What is the cheapest way of motoring in 2022?
What is the cheapest way of motoring in 2022?
Author
Discussion

DriveClive

Original Poster:

58 posts

62 months

Thursday 13th January 2022
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Motoring seems to be getting more and more expensive year on year , with the likes of traditionally “cheap” manufactures Suzuki Kia Hyundai etc offering vehicles up to £50k!! nowadays.

My question - in your experience what is the cheapest way to motor these days? old banger ? New lease every 3 years? Bank loan? Finance? Cash?

Interested to here peoples experiences.

757

4,451 posts

141 months

Thursday 13th January 2022
quotequote all
Shedding or bangernomics....

Sold my expensive, needy Volvo V60, and bought a <£1000 car, saving me a fortune at the moment. No depreciation, no silly gimmicky crap, just a car with wheels (steel wheels at that aswell)

MikeM6

6,057 posts

132 months

Thursday 13th January 2022
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I suspect buying a very cheap but well maintained old Toyota Corolla or Avensis, then learning to service it yourself and only using it as needed it probably the cheapest.

A cheap lease will still need servicing on top of the monthly payments, and even 99pcm over 3 years is still £3500ish plus deposit, which is more than an old banger that may even be sold for the same as you bought it for if it still works.

Whether that is what you want from a car is another matter.

btdk5

1,862 posts

220 months

Thursday 13th January 2022
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Just keep the car you’ve got. Then it won’t be more expensive.

crusty

764 posts

250 months

Thursday 13th January 2022
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Buy an everyday useable classic that will go up in value.

Depreciation is your enemy

anonymous-user

84 months

Thursday 13th January 2022
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Buying a t5 transporter pre covid.

DriveClive

Original Poster:

58 posts

62 months

Thursday 13th January 2022
quotequote all
R6T9GT said:
Buying a t5 transporter pre covid.
Nah I’ve kept my eye on t5’s for a few years now , before covid , they’ve been way over priced for a long while now , didn’t need covid to help that haha

BrettMRC

6,021 posts

190 months

Thursday 13th January 2022
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TWOC

ghost83

5,639 posts

220 months

Thursday 13th January 2022
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My wife has a 56 plate corsa c 1.3cdti

£30 to tax and on a run she gets 70mpg

She only does 5000 a year

Insurance is 300
Tax 30
Maintainance it has cost £300 in the last 3yrs (£100 per year)
Servicing £50 per year
Fuel £600

Total per year - £1,080 ish per year



DriveClive

Original Poster:

58 posts

62 months

Thursday 13th January 2022
quotequote all
757 said:
Shedding or bangernomics....

Sold my expensive, needy Volvo V60, and bought a <£1000 car, saving me a fortune at the moment. No depreciation, no silly gimmicky crap, just a car with wheels (steel wheels at that aswell)
This sounds good , I’ve never met someone who has actually done this (everyone I know are tied into lease deals and happy paying the monthlies) and it’s working for them.

Biggy Stardust

7,068 posts

74 months

Thursday 13th January 2022
quotequote all
ghost83 said:
My wife has a 56 plate corsa c 1.3cdti

£30 to tax and on a run she gets 70mpg

She only does 5000 a year

Insurance is 300
Tax 30
Maintainance it has cost £300 in the last 3yrs (£100 per year)
Servicing £50 per year
Fuel £600

Total per year - £1,080 ish per year
The problem with this is that it results in you driving a corsa.

rxe

6,700 posts

133 months

Thursday 13th January 2022
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Depends entirely on your situation, mileage driven etc.

I have a Series Land Rover - insurance costs £100, no tax, no MOT, no ULEZ. Only downside is heavy fuel consumption, but for someone doing low mileage and handy with spanners, it is very cheap motoring indeed. Less consumptive cars exist. You wouldn't want to be doing 10k miles a year in it, but for someone doing 2k miles a year, it is properly cheap.

I also have a 2001 Alfa JTD Estate. Car cost £300 + about £2K in parts to make perfect (I am fussy). I did 24,000 miles a year in it for 2 years. I would make a (considerable) profit on purchase price if I sold it now.

I've also got various V6 Alfas, which are not cheap to fuel or run, but seem to be rapidly appreciating if eBay is to be believed. I've just seen a GT 3.2 go for 10K in considerably worse nick than mine. I paid £900 for mine a few years ago....


DriveClive

Original Poster:

58 posts

62 months

Thursday 13th January 2022
quotequote all
Biggy Stardust said:
ghost83 said:
My wife has a 56 plate corsa c 1.3cdti

£30 to tax and on a run she gets 70mpg

She only does 5000 a year

Insurance is 300
Tax 30
Maintainance it has cost £300 in the last 3yrs (£100 per year)
Servicing £50 per year
Fuel £600

Total per year - £1,080 ish per year
The problem with this is that it results in you driving a corsa.
Biggy, with cheap motoring mate it doesn’t matter! Stand proud haha
Seems way too many people I know are knee deep in finance / lease deals some almost as much as my monthly mortgage payment! Just to look “cool” in their plasticky iPad on wheels haha

ghost83

5,639 posts

220 months

Thursday 13th January 2022
quotequote all
Biggy Stardust said:
The problem with this is that it results in you driving a corsa.
Nowt wrong with driving a corsa in my opinion I love them, there’s far worse cars out there,

POIDH

3,794 posts

95 months

Thursday 13th January 2022
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Buy a smaller, lower spec car at 3 years old then run it for the next 10-15 years.

Seat Ibiza ST 1.4 16v here - £7.5k in 2015, so far cost servicing plus two rear shocks and an alternator, is 9.5 years old/100k this week and I expect it to do another 3-5 years /30-50k easily, still 'worth' £2k+, it is cheap on fuel, cheap to service, cheap to insure, being no turbo/no egr/no dmf/simple as it should be pretty easy to keep going. A couple of oddities add to costs - it has two belts at timing belt change, exhaust is one piece at front so when it rusts through it will be expensive, ours has low profile tyres that cost more than I would hope.

Previous car was a £6.5k 2002 Yaris d4d bought as ex-demonstrator by my father and passed around family as was needed. It 'died' at 15yrs / 150k as the glow plugs had rusted in and it cracked the block drilling one out. In all that time it cost servicing and wear parts, plus one alternator and a pair of wheelbearings.....

757

4,451 posts

141 months

Thursday 13th January 2022
quotequote all
DriveClive said:
This sounds good , I’ve never met someone who has actually done this (everyone I know are tied into lease deals and happy paying the monthlies) and it’s working for them.
My monthly 'car savings' go on premium bonds or other savings and investment now, never ever wanted to go on lease, never appealed to me to be tied in, - but what works for some, may not work for others - CV19 made me shake up my finances and get a nest egg, which meant ditching the expensive metal and being smarter with my money.

captain.scarlet

1,891 posts

64 months

Thursday 13th January 2022
quotequote all
DriveClive said:
757 said:
Shedding or bangernomics....

Sold my expensive, needy Volvo V60, and bought a <£1000 car, saving me a fortune at the moment. No depreciation, no silly gimmicky crap, just a car with wheels (steel wheels at that aswell)
This sounds good , I’ve never met someone who has actually done this (everyone I know are tied into lease deals and happy paying the monthlies) and it’s working for them.
Between August 2020 and May last year I was without a car. I kept thinking about a lease but refrained.

I was having a browse on ebay and my current shed, a 2010 Chevrolet Cruze (sadly a manual but still a decent enough car) was listed as a part exchange to clear.

Nabbed it for only £500. Has a few minor ongoing issues (air con doesn't work and there's an annoying faint rattly sound at times when accelerating and the speedometer is temperamental, but it's been used for urban driving).

Other than that, the driver's window switch was broken, which I diagnosed and fixed myself for peanuts and I bought a Foxwell OBDII scanner, and I've changed a few sensors, again for next to nothing. Certain other things like spark plugs, filter changes, ignition coil and the like I've done myself on what is actually a simple car beneath the bonnet.

Treated it to a full deep clean and interior shampoo at the tail end of the summer.

Definitely become attached to it and it's been no frills budget motoring and something to learn on whilst growing my own tool set. Glad I purchased it. Gumtree and auto trader aren't what they used to be for bargains.

I'd recommend to anyone looking for a steal to give part exchanges (especially on ebay) a think.

Hoofy

80,084 posts

312 months

Thursday 13th January 2022
quotequote all
DriveClive said:
757 said:
Shedding or bangernomics....

Sold my expensive, needy Volvo V60, and bought a <£1000 car, saving me a fortune at the moment. No depreciation, no silly gimmicky crap, just a car with wheels (steel wheels at that aswell)
This sounds good , I’ve never met someone who has actually done this (everyone I know are tied into lease deals and happy paying the monthlies) and it’s working for them.
It works for me. Probably 50% chance you will have to bin the car come MOT if not before so get a long MOT (8+ months).

I've had my Merc shed for about 15 months. Spent about £300 on fixing things I think. I don't do any work myself. Total cost £1300? Not been serviced as I'll just run it until it's not cost effective to repair.

ghost83

5,639 posts

220 months

Thursday 13th January 2022
quotequote all
DriveClive said:
Biggy, with cheap motoring mate it doesn’t matter! Stand proud haha
Seems way too many people I know are knee deep in finance / lease deals some almost as much as my monthly mortgage payment! Just to look “cool” in their plasticky iPad on wheels haha
Exactly this she had a car on pcp it was costing her £500 a month with finance insurance etc etc

Her corsa cost her £750 and has cost her £1000 per year to run which was 2 months payments on her new car! She’s more than happy it gets her to school to pick kids up and gets her to the supermarket and back and it’s never broken down!

Yes she wants to upgrade it to a Audi A1 or even a Range Rover but atm we are massively over paying the mortgage between us so you’ve got to look at what’s important

r1ch

2,956 posts

226 months

Thursday 13th January 2022
quotequote all
I think it depends a lot on your situation and miles covered as someone has already said.

I have done the shedding thing and had to cover a lot of miles for work in a shed, and overall i'd say its probably the cheapest way to do it. If I had to save money immediately on driving, I'd get an hold Honda Civic. But that's only if you're lucky and get a decent one.

Sheds also in the past have cost me more than I'd care to admit too, and driving a shed does have its moments where its a bit tiresome. But if were saying whats the cheapest possible way to get around, then i'd say a Japanese shed but in good knick.