I bought a new car about 4 weeks ago,it’s a 1998 Nissan Micra 1.0,£400 and an absolute bargain,I don’t know where the others are getting their money from though.
Ian

Well done. In all seriousness one of the best small cars ever made and the only one that takes the genius of the Mini concept and refines it. 810kg = nuts mpg, all aluminum engine with timing chain, ridiculously easy to work on, cavernous inside (they could make the interior panels very thin due to the strength of the bubble shape).

I’d buy one now as a run about but the idiots didn’t import them to North America.

Totally agree with the OP, god knows why people buy these crappy new cars that are increasingly weighed down with safety/electronic crap etc.

1998 Nissan Micra 1.0

Great little car for what it is, just don’t hit anything with it. It’ll end badly.

Rscott – Member
Cause thanks to the crappage scheme, there is a destinc lack of older cars, and even less so of quality for a reasonable price.

What??? Just been helping a mate spend £5k on a motor and was astonished at what you can get for that sort of money, which lets face it isn’t very much at all these days.

Hondas, Zee Germans and pretty much everything else were were on offer in some form for £5k…

Politically driven reporting. “Highest since 2008”, the year which was a massive new low after a steady decline and then crash between 2003 and 2007.

Honda have just slashed production permanently in the UK stating that they don’t see car sales increasing at all in the next few years.

Can’t see the point in a new car when You can get one for half the price after 3 years. FWIW, our Audi 1995 A6 has done a pretty incredible 288,000 miles, absolute bargain.

If you could afford one/were not so tight, you would buy one too 😉

Before we moved to Aus, we had a brand new Fiat 500.

Over the three years of ownership it lost less than £1000 in depreciation and had two services.

Arguments toward a new car, safety and reliability.

We bought a used car out here which was fine, a 2005 Fiesta Zetec, ran it for 6 months, then when the OH started commuting we bought a new car. She puts 500km a week on the clock, plus the new car is 5 star ncap rather than 3 star of the older Fiesta. Slightly better on fuel which is neither here nor there, but when questioned why I didn’t buy a big Aussie V8. Why would I want one, you can only do 100kmh. All a V8 would do is cost me over $100 a week instead of 50. The same argument applies to your RS4.

If you think the target market for the diesel I20 is the same as the sort of person who buys a used RS4 then you would be wrong. Replacing the brakes on the RS4 will cost more than a lifetime of servicing on the Hyundai.

Anyway, you would be best with a model under 2 years old which has suffered mega depreciation but still has manufacturers warranty remaining on it.

I’ve just bought a new car. Now my commute is an 85 mile round trip I wanted something comfortable, economical, and with sufficient toys to make the M25 bearable or keep me safe when dozing off to Radio 4 at 2am.

Great deal on new Vauxhall Insignia last year with 5 years 0% finance (no deposit either), lifetime warranty, and a £500 fuel voucher. Negotiated nearly £6.5k off the list price by the time I signed the deal, and it comes this week.

I wanted a new car for the fixed price of ownership – and ‘cos I wanted my choice of specification and colour.

Honda have just slashed production permanently in the UK stating that they don’t see car sales increasing at all in the next few years.

Is that a bit of…..

Politically driven reporting.

Honda blamed sales figures in Mainland Europe for the job losses.

Not the UK.

I can’t afford to buy or lease one, even leasing one costs £300 and up, beyond my reach, depressingly…

According to the SMMT 41% of the 123,000 2012 new car regsitrations were private. The rest were fleet/business. I don’t think that 50,000 new cars bought privately is a “so many” number for a country with 37 million people holding driving liceneses. It’s 0.135% of the population or 1:750.

Personally I buy cars 1-2yrs old and let someone else take the maximum depreciation hit.

I just bought a new to me car 4 years old and 20k of depreciation from new i have a rather nice bike transporting machine.

If you could afford one/were not so tight, you would buy one too

Absolutely.
The problem with cars is the expense, I really want a 911 but cant afford one. So I’m loathed to spend thousands on something that’s make do.
Though having a company car makes it all academic.
There was a time when I had to buy three cars, that was a bugger, ended up with three 5k’ish cars instead of one decent one.

How do you finance a £40k car…?
I mean seriously, what do you do…?
Is it just like a £4k car but all the figures x10…? 🙂
Folk really spend upwards of £1k a month on a car…

Just about to lease a nine seater. Its a business asset so offset and also get the VAT back. TBH I want a revolving door on the vans; soon as its paid up, sell it and lease another shiny new one (in Spain if you lease for 5 years you then own the vehicle).

Honda blamed sales figures in Mainland Europe for the job losses.

Not the UK.

Is that not a bit political too, blame mainland europe, not the country where the jobs are being lost.

Doesn’t change that fact that car sales are still well down on pre 2008 levels and this is non-news trying to pretend the economy is fine and picking up, when it’s far from it.

UK car market is doing much better than mainland Europe.

Things about recessions is they tend to be quite black and white at the individual level – if you loose your job, you have no money, if you still have your job, not a lot has changed for you.

I bought a new car 6 years ago. I’m still driving it.

I won’t buy another new car though depreciation is just too high.

Spending circa 10K on a three year old car will get me something nice with plenty of life left in it.

Spending the same amount on a new car wouldn’t quite get me a Vauxhall Corsa.

Its difficult to argue with the OP’s logic

Doesn’t change that fact that car sales are still well down on pre 2008 levels and this is non-news trying to pretend the economy is fine and picking up, when it’s far from it.

So if someone says “highest since 2008”

your reaction is to say they are being disingenuous because it was higher in 2007 ? 😐

Seems like all you want to hear is doom and gloom so nobody spends anything at all and we guarantee a triple/quadruple dip ?

Seems like all you want to hear is doom and gloom so nobody spends anything at all and we guarantee a triple/quadruple dip ?

Na, just some policies that actually encourage growth rather than kill it, and not pumping out news that just pretends it’s all going well.

Also the OP posted “Why are so many people driving new cars”, which suggests the news piece did what was actually intended.

I’ve got a car dealer in the family, believe me, ‘lots of people’ are not driving new cars.

So who’s building all these second hand cars then ?

You’d better hope people/businesses continue to buy new ones 😉

TBH I want a revolving door on the vans; soon as its paid up, sell it and lease another shiny new one

You miht as well just rent one.

Presumably it was taken a boasting my Mr Muke ➡

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8Kum8OUTuk[/video]

I know a fair number of people who pay for their cars on finance – they think it’s odd I save for the next car, as opposed to finance it.

We just got a brand spanking new car. Wasn’t looking for one, but it was cheaper than an equivalent 18 month old car on the VW forecourt. One years free insurance, 3 years servicing for little over £300. This replaced a dead 12 year old golf. We’ll have this for a similar period hopefully.

I’ve got a car dealer in the family, believe me, ‘lots of people’ are not driving new cars.

Depends which make he sells, Kia are up 23% year on year….

We paid cash for a three year old Octavia estate late last year. We were tempted to get something newer, but put it into the house move, instead. After all, we’ll be paying for the house for a while yet, and every little bit we can knock off that amount helps a huge amount over time.

There’s an estate of new builds just down the road from us. Every one of them is a buy-to-let property. All the cars, with one exception (24 to 1) are under three years old. Most are 2012 plates. I don’t know what that means, but it does suggest that, if you’re fairly well to do, but don’t own a house, then a brand new car is something you buy or lease.

As said above, it’s about priorities. We have a mortgage to pay (and overpay if we can), neither of us drive for work, and neither of us simply have to have the newest car possible.

Na, just some policies that actually encourage growth rather than kill it, and not pumping out news that just pretends it’s all going well.

Well, nobody suggested that everything was fine. Just reporting the fact that new car sales are higher this year than they have been since 2008.
That’s a good thing right ? Because it seems like it is to me.

Also the OP posted “Why are so many people driving new cars”, which suggests the news piece did what was actually intended.

It’s reported some “news” factually. And people have read it and asked questions.

Just out of interest, Why do you think new car sales are higher this year than they have been in four years ?

[Quote]I’ve got a car dealer in the family, believe me, ‘lots of people’ are not driving new cars.[/quote]

More than any year since 2008 though, unless they performing below the national average ?

We managed to get a new Ford C-Max for less than a 2 year old one would have cost us at the same dealer. Why pay more for a second hand car. I’m not even taking depreciation into account, if we had paid in cash we would have had more change from the new one. It was even better when they worked out the monthly cost on Ford Options the new one was worth more at the end of the 3 years so cost less per month and that made it even cheaper overall.

You miht as well just rent one.

1) I get a 40% discount on new because I’m self employed. (so a 40k vehicle for 24k). The discount absorbs much of the depreciation over 5 years, depending on mileage, condition etc.
2) “Revolved” once I’m trading in a 5 year old vehicle so the payments for the next cycle are half or less (roughly 24k minus value of old vehicle / 60 + interest).
3) With renting the monthly cost goes up with inflation (or whatever the rental co’ decide), with lease-buy its eroded by inflation and its a fixed (predictable) payment.
4) Its hard to rent a suitable vehicle (One that carries nine people and nine bikes with no trailer needed).

We will be getting a new car in the next few months through a lease scheme.

Worked out about the same as getting the same car 2 years old. No service costs, no tyre costs, no breakdown costs, no insurance costs etc etc.

“There’s an estate of new builds just down the road from us. Every one of them is a buy-to-let property. All the cars, with one exception (24 to 1) are under three years old. Most are 2012 plates. I don’t know what that means, but it does suggest that, if you’re fairly well to do, but don’t own a house, then a brand new car is something you buy or lease.”

its a case of mixed up priority’s – *sweeping generalisation* these will be the same folks that are complaining its too hard to get on the property *ladder*. We all know folk like that , nice car , nice phone , nice bike ……claims its just too hard to save a deposit on their wage.

* i realise some folk need the fluidity of renting but surely not everyone.

although being a fan of simple non electrical loaded french motors i am tempted to take a look at a dacia duster in a dealer when my frontera spits the dummy as its a price not to be sniffed at.

I pick up my new car on Thursday… 🙂

edit – not sorted out a roofrack yet!!

Rachel

Could well be that people aren’t getting any interest on their savings so probably have the mentality of they may as well just spend it on something like an extension, new car etc.

Well done. In all seriousness one of the best small cars ever made and the only one that takes the genius of the Mini concept and refines it. 810kg = nuts mpg, all aluminum engine with timing chain, ridiculously easy to work on, cavernous inside (they could make the interior panels very thin due to the strength of the bubble shape).

What???
They struggle to do 36mpg! Our 1.6 Focus is better on fuel than those things!
They rust too.\
The older mk1 Micra was better on fuel, and a Fiat Panda of the same age wipes the floor with it!

I’ve been through the whole gammut of buying cars – Brand new ones, reasonably new second hand ones, and 10 yr old £1000 ‘old but good’ cars – they’ve all just cost more money than is sensible. Final straw came 2 months ago when the ‘sensible’ 06 plate Golf GT TDI that we got 2 years ago for the GF,for £8k, low mileage, good nick, started costing money – pretty big money on smallish stuff – i.e. AC compressor failed – that’s £1000 (not done it yet – not exactly needed right now!)…

There’s no reason to actually ‘own’ a car in my opinion (having one is a yes, and essential for our location) – it’s just a depreciating asset which ever way you look at it – new, nearly new, or old. they’re all worth FA when you’re done with them.

PCP however, just makes sense – I can lease a Merc C-Class estate for the same price that we pay per month on the Golf – £210. Except it won’t cost me anything to fix, etc, and can hand it back when it comes to the point it might need bigger stuff doing. Maybe mileage would alter that significantly – we only need a 10k miles pa contract…

Of course, if I had a spare £15k, I might think differently. I doubt it though – I need to re-render the house and have a new porch built!

cx monkey where can you get the merc at that price?