 in repairs. Leased an Octavia vRS for 2 years on a £220 per month deal, was actually cheaper than keeping the 325d. So a Loss of £4000 over 9 months. Considering I was unsure wether to get an older Car Vs leasing / PCP'ing a new one I think I lost out here. £450/ month I could of had a new one!!
Edited by MrAverage on Tuesday 20th October 08:45
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