Brand new cars

[Harold_Shand]

What with the scrappage scheme I thought I might do a bit of research into buying a spanking 3 door hatchback. I've always spent £500-£800 on cars and spent a couple of hundred at MOT or fucked them off if it was too pricey.

They've all had problems eventually, but that is to be expected. So... looking at forums for Suzuki Swift, Renault Clio, Fiat Punto and that, people seem to have more problems with brand new cars than I have as a bottom-feeder. Alright, most of it covered by warranty but when that's finished, you have to buy another brand-spanker to ensure you don't get hit for a high bill... and with a car worth 4-5k, you can't just go 'Fuck it, scrap it'.

New cars seem to be shit, they want you to be paying out monthly forever...

I've been put off, going to tough it out with my 323f and balls to scrappage scheme. Bangernomics wins.
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BCF's 6th favourite poster 2009-2010

Harold_Shand's theory might be the best explanation.

[Bofh5]

exactly what i'm doing now.
ust paid 400 quid for my latest car and even if it fails its next mot it will work out at only 60 quid a month.
compare to 150 quid a month minimum for a private lease and your laughing
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(L)users...Disk space is to good for them.

Bikes: Honda 50 / CB125-TDC / 93 CBR600 F2 (Stolen & Trashed) / 2001 SP-1 (Sold) / 95 CBR600 F3

[nowhere.elysium]

Yeah: I like how the small hatchback market claims that it's dying on it's arse because of the recession. It's dying, because the most recent small hatchbacks are crap, and people don't want to trade in their older (typically more spacious) cars that still work fine.

On a side note, am I alone in thinking that Suzuki's car range always seemed like a bit of an afterthought?
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'10 SV650SF, '83 GS650GT (it lives!), Questionable DIY dash project, 3D Printer project, Lasercutter project

[Barry_M2]

[Mr Hammers]

[Barry_M2]

[arry]

[Kickstart]

Hi

New cars always have been hideously expensive and not sure they really are that much more reliable.

Even if they are more reliable it takes one hell of a large bill to equal the depreciation on a new car from just driving it out of the showroom

For example, we have an Alfa 156. Weak points on these are front suspension bushes (bonded to the arms) and cam belts. Could get all the replacement arms (2 upper and 2 lower front arms, 4 rear arms) along with a full set of brake disks and pads and fit them myself, along with paying someone for replace the clutch and do a full cam belt change (including water pump and timing variator) and still have change from £1500.

Don't think we have ever got rid of a car below 100000 miles (the 156 has 113K now, the 155 has 128k and my old Alfa 33 has 135k).

The most expensive to run car we had in many ways was the newest. A Renault Clio bought at 5k and run until 106k, and much of the expense was down to the local dealer (fortunatly their biggest error was covered by warrenty when they wrecked the control unit for the semi automatic gearbox at £1194 +vat and fitting). Warrenty excluded many things such as bulbs, which is a pain when the bulbs that need replacing are behind the speedo and require stripping half the interior to fit (with a large chance of wrecking the dashboard from those we spoke to).

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[JAMSXR]

A few weeks in to my new job I am considering leasing a new car, but I'm finding it hard to justify spending 200+ a month for the car I want. My current car is a £1000 Rover 1.4 25 and is fine for short journeys, unfortunately for me my new job can involve spending allot of time in the car, yesterday consisted of 6 hours driving without air con!!!! Most of my colleges have BMWs with all the mod cons, and they are soooo much nicer to drive/be in!
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Honda SFX50 > Aprilia SR125 > Aprilia RS125 > Honda RFV400 > K4 GSXR600 > KTM Duke > C1H 636 > K3 GSXR1000 > Aprilia RSV-R > Triumph Street Triple R > Ducati 899 Panigale > Aprilia Tuono 1100 > Triumph Daytona 675R > KTM SuperDuke 1290 2.0

[Kickstart]

[The Original Muzza]

I'm 21 and having never driven since getting my license, I can't even afford insurance on a £500 banger. Now there are people scrapping all the bangers so that by the time I'm 25 or whatnot, I will have to choose from cars worth over 2000, which is quite a lot for someone who hasn't driven for 5 years. I don't need a reliable car, as I use my bike for commuting, but if they keep scrapping cars, the bottom of the barrel will never level out to something people like me can afford to insure.
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Current Bikes: Husqvarna Svartpilen 401 (2020)
Former Bikes: Honda MSX125 (2014), BMW Funduro (1996), Honda VT500 (1983), Yamaha FZR250 (1989), Suzuki GZ125 Marauder(2005),:Triumph TT600 (2002) (stolen)
From then on, I and the bicycle feelings deeper.

[trevoriv]

Being in my mates 'old' X-reg Alfa 156 didnt really feel any different than being the the wifes brand new golf gt sport.

Other than the horrendous noise of shagged wheel bearings!
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Past: '96 Thundercat, '02 ZX636R (A1P), '58 KTM 690 SM LC4 Current: '06 ZX636R (C6F)
Mudskipper wrote: Someone just has to sig that...

[Kickstart]

Hi

The budget for the scrappage scheme is pretty limited, so it won't be going on for much longer.

Somewhat annoys me that perfectly good cars are being scrapped just to give a subsidy to the retail car industry.

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[Dom_]

It entirely depends if you like cars or not. Some of my mates anr't bothered, they drive £1-2k run of the mill cars. Other mates like fancy cars and therefore have them.

I love cars, and therefore drive a reasonable one (for my age) I don't think I could go back to a shitter.

[Kickstart]

[chrisw]

[Faldo]

As soon as my HP agreement is up I'm going back to shitters too. I paid £22k 2 years ago for a car which would probably struggle to fetch £10k as a PX now. This is a car which is supposed to hold it's value well! Fortunately I have a guaranteed buy back price on the lease, and I've no doubt the car will be worth much less when I come to give it back/pay it off.

Shitters FTW.
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Current: ZZR1400
Previous: ZXR 400 L9, ZX-7R P5, ZZR 400, ZX-7R P6, Bandit 600, GSXR 750 Slingshot, DRZ400, DR650, ZX10R C1H, ZXR 750 L1, ZXR 750 L3, '99 ZX7R P4, KTM 300 EXC, ZX-9R E1, TDM850

[Dom_]

[Kickstart]

[Clanger]

I like cars, but as I like my bike more, the car has to be the sensible option (until I earn a better wage). So I have opted for a Nissan Micra 1.2 auto, and it is nippy as you like and has plenty of leg room (I need leg room!!!)

I tried the Aygo and the Yaris, and the seats just didn't go back far enough...so they were jacked straight off.

I bought my second hand micra a few months ago before the new scrappage scheme, and got a decent trade in price for my old banger.

Reason I opted for a Micra: well I owned the other Micra for 6 years, 1996 registration, and apart from the starter motor dying, needing replacement bulbs for all lights and a new battery (when I got back from travelling for a year). It always passed it's MOT and always started first time...nothing went wrong with it, I hear so many horror stories of other people's cars...thats why I got another Micra.
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Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter won't mind - Dr. Seuss

[Tonka]

[The View Askew]

Go buy a 15 year old Golf that will be just as damn good, really, new hatchback? are you insane?


There is no shame in being a bottom feeder, we are in fact the winners, even If I buy 5 cars in a row at a grand, and all turn out to be shitters scrapped after a year, I have STILL saved a few large on a new one that would become boring, and lose obscene moolah in minutes of buying it.


Choose a new car + lots of cash, or a bit of mech knowledge and choosing your cheapo carefully, there are some really really worthwile machines out there still going strong.
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"Do what you always did, get what you always got"

[Harold_Shand]

Had another re-think. I've got another 2 months on my MOT. The old girl is using plenty oil, clutch slipping from time to time and the knocking from the back end has got quite conspicuous. The boot gas struts have gone, I have to use an off-cut to keep the lid open. The cam-belt is overdue and it is apparently wise to get the water pump replaced at the same time. Welcome to my world.

I've had 14,000 miles out of her in 10 months. Cost £500, £300 for the MOT and £120 for a service... £920 for the year, still pretty steep. I'm going to try and sell her to soften that a bit, much too good to scrap.

Going to see a Citroen Xsara 2001, 2.0 HDi LX, 81k, 11 mths MOT, recent service, tommorow for £850. I quite like all this, even better if you can work it so you have free transport or better still a profit every year.

[The View Askew]

[Suitor_Stu]

To be fair, I think it's (as with EVERYTHING in life) all a bit of risk vs. reward. I'd venture to suggest that a fair few of the folks on her harping on about bangernomics will have spending extravagancies elsewhere in their lives which they see as perfectly reasonable but others may think that they are throwing their money away - for example buying musical instruments, alcohol, premium food, holidays, clothes, entertainment systems, houses etc, etc. My point is that almost everything we buy will depreciate, it's a case of if the money you will loose on something is compensated by your enjoyment (or in the case of a new car with warranty, piece of mind).

I do personally think that buying brand spanking new is a bit too much, but by the same token, money isn't everything and if I was doing something which required me to do a lot of driving I'd probably want to be somewhere that I actually enjoyed - ergo I'd much rather be in something like a 3-4yr old Alfa GT than a brand new fiesta. Having said that, the Alfa would probably depreciate by a similar amount in a given time as the Fiesta but I'd think that if I had to live with the reality of vehicle ownership (which is that you WILL loose money on it, it's just a question of how much) that the experience of owning/driving the Alfa would be worth the money to me.

As I said before loosing money on purchases is almost an inevitability, what it comes down to at the end of the day is which things, to you, justify this loss.

Stu