Could I save much by trading for smaller car

IvoryTower

I have a 2007 ford mondeo zetec tdci diesel. It has high mileage, something like 250,000 miles. I think that values it 2-3k according to done deal.

I live 4km from work and at the weekend I might visit my parents who are 11km away.

I had to buy tyres and tax the car yesterday and was thinking if I had a smaller car it might cost less(tax is almost 700 per year). We have a child so I wouldn't want something too small. Middle of the road.

Do you think is there much of a saving to be made? Either car will have to do me for about 2-3 years while i'm saving for a house.

Thanks!

Alanstrainor

I'd say keep it if it is driving well and reliably. Service it well and keep it just ticking over. If you've just bought tyres then they should do you for a long while yet at that kind of mileage. I can't see you seeing much benefit in changing. Even changing to a 1.4 petrol focus of a similar vintage wont see much savings (if any at all).

Del2005

IvoryTower wrote: »

I have a 2007 ford mondeo zetec tdci diesel. It has high mileage, something like 250,000 miles. I think that values it 2-3k according to done deal.

I live 4km from work and at the weekend I might visit my parents who are 11km away.

I had to buy tyres and tax the car yesterday and was thinking if I had a smaller car it might cost less(tax is almost 700 per year). We have a child so I wouldn't want something too small. Middle of the road.

Do you think is there much of a saving to be made? Either car will have to do me for about 2-3 years while i'm saving for a house.

Thanks!

You just put €1k into it, if you sell it now you won't get any extra money put will make it slightly easier to sell. The prices on Donedeal are what people are looking for not what they are getting. With the milage you might not even get the money for the tax and tyres back as Irish people are terrified of cars over 100k miles. Then there's always the risk that the car you buy is a lemon and needs more money thrown at it.

IvoryTower

Sorry i wasn't clear, i taxed it for 3 months and the tyres were second hand. But I imagine that doesnt change your opinion on whether to keep it or not! Thanks for the replies

jimgoose

IvoryTower wrote: »

Sorry i wasn't clear, i taxed it for 3 months and the tyres were second hand. But I imagine that doesnt change your opinion on whether to keep it or not! Thanks for the replies

You'd get a lot of motor tax for what it would cost you to update. i can't see any reason to chop in a good car like that, especially with that mileage. Speaking of tax, you do know that taxing that by the quarter costs you an extra €90 per annum?

IvoryTower

Yep I know, I tax for longer if I have the money available. I'm putting my missus through college and was thinking I could give her the smaller car when she qualified and get a newish car but I don't think i'll bother changing unless it will save us money for the next 2-3 years

jimgoose

IvoryTower wrote: »

Yep I know, I tax for longer if I have the money available. I'm putting my missus through college and was thinking I could give her the smaller car when she qualified and get a newish car but I don't think i'll bother changing unless it will save us money for the next 2-3 years

It won't.

IvoryTower

thanks lads appreciate it

greengone

Running costs of small meduim and large cars tend to be similar in the low and mid range prices if you strip up deprecation .
Insurance tends to be similar for these mid price range cars as they are not classed as sports car with higher insurance premuims
New cars deprecation is high and old cars is much lower
Large kilometers will push the case to drop to smaller size
Larger engine with large CC increased fuel use and large motor tax will push the case for smaller car

Looking your story the deprecation is very small the kilometers is small and the road tax prices are not too much .

I cant see any advantage to change this car now and if there was saving they might be minimal.

What is worth looking is the online Renault calculator at the Renault Ireland site .
Type in the numbers and look the repayments on newwer cars versus the car you have. Yes the calculator will distorte the story but its actualy not so bad
I was impressed
It throws up high milage cars doing high milage it is probaly much cheaper to buy newwer car and pay the fixxed repayments .
The case for you might not be so strong but still worth looking at .
However I cant say i would buy anything french and keep it long term the electronics tend to get expensive gremlins after 6 years .The Japanese cars seems to be the most resistant to electronic gremlins best i can tell.There are other good makes but look the forums for car makes for ECU problems and that often shows the lemons out there

Del2005

IvoryTower wrote: »

thanks lads appreciate it

If you want to save money sell the car before your insurance is due for renewal. 4km is easily done on a bicycle and if it's hilly get an electric assisted one. For the visits to family a taxi or car club would be cheaper than motor tax and insurance.

IvoryTower

That's worth a thought alright. Dropping kid to creche be rough though.

It's 170k miles btw, I was off a little ha

Alanstrainor

IvoryTower wrote: »

That's worth a thought alright. Dropping kid to creche be rough though.

It's 170k miles btw, I was off a little ha

Barely broke in sure!

Jesus.

greengone wrote: »

it is probaly much cheaper to buy newwer car and pay the fixxed repayments .

That's interesting Greengone. If you're purely talking about cheapest, the conventional wisdom on here tends to be to buy cheap, rack up the miles and dump her when she's cooked (or sell her on for a few hundred quid). Then move onto the next Banger.

Your theory goes against that Sir

IvoryTower

It seems to think ill save about 2 grand.

colm_mcm

It's nonsense.

Vic_08

greengone wrote: »

What is worth looking is the online Renault calculator at the Renault Ireland site .
Type in the numbers and look the repayments on newwer cars versus the car you have. Yes the calculator will distorte the story but its actualy not so bad
I was impressed
It throws up high milage cars doing high milage it is probaly much cheaper to buy newwer car and pay the fixxed repayments .
The case for you might not be so strong but still worth looking at .
However I cant say i would buy anything french and keep it long term the electronics tend to get expensive gremlins after 6 years .The Japanese cars seems to be the most resistant to electronic gremlins best i can tell.There are other good makes but look the forums for car makes for ECU problems and that often shows the lemons out there

Utter drivel.

Ways NOT to save money:

1. Buy new/near new car and put it on finance.
2. Listen to people that advise the above.


OP you have 3 realistic options:

Keep the car and swallow the tax which is the only significant avoidable cost with that car.

Sell the car and use public transport/bike/foot.

Sell the Mondeo and buy a cheap 1 litre wonder, (being mindful of some insurance companies arbitrary 10/15 year age limits) and if you are lucky you could have enough over to pay a few years tax on it.

The big problem with changing the car is that finding a good cheap small car is not so easy, dungdeal is full of junkers in that category so you would need someone who knows what to look for.

The cost of tax is hard to swallow when you are doing such small mileage but the savings of a small engine yoke won't be that great really and at least you currently have a decent car if you need to make any lengthy journeys.

IvoryTower

Yeah that's it. Driving to kildare at the weekend and it's hard to imagine doing it in a 1L after having the mondeo for a few years. I bought it for 3k almost 4 years ago, great deal

jimgoose

IvoryTower wrote: »

Yeah that's it. Driving to kildare at the weekend and it's hard to imagine doing it in a 1L after having the mondeo for a few years. I bought it for 3k almost 4 years ago, great deal

So. A solid, comfy old sofa that owes you nothing and has proven reliable, reasonably economical and the only downside is the slightly hefty tax. Much of that is familiar to me. You'd have to be clean off your head to change it.

jimgoose

greengone wrote: »

...Type in the numbers and look the repayments on newwer cars versus the car you have. Yes the calculator will distorte the story...

I'll say. It bunged in €500 for my yoke to have the timing belt changed. :pac:

IvoryTower

jimgoose wrote: »

So. A solid, comfy old sofa that owes you nothing and has proven reliable, reasonably economical and the only downside is the slightly hefty tax. Much of that is familiar to me. You'd have to be clean off your head to change it.

ha fair enough

galvo_clare

greengone wrote: »

What is worth looking is the online Renault calculator at the Renault Ireland site .

The last time I played around with that it made the assumption that my own car was due a service and tyres. It really skewed the figures and I found it totally unrealistic. Maybe they've changed it since.

jimgoose

galvo_clare wrote: »

The last time I played around with that it made the assumption that my own car was due a service and tyres. It really skewed the figures and I found it totally unrealistic. Maybe they've changed it since.

Mrs. Goose's '99 Xsara costs half as much as a fantasmagorical 161 Clio, anyway.

IvoryTower

galvo_clare wrote: »

The last time I played around with that it made the assumption that my own car was due a service and tyres. It really skewed the figures and I found it totally unrealistic. Maybe they've changed it since.

You're aloud to edit the numbers to make it more realistic. I don't want to pay 300 finance though I'll never save anything then