Advice needed - Buy Crashed Saab Vs Keep Golf

homerjk

Hey guys,

Apologies for this monster post but, basically I am just looking for some general advice from people who have some experience in this area about whether I should go one way or the other or tell me I'm off my head!

1. I currently own a 98 VW Golf Mark 4 1.9 Tdi 120K. I bought it in June 2005 for €7500 with 95K. I bought it off a dealer who had it as a trade in. There was only one previous owner from new, a priest. He had it VW serviced every 15000 miles. I did not get it serviced as it was due its NCT at 115K. I had it pre NCT’d with a mechanic who was recommended by a VW dealer as he had learned his trade working in VW garages and was now working for himself, fixing mainly VW cars. It passed the NCT until 09-08 (but it won’t be called for NCT until 12-08)

2. I have the opportunity to buy a crashed 2002 Saab 9-5 2.2 TiD 75K. It is €3500 and is a Northern car so VRT should be about €4000 on top, so €7500 before its fixed. It needs an airbag, grill, front bumper, headlights and right and left front panels. These are the only things that need fixing, there is no structural damage.

I am leaving in September 2008 for a year and a half so no matter what car I am driving I am selling it then. The reason why I am getting itchy feet on this is I am very wary of losing a load of money on the golf if I was to keep it until I leave. From looking at the market, if I was to sell it now I could get somewhere between €5000 and €6000 for the golf. This level of loss I could take. From looking at the market I can see that this saab undamaged is anywhere between €15k and €17.5k. So this would leave me with between €7.5 and €10k to spend on it to get it fixed before it would match the undamaged price. I have not got a quote on how much it would be to fix, I wont find this out until the weekend until I get in contact with a panel beater, the guy that is selling it only sells them, he doesn’t fix them. He does sell a number of crashed cars so its not a one off. The one thing people seem to be telling me is that the airbag will be very expensive to replace and it’s a bastard to get them re fitted properly, is this really the case? So my situation can be boiled down to these questions…

• How much do you think the golf will be worth if I kept until Sept 08? (I will probably have another 15K on it by then)
• How much do you think it will cost to get the Saab repaired? (I will find out this weekend, but it would be nice to have an idea in my head before I rang a few panel beaters)
• When re-selling cars how much does a previously damaged car affect the price? Will people not touch it with a barge pole?
• If I did go ahead and buy and fix the saab how much do you think I would get in Sept 08?
• Are Saabs in general hard to re-sell, let alone repaired ones?
• What would you do?!!!!

barryfitz

I would never buy a crashed Car! Its just going to give you hassle down the line and then youl probably have trouble selling it aswell, If I was you I would hold onto the golf till you leave and be happy with whatever you get for it! Thats just me though!

craichoe

A crashed and repaired car NEVER has the same value as an undamaged one, you dont know whats been fixed or not fixed and it could have any sort of problem pop up with it , cracked wire etc from as the result of the crash.

IMHO, buying a wrecked Saab (which is quiet expensive for parts) and repairing is just mad.

Why is the person selling it trying to sell it in the first place !

peasant

Depreciation on Saabs is fairly steep, especially so on the 9-5.
A crash-repaired one will never make the money you're looking at.
Come next year September your 6 year old repaired Saab with around 100 k miles will be worth 8 - 9000 ...if you're lucky ...probably a lot less, especially so if you're off in a hurry and want to sell it quickly.

The 2.2 GM diesel never was a great engine either and it is over the magical 2 liter mark which will put a lot of people off from a tax and ins point of view.

I wouldn't do it if i was you.

galwaytt

homerjk wrote:

[*] What would you do?!!!!
[/LIST]

easy, keep the golf, take some cash that you would have spent on the Saab and it's repair/depreciation, and then use that to buy a Harley.

When you go abroad, you'll get nearly all your H-D money back...........

oh, and you might get 3k for the Golf then.

unkel

Sorry if I'm the bearer of bad news, but there is not a hope you'll get €5k-€6k for a 9 year old Golf diesel with 120k miles on it

colm_mcm

Keep the Golf, The 95 isn't that nice a drive anyway, even with the 2.2

unkel

colm_mcm wrote:

Keep the Golf, The 95 isn't that nice a drive anyway, even with the 2.2

Yeah I was implying to keep the Golf. Do a family member or a mate a favour and sell what you know is a good, well maintained car, to them (for peanuts) before you emigrate

junkyard

I've got a whole front and airbags for the Saab if your looking.

bazz26

unkel wrote:

Sorry if I'm the bearer of bad news, but there is not a hope you'll get €5k-€6k for a 9 year old Golf diesel with 120k miles on it

My thoughts exactly.

The Golf will be alot easier to sell on than the SAAB too. The last thing you want when your leaving the country is a car that is difficult to shift.

unkel

bazz26 wrote:

The last thing you want when your leaving the country is a car that is difficult to shift.

Right on. What makes it worse is that any old D-segment car is very hard to shift in this country. A Saab is harder than most others in the segment to shift. Chances of selling a damaged repaired Saab are slim to none even if you've loads of time

homerjk

Cheers everyone, thats me told then!
Regarding the price for the Golf I was just going by this. And mine is a late 98 registered car. Is Carzone not a good benchmark, are they way overpriced?

I'm just conscious of losing a load of money on the Golf. I was thinking of maybe trading up to something to try and minimize the loss. I don't know whether I'm making this too simple and assuming its too easy to get a buyer for a car.:o

What about his scenario, maybe my maths is wrong...
1. By the time I leave Ill have a car loan left of €1500. So if I kept the Golf and going by galwaytts €3k valuation (don't worry I'm not holding that as gospel!) I would be left with €1500 over.

2. Say I bought say a 01 diesel Passat for €8.5k to €9k. If I was lucky with the Golf now, I would only have to outlay another €3.5k to €4k to buy it. Then when selling next year I would only have to get €6.5k to €7k to be in the same situation but I would have a younger car which would be easier to sell no? The major assumption is the valuation of the Passat in 15 months time. I could be way over valuing it which would make this point moot!

Also I can start selling my car a month or 2 months before I go so I wont be in that much of a rush to sell it. I can also get my dad to sell it after I leave so it wont be a total **** or bust choice!

Again, your informed advice is greatly appreciated!

old boy

if the airbag popped then forget it, you are making things hard on yourself, you seem as if you want to change cars anyway,