I reckon cars are cheap until around 130-150k. That’s when things like shocks, springs, clutches, bushings, CV joint boots and so on might start to go. All consumables rather than failures really, but can be relatively expensive and annoying to fix.

I think the middle ground is the best place to be. Bangers can be dicey – if the previous owner is happy to drive an old car, why are they suddenly selling their old car if it’s all perfectly good?

Which means you have 4 more years to go, and an ever increasing chance of something expensive going wrong. If you are lucky you won’t have to deal with a big bill, but the risk of needing an expensive repair is increasingly likely.

Yes, but don’t forget buying new cars is also expensive. There’s no point in spending £10k to avoid a £1.5k bill is there?

Yes, but don’t forget buying new cars is also expensive. There’s no point in spending £10k to avoid a £1.5k bill is there?

Yes, no denying that….buying new is a very expensive way of owning a car (see my posts above, where I have already mentioned the same). Hassle free motoring is part of the reason why people pay all that extra money on a new car. Some people don’t seem to be able to grasp that concept (or why it is worth the money to some).

I did a loose count of older cars on my ride home today, must have seen hundreds if not thousands of cars and the results were surprising.

I could not believe the number of chappy French cars still driving around even pre 2000s cars. Especially Clios, have I been wrong about them the whole time? Plenty of vauxhalls too, in fact, the overwhelming majority were cars I can’t believe anyone would want to keep running.

Just providing a balancing opinion to your one sided approach.

I dont have a new car as i dont need one……..but i do appreciate other people buying them so theres a used car selection for me to choose from

Newshape Avensis estate petrol. Their petrol engines are great on mpg.

Sorry I wouldn’t touch German.

if I needed a peanuts car ID get a Xsara Picasso so maybe I’m not the best to listen to 🙂

Don’t knock all main dealers. My 3 series is now coming up to 5 yrs old and 74k miles, for vehicles over 3 years old BMW reduce the servicing rates.

My last inspection service which keeps up the BMW service history cost £75. For that they even collected the car and returned it to my office with a full valet.

The next oil and filter service will be around £150

I drive fairly sedately and the rear pads have worn down by only 2mm in the past 15k miles. The important bit here is that my car is saying the pads are due in 2k miles but the dealer are actually measuring and advising not to change them so good service from Knights in Stafford.

Especially Clios, have I been wrong about them the whole time?

I think clios and corsas are probably among the most popular small cars so there are many around still.

Between my wife and I we’ve run everything from brand new +£40k to ones costing less than £400.

If you want something purely for transport, and for it to be easily budgeted I’d go for a nearly new 7-year warranty; ie a Kia/Hyundai etc.

It’ll be a set cost for many years, and at some point you’ll just go and buy a another one.

Wouldn’t do it myself, but I currently drive a Vectra, so what do I know?

i reckon that long after we are all dead and gone, there will still be mid-90’s Nissan Micras trundling up and down the motorways at a steady 70

I reckon cars are cheap until around 130-150k. That’s when things like shocks, springs, clutches, bushings, CV joint boots and so on might start to go. All consumables rather than failures really, but can be relatively expensive and annoying to fix.

‘Project Million Mile’ (Volvo 2004 V70) has just passed through this phase – now on 143k miles.
The recentish list has been;
Front wishbones, shocks, strut bearings, drop links, track rod ends, £200 autobox flush, boot wiper seized, key ‘switchblade’ broken, boot door lock mechanism worn, discs F&R, handbrake cables & mechanism.

Would be uneconomical if I was paying someone to spanner it but I do it myself and genuine Volvo parts are quite reasonable.

Been running a nearly new Hyundai i20 for about 3 years, bought from a car supermarket. It was ex rental, but hasn’t cost a penny apart from service and one MOT. Depends if you want a ‘name’ or just a car.

First suggestion of Auris us a good one, bit dull but that should make it easier to find and buy. FWIW we bought a 1yr old Yaris 11yrs ago and it has had to have pretty much zero spent on it, my ex wife even forgot tohave it services for 3 years. Mileage only 75k. We had similar experience with a Rav4 (new battery, handbrake troubles, cat nonsense which was a dealer scam) over 80k

In summary go Toyota

I reckon that running costs for a car of that age (exc. insurance and fuel) are ballpark £120-150 per month.

Just to add my call of “nonsense”. My 16 year old 160k mls Passat has the odd few hundred spent now and then. OK maybe I should spend the money on a newer car instead, but it goes, it carries lots of stuff and I like it. It certainly doesn’t cost what you say.

Right, three months on, I think we’re settled on paying a bit more for a new shape 3 series. Based on the fact that we both like cars and nice things, and when we went to the local car supermarket the BMs were one of the only cars that in interior didn’t feel like/actually was falling apart inside. I could get something cheaper (or less miles or newer) if I went for a vauxhall or ford, but I don’t really want to.

We’re looking at 1 owner 12/13 regs on about 70-80k miles. Probably won’t keep it for 10 years 5-7 maybe. We’re not going newer so we can keep a fund for ongoing repairs, and the oil will be changed annually as a minimum, maybe 6 monthly depending on the colour of it.

It’s looking more like we’d get a saloon, there’s more choice of better cars in our price range, the boot is far bigger than the current focus, plus we have a roofbox and will probably get a towbar fitted for a rack, likely to be ok for a family of four? No camping.

Am I being mental? Should I accept that I’m not allowed nice things?

I am biased as I own an older 3 (E91) seires but in my research it seemed the 6 cylinder engines seemed to be the most bomb proof and with only 10k miles a year, the extra running costs are negligible. I also found that the 2nd hand cars on the market with the bigger engines were better cared for and less likely to have been ex-lease or company car abused.

I would avoid silver, cloth trimmed 2 litre diesels – it’s probably been at the mercy of a salesman business driver!

Good choice but the boot is really limiting which you seem to already know. If you can push the budget and get an estate although not massive it’s more useful.

Which engine are you looking at and what annual mileage/type of driving do you do?

The boot on the A3 Sportback I’m moving on is bigger then the 3 Series boot – had both E46 and 92 (330D)
As already said – steer clear of the 2.0 unless you know for sure it’s been a family car.
Early E90/92 had swirlflap issues however most will either have been fixed or already ingested them.

Certain models can’t have a towbar on them as well so check just in case.

Brand new Dacia Sandero is £5995 list price and will be good for 10 years.

3 of those years will be under warranty.

You can extend the warranty to 7 years and 100k miles for £850

If you take finance then they give you 5 years warranty. Do this then immediately pay the finance off inside 14 days.

Bangernomics without the hassle?

Looking at a an F30 2 litre diesel, either 318 or 320, not enough choice in petrols, and the 316 is too slow. Nothing bigger in budget yet.

F30’s don’t have swirl flaps AFAIK, DMF and DPF could(will at some point) be an issue, but we tend to do a long run every couple of weeks, and I will make sure we do now I know what the DPF needs. I’m hoping that regular oil changes will help with soot control too.

E90/91 EDs can’t have a towbar fitted, but it looks like the F30 can.

Driving wise it’ll just be a standard family car, no commuting, a bit stop start, but nothing in town, we live in the sticks and don’t drive in the city if we can help it. Tend to do 2 UK hols a year and several city breaks. Done 18000 in 18 months in the lease focus, and we’ve avoided doing some trips due to the mileage limit on the lease so it’ll probably be nearer 15k a year in the end,

I’m not as keen as the new petrols as the old ones either as they’ve got turbos and DMFs and everything bar a DPF.

A Dacia warranty isn’t worth the paper it’s written on – my Duster has been rusting from the inside out from Day 1 and all they’ve done is paint over the top and fill the cavities full of waxoyl to get it the end of the warranty when they will wash their hands of it.

Absolute shower.

@wzzz we went and looked seriously at dacias and very very nearly bought a Logan Laureate, but, whilst it was surprisingly nice to sit in, I can’t imagine it would have been that great to drive, and knowing me I would want rid after a year or two, and then I’d probably be in negative equity.

The thing that really killed it off though was the 3 star NCAP rating, it’d be fine if it was only me, but if anything happened to the kids that would be on my conscience.

From someone who’s owned both, please please please don’t buy a 3 series saloon… Spend the extra, get the estate!

It’s still not a big estate, but it’s a million times more practical than the saloon. Hell even the coupe is more practical as they’ve usually got split/fold rear seats!

If you’re buying a diesel, you WILL have DPF issues at some point during your ownership if you keep it long enough. The occasional long journey will of course help a little bit, but even ex sales rep cars that are doing 1000 miles per week every week eventually ger DPF issues. You’re still likely to have saved enough money in fuel by buying the diesel versus the petrol by the time this happens, but it will be a close run thing at your milage as to whether the petrol or the diesel is the better buy… Of course, like you say though, far less choice of petrols! A friend has just dropped a load of money on a nearly new 320D touring despite doing maybe 3/4K miles per year. When I asked him why it was cos there’s no decent spec petrol models out there unless you’re buying a performance model with the price tag to match!

I’d still look seriously at the anticipated costs over 5 years for a car like that and compare to leasing.

Bare in mind that nothing is simple about servicing modern BMW’s. There’s not even a dipstick! Even a new battery requires a trip to a dealer/independent for recoding the power management system (£300 including the battery).

My opinion of the 320d is that it is built to run for 3-5 years flawlessly with minimal servicing. After that, all bets are off. For an older BMW I would look at 6 cyclinder petrols only.

I’d still look seriously at the anticipated costs over 5 years for a car like that and compare to leasing.

This.

I find that because I do daft miles (25k), and need a big car, it just does not add up.

Small car, fewer miles, not so bothered by *which* car, more offers on at time = leasing can work.

we’ve avoided doing some trips due to the mileage limit on the lease so it’ll probably be nearer 15k a year in the end,

Seriously? How much a mile is the charge, only ask as leases I’ve seen are usually 7ppm or so for over-mileage.

I’ve really not enjoyed leasing. It’s too stressful, and with having to give it back as it came I don’t like the inflexibility of it.

I’m looking forward to having my own car again, and getting it fixed where I choose if/when I choose.

Edit- On the milage charge, yeah it’s not huge, I think mine is only 5p. But we were thinking of going to the highlands so it would be an extra £50 or so that while not huge on it’s own times are tight and costs start to add up. If we were leasing again we’d need to scraping together another grand for an initial rental on the next one.