Why do buyers of £50k cars care about MPG?
Discussion
Xenoous said:
Because very few people buy a car for £50k. With PCP, low APR loans and leasing, the actual percentage of cars purchased in cash must be very low.
If I had £30k sitting in the bank, and I wanted a nice £20k car, I'd probably put £5k down and pay monthlies on the lowest APR loan I could find to cover the rest. Having actual money in the bank is far more important to me than paying for a car monthly.
You could always buy the car outright and borrow £15K to sit in the bank.If I had £30k sitting in the bank, and I wanted a nice £20k car, I'd probably put £5k down and pay monthlies on the lowest APR loan I could find to cover the rest. Having actual money in the bank is far more important to me than paying for a car monthly.
Oh, that's what you are doing.
Just do it the sensible man maths way... Let someone else buy the 50k car and buy it for 20k in 3 years time.
I opted out of our company car scheme and bought a 3 Yr old C63 at roughly 50% of its new price. Very low miles and as it had been leased, serviced and then resold by the same dealership, they reset the 3 year warranty for me. Never needed to use it, but was nice to have.
That saving pays for a LOT of fuel for the petrol version of anything decent.
Obvs if you are a numberplate w
e and it must be <3 Yr old, or want that new car smell for that 1 week, go waste your money.
[note for transparency ] I now have a diesel, as I tow things and the petrols are just not as good at it. If I didn't have to tow things, I wouldn't have an xc90 diesel and whatever I did get would probably be a V8 saloon again!
I opted out of our company car scheme and bought a 3 Yr old C63 at roughly 50% of its new price. Very low miles and as it had been leased, serviced and then resold by the same dealership, they reset the 3 year warranty for me. Never needed to use it, but was nice to have.
That saving pays for a LOT of fuel for the petrol version of anything decent.
Obvs if you are a numberplate w
e and it must be <3 Yr old, or want that new car smell for that 1 week, go waste your money. [note for transparency ] I now have a diesel, as I tow things and the petrols are just not as good at it. If I didn't have to tow things, I wouldn't have an xc90 diesel and whatever I did get would probably be a V8 saloon again!
ArthurLee said:
You could argue the same for those spending £70k on a Tesla.
Hardly like they are doing it for fuel cost savings.
Would need to drive to the moon and back to offset any saving from simply buying a £35k ICE car in the first place.
your comparison is not a fair one.Hardly like they are doing it for fuel cost savings.
Would need to drive to the moon and back to offset any saving from simply buying a £35k ICE car in the first place.
The nearest thing to a '£70k tesla' is a Model 3 performance which is £59,900
Let's see what you get?
480bhp
4 wheel drive
0-60 time of 3.1 seconds
Top speed of 162mph
Tons of tech standard.
What £35k ICE are you comparing this to?
Like for like the M3P is bloody amazing value, especially when you look at how little it costs to run compared to a comparable ICE.
So...
Better value at purchase - Check!
Better value to run - Check!
Pixelpeep Z4 said:
ArthurLee said:
You could argue the same for those spending £70k on a Tesla.
Hardly like they are doing it for fuel cost savings.
Would need to drive to the moon and back to offset any saving from simply buying a £35k ICE car in the first place.
your comparison is not a fair one.Hardly like they are doing it for fuel cost savings.
Would need to drive to the moon and back to offset any saving from simply buying a £35k ICE car in the first place.
The nearest thing to a '£70k tesla' is a Model 3 performance which is £59,900
Let's see what you get?
480bhp
4 wheel drive
0-60 time of 3.1 seconds
Top speed of 162mph
Tons of tech standard.
What £35k ICE are you comparing this to?
Like for like the M3P is bloody amazing value, especially when you look at how little it costs to run compared to a comparable ICE.
So...
Better value at purchase - Check!
Better value to run - Check!
Psycho Warren said:
Exactly, the same kind of "keeping up with the jones" types or image concious idiots. They will also be the same people with cheap chinese tyres on their high performance range rover or moaning that the wipers smear all the time having not changed them in years or again, used chinese rubbish.
But hey, they think they are lording it up against their neighbours and shallow friends. I guess amongst thick people, they may well think that. Anyone with a few brain cells will know its likely financed to the hilt and they are breaking the bank to afford it for no reason other than shallow image that in reality is irrelevant in the real world.
Whatever helps you sleep at night, I guess.But hey, they think they are lording it up against their neighbours and shallow friends. I guess amongst thick people, they may well think that. Anyone with a few brain cells will know its likely financed to the hilt and they are breaking the bank to afford it for no reason other than shallow image that in reality is irrelevant in the real world.
I do. Why not, it's all about cost of ownership for most people.
I bought a McLaren, rather more than 50k. It did 34mpg on a long run. While I could afford half the economy, the fact it did 34mpg was great because it meant I could drive over 300 miles comfortably across Europe or home to Devon and back without needing to refuel. Better economy = less time at the petrol station.
I bought a McLaren, rather more than 50k. It did 34mpg on a long run. While I could afford half the economy, the fact it did 34mpg was great because it meant I could drive over 300 miles comfortably across Europe or home to Devon and back without needing to refuel. Better economy = less time at the petrol station.
ArthurLee said:
You could argue the same for those spending £70k on a Tesla.
Hardly like they are doing it for fuel cost savings.
Would need to drive to the moon and back to offset any saving from simply buying a £35k ICE car in the first place.
You aren't comparing apples with apples though so pointless.Hardly like they are doing it for fuel cost savings.
Would need to drive to the moon and back to offset any saving from simply buying a £35k ICE car in the first place.
As a example take the Model 3 LR. AWD, 400bhp, 0-60 in 4 seconds, loads of standard kit, £48.5k
Now find a comparable ICE car, like the M440i XDrive. Similar size size, similar performance, similar equipment. £54k
Over 3 years and 30k miles the BMW will cost £5k in fuel. The Tesla around £1k on an average UK electricity tariff. Then you need to consider relative depreciation , VED and servicing costs.
That's just for a personal purchase, add in BIK tax for a company car and the numbers look even worse for the BMW.
PH User said:
That's presuming that they want that kind of performance from their commuter car.
Then they can go for the £19k cheaper SR+ and compare the numbers to something like a 320D Sport instead?Edited by SWoll on Thursday 10th June 10:00
njw1 said:
At the last place I worked the MD was a millionaire yet always chose the diesel version, apparently he did it for no other reason than to have a greater range.
And put a tenner in each fill up ? I'm in the shed price range when I buy cars now, so my experience is a little different to the £50k cars
My previous car was a diesel and I justified the £7k or that, through a very comprehensive spreadsheet, compared to buying a £1500 petrol car. I worked out that over 3 years the newer, more complex car would more than pay for itself in fuel savings.
It didn't. Because a) repairs. B) depreciation c) repairs d) fuel consumption was optimistically calculated e) repairs.
When the engine went at 4 years I sold it to a breaker.
Replaced it with a car that cost almost nothing but consumes fuel at a horrendous rate. 28 mpg on a run, 15 mpg around the houses.
In my 5 years of ownership, I'm pretty sure that I could have leased a decent car on just the fuel savings.
Another point - mpg may not be such a large cost to the person buying a 50k car - but when he punts it on in 3 years, it may be a bigger deal to the buyer of a 3 year old car, which depresses its resale value. The more its value is depressed, the more the buying demographic will care about running costs. This is the V12 XJS (or for a more recent example, RX-8) depreciation death spiral, where there is a positive feedback loop between the value of the car and the extent that the thirst of it depresses the value.
Pit Pony said:
njw1 said:
At the last place I worked the MD was a millionaire yet always chose the diesel version, apparently he did it for no other reason than to have a greater range.
And put a tenner in each fill up ? I'm in the shed price range when I buy cars now, so my experience is a little different to the £50k cars
My previous car was a diesel and I justified the £7k or that, through a very comprehensive spreadsheet, compared to buying a £1500 petrol car. I worked out that over 3 years the newer, more complex car would more than pay for itself in fuel savings.
It didn't. Because a) repairs. B) depreciation c) repairs d) fuel consumption was optimistically calculated e) repairs.
When the engine went at 4 years I sold it to a breaker.
Replaced it with a car that cost almost nothing but consumes fuel at a horrendous rate. 28 mpg on a run, 15 mpg around the houses.
In my 5 years of ownership, I'm pretty sure that I could have leased a decent car on just the fuel savings.
Taking the current S-Class as an example, the S500 will do 500+ miles from it's 80L tank. Who's driving for 500 miles at a time and worrying about stopping for 10-15 minutes to fill up?
SWoll said:
ArthurLee said:
You could argue the same for those spending £70k on a Tesla.
Hardly like they are doing it for fuel cost savings.
Would need to drive to the moon and back to offset any saving from simply buying a £35k ICE car in the first place.
You aren't comparing apples with apples though so pointless.Hardly like they are doing it for fuel cost savings.
Would need to drive to the moon and back to offset any saving from simply buying a £35k ICE car in the first place.
As a example take the Model 3 LR. AWD, 400bhp, 0-60 in 4 seconds, loads of standard kit, £48.5k
Now find a comparable ICE car, like the M440i XDrive. Similar size size, similar performance, similar equipment. £54k
Over 3 years and 30k miles the BMW will cost £5k in fuel. The Tesla around £1k on an average UK electricity tariff. Then you need to consider relative depreciation , VED and servicing costs.
That's just for a personal purchase, add in BIK tax for a company car and the numbers look even worse for the BMW.
PH User said:
That's presuming that they want that kind of performance from their commuter car.
Then they can go for the £19k cheaper SR+ and compare the numbers to something like a 320D Sport instead?Edited by SWoll on Thursday 10th June 10:00
SWoll said:
The range thing makes no sense to me with ICE anyway.
Taking the current S-Class as an example, the S500 will do 500+ miles from it's 80L tank. Who's driving for 500 miles at a time and worrying about stopping for 10-15 minutes to fill up?
When I was on the tools, all that mattered to me was getting where I needed to be, doing what I needed to do, and getting home. On a lot of days, there would be 400-500 miles behind the wheel thrown into to this.Taking the current S-Class as an example, the S500 will do 500+ miles from it's 80L tank. Who's driving for 500 miles at a time and worrying about stopping for 10-15 minutes to fill up?
When it's 4:30 in the afternoon and you're 200 miles from home, stopping for any reason is an inconvenience.
The ultimate tool for a job like this is a 2.0 diesel with a good sized fuel tank, comfy seats, low cruising noise levels, and a decent stereo. Of all the company cars I've had, a lowly 90 bhp Peugeot 406 HDi was my absolute favourite. Too gutless to get out of its own way, but I could drive it all day without putting fuel in it or getting backache.
MPG is good for range, and is linked to a low CO2 number, which is good for BIK. It's as simple as that.
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