<span style="display: inline !important; float: none; background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.4px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">I take a different view – the cost of owning a German barge over the next 4 years with minimal financial risk and with future buying potential, bearing in mind I work in a high risk job (sales).</span>
As someone who manages a big sales team, I understand the risks (and rewards) of being in sales, the reality is we live at the whim of the board, and are only ever 3 months from being performance managed out of a business (well, other than the 6 month notice period).
I'm guessing (hope) you have a suitable war chest to cover the potential of losing your job? The reality is however, in today's world, that's not something specific to sales, everyone in a business carries that risk.
And i'd argue that a 9 year old German car with nearly 100k on the clock at that point runs the risk of certainly having a big bill.
Sure Hob Nob, but equally theres a risk of no job and a family to feed.
Where I am right now is that the "reward" would allow me the initial payment plus £200 a month for 3 years from separated car-specific funds already in a savings account with zero risk. Thats not going to get me what I want. Anything above £200 is risk. The closer I can get to £200, the smaller the risk. I appreciate thats whats being said here is that the risk from new/lease which is financially higher payments is basically moved to a risk on mechanical failure/cost of a higher milage vehicle.
You'll understand then that the same saved "fund" to pay the £200 could pay the 120d outright today. Now, then I would be at 0 risk financially but with only 80% of the car I really want. Of course, perhaps thats the knock I have to take to put myself in a zero risk position - like I said beggars can't be choosers.
Based on the last para, I'm off to read my guide to essentialism again... 🙂
In between crunching yet another set of numbers on yet another car related enquiry do you have any time left to actually ride your bike?
Then only you can decide on where the compromise will be.
Is it the vehicle, or the financial risk?
Having read back, you don't seem to be doing many miles, so one could argue there is less of a risk buying used, but my example with my old 3 series didn't work, because I do 30k a year, and i'm office based 90% of the time.
The cost of leasing something at ~200 a month, with 9x up front for 40k over 4 years (or 30k over 3 years) just doesn't really stack up to me - it's PPM is 22.5/30ppm. That's over double what I spend on a £40k car.
At 10k PA as well, there is no point in you having a diesel either.
In between crunching yet another set of numbers on yet another car related enquiry do you have any time left to actually ride your bike?
STW. Most people don't actually ride :-).
The cost of leasing something at ~200 a month, with 9x up front for 40k over 4 years (or 30k over 3 years) just doesn’t really stack up to me – it’s PPM is 22.5/30ppm. That’s over double what I spend on a £40k car.
I'm trying to do the maths but yes, a second hand C class, 10k miles a year with £2500 down and £248 a month working out at 38ppm. To keep my car it works out 20ppm, half price. Its for me to decide whether the size, nav, leather, ride is with the extra 18ppm either on lease of PCP.
I aim for a combination of low total cost per mile and to minimise the number of times in my life I buy or sell a car. Not necessarily driven by absolute purchase price. Rightly or wrongly I've tended to think I achieve a decent balance of those things by buying at 40-70k ish and selling/scrapping/giving away when it's not really economical to keep them going, they really feel worn out or something catastrophic happens. Current routine services only mondeo at 150k is not at this point yet, or even showing signs of getting close. Bought at 40. That said, I do more miles than I used to and they're on the motorway so I value comfort more but my cars really should last well. Perhaps by pure luck I've not yet had a bad one.
I reckon someone limited by purchase price could buy my current car and get many years low trouble use out of it. They certainly could've at 100k. But it's a risk.
I want the next one to be electric, so next change will hopefully be driven by when I can get what I want from the electric car market and I might drag this one out as a result.
May not be of any interest, but the new V90 R-design estate is available on PCH at the moment for £2k deposit, £200 month, 8k annual mileage with 7.5ppm excess mileage on an 18 month lease. Looks like a great deal to me.
Could be useful to tide you over while you make your mind up........
"And i’d argue that a 9 year old German car with nearly 100k on the clock at that point runs the risk of certainly having a big bill."
Why? Where is the logic / technical justification for this? what is so magical about 100,000 that means the risk factor suddenly increases. It makes even less since when you think of it in terms of 160,000 KM? What's wrong with 100,000 KM and why doesn't this suddenly increase the risk factor?
It's is completely and utterly irrelevant. It all depends upon how the car has been driven, what are those 100,000 miles? are they motorway miles or popping down to the shops miles? That is the only thing that matters.
And I'm speaking as someone who used to run a >100k mile Porsche...and tracked it. It was faultless for the 6 years I ran it as a daily drive throughout the year in all weathers. Didn't miss a beat, ran tight as a drum, probably the best car I've ever had.
Pretty much any 9 year old car, regardless of mileage, runs the risk of having a large bill. It's not that the risk suddenly increases as you pass 99K, it is that there is a much higher risk of problems with a car of that age and mileage.
so what you mean is based on a sample size of 1 .
It’s is completely and utterly irrelevant. It all depends upon how the car has been driven, what are those 100,000 miles? are they motorway miles or popping down to the shops miles? That is the only thing that matters.
-and how do you know that with any degree of certainty ?
If its a realistic option - rather than the tangibles , look at your extra 18ppm in terms of - its 18pence extra a mile on a car you know , know how its been treated , know whats been done to it , what hasnt been done to it. Ie the devil you know.
[i]May not be of any interest, but the new V90 R-design estate is available on PCH at the moment for £2k deposit, £200 month, 8k annual mileage with 7.5ppm excess mileage on an 18 month lease. Looks like a great deal to me.
Could be useful to tide you over while you make your mind up……..[/i]
30ppm. Not a great deal. But actually not bad, given the spec - they are a great car. I looked at one instead of my Superb funnily enough but couldn't get close to matching a deal.
[i]Pretty much any 9 year old car, regardless of mileage, runs the risk of having a large bill. It’s not that the risk suddenly increases as you pass 99K, it is that there is a much higher risk of problems with a car of that age and mileage.</span>[/i]
Exactly that. My experience is once you get past ~6 years, the risks of bills seems to start to rise, and thus do the costs. There will always be the exceptions, but they are that, exceptions. You have to be realistic and something big might go wrong, and that's going to cost you.
"and how do you know that with any degree of certainty ?"
Exactly. So you go for a 50k mile car which you know just as little about and has half the running experience so less of an indication of condition, and there are no guarantees whatsoever that the car is going to be any better than a 200k mile motorway mile muncher. It's a risk and all you can do is mitigate risks as best you can and mileage is not a guaranteed way to mitigate risks. With a high mile car you can look at the service history and the maintenance history and if there is nothing much there, then its a safe bet it's in good shape and has a lot more history and evidence to support that. If you look at a 50k mile car you have half the service life to consider so a much higher risk factor.
Look on condition not miles, there are markers to indicate the type of duty the car has had. For a manual if the clutch pedal rubber is well worn and the gear knob then its most likely had a life of short journeys with lots of gear changes, for example. If you're that bothered about it pay for a proper inspection and from compression tests you can easily tell the wear rate of the cylinder head valves and cylinder bores....if a motorway mile muncher then it'll be barely run in, if not then it'll be further down on the wear rate chart.
Just depends how much you can be bothered to delve into it. When I bought my high mileage Porsche I went into it ALOT. Mechanical inspections, calling up garages and dealerships on the service history to confirm the service history, etc.. When I bought my high mileage Focus I didn't bother. And actually the Focus cost me a lot more than the Porsche in the end.
to summerise for those CBA to read all that. - luck has alot to do with it. the rest is just educated guesswork.
May not be of any interest, but the new V90 R-design estate is available on PCH at the moment for £2k deposit, £200 month, 8k annual mileage with 7.5ppm excess mileage on an 18 month lease. Looks like a great deal to me.
Where are you seeing this? Notwithstanding I don't think It'll fit in my garage...
That V90 is an 18 month deal, so 12k miles total. £2,000 up front plus 18*£200 is £5,600. So it's almost 50ppm isn't it?
0.466p yes. Using this cost my BMW dealers offer is 0.57p a month. Crikey thats an eye opener...
https://www.marshall.co.uk/volvo/new-car-offers/v90/
That V90 is an 18 month deal, so 12k miles total. £2,000 up front plus 18*£200 is £5,600. So it’s almost 50ppm isn’t it?
Yeah, but if you take it to 10k miles per annum, the add-on @ 7.5ppm is around £225 and the cost comes down to 36ppm.
Just had a another look, if you could slum it in the Momentum instead of R-design, doing the same 10k per annum it'd be a sniff over 29ppm.
Well, I may have to try a 50k miles car from that buyacar website and hope it doesn't go wrong. A '15 plate 320d series sport tourer is 35ppm with 4% interest, delivered to my house over 3 years, £8k balloon and then its mine or not.
My son came up with a great idea to get a cheaper Beemer - get a 3 series GT 😀
