Looking for some advice. At the moment I drive an 11-year-old 1.25 petrol Fiesta which has just ticked over 106k miles; I've owned it for 8 years. My commute is about 100 miles per day, 4 days a week, and the Fiesta can be really uncomfortable and a chore to drive on the motorway all the time. I'm thinking of changing the car but I'm not sure which option would be best out of buying a second hand car outright or going down the leasing route.

 

Unfortunately the Fiesta seems to have sprung a coolant leak which will be looked at next week, and may or may not be a cheap fix. Given the age of the car, I'm thinking it may be time to change but my mileage (about 22k miles a year) may be an issue; leasing may be expensive and a second hand car would depreciate quickly.

People often look at depreciation as a simple loss...but the other way to look at is paying ~£100 a month for comfort, ease and reliability...  So it's a bit like leasing, you just have to sell the car when the 'lease' runs out instead of handing it back hassle free...

I don't know what your budget is, but I'd suggest the best way to buy or lease would be a car that is just around 1 year old...the worst of the depreciation is over but you still get all the benefits of a nearly new car, including manufacturers warranty.

 

I'm still toying with the budget but I'd probably keep my next car for a long time as well, so on that basis I'd be willing to spend more. At the moment I'm thinking £15k, but may drop it down to about £12k. Haven't quite decided on an exact figure yet; I'd be willing to spend more on something that I know I'd keep for a long time, but then I don't want to spend too much but I don't want to spend too little. Tricky situation.

I find audis to retain their value more than other German brands. Could get yourself a A6 with a decent spec for £15k

8 hours ago, zain611 said:

I find audis to retain their value more than other German brands. Could get yourself a A6 with a decent spec for £15k

I would have to agree here,around here loads have gone for a Audi and mainly the A3 or A4 and either the new petrol ones (2 years old) as good on fuel or Diesel.

Our next door travels a lot so does a good amount of miles and 12 months ago had a Audi A4 2015 reg..and i think its great and so,so comfy with very low road noise,i will look

out Audi next about 2 or 3 years old.

Thanks for the replies. I'll probably consider an Audi, or a Honda Civic or similar size car.

The good news is I've found where the coolant leak is coming from - slightly crack in the expansion bottle, so it's a cheap fix to replace it. Would it be worth buying a second-hand part or getting my local to buy a brand new pattern part from the motor factors?

Depends really. Look to see if there's a big difference in price but always check the condition of a used one. 

On 5/19/2019 at 8:01 PM, TomsFocus said:

  So it's a bit like leasing, you just have to sell the car when the 'lease' runs out instead of handing it back hassle free...

👍 I agree. Whichever way you buy/lease/pcp a vehicle, all you're really doing is covering the depreciation between the point you acquire it and the point you dispose of it, plus funding the interest on the capital cost.

It does pay to do the sums thoroughly. I've seen some really good pcp/lease rates because manufacturers finance arms overestimated the future value, so the "buyer" was funding quite low depreciation. There were some amazing rates on the Golf R a few years back for instance, which now seem to have disappeared.

13 hours ago, lloydyyy said:

Thanks for the replies. I'll probably consider an Audi, or a Honda Civic or similar size car.

The good news is I've found where the coolant leak is coming from - slightly crack in the expansion bottle, so it's a cheap fix to replace it. Would it be worth buying a second-hand part or getting my local to buy a brand new pattern part from the motor factors?

They're prone to failure and only cost about £10 at the main dealer (cost more at ECP for pattern part!) so I'd recommend sticking with genuine for these.

10 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

They're prone to failure and only cost about £10 at the main dealer (cost more at ECP for pattern part!) so I'd recommend sticking with genuine for these.

My local Day's dealer quoted £22 for the expansion tank and £7 for the cap. Pattern part is about £20. Going for the genuine part.

Just to top it off, I could hear a rattling underneath the car on my way to pick up the new part - the back box had detatched off its hook. A simple weld and now it seems fine. Might be the start of things slowly going on the car now...

Any recommendations on where to look for a lease? Wouldn't mind seeing what the sums add up to. VW offered me a 1.6 TDI Golf Match for £2.5k upfront, £280 a month over 4 years and an optional payment to buy of £6.5k. I don't fancy a lease over 4 years so I'll have a look elsewhere to see what's around.

Most places let you tailor a quote to your requirements, so a higher deposit for a lower monthly payment or shorter lease period for example.  

CarWow might be able to help if you're looking at brand new cars.

On 5/20/2019 at 7:00 AM, jace1969 said:

I would have to agree here,around here loads have gone for a Audi and mainly the A3 or A4 and either the new petrol ones (2 years old) as good on fuel or Diesel.

Our next door travels a lot so does a good amount of miles and 12 months ago had a Audi A4 2015 reg..and i think its great and so,so comfy with very low road noise,i will look

out Audi next about 2 or 3 years old.

I've noticed that also. I'm seeing a good amount of A3s with petrol engines now. Must be becoming more fuel efficient. The government ain't helping with this ULEZ charge also which might be one of the reasons people are getting petrols. Someone I was talking to said his friends boss spent £2 million getting trucks which are not part of the charge and that he took a loan out and remortgaged his house. 

Popped to my local Sinclair VW dealer on the weekend to get some figures but after having a think I've ruled out leasing:

# New T-Roc SE 1.6 diesel
£2.5k deposit
5.9% APR
£300 a month over 4 years
Without maintenance
Didn't ask what the balloon figure was; didn't think it would be worth it anyway.

# New Golf SE 1.6 diesel
£2.5k deposit
3.8% APR
£381 over 3 years
Without maintenance
Didn't ask what the balloon figure was; didn't think it would be worth it anyway.

# New Polo SE 1.6 diesel
£750 deposit contribution
5.2% APR
£332 over 3 years
Without maintenance
Didn't ask what the balloon figure was; didn't think it would be worth it anyway.

# Ex demo Golf SE Nav 1.6 diesel
£1500 deposit contribution 
Sale price £17990
£2.5k deposit
42 months finance - £301
36 months finance - £325
Final payment £6100-ish
7.8% APR
2 years free servicing

A friend of mine in work will soon be selling his 2014 Honda Civic SE Plus. It's a 1.6 diesel with 70k on the clock and its MOT history is spotless. Comes with full main dealer service history and he'll be asking £5k but I can't remember if he'll be selling the car with its current mileage or hanging onto it for a bit longer but then it'll be sold with about 90k on the clock. I'm considering that option. But my car is only worth about £1k tops, even with full service history and a folder full of receipts - considering running it it the ground as it's not worth much.

Well our next door has had a Honda Jazz 1.4 petrol and she is 64 and she had it from new 2009 and she only had 1 problem,flat battery and the car had done 103k

and all she does is service it once every 12 months,main dealer service don't do anything if its a good place where you have it serviced as other places charge less

and you get more and i have seen main service footage on my dash cam,never again for me for last 2 years,it don't add money to sell it.

Being a Diesel i would say the mileage is nothing as they go for ever if serviced so 90k aint bad but the price of Diesel cars are rock bottom and still getting cheaper so think of this.

The gearbox on the Fiesta is starting to show signs of trouble, so I've achieved my goal of running the car into the ground.

I went to look around at cars today and came across a 2017 Seat Leon Xclusive 1.4 TSI with about 16k miles on the clock for £13k. It seemed very refined to drive. Are these TSI engines any good? Or is diesel still the better option?

12 hours ago, lloydyyy said:

I went to look around at cars today and came across a 2017 Seat Leon Xclusive 1.4 TSI with about 16k miles on the clock for £13k. It seemed very refined to drive. Are these TSI engines any good? Or is diesel still the better option?

I'm not up to date with which Leon has which engine as SEAT are forever swapping things. However, basically there are two 1.4's in circulation: a 125ps version and a 140ps version, which was upped to 150ps on later cars so probably on a 2017. The 125ps is ok, the 140/150ps very good indeed for performance and economy and is now the staple petrol motor across the VW/Audi/Skoda/SEAT ranges. I have seen mentions of a few "kangarooing" issues lately allegedly due to mods to meet WLTP**, but you should be ok with a 2017. I had a Mk 3 Leon for 3 years and it's a decent car. I made the error of opting for the 1.8, which has similar torque to the 150 1.4 so only really quicker above 4,000rpm and a fair bit thirstier. Plenty about the car and engine on seatcupra.net, which is a pretty helpful/friendly forum.

**later versions have had a slight capacity increase to 1.5, btw

12 hours ago, lloydyyy said:

The gearbox on the Fiesta is starting to show signs of trouble, so I've achieved my goal of running the car into the ground.

I went to look around at cars today and came across a 2017 Seat Leon Xclusive 1.4 TSI with about 16k miles on the clock for £13k. It seemed very refined to drive. Are these TSI engines any good? Or is diesel still the better option?

2017 is the changeover for tax from emissions based to flat rate so depending on when it was registered the diesel may be ~£100 cheaper to tax.  

Fuel economy will also be better on the diesel, probably by around 20% depending on when and where you drive.  However the 1.6 TDI is a dull engine, the 1.4 TSI is a lot more fun...so depends what you want from a car really.  By 2017 you don't have to worry about the VW emissions update or ULEZ zones.  The TSI and TDI are roughly the same in terms of reliability.