Reply to: Cars = con

[wobbegong]

Absolutely. Bangernomics; buy for £1 - 2K then run it into the ground over 3 to 4 years, chuck it and start again. The only downside with older cars is, no matter how good the condition is, it doesn't take much of a knock to write it off, and because of the low market value, the insurance will always be woefully short of what's needed to replace it.

[Lockhouse]

I've got a 1992 BMW 325i (newish shape, not the square one) that I use as my daily driver. 86K on the clock, dead reliable, immaculate interior, bodywork not bad, great on motorways, not worried if it gets door-marked in the car park, not afraid to leave it anywhere. Got it as an insurance write-off for nothing, bought a new front for it off FleaBay which I fitted myself, had £300 worth of professional paint & panel work on top of that to make it look decent and my last service+MOT was £250.

Buy cheap, look after, when it goes wrong, throw away.

[Diver]

I need one to commute. Only 15 miles but my contracts are generally not in the city centres.

LWB 4x4 2.5 with Bull bars front and back, Scrape bars down the side (for people & cyclists that won't move over) Very Loud two tone horn (to scare old ladies) and lots of Halogen spotlights (to blind people).

I wouldn't be without mine

[contractor79]

Polo bluemotion 75mpg £0 road tax

wow!

[Bagpuss]

Polo bluemotion 75mpg £0 road tax

[Sockpuppet]

I need one to commute. Only 15 miles but my contracts are generally not in the city centres.

[Bagpuss]

well that's another tactic, just get a cheap one that actually works and can pass MOTs

Just the other week 1400 for an 04 mondeo in the auctions

[contractor79]

Indeed, they are - you can't lose 10K on a car that only cost 1K

Trains can be useful though - I prefer them for travelling into London.

well that's another tactic, just get a cheap one that actually works and can pass MOTs

[contractor79]

using your figures


ownership = £200 per month

car hire for commuter £10 per day = £305 per month


thats why we buy


bye bye

yes which is understandable in that situation

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Cars aren't a con: new cars are a con.

.....

Indeed, they are - you can't lose 10K on a car that only cost 1K

Trains can be useful though - I prefer them for travelling into London.

[VectraMan]

Cars aren't a con: new cars are a con.

My R-reg Primera cost me £1K 2 years ago, and it's now maybe worth about £600. I've done about 60K miles in it, and it's never let me down once, not even when I was doing 1000 miles per week.

Trains are only relaxing if they're empty, and they go where you want. To get to my last gig for 9am, I'd have had to leave 11pm the night before, change 3 times, including a 7 hour wait on Reading station.

[TykeMerc]

I've not bought a brand new car in well over a decade, 6-12 months old suits me fine and the initial massive depreciation hit is gone.

[Bagpuss]

I've lost approx 10k on my car over 3 years. On the two other new cars I've I lost 18000 quid and made £500.

On the next car I'm going to let someone else take the hit i.e. buy a 1 or two year old. The new car buzz has worn off now, and the current market is bargain city

[EternalOptimist]

using your figures


ownership = £200 per month

car hire for commuter £10 per day = £305 per month


thats why we buy


bye bye

[TykeMerc]

I use my car on an almost daily basis.
While it costs me money I get good value from it, public transport in this area is utterly arse, I often have to carry stuff and when I want to go somewhere with my 3 kids it costs roughly the same as if I went alone. Plus I'm not tied to a timetable.

While the traffic in this country is lousy the alternatives even in fairly urban West Yorkshire are abysmal.

Having just returned from Italy where I used the train services to get around it put the British rail system into stark contrast, the trains were fast (sub 3 hours for >300 miles), clean, cheap (56 Euro's for the 1/2 the length of Italy) and almost all on time.