First car recommendations?

[Huge]

Hear, hear. Start sooner. Save more.

[Davey]

I often wondered about that, but never did. But the chassis/body panel construction should have made it safe. My favourite memory is of buying an exhaust system, which came in one piece, about nine feet long. I had freed the rear seat back (this was before accommodation for skis was common), and a puzzled old couple watched from the other side of the road as I inserted the whole exhaust system into what looked, to them, like the boot of the car.

[Davey]

=46rom what I see, anything is cheaper than taking the train.

Also, congratulations on posting a question that appears to have *not* deteriorated into unwanted abuse and name-calling! Well done, young man.

--=20 Davey.

[Doctor Drivel]

That you. You are right.

[Tim Downie]

Tim

[Jules Richardson]

Our Toyota's around 15 years and well over 200k; it needed a new battery at something like 220k, but otherwise is still on original exhaust, alternator, radiator etc.

Cam belt was due at 93k, but it's not broken yet.

I do need to replace most of the suspension bushes though, and it's thirsty on oil these days. Cosmetically it's getting a little tired, but then it has spent all of its life outside (my wife uses it for the commute and doesn't like backing it out of the garage)

cheers

Jules

[gremlin_95]

I currently take the train to college, £11.10! I can't get a season ticket or anything as it is only 3 days a week and you can only get a 3 day ticket to London :(

Luckily though, the college give me some money for travel which covers just over half the cost.

Thing is with the train, I can have a nice rest, read some notes if I need to and now I shall be revising for my theory test. Downsides are, apart from the cost, I am forced into listening to someone else's music through their crap leaky headphones and the old Sprinter units are freezing in the morning.

[Dave Liquorice]

Quite probably but any sensible person does it so that in extremis they can drive the car without having sort out insurance at 0300 on a sunday morning. Don't they?

[Andrew May]

Getting of topic now but does anyone know what the recommended pension pot is nowadays? £1m in the bank would produce something like £10,000 in interest if you are lucky. An annuity, hopefully a bit better.

[fred]

Yep, they're all part of the VW audi group and they make huge economies of scale by using common parts across many ranges. I'd certainly consider Seat vs VW but don't know how many corners get cut as they drop to Skoda etc. That said, lots of licensed private hire cars around here are Skodas, they're bound to be doing a lot of miles and can't afford to have cars off the road.

Yes, I know what you mean, I think the body metal is thinner so can sound tinny and can mark more easily in car park door opening dings. They also have drier weather out there so for a while didn't really understand about rustproofing the way europeans did/do. I have however used loads of long lived japanese cars and they don't seem to fall apart but the ancillaries just seem to get tatty quite quickly.

[fred]

In article , Andrew Gabriel writes

I think it was about 15yrs ago that the rules changed to base the hmrc benefit on a proportion of the new value of the car you chose. I think it was about a third of the new price each year (w/o any allowance for depreciation) so if you had an 18k car you had a benefit loading of 6k per year, every year that you had the benefit. Same thing if you bought a 5yo car that cost 18k new, you got hit with a benefit of 6k no matter what the age. For those who had a choice, coy cars went out of vogue in short order.

I switched to personal ownership plus mileage.

[The Natural Philosopher]

£1m in the bank will give you 20 years of £50k without interest at all..

[Nightjar]

You can also take a drawdown pension which should yield more than an annuity. The amount you can take depends upon the size of the pot and the current Gilt Index Yield. Look at this page for more details and for a calculator to help you estimate what you need, but bear in mind that the rules and the Gilt Index Yield change.

Bignell

[Nightjar]

On 24/02/2012 14:58, fred wrote: ...

...

Skoda suddenly became very popular for minicabs when they introduced an unlimited mileage guarantee. I believe they have modified it now.

Colin Bignell

[djc]

My 18 year old Twingo went to the scrapyard last month after more than

150,000 miles. Mechanically fine but the cost of the welding neded to pass the MOT meant evn I had to accept it was uneconomic. Replaced with a Citroën C2, which is probably more frugal on fuel, but is slightly larger outside, much smaller inside and has a poorer power to weight ration.

At least cars these days don't rust as much as they used to the Renault

5 I had from new in the late 70's had visible rust after just five years.

My advice would be that high mileage is ok provided it has been used for long steady journeys rather that in-town start-stop, and a few minor dents, so long as they don't rust, are part of the character.

But you probably need to start by looking at insurance quotes. Quotes for the C2, which is supposed to be group 1 etc for a 57 year with 15+ years NCD etc ranged from £300 to over £1200. As a young driver, insurance may cost you more than the car.

[The Natural Philosopher]

The non turbo diesel skoda engine - think it was a 1400 - was absolutely the best ever cab diesel. Gutless but frugal in the extreme. LOVED idling at a small fuel consumption. Loved being light footed around towns. Lated FOREVER with no turbo..

Sadly they don't make it any more.

[Andrew Gabriel]

I recall working out many years ago that for each 7 years delay in starting to contribute to your pension, you need to double your contributions for the rest of your career to make up that loss. Mind you, that was when pension funds were doing better than they now are.

[Andrew Gabriel]

There's another one which was discussed on the radio a week or so back. They use the analogy of a fuel tank, but you fill it with insurance premium payment instead. The black box monitors driving style, distance, etc, and drains the insurance premium tank at an appropriate rate. It also gives some semi-instant feedback so you know what's expensive, and more detailed feedback on their website. You have to top up the insurance premium fuel tank as it runs out. I guess it might stop you from starting the car if it completely runs out, but that wasn't stated, or maybe it auto-tops up by direct debit.

[hugh]

In message , gremlin_95 writes

Next question is "What's your budget?"

Diesel generally take mileage better than petrol and don't figure highly in the boy-racer stakes. Ford did a Focus Ghia diesel early on. Also Renault did a 1.9 n/a. I would also start looking at insurance quotes for various models.

[hugh]

Well the new rules on SIPS mean I can't get at all of mine even though I've retired. Save money but not in a pension fund unless you are offered a final salary scheme or a very large employer contribution.