Hi All Petrol Heads!
Just wanted a little whinge to the other petrol heads out there....
The other day I found out just how expensive my love of cars is...
I have to change my beautiful 2008 BMW 325i for a 5 door saloon due to the fact there is a little Munky on the way...
So after owning my car for almost 2 years I find it has stolen approx. £10k from me; it's worth about half what I paid. If it had been new I would expect this, but it was almost 2 years old when I bought it!
And I distinctly remember the salesman spouting about 'best-in-class residuals'!
So what is it about cars that makes us go soft in the head?! And dare you admit how much you have lost on a car (or cars) over the years?!
Still, the good news is I'm getting a new car! I pick up a Jaguar XF at the weekend!
Oh and I mustn't forget, I'm going to be a dad!
Regards,
fM
hope it fits in the garage...
Don't have that problem, I avoid new-ish cars like the plague, don't like them anyway! :smiley-laughing:
We have two old diesel Fiestas that were bought cheap and are our work-hacks, so will never be sold and probably just run into the ground. We also have our two Sierras that were instrumental in how we met, both need a bit of maintenance but are worth no less now than when they were purchased. Finally we have the Cosworth that has actually gone up in value since we bought it, and will continue to do so ;)
So they only money our cars take is in parts, which is investment in its future-running rather than loss :)
Paul
The MG B GT occupies the garage!
And the MG kept us going when the Beemer was broken!
Depreciation doesn't really effect me now - paid for it years ago! I have had my car for 9 years now, and have no desire to change it. Sure I get a hit at the annual service/MOT, but as I commute on the train I don't have any other service outlay.
Also bring a Volvo estate, it means I can shift lots of layout quite easily... It has proved really when moving house!
There is a lot to be said for older cars...
I'm a non driver (mostly for medical reasons) - in some ways I've been fortunate as I've managed to avoid car requiring jobs, but when it came to taxi costs I did sit down and work out car costs per year (depreciation, fuel - oww, insurance - real owww, maintenance, MOT, ...) and I figured out I could spend a lot on train and taxi fares without feeling quite so bad about it
Alan
I rode motorbikes for years until I took my car test at age 29. My first car was an 850cc Mini which I paid £650 for at the time. Within a month I hit a badger late one night, the car went up into the air and when it came down a front tyre burst. I swerved up the road until the car hit a grass verge, rolled over and went backwards into a water filled ditch. Being disoriented I crawled out through the space where the rear windscreen had been into a petrol filled ditch - the fuel pump was still running! Eventually someone stopped and picked up a very smelly me and took me to hospital. Badly damaged right arm, and have never been able to ride bikes since. All I got for the Mini was what I could salvage for scrap, less the £40 to have it towed out of the ditch.
Many years later I gave a mate a lift home late one night in my Focus when, once again, I hit a badger which caused £600 of damage to the front of the car. Both times I was on TPF &T insurance - doh!
All this on top of normal running costs. Maybe I shouldn't say that cars have cost me money, more like badgers have :smiley-laughing:
Still, at least I wasn't on a bike when I hit them :o
Mine steals money every time I have to fill it up. :'( Shell V- Power only
MPG doesn't help but the smile on my face after a spirited drive is worth it.
Thats on a 18year old car, but it's paid for in full. MOT and road tax due next month so change the exhaust again.
Quote from: Oldman on January 24, 2012, 09:58:43 PM
Mine steals money every time I have to fill it up. :'( Shell V- Power only
MPG doesn't help but the smile on my face after a spirited drive is worth it.
Thats on a 18year old car, but it's paid for in full. MOT and road tax due next month so change the exhaust again.
Serves you right for having a 'neighbour scarer'... ;D ;)
Quote from: Claude Dreyfus on January 24, 2012, 10:10:46 PM
Serves you right for having a 'neighbour scarer'... ;D ;)
Trouble is there are quite a few of the breed living on our estate.
Think we can cater for every model Subaru made apart from a Justy.
Foresters, Legacys,Impreza WRX, P1, STI (Newage and classic)and the wagons as well.
ages range from 1994 vintage to 2011 new ones. :evil:
Quote from: newportnobby on January 24, 2012, 09:50:56 PM
Within a month I hit a badger late one night, the car went up into the air and when it came down a front tyre burst. I swerved up the road until the car hit a grass verge, rolled over and went backwards into a water filled ditch. Being disoriented I crawled out through the space where the rear windscreen had been into a petrol filled ditch - the fuel pump was still running! Eventually someone stopped and picked up a very smelly me and took me to hospital. Badly damaged right arm, and have never been able to ride bikes since. All I got for the Mini was what I could salvage for scrap, less the £40 to have it towed out of the
Heavens...it says something for 'newer' cars that I walloped a
badger at 50 mph and got away with no damage to the car. The same could not be said for the badger though! :(
I dread to think how much I've lost on my cars. (shudder) I just view it as a sort of hobby expense. One of my best back in England was a Ford Scorpio 2.3, I bought it for £400 quid on ebay and sold it before I emigrated two years later for £600.
Apart from fuel the only thing I paid out was for a new petrol tank seal. :smiley-laughing:
I know what you mean about little ones changing your car habits... My love affair with convertibles is over for now, I have a Ford F-150 truck but that is going soon as I only get 17MPG and it's nearly $4.00USD a gallon here now. (I know, I'm spoilt) but I commute over 70 miles a day so my fuel bill is $400 yes, four hundred a month. So it's back to a 4 door saloon. :-\
I paid £400 for my Audi 80 in feb 2011, passed the last mot with flying colours and so far has only cost me the petrol and magic trees ;D
Exhaust will have to be done soon though, can't keep bodging it anymore..... Jubilee clips just aren't man enough ! :smiley-laughing:
I have a Skoda Octavia 1.9 TDI.I have owned it since august 2004 and apart from one very expensive bill,it has not cost me hardly anything to run.Tyres,battery,servicing,lower suspension wishbones are the only items I have had to replace,as well as the big ticket repair bill for a blown turbo,which went bang on the way back from Hornby Live at Hartlepool in 2010 on the A1.We're talking formula one style turbo failure here,not just a loss of power but blue smoke then a huge cloud of white smoke,caking the whole of the back of it with a fine mist of oil,which then baked on to the car in the hot summer sun whilst awaiting repair.It were a.right pig to shift.
Cost me just under £700 in the end,thing is though,there was no indication of it failing,just blue smoke,then a few miles later a dirty great big cloud of white smoke was all I could see in my mirrors.Turbocharger total bearing failure being the rather blunt diagnosis that was offered by the AA man.Still,its fine now and still has almost 8 months of warranty left on the turbo,so I'll keep it for now then will buy an ex fleet VRS TDI estate in either blue or grey.I'll be able to take me layout on the road then,(that'll be the exhibition layout I am planning).
It cost me £6k in 2004 and is not worth that much now,but as I own cars for.a while longer than a lot of people,I don't worry about depreciation so much.
Thats for new car buyers to swallow.
And I'm just the tiniest bit envious of you flakmunky,an XF is a very desirable car and its got one of the best badges on the front.
Repeat in your best Clarkson voice,I've got a Jaaaaag. ;D
:NGaugersRule: :Class37:
Ive got an 05 Vauxhall Vectra which I paid £3000 for nearly 3 years ago (and the longest Ive ever had a car for!!!), went to a local Vauxhall dealer quite a few monthes ago as they had a rather nice 06 Vauxhall Astra VXR for £10000 and they offered me £1500 p/x on my car - err no poke it!!!!
Worst I ever did was buy a brand new 2004 Toyota Avalon V6 sedan for $30,000 kept it for 15 months and traded it on a Toyota Four Runner V6 Limited 4x4, the 4x4 was $18,000 and had everything that opened and shut on it, I got $20,000 for the Avalon. (good riddence).
Hated both of the Toyota's, the Avalon was to quiet, to smooth and just about drove its bloody self, the 4x4 was OK but cost a fortune to run, in just over 2 years it cost me over $3,000 in repairs and tyres and when I sold it it needed more tyres and the Auto was on its way out.
After just over 2 years I traded the 4x4 on a 1999 model 4 Litre 6 cylinder Ford Falcon Utility, the ute was immaculate with only a few Kms on the clock, I got $7,000 for the 4x4 and the ute cost me $14,000, never looked back since as I love the ute which I have now had for 5 years and I intend keeping it until I am pushing up the Daisy's.
Should never have bought Toyotas in the first place and stuck with the Fords like I always used to.
I am right with you FM.
On my 5th Beema. 2 four doors and three 325 Coupes. Once a petrol head, always a petrol head. Funny thing is that I too am considering a Jag XF diesel as the next car (fuel of Satan). Though I do think it has a Hyundai grill 😠. I do understand that the mid range is a little dull though.
Just don't think of the money - its the only way...
:Class414:
And its not only the car itself, it is all the rest e.g. new tyres, servicing, fuel, tax and then there is insurance. I advised my insurance company that I was doing less miles and they told me my insurance would cost more!! This is because drivers are more likely to have an accident because they are more nervous because they are doing less miles!! So if you try to be 'green' and save money on fuel, then you are stuffed on the insurance. Needless to say I argued till I was blue in the face with my insurance company about their logic, which assumes that their driver is always going to be at fault for an accident. Similarly, a friend of mine was told their insurance would be going up because they were unemployed and would be more likely to have an accident through hurrying for work appointments!!
Rip off Britain!!
Depreciation doesnt pi$$ me off too much, what does is paying £1.40 a litre for diesel and £450 a year for road tax paid out my wages that they have already took a massive chunk out of before I even see it.
And what do they do with this money, simple, give it too some low life type who appears on Jeremy Kyle esc shows to keep him in comfort while he does his suspended sentance for the mugging/burgling/car theft etc off people like us..... sorry rant over.
Morning all
I would'nt even think about how much I have spent on cars over the 35 years I have been on the road, In my early years I was involved in short circuit racing ( Bangers and Stock cars ). Looking back I invested stupid amounts in other peoples rust buckets just to go out and destroy them in demolition derbies and the like, these were normally Austin A60. Wolsely 1660, Triumph 2000 and the like, back in the '80s we would be paying up tp £50 for a car for a Sunday afternoons entertainment.
Then I start thinking about my road cars, for 35 years I have always driven Ford, living in Dagenham at the time you just had to, the best of these being a 2.3 Diesel Sierra Saphire, this I used as a Taxi and its life took it around the clock some six times. My last Ford was a Fusion which I had from new in 2003 and covered 100,000 miles until last November when the cam belt snapped, 2 days before it was booked in for replacement. I can only assume the engine is scrap now as I would need to invest a further £100 minimum to replace this belt only to find out that it may also have bent valves or even a cracked piston plus only 5 minutes prior to the belt letting go I filled up with Petrol so there is another £45 invested in this pile of scrap that is still parked outside where the RAC left it, still taxed and tested.
I have now moved on, took a gamble, and bought a Jaguar X Type 2.0 Diesel and I am in love again, this car is fantastic and no matter what it costs in servicing and other running costs it will be a long time before we part company. Alright this may have a Mondeo engine under the bonnet but it also has what I remember as the clasic lines of a good old fashioned British car ( even though the Indians own Jaguar these days ).
So again I am a few grand out of pocket but thats life these days
Dave
I decided many years ago that trading in a car was a waste of money. My recent history has been a secondhand Volvo 340 (absolutely rubbish handling in snow and ice as it was rear-wheel drive!) but kept it for 6 years until it was only fit for the scrappy, got I think £60 for it.
Next was an 3 year old Astra, L reg - cost £5000. Brilliant car, only one breakdown (waterpump) and when I inherited my late Father's car (Ford Escort) in 2003 my partner was needing a run-around so she took the Astra, or Asterix as she christened it (that could be another thread about pet names for cars...). The Astra is still on the go, 116,000 miles on the clock, and still got some oomph if you put your right foot down! However, no power steering and the clutch/gearshift is h-e-a-v-y.
The Ford went to the scrapyard in 2010 with only 76,000 on the clock as it had developed several electrical faults, including a faulty engine management system which were going to cost more than it was worth to put right. £170 in my pocket.
Present car is a 05 plate 1 Litre Corsa, nippy despite the engine size, good mpg and handled well in the snow last winter. Looks like it might live up to the same standards as the Astra, only snag is the boot size, even with the back seats down you would be hard pushed to get a 4 foot baseboard in!
Probably the worst car I have had for stealing money, both for breakdowns/faults and also mpg, was the Escort. But I suppose with a 1.6L engine driving in an urban environment (ie the Edinburgh orbital carpark , sorry bypass) in rush hour where you are lucky if you get into 3rd gear 35mpg wasn't too bad.
Quote from: Pendy on January 25, 2012, 07:11:19 AMSimilarly, a friend of mine was told their insurance would be going up because they were unemployed and would be more likely to have an accident through hurrying for work appointments!!
Well, I feel your friends pain. Passed my test in April and I've only been a car owner since last June.
Not many cheap autos around but I found one for £500.
Was SHOCKED at the price when I put unemployed into the quote.
So I tried it with putting in voluntary for a job, which I do.
Came down by over £200! Rip off merchants indeed.
I've spent about what I paid for her on much needed parts but she's worth it!
She's a 20 year old 2L auto, does 30 mpg and has just passed 199000 miles. :o
If you want to know what 'she' is and what 'she' is called, click here:
http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=3824.msg43300;topicseen#msg43300 (http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=3824.msg43300;topicseen#msg43300)
My 8-year-old 206, which I'd had from new, went to the garage for a lot of various bits and pieces last year. It was pushing £2k in bills before I decided it really wasn't worth keeping going any more. Nice shiny new Golf Plus 2.0 TDI. Repairs are Someone Else's Problem for three years again, and a shade over 60 to the gallon on a long run is lovely :)
Quote from: tim-pelican on January 25, 2012, 09:55:01 PM
My 8-year-old 206, which I'd had from new, went to the garage for a lot of various bits and pieces last year. It was pushing £2k in bills before I decided it really wasn't worth keeping going any more. Nice shiny new Golf Plus 2.0 TDI. Repairs are Someone Else's Problem for three years again, and a shade over 60 to the gallon on a long run is lovely :)
£2k in repairs ??? I'd change the garage, not the car !
You did make a good choice though, as the Golf is a thousand times better than a 206 or any other french car !!!
Agreed,
Ive got one, on some TDI`s the turbos can get a bit fragile if they have been babied.
Apart from that I wouldnt know cos mine has been toyed with significantly, so the higher than usual maintenance and repair bill are expected.
Must admit 50+ MPG and 15 sec 1/4 mile is hard to beat!
4x2, it was somewhere around 7 or 8 hundred to change the head gasket as the big bill, then just a lot of a hundred for this, two hundred for that, fifty for the other. All added up. But yes, the Golf is *much* nicer.
Mine just ate a big chunk out of my credit card... 600 quid for a service and two tyres. :o
Think of the trains you can get for that! :'(
Yep, they certainly steal from you, and yep you could buy a lot of trains...
But for me, nothing can beat the sound of a big naturally aspirated engine being given some beans! TDIs are great, I've had a few, but I love big naturally aspirated engines.
My favourite engine being the 4.2 V8 in the XK, closely followed by the inline 6 in my current car with the V6 in a 350Z coming 3rd.
My favourite car engine sound is the Aston Martin, I think it was a 6L in a DB9. Makes your neck hairs stand up.
I love the sound of mine too. Between about 3000 and 4000 rpm the grunt turns into a roar.
What car is that, MM?
Agreed Astons sound good... Trouble is you just don't get to hear them that often!
Was at Le Mans 24hr. You should hear the cars there:-
Audis & Pugs whisper...
Ferraris wail
Astons purr
But the earth moves when the 'vettes go by...
:Class414:
When I was self employed,I did a lot of plumbing and heating and gas work for a local Indian restaurant owner.He was as tight as a ducks a***,but he had a Aston Martin DB9 Vantage V12.The soft top one.He took me out in it one day for an hour and let me tell you this,it was fantastic beyond words and I had a s*** on the whole time,and when he let me have a go it was even worse.They are absolutely,unbelievably magnificent to drive.The view out from the driving seat is one to behold,the noise they make is better than the best song you ever heard on the best Bose or Bang and Oluf sound system ever made.If I die tomorrow,and a film was to be made of my life,this would be my main feature.
I can't say the birth of my kids would be the main feature as I don't have any,nor my wedding day cos it was a disaster after the initial day,such is the mediocre existence I lead.
Pete
:Class37: :NGaugersRule:
Quote from: Flakmunky on January 27, 2012, 06:36:09 PM
What car is that, MM?
Agreed Astons sound good... Trouble is you just don't get to hear them that often!
That would be my 2010 Dodge Challenger R/T, V8 5.7L Hemi
http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=350.msg37967#msg37967 (http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=350.msg37967#msg37967)
All I can say is fools and their money soon go seperate ways ;D I drive a 1958 series 2 Diesel Landrover, it cost me £50.00, 27 years ago. It's my everyday hack, no frills, no heater, no seatbelts (that's a wonderful feeling!), only 1 windscreen wiper on the drivers side. FREE road tax, £57.00 a year fully comp insurance, and M.O.T. is only £28.70 (coz theres NO emmission test or seatbelt installation check! ;D) Has never let me down, does about 30 m.p.g., runs quite happily on old chip oil as well as diesel, do all the servicing myself, parts are very cheap and easy to get, and only 12 nuts and bolts to remove the roof for summer! All in all, the best value motoring you can get, who cares about the fact every panel is scraped or dented, makes flash gits in BMW's etc think twice about cutting me up, coz they realise I'm not bothered about another scrape, but they wouldn't want their tin god damaged :evil:
Or parking next to you in the supermarket car park.I still make sure the car next to me is a newer,better car than mine so when they open their door to get in,they don't bash my paintwork.I'm even worse when I have my dads car.His is a pristine 2005 BMW 320iSE with less than 15000 miles on the clock which he has owned since new.I'd hate to be the one who was using it when it got marked.
Pete
:Class37: :NGaugersRule:
Quote from: hairygit on January 27, 2012, 09:19:04 PM
All I can say is fools and their money soon go seperate ways ;D I drive a 1958 series 2 Diesel Landrover, it cost me £50.00, 27 years ago. It's my everyday hack, no frills, no heater, no seatbelts (that's a wonderful feeling!), only 1 windscreen wiper on the drivers side. FREE road tax, £57.00 a year fully comp insurance, and M.O.T. is only £28.70 (coz theres NO emmission test or seatbelt installation check! ;D) Has never let me down, does about 30 m.p.g., runs qu_ite happily on old chip oil as well as diesel, do all the servicing myself, parts are very cheap and easy to get, and only 12 nuts and bolts to remove the roof for summer! All in all, the best value motoring you can get, who cares about the fact every panel is scraped or dented, makes flash gits in BMW's etc think twice about cutting me up, coz they realise I'm not bothered about another scrape, but they wouldn't want their tin god damaged :evil:
Thanks for the personal insult. What have I ever done to you
Well done. Or have I got you all wrong and it was intended as a joke?
Regards,
Flakmunky.
A flash git fool in a tin-god BMW. And proud of it. Also with a heated seat and one of the safest cars on the road! :)
Come on, guys. Play nicely please. We all have our opinions about who drives what but please don't post them as you're bound to upset someone. HairyGit has some cheap wheels and its cheap to run. Others have expensive vehicles which cost a lot to run. Each to their own without slating the others :thumbsup:
I never slated any one, but I agree with you, lets play nice!
Nothing personal intended! If you read my posts in the "road rage" thread, you'll probably understand where I'm coming from. Unfortunately there are some right idiots out there on the roads, I drive a coach for a living, and 9 times out of 10, if someone cuts me up, pulls out on me , or is just generally bad mannered on the road, it's a B.M.W. although in the last 2 years Audi drivers are doing their best to steal the crown! If you, with hand on heart say you have NEVER done any of the above, it wasn't aimed at you!
I just took hairygits post as a humourous dig. Fair enough to drive an old inexpensive car that has served you well and having it so long is very eco-friendly, and from that perspective it may seem foolish to spend what i do running a car that can do 0-60 in 5 seconds. And the correlation between flash cars and idiot drivers is supported by the statistics!
But i do like the irony of owning my flash car and driving like a nun... The speed limit on my 21 miles to work is 45mph! And i stick to it. I am patient and courteous at 4-way stops. I pay a lot for a car that i occasionally get up to 65... But there are no laws about how quickly i get to 65 on an empty slip road, and that little thrill makes it worth every penny. That and looking at what i think is a work of art - my heart skips a beat every time i see it still.
Each to his/her own.
Thats because all the BMW drivers are trading their beemers in for Audi's.This has been a growing trend for a couple of years now,as was recognised on Top Gear by Jeremy Clarkson when they did their road and track test on the new M3,Audi RS4 and Merc C63 AMG.Clarkson said he'd buy an M3 because now all the c**** are buying Audi's.While I agree on the subject of cars pulling out on buses,as a bus driver myself,I am noticing that the trend is on the type of person,not necessarily the car they drive.It only seems as though its all Audi and BMW drivers because these days they outstrip the buyers of Mondeo's and other more mundane cars.An Audi and BMW are perceived to be more prestigious than the others.
If I'm stating the.obvious then I'm sorry but I see with my own experience that there are now more women who do this in their Nissan Jukes and just lately,Range Rover Evokes.They just do it because their time is more important than anyone elses and because cars are so much safer these days,they think they can get away with it.And indeed they do,most of the time.There are others though,that are far worse than these,black cab and private hire mini cab drivers do this on a far more regular basis,and the worst bit is they don't have to take a test or assessment of their competence to drive like bus drivers and hgv drivers.Just turn up at the local council offices ,apply for a cab licence and away you go.
Hope this balances things out a little.
Pete
:Class37: :NGaugersRule:
I'm not interested in cross referencing posts in another thread to see whether it was an insult directed at me or not. The post you made here, in this thread, appears to be an insult aimed at me.
But hey, lifes too short. As a confirmed petrol head, I know I need treatment; anyone who invests in a depreciating asset needs their head looking at! This thread was intended to be a light hearted thread for fellow petrol heads who have been stung by depreciation to commiserate with each other.
So if you feel the need to scoff at a petrol head because you paid 50p for your shed in 1932 go right ahead. We know we deserve it. :)
As for Audi / BMW drivers being aggressive and arrogant, remember that the world would be a better place if people weren't so prejudiced towards others...
Right gents - congratulations on ruining a perfectly good thread, it is now going to be locked so give yourselves a pat on the back irrespective of what you drive.
And for future reference - expletives or foul language, disguised or otherwise, will not be tolerated - you have been warned