New car buying decision
 

Hi, have been thinking and looking for a while now, for a newer car to replace one of ours, probably my wife's kia ceed sw. I've found a nice skoda octavia estate just gone two years old. After great deliberations I've decided to keep what we have got as both cars are going well. The main factor is the uncertainty over the price of diesel, why is it so much more than petrol? I'm just not prepared to spend £10k on a newish car. The garage has already dropped the for sale price twice and sound as if they would give me a good trade in price for the kia.

You and a lot of people are in the same quandy and that is why car sales are down.

I was speaking to a friend in the trade a few weeks ago and he reckons with the diesel, petrol and electric option people have and the uncertainty of what the cost of the fuel and road fund licence and then to top it off the B word it has killed car sales new and used. He has cars on his forecourt and a lot less than cost to shift them with amazing finance deals and people are not even wondering onto the forecourt to have a look. Ford are giving away diesel cars to dealers if they buy extra stock.

Apparently even fleet sales are down and that is very unusual apparently.

If you have the money and what to take a gamble you will probably get the deal of a lifetime on a car at the moment.

My money would be on petrol or petrol hybrid at the moment, diesel has had its day in my view and I reckon it will only get worse especially on newly registered cars. Electric is good but the infer structure is no there yet and the battery life is not good enough for long journeys. Another 5 years and I reckon battery is going to be the car everybody wants. When you consider the average life of a car in the UK is 7 years not much point in worrying.

A family member has just bought a two year old diesel, said it was a good deal. Some excellent prices on diesels about if you are a high mile driver.

The issues around diesel make deals pretty easy to get at the moment.

Do the sums for you between costs per litre & mpg & taxes/maintenance costs etc.

I'm sure this is teaching granny to suck eggs but think carefully about how the car is used Re: dpf.

Good luck.

Andy.

We would have normally traded in SWMBO’s car by now. We tend to buy approx 3 year old cars, keep them for a further three years then sell and buy again.

But with the uncertainty regarding how cars are taxed and fuelled we are staying put. I have a list of jobs on the ZTT which I look forward to doing and SWMBO’s i30 estate has proved totally reliable, comfortable and inexpensive to run.

So the capital stays invested where it has made a fair bit of late whereas the certainty of monetary loss on a car purchase is simply not an attractive option at all.

My son bought a Focus and a Kia Rio at the same time. The Rio was used and abused far more than the Ford. When they were due for changing (both same age but far more mileage on the Kia) it was the Kia that was in far better condition underneath. The Ford had more corrosion. They were both bought from the same dealer but the dealer said that Kia were far better at sorting out warranty problems! (ie no hassle):shrug:

Our kia sept '63 has done 171k, it's going like a rocket, underneath it's beautiful. Not a great fan of ford.

If you cars are running well, with no issues, then why spend money replacing? Until the government sorts out the pile of s***, that is Brexit, and get round to clarifying the 'diesel question' personally I would wait and see, in any case I would not replace a car that is fulfilling its function for any reason, so hang on and see what happens, also don't forget it is a buyer's market so haggle hard when you decide to go ahead, remember in any negotiating, state your point and then say nothing let the other guy come back.

You will be hard pushed to buy a newish petrol motor at the moment, forecourts are swapped with diesel motors which nobody wants.

My local car dealer has a list of customers who want petrol motors which he cannot supply, petrol and hybrid motors are being sold before they even make it to the forecourt. :eek: