3.5 litre would I be mad?

Tipsy Mac

I'm thinking of getting myself a big barge, either a Honda Legend or a Lexus LS400, a fairly old one now, something for between 6 and 8k but loaded with climate control and leather seats. Now I don't do many miles, probably 150 miles a week so petrol costs shouldn't be too high. The way I am looking at it is I will be getting a great spec car for little money and because of it's age will depreciate very little each year. So my main problem is road tax for it will be €1434 a year, alot you might say but I am thinking if I was to buy say a run of the mill 3 year old VW Golf or Focus it would likely lose 2k a year in depreciation or more. Any opinions on running costs and the like would be much appreciated. Looks like it will do about 23mpg according to Parkers, this will almost half the mpg of my current 1.4 car.


I spotted this Honda Legend one with low milage for €6950
http://www.usedcars.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=639889

Tony Danza

Seems like you thought things through, sure if you only pay tax for 3 months, you'll have some time to decide whether you made the right choice and probably be able to sell the car on with a very small loss.

Mc-BigE

Tipsy Mac wrote:

So my main problem is road tax for it will be €1434

Good news! It’s actually 1343 Euro a year!:D that’s an extra weeks petrol paid for;)

The 1343 is easily solved, just put away 112 euros into a drawer or bank account every month.

The hard part is the MPG, 150miles a week at 19miles per g. = approx 7.5 to 8 gallons a week that’s 36litres a week about 40 euros a week petrol. That’s about 2100 a year. That doesn't sound too bad actually, but normally you'll find yourself doing more miles than you might think!

It’s a lot of luxury for small money a year


have a look at this bmw 730 on pistonheads, very low mileage and vrt must be small money

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/146165.htm

GTC

Beautiful car, go for it mate.

Tipsy Mac

Yeah I'm going to look at a few this weekend, sure worst case scenario keep it for a year and get rid of it, will be luxury motoring on a budget.

ninty9er

Go for it....I'm eventually going to nget something massive like this when I get into the real world....can't put a price on comfort (unless you're a student that is:D )

ninty9er

for my money it'd have to be one of these:




don't know if I could live with the wheels though

edit:spelling

Fey!

Have you looked at the Legend Coupe? I've had the Civic and Accord coupes, and seriously looked for a Legend coupe when I changed last time, but couldn't find one .

This Legend saloon has high mileage but, compared to others on carzone, seems to be priced accordingly. http://www.usedcars.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=589136

unkel

I've been playing that game now for many years. Tax is bad @ €1343 per annum but you'll still be a winner if:

-insurance is ok (typically better on a big car than on a smaller lower perfomance car) and you have a long no claims bonus

-your annual mileage is not that high

-you service your car yourself, or you have a trusted mechanic to do it for you

-you know there is a risk. If something major would happen, you'd still be able to arrange for alternative transport

bazz26

Fey! wrote:

Have you looked at the Legend Coupe? I've had the Civic and Accord coupes, and seriously looked for a Legend coupe when I changed last time, but couldn't find one .

This Legend saloon has high mileage but, compared to others on carzone, seems to be priced accordingly. http://www.usedcars.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=589136

160k miles is only just run in on a 3.5 litre V6 or V8 engine.

To OP if these type of cars are looked after properly then most will outlast their owners. Service history is very important imo with luxury barges rather than what the odometer reads. If you find one with a good proper service history then your laughing as most would have been owned or leased by companies to their VPs or MDs which means they were serviced and maintained properly. Granted you will not run one of these cars on a shoe string budget but if looked after they will not cost a fortune to keep on the road. If there is no service history then you don't know what you may be buying and could end up with a money pit.

Best of luck there are alot of choices in this class of car once you get over the road tax and fuel bills.

TychoCaine

Wouldn't you think of going for a car with a smaller engine, but with a turbo or supercharger to give you similar BHP? I'm driving a 180BHP 2.0t Volvo S80 right now. Leather, electrics and air con, and it's only 12" shorter than a Transit, so it's most certainly a barge. I get over 30 mpg and pay < €550 road tax.

Gary