I thought about getting a new car the other day. A brand new car straight from the manufacturer can lose 50% its value as soon as you drive it off the forecourt. A terrible investment if I ever saw one. But I might need a car one day for practical reasons, so I decided to do a bit of research on buying my possible future car.
My ideal car is the Saleen S7, but these cost about £200k. I would rather put that kind of money into a new business or into an investment property. My second favorite car is the BMW Z3 which is a 2-seater sports car that I just love the look of. Secondhand, these can now be picked up for around £3k, which is good considering that 10 years ago they cost about £30k. A good place to search for cars is autotrader.
A 2 seater sports car is not practical enough for me, as its too small and uneconomical for things like shopping and long distance travel. I decided on a 5 year old Mercedes Benz, 4 door saloon car (in silver or black). These can be picked up for secondhand for less than £5k, which is funny considering that the model I selected cost around £40k when it was new. I would buy this car outright in cash, to avoid loan repayments.
I remember a few weeks ago I stopped in at a garage and a man was having his Mercedes 2 door sports car fixed. Its quite a recent car and costs 35K new, but this man had bought it at an auction for about £10k because it was damaged, and including repairs, his total cost was £12k.
If you are buying a car, never buy one brand new (unless you are a super rich multi-millionaire) as cars usually lose a phenomenal amount of value within a short space of time. Whenever you see someone driving a top of the range sports car, remember that they probably are not rich and probably can't afford it, as it is probably on a hire purchase loan so they are heavily in debt, or the car has been purchased very cheaply secondhand.
My ideal car is the Saleen S7, but these cost about £200k. I would rather put that kind of money into a new business or into an investment property. My second favorite car is the BMW Z3 which is a 2-seater sports car that I just love the look of. Secondhand, these can now be picked up for around £3k, which is good considering that 10 years ago they cost about £30k. A good place to search for cars is autotrader.
A 2 seater sports car is not practical enough for me, as its too small and uneconomical for things like shopping and long distance travel. I decided on a 5 year old Mercedes Benz, 4 door saloon car (in silver or black). These can be picked up for secondhand for less than £5k, which is funny considering that the model I selected cost around £40k when it was new. I would buy this car outright in cash, to avoid loan repayments.
I remember a few weeks ago I stopped in at a garage and a man was having his Mercedes 2 door sports car fixed. Its quite a recent car and costs 35K new, but this man had bought it at an auction for about £10k because it was damaged, and including repairs, his total cost was £12k.
If you are buying a car, never buy one brand new (unless you are a super rich multi-millionaire) as cars usually lose a phenomenal amount of value within a short space of time. Whenever you see someone driving a top of the range sports car, remember that they probably are not rich and probably can't afford it, as it is probably on a hire purchase loan so they are heavily in debt, or the car has been purchased very cheaply secondhand.
There was a good TV show recently called Tonight, which talked about current car prices. It shows that right now car prices are plummeting. It also showed that many people who have cars, forget to accurately compute the running costs. A big luxury car can cost over £3000 per year just for petrol! People forget about additional running costs like: repair costs, parking tickets, tax, MOT, etc. In contrast, a yearly bus pass costs about £500. If I do buy a car, I'll be looking to spend as little money as possible, so I'd buy something small with low running costs such as the Toyota Yaris.
So in the end, what car did I buy? I didn't buy any car, as I analysed my current needs and decided that I don't need a car at the moment. The thought of shelling out lots of money to buy a car and run it each year makes me feel dizzy from the potential sudden loss of thousands of pounds. This decision is a massive saving from simply not spending any money. For now, I'm happy saving boatloads of money by using public transport.
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