Andy M3

Just wondering?

A colleague is looking to sell his Nissan Navara shortly. He will have lost a fortune on it. As a replacement he wants something smaller, but powerful and grown up for about £10-£12k. We talked about the usual suspects in the Merc/BMW/Audi corner, but residuals are now a bit of a concern.

So are there any modern daily use cars that somehow will hold their money especially well? One example I thought of was the Ford Focus RS, they seem to be usable and retain good value.

Are there anymore that are modern small saloon/hatch that are either a bit executive or sporty that could be a good buy, or is he best off with £10k of bonds and a bus pass??

lozgti

Virtually nothing in the current climate.Definately nothing new.Would have thought all powerful/polluting cars will be worth nowt next year

Obvious thing to do is get something about 4 years old that has already been pummeled by the big hits of depreciaton.

I should tell him to keep the Nissan

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

A Petrol X5, it's an investment,




Just not a very good one.

Andy M3

Thanks for the advice Jacko

Janspeed

iTrader: (1)

Is any car an investment??

HankScorpio

If you're looking to limit losses and cut true cost per mile - something diesel, less than two litres, 80k+ miles and no more than 2 grand to buy.

Bloke I work with pays no more than 3-4k for any car and we laugh at the stuff he buys but when you work out how much it actually costs year on year - he's the one laughing.

jjones

3-4k? sub 1k is where it's at.

scoobyboy1

iTrader: (16)

Bought a Focus RS 2 years ago and sold it a year later for the same price, Only car Ive never made a loss on. But have been thinking the same thing recently, I want a car that wont lose money, thats modern and reliable, Only car I can think off is the Focus RS again, prices seem very good at the moment 12k should get you a clean 30k mile car.

Obviously old Escort/Sierras RS Cosworths and Lancia Delta's etc wont lose much money, but I wouldnt want to use one of them everyday and Id hate to think of the the repair bills.

Dave Thornton

Look at a lower mileage 'enthusisasts' car on a 2001 X plate that will be £200 road tax when its newer equivalent will be £400 e.g. Porsche Boxster. It's not juts the £200 saving but its effect that will be had on supply/demand and therefore depreciation. In 6 months time, a 2001 X will be worth more than a 2001 Y for pretty much anything interesting (the reverse is true for anything with very low emissions)

That said, it's a car - it should be regarded as minimising losses rather than as an investment.

zs_phil

iTrader: (1)

i agree with what he says about the focus rs ive been looking at these for the last year and half and they are about the same price .
great cars too

scoobyboy1

iTrader: (16)

Forgot about road tax, Focus RS will be £400 next year!!!!!


Red Evo VI Tommi Makinnen wont lose much money either, plus lower road tax bracket, but petrol consumption and insurance will be nightmare !!!!!

billythekid

Buy a POS hack for whatever, and spend the change on a Caterham. One of the least depreciating cars - I know this as I have bought and sold 4 of them over the last 8 years and never lost more than £1000. Go for something with good spec, modern version, about 4 or 5 years old with K series engine, 6 speed box and if poss dry sump, wide track, big brakes. You might pay 14 - 15k for a car of this spec, even in 10 years I cant see it being worth less than 10k looking at current prices.

Turbo2

I'd go for this. I've been keeping an eye on sale prices of these for 2-3 years now and they never seem to depreciate. This looks as cheap as they come for an apparently good very low mileage one, most others are about 15k and have been for ages. Only the Phase 2 255bhp though. If only I didn't have 2 kids...

Renault : CLIO V6 2003

Andy M3

Thanks for the responses.

A few have you have the general idea - it is minimum loss and cost really, but reatain that new and modern look/feel. The Clio V6 & Boxter is a great suggestion, but he needs 4 seats. The Caterham would be great for me, but he has no interest in track work or Sunday morning thrashes across the Pennines.

So the Focus seems a good one, could an MK4 R32 fit in the same bracket? An Evo is manageable thanks to his low mileage, so could work out.

Olly

How about a 997 GT3 RS. Pay £100k, keep it 35 years in good nick and sell it for about 60 times what you paid, or around £6m.

It worked for the '73 RS.

what would scooby do

car + investment = oxymoron

SPEN555

lol!

They way the government is going you will be paying £100k p.a. in car tax in 35 years!

Turbo2

To be fair though, what is much of an investment these days? Bricks & mortar, pension, ISA, stock market: nothing much doing at the moment, so why not have a punt on a car? Unlike receiving a piece of paper once a year, at least you can enjoy them whilst you have them. If you pick wisely, you CAN break even or make a small profit. Even taking into account all of the maintenance bills, I made a slight profit on a year's Integrale ownership (which would probably have been rather more in Year 2) and will (potentially) enjoy 14 years of fun in my Renault for nowt.

That said, it's probably pretty much impossible to achieve with a daily driver.

v8voodoo

BMW : 1999 Z3 MCoupe

Stretch the budget a bit: Honda : Stunning Honda Nsx. One of a Kind. NSX-R looks

Left field: Jaguar : JAGUAR 4.0 XKR - Supercharged

mozzaITA

Saw an integrale evo with just 2000km from new advertised for £40,000

WRXWagon.

A work colleague has the depreciation thing licked, he has no great interest in driving so anything will do.

He buys old Citreon Diesels from the ScrapYard and has a collection at his home which he uses as spares for the one currently running.

His last citreon was bought privately by him for £5 less than the tax was worth, that was 18 months ago.

He has it absolutely nailed.

dpb

espesh the pump up variety with 90k on the speedo !

austinwrx

love to live next door to the citroen man. I can imagine it now.

i have had a good few cars where I've ran and made money on- but they've all been classic vw beetles, a G40 polo, vw T2 campers, a vw T4 camper and funnily enough a 4 yr old passat (I just happened to buy and sell that one well)

but thats many yrs ago and to be honest I wouldn't want to drive around in such old crap now.

Andy M3

+1

Dream Weaver

I spent the last 10 years doing this, and although it means I have only lost about £10k on cars in all that time, life is very short and I had to put up with some old motors and not much prestige.

Now I have bought a 1 year old ST and have already lost £3k on it in 6 months, but I don't care, it's a joy to live with and cheap to run.

You only live once after all, and for that 10 years of cheap motoring all I can say is that I didn't lose much money on cars, I have spent the money on other things so don't have any extra savings due to buying cheap cars.

Dracoro

apart from the fact that he has to drive around in a pile of ****.

akin to saying:
I've saved money on houses by living in a cardboard box
I've saved money by not buying a tv and acting out programs and films in the mirror

Dream Weaver

PMSL

lee-swindon

i just watch a repeat of top gear on DAVE how about a toyota hilux ha ha!!! they seem to last forever remember

jjones

so what function of getting from A to B can your car do that his cannot?

you are missing the point somewhat, probably becaue you have lost a fortune on depreciation?

Dream Weaver

That Citroen bloke will spend all his time rooting around dog**** filled scrap yards, trying to get bits for his old motors.

He will spend weekends fixing annoying little French crappy things, and he will look like a muppet driving around in a ****box.

If he runs a business and has to visit customers he will look like he doesn't do very well.

His cars will probably smell and be dangerous.

Trust me, I have done the old/French/Retro thing and it is fun for a short time but a life waster in the long run.

I have lost barely anthing in depreciation over the years so have no bias, but I still agree with Dracoro.