mart
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- South Yorks
Over a period more than 40 years I have tried the various methods.
In the early days I would have an old second hand car, and didn’t mind too much when crawling about underneath the car doing my own repairs. Being the 1970s and the unreliability of that era compared to today was not great.
Many years later I tried the new car method (£7000 Micra in 1991) and trading it in after just 2 years at a depreciation of £2600, so around 38% against another Micra. I kept this 2nd Micra for 20 years and did 130,000miles, before scrapping it due to the head gasket going for the second time. £7000 over 20 years =£350 per year with very little spent and very low maintenance.
It is now over 40 years since my crawling about days, and I have no interest or desire to do that now, even though I have more time than ever before. My 3rd method was buying a 6 year old car for £4000 in 2012, so have had this for nearly 7 years-2 litre diesel, with the reliable D4D engine. Two things have needed replacing in that time-a battery and calliper. Yesterday the alternator failed on me, and rightly or wrongly it has made me start to question my options of car ownership, and whether I actually need a car.
I have only been doing around 3k miles per year. This last year I only did 2k. Obviously the tax & insurance has to be paid whether you use the car a loads or very little. If the clutch was to go, that is a another few hundred quid.
Just curious about the method of ownerships that others choose these days.
In the early days I would have an old second hand car, and didn’t mind too much when crawling about underneath the car doing my own repairs. Being the 1970s and the unreliability of that era compared to today was not great.
Many years later I tried the new car method (£7000 Micra in 1991) and trading it in after just 2 years at a depreciation of £2600, so around 38% against another Micra. I kept this 2nd Micra for 20 years and did 130,000miles, before scrapping it due to the head gasket going for the second time. £7000 over 20 years =£350 per year with very little spent and very low maintenance.
It is now over 40 years since my crawling about days, and I have no interest or desire to do that now, even though I have more time than ever before. My 3rd method was buying a 6 year old car for £4000 in 2012, so have had this for nearly 7 years-2 litre diesel, with the reliable D4D engine. Two things have needed replacing in that time-a battery and calliper. Yesterday the alternator failed on me, and rightly or wrongly it has made me start to question my options of car ownership, and whether I actually need a car.
I have only been doing around 3k miles per year. This last year I only did 2k. Obviously the tax & insurance has to be paid whether you use the car a loads or very little. If the clutch was to go, that is a another few hundred quid.
Just curious about the method of ownerships that others choose these days.