Trade in or drive till the wheels fall off
Discussion
Looking for some opinions on the situation I'll find myself in within 12 months.
I'll have finished paying off the loan on my current car (Vauxhall Zafira Tourer) in 12 months. Looking at the current trend I think the car will still have a value of around £3000, it'll have about 110,000 on the clock and be 9 years old.
As boring as they are the car works well for me and the family.
I'm battling in my head though between the idea of keeping my current one till there's no value left in it and risk having more unreliable issues, or trade it in against a newer model (say about £8000, so £3000 from old car and £5000 on loan) so taking out more finance but hopefully having something slightly more reliable.
I'm more inclined to go with the trade it in option but open to suggestions to be convinced otherwise.
I'll have finished paying off the loan on my current car (Vauxhall Zafira Tourer) in 12 months. Looking at the current trend I think the car will still have a value of around £3000, it'll have about 110,000 on the clock and be 9 years old.
As boring as they are the car works well for me and the family.
I'm battling in my head though between the idea of keeping my current one till there's no value left in it and risk having more unreliable issues, or trade it in against a newer model (say about £8000, so £3000 from old car and £5000 on loan) so taking out more finance but hopefully having something slightly more reliable.
I'm more inclined to go with the trade it in option but open to suggestions to be convinced otherwise.
You own it and there is nothing wrong with it, so there is no reason to want to change it.
Change the word 'car' for the word 'house' - do you have to go and buy a new one when the mortgage has been paid on the old one?
if it does what you want it to do then keep it and save the cash.
Change the word 'car' for the word 'house' - do you have to go and buy a new one when the mortgage has been paid on the old one?
if it does what you want it to do then keep it and save the cash.
Deerfoot said:
My house has never developed a fault that has cost 50% of it's value to rectify..
I get a bit torn with the following maths really, realistically my loan repayments will be about £1200 - £1400/year trading in with a £5000 loan over 4/5 years.Will a 9 year old car with 110,000 miles on the clock cost me the same in repairs and maintenance annually? I think the answer is probably no, but maybe about £600 - £700 especially as I do 20,000 miles a a year.
coupled with the fact it's more likely to go wrong than a newer car so the reliability factor comes into play, then say after another 3 years there is no value left in car at all (maybe £500) I'm in a position where I'll have to take an £8,000 loan and increase annual repayments to about £2000.
in a sense by running it into the ground it feels a bit like a short term gain but ending up paying just as much in the future by needing a larger loan, and in the interim I've had to suffer the break downs which are less likely in a newer car.
If circumstances had changed and you were looking to trade it in against something quite different - e.g. something smaller and interesting - then yes.
Spend 5 grand to be sat in essentially the same car (bus) but with a different plate on it...? Why? (Provided the one you have already is behaving itself).
Newer/lower mileage does not necessarily equal more reliable. It depends how it has been looked after. You could just be buying yourself problems.
Spend 5 grand to be sat in essentially the same car (bus) but with a different plate on it...? Why? (Provided the one you have already is behaving itself).
Newer/lower mileage does not necessarily equal more reliable. It depends how it has been looked after. You could just be buying yourself problems.
Sounds like the general opinion is keep hold of it, my opinion is coloured by previous vehicles though. I had a Ford Focus before this and it ran superbly for 130k miles just with a general service every 12 months. Then suddenly loads of problems crept up. Front brake Caliper seized up, coil spring broke, coil pack broke, had a drop link need replacing. couldn't bleed the brakes as the rear wheel cylinder nipples had seized closed and rounded off trying to get them open, rear wiper motor failed and a few other bits and pieces as the year went on...
The car was paid off at this point so these repairs were still technically cheaper than paying off a loan or PCP deal...but it meant a lot of my free time was spent repairing the car and having to struggle to get into work via the train.
With a young family now reliability is more important than it was with the Focus and don't really want to be in that position again, but if it means saving a lot of money I'd take the gamble.
The car was paid off at this point so these repairs were still technically cheaper than paying off a loan or PCP deal...but it meant a lot of my free time was spent repairing the car and having to struggle to get into work via the train.
With a young family now reliability is more important than it was with the Focus and don't really want to be in that position again, but if it means saving a lot of money I'd take the gamble.
If your current car is behaving OK I'd just keep it, but might reconsider if it started having issues.
To be fair an £8K Zafira is potentially just as likely to throw up problems as the current one!
I had a couple of nearly new AUC cars for nearly a decade and they cost me way more in depreciation than the 6 older models from the same manufacturer I've had since then have cost me to get non-routine problems fixed.
To be fair an £8K Zafira is potentially just as likely to throw up problems as the current one!
I had a couple of nearly new AUC cars for nearly a decade and they cost me way more in depreciation than the 6 older models from the same manufacturer I've had since then have cost me to get non-routine problems fixed.
I'd say keep your existing car and run it into the ground.
5k is a lot of repair work on a Zafira I think you would be massively unlucky to get anywhere near that in repair bills over the next 3 years.
Also I wonder how much newer a car 8k will get you? I know it's a Vauxhall so depreciation is massive but even so an 8k Zafira must have a few years behind it and could equally chuck a decent bill at you.
I'd say you seem.to have confidence in the car you have so keep it.
5k is a lot of repair work on a Zafira I think you would be massively unlucky to get anywhere near that in repair bills over the next 3 years.
Also I wonder how much newer a car 8k will get you? I know it's a Vauxhall so depreciation is massive but even so an 8k Zafira must have a few years behind it and could equally chuck a decent bill at you.
I'd say you seem.to have confidence in the car you have so keep it.
I had this dilemma on an old SMAX we ran for the past five years. Then the blind on the panoramic sunroof stuck and the Powers
t gearbox munched itself. At the same time it was due a service, an MOT and new front tyres. I felt very happy punting it on to WBAC and the £5k we got went into the next car.
Bangernomics is fine if you're a bit handy, have a solid local garage or if you have the time to run around getting stuff sorted when it goes wrong. I had none of those and was also doing 20k a year so getting rid of the headache and risk was well worth it.
t gearbox munched itself. At the same time it was due a service, an MOT and new front tyres. I felt very happy punting it on to WBAC and the £5k we got went into the next car.Bangernomics is fine if you're a bit handy, have a solid local garage or if you have the time to run around getting stuff sorted when it goes wrong. I had none of those and was also doing 20k a year so getting rid of the headache and risk was well worth it.
AlwynMike said:
Use Man Maths.
The Zaffy is a going concern.
Put notional loan payments away for a few months.
Then buy some thing vaguely interesting, or at least an MX5 for some fun and a fallback temporary runner if the Zaffy expires.
I hadn't thought about this, I really like this idea, get a smaller loan and buy something fun, keep the Zafira running and if its off the road for a few weeks at least I'll have a fall back car.The Zaffy is a going concern.
Put notional loan payments away for a few months.
Then buy some thing vaguely interesting, or at least an MX5 for some fun and a fallback temporary runner if the Zaffy expires.
Stick away £100 a month as if you were paying a loan and use it if it throws a wobbler. If nothing breaks, continue to save until you find something you want to spend it on, if it does break then you'll have enough put away to get it fixed quickly and you're on your way. If the car has been reliable so far then there's no reason to change it. A newer car is absolutely no guarantee of increased reliability.
I don't know where the Vauxhall badge of unreliability seems to come from. I've had a few generations of Vauxhall and aside from one setting on fire (although what I expected from a £280 car bought in an alleyway may have been optimistic) and me buggering up some electrics, they've been pretty bullet proof.
I don't know where the Vauxhall badge of unreliability seems to come from. I've had a few generations of Vauxhall and aside from one setting on fire (although what I expected from a £280 car bought in an alleyway may have been optimistic) and me buggering up some electrics, they've been pretty bullet proof.
The correct answer is to buy another cheap car in excellent condition. A simple man maths calculation will prove that the extra cost is always less than the payments / depreciation on a new model and of course statistically the probability of both cars throwing a wobbly at the same time is so small that it can be disregarded.
jackofall84 said:
I hadn't thought about this, I really like this idea, get a smaller loan and buy something fun, keep the Zafira running and if its off the road for a few weeks at least I'll have a fall back car.
Don’t forget to factor in the extra VED and insurance into your man maths if going for this option. Gassing Station | Car Buying | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff