Car advice thread

carq

Ok currently driving a 2005 3 series E46

Need to change Car because of 710 Tax and now insurance has suspiciously gone up 150 Euro for no reason. My milage is minimal Monday - Friday, so i guess that rules out Diesel.
On the fence between getting a decent 2015 (12-14K) or so car or else looking to pick up something cheaper around the 2012 range (<7k) .

I'm guessing no dealer would accept my one as any type of trade in (The dash is like a christmas tree!). Would be looking for saloon type , 200 euro tax but with a decent grunt if required .

Any suggestions on approach ?

bazz26

Is your only reason for spending between 7k and 14k on a new car because of the tax and insurance on your existing car?

carq

bazz26 wrote: »

Is your only reason for spending between 7k and 14k on a new car because of the tax and insurance on your existing car?

Repair costs and upcoming nct are also a factor.
Its long overdue

Shefwedfan

Insurance is going up for everyone.....even the ladies are getting screwed now when they brought in the new rule to say they couldnt get better insurance. Instead of male insurance going down both of them went up.....

If milage is minimal would you be better keeping current car till it falls off road?

Or you like me want a new car?

Idbatterim

You want to save five hundred on motor tax and lose several thousand a year on depreciation and finance ?

If people are so concerned with cost , just go electric. First it was the cheap tax that led to people climbing over themselves to spend a fortune to save peanuts. And day now , they’ll realize that electric fuel is virtually free compared to diesel or petrol. Any one looking to change on money grounds now , better off doing it right now. Instead of two years down the line deciding to focus on the fuel cost issue ...

bazz26

Electric cars might be cheap to plug in and charge at the moment but they are still ridiculously overpriced to buy. So all that's changed is the cost of running them has been moved to the purchase price up front.

Idbatterim

bazz26 wrote: »

Electric cars might be cheap to plug in and charge at the moment but they are still ridiculously overpriced to buy. So all that's changed is the cost of running them has been moved to the purchase price up front.

older leafs for 6-7k etc would more than do for many buyers...

TheBoyConor

An electric car might be very cheap to run day to day but they are very very expensive and the depreciation on them is staggering because they battery technology is evolving quickly which means that in 3 or 4 years it will be obsolete and worth very little second hand.

You're back to the same situation of spending a huge amount to save a small amount and it just doesn't add up. To buy a new or electric car you would want to be driving it huge milage to make it more beneficial than just driving your old car into the ground.

Do a cost benefit analysis of changing you car over say 6 years. Include for capital cost, depreciation, maintenance, tax, insurance, fuel, NCT. Everything.

I only do about 10,000 km/yr and any time I have done an analysis it has never shown a net benefit for me. Either for savings on fuel/elec or tax or insurance costs being the driver.
It has always shown that driving the old car down into the ground works out better, even if it is not the lightest on fuel or the cheapest to tax.

Shefwedfan

TheBoyConor wrote: »

An electric car might be very cheap to run day to day but they are very very expensive and the depreciation on them is staggering because they battery technology is evolving quickly which means that in 3 or 4 years it will be obsolete and worth very little second hand.

You're back to the same situation of spending a huge amount to save a small amount and it just doesn't add up. To buy a new or electric car you would want to be driving it huge milage to make it more beneficial than just driving your old car into the ground.

Do a cost benefit analysis of changing you car over say 6 years. Include for capital cost, depreciation, maintenance, tax, insurance, fuel, NCT. Everything.

I only do about 10,000 km/yr and any time I have done an analysis it has never shown a net benefit for me. Either for savings on fuel/elec or tax or insurance costs being the driver.
It has always shown that driving the old car down into the ground works out better, even if it is not the lightest on fuel or the cheapest to tax.

Yes electric cars are expensive

Depreciation is not staggering and hasn’t been for a few years, the early Leaf has issues but that is long gone. I bought a 2012 Leaf for parents, put 40k on it and sold it for profit 2 years later

Battery technology is now at a level point, you will still see 40,60 and 80kWh cars in 5-10 years been sold. Manufacturers are not going to change now as costing too much to redesign cars

All said would I recommend the OP an electric car? Not unless he/she wants one and can install a home charger

TheBoyConor

Well if depreciation is even comparable with ICE cars then it makes electric more favourable but even so, you would want to be doing an awful lot of milage to recoup enough savings on running costs to offset the cost of the car.

For low milage drivers it probably still will be more advantageous to keep an existing ICE car and drive it into the dirt.

I looked at getting a second hand EV a while back and after a bit of analysis it was clear that it was actually going to be a lot cheaper to keep my 2004 Almera at €413/yr tax. The payback on the EV just wasn't there.

Another advantage is that I own it outright and it is costing me nothing, nor is it worth anything. If it calves this evening I could have another equivalent off of done deal in the morning for €400-500 and, with a bit of luck, get 3 or 4 years cheap motoring out of it.

Shefwedfan

TheBoyConor wrote: »

Well if depreciation is even comparable with ICE cars then it makes electric more favourable but even so, you would want to be doing an awful lot of milage to recoup enough savings on running costs to offset the cost of the car.

For low milage drivers it probably still will be more advantageous to keep an existing ICE car and drive it into the dirt.

People bought Ioniq in 2017 at 25k with scrappage....could sell them today for 20+

I had eGolf and drove for 3 years, nearly 60k km's on it and lost 3k in depreciation.



The depreciation argument is gone about 2 years ago. Still electric is not for everyone. With the budget of the OP they will be restricted to a Leaf or maybe they could find an eGolf.....very rare to get eGolf in price range. So swapping a BMW to go to a Leaf I wouldnt think would be a runner

bazz26

Idbatterim wrote: »

older leafs for 6-7k etc would more than do for many buyers...

What range does one of those have? 100km to 150km at best? If your doing actual diesel mileage then an older Leaf won't be the default alternative.

lalababa

I don't care what car op gets🙂. But was in ZUCAR cork awhile back and was pleasantly surprised at the price of some new enough leafs with very low milage ...15k for a 171 with 30kkm. That said I would be a fan of the older cars re bang for your buck. A 2008 1.6 petrol Volvo with 130kkm is around 2k. Engine just run in basically.🌞

Idbatterim

TheBoyConor wrote: »

An electric car might be very cheap to run day to day but they are very very expensive and the depreciation on them is staggering because they battery technology is evolving quickly which means that in 3 or 4 years it will be obsolete and worth very little second hand.

You're back to the same situation of spending a huge amount to save a small amount and it just doesn't add up. To buy a new or electric car you would want to be driving it huge milage to make it more beneficial than just driving your old car into the ground.

Do a cost benefit analysis of changing you car over say 6 years. Include for capital cost, depreciation, maintenance, tax, insurance, fuel, NCT. Everything.

I only do about 10,000 km/yr and any time I have done an analysis it has never shown a net benefit for me. Either for savings on fuel/elec or tax or insurance costs being the driver.
It has always shown that driving the old car down into the ground works out better, even if it is not the lightest on fuel or the cheapest to tax.

are you serious? go into the ev forum, there are people there who have sold EV a year or two later with little or no depreciation!

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2058034312

Idbatterim

TheBoyConor wrote: »

Well if depreciation is even comparable with ICE cars then it makes electric more favourable but even so, you would want to be doing an awful lot of milage to recoup enough savings on running costs to offset the cost of the car.

For low milage drivers it probably still will be more advantageous to keep an existing ICE car and drive it into the dirt.

I looked at getting a second hand EV a while back and after a bit of analysis it was clear that it was actually going to be a lot cheaper to keep my 2004 Almera at €413/yr tax. The payback on the EV just wasn't there.

Another advantage is that I own it outright and it is costing me nothing, nor is it worth anything. If it calves this evening I could have another equivalent off of done deal in the morning for €400-500 and, with a bit of luck, get 3 or 4 years cheap motoring out of it.

yeah it might not have made financial sense a few years ago, but you can now pick up a leaf from 6k etc... there is also a hell of a lot that can go wrong in a 6k diesel car v a 6k electric...

TheBoyConor

I wouldn't touch an older diesel car. They are reliability time bombs.

I'd only consider a petrol car and one that is as simple and plainly specced as possible to minimise the number of problems that might potentially arise.

I will take that on board about the low depreciation that is now on EVs. That is good. However, the flip side of that is that they are now expensive even second hand so that will still not help my own situation as for me it will still probably work out cheaper to drive my old petrol car than an EV on a per km basis. I hope to squeeze another 2 or 3 years out of my almera.