Pointless Topics

That’s crazy cars are so reliable now. In my day, etc… haha.

So weird, I just sold my car and was trying to calculate whether leasing is financially sensible as I’ve never had anyone explain it to me. We also bought a brand new RAV4 about 2 years ago so this is a big block of our monthly budget.

I hear a monthly payment of 1% of mrsp with no down payment is what to aim for.

There is a whole culture around it in the US called lease hacking, haven’t looked at if there is such a thing in the UK.

But yeah it does look like a good way to have a brand spanking new car every couple of years…

As someone who hasn’t owned a car for a while but I’m looking to get one at the mo. Probs in the next week or two. So excuse the stupid question. Does a lease cover insurance , tax, ect? Or just the car?

2001 polo.
Drivers side window just stopped working.
Got to open the door when going into a car park.

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99% sure you have to cover insurance and tax (probably part of the contractual agreement).

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When I used to work in the car trade, one of the mechanics had lost his licence for whatever reason, and used to buy shitheap taxed cars for like £200, and drive them until the car died. So the maximum he would lose on the car, bar petrol, was £200. Bearing in mind if you buy a new car it loses thousands as soon as you drive off the forecourt, it was an extremely cost effective (and illegal) way of owning a car.

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MOT, Tax and Insurance are all digital now. So not as good a dodge as it used to be.

Leasing is convenient for buyers and is still very profitable for the industry as long as we have cheap debt. It’s an import from the USA where everybody leases. As a negative it’s just more debt fuelled consumption which prevents people from valuing older stuff and keeping it running. Obviously you now have environmental and EV cars to throw in the mix too and they have an effect on the market.

My car is a £800 15 year old mondeo. Full leather heated and cooled seats. Heated windscreen. Large service history currently sat at 210k miles. Bought it with 13months mot to.

My car before that was a £400 mondeo ran it til it went bang. Timing chain needed doing since I bought it and ignored it.

Both of these were the best cheap cars available at very short notice when I needed them. The newest one I’ve had for nearly 2 years

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Exactly what I used to do. I’m pretty into cars and that’s my favourite end of the market…I love getting a bit of luxury or performance for under a grand.

When you get to the £3k-£5k area you are buying a lot more risk and you get forced to do more expensive fixes because it’s too expensive to scrap.

Above that but still under £10k you can buy very reliable fairly new rep mobiles which will run for years relatively trouble free as long as you service them.

I think a lot of people are scared of being out of warranty but I’ve run some cars that have a reputation for being ruinous (Mazda RX-7, AMGs) without incurring massive bills. Maybe just lucky :grin:

yes, this is exactly the cheapest way to own a car

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I had one of these, 11mpg

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Haha mine was even worse don’t think I ever saw double figures. It was a 1978 mk1 ‘Savannah’ with the small rear lights and lots of rust.

Mine was a 93, looked awesome but crippling running costs

Yeah it’s still such a good design but terrible as a daily driver I bet. Would be a good one to electrify.

I’ve looked into this. Was considering making EV from an old Porsche 993 or 911S, there’s only one company I’ve found that makes EV motors. Everyone else takes them from wrecked Teslas. But that comes with it’s own problems with wiring looms etc. Huge market potential there.

Used to have a 1974, 5.7 litre Chevrolet El Camino.
Funny thing. Thirsty.
I got a brand new car for the first time this year to replace my previous Polo.
This one is a Polo Gti.

One of the best cars I owned was a Saab 95 and in Sweden I had an A6 estate which was lovely to drive.
The last two each cost about 1500 quid.

New house has a posh garage with electric charging station.

Looking at buying a plug in hybrid. Most likely a Mercedes E-350.

Tesla model 3 at 500 per month on hire purchase is very tempting.

Have never financed a car though.

Always spent about 6-8k and got 3-4 years out of each one then p/x or sold for half what I paid. Break that down and it’s about 1k a year ish. Appreciate not everyone has a chunk of cash to drop but just seems such a better idea.

Alfa Giulietta
Nissan Quashqai
Audi Q3 - current

E Golf seems a nice option of electric car.

Gte it might be called.

Too small.