[Amazingly Off Topic] Help with car buy/sale dillema?

[Nikolas]

I think that this is the first of it's kind in AGS forums, right? 

Okie my problem.

For the past 3 years, in the uk, I've been using a Vauxhall astra, 1.6, registration 95. Lately it's been acting strangely and it appears that a possible full service could cost more than £600 (a a bit less than 1000 euros and 1200$).

Now I have these 3 options, taking into account that Iwill be here probably for 2 years at most, with a chance of leaving in 1 year:


i. Fix the car, keep it for the next 2 year.
ii. Sell the Vauxhall for whatever ammount even, with NO MOT, or road tax and buy a "quality used car", rather new from 2004-2006 or something, in order to sell it at a reasonable price in 1-2 years time (hopeing the price won't fall too much).
iii. Sell the Vauxhall, and buy a NEW car. A new car used 1 year with mild milleaga and kept into good condition, should be worth a 70% of the original price? 80%? 60%? 50%?

In all, my main problem is this:

With the 2nd and 3rd solutions, I have peace of mind, cause I suspect nothing will break, while with keeping a car from 95, even with the best service possible things will just... start falling apart.
But it may, very well be, that the 1st solution in the overall 1-2 years might be cheaper, than buying a new one, or getting a used one.

Ideas?

[RickJ]

First of all I would advise you to figure out what is actually wrong with the car.   When I was in university at student from Taiwan gave me his car.  He was afraid to drive it because it sometimes made a thumping sound.   It was parked on the street for too long without moving and so the city had it towed away.   He said that he was just going to let the towing company have it, so I asked if I could have it.  He went with me to the junk yard and I paid $25 to get the car back.   It turns out that the rubber pads on the engine mount were a bit worn out so when pressing on the gas pedal the engine would rock up higher than normal causing the transmission to bump against the floor.   Just be sure that it isn't something that could be easily fixed or that needs fixin.

Secondly, new cars depreciate rather quickly, especially in the first and second years.  With this option I would be concerned about resale value in just 2 years time.    A used car may be a better choice because of this.  Get one that is three years old and the higher depreciation rate will have passed.

If you bought a new car I don't suppose you could just drive it home when you return to Greece in 2 years?     

[Pumaman]

Based on my experience I'd probably go with the first option.

I was tempted into your second option and bought a 3-year-old car, but over my first year of having it it has managed to break down twice costing over £300 to fix. So just because it's newer, doesn't necessarily mean it'll be cheaper.

Buying a brand new car probably wouldn't be economical because it would lose a huge amount of value in the first year, and you'd end up losing much more money than the £600 that it would cost to fix your current car.

Of course as Rick says you could just drive your new car back to Greece with you, but driving a right-hand drive car in Greece on a daily basis could well get rather irritating

[Nikolas]

If you bought a new car I don't suppose you could just drive it home when you return to Greece in 2 years? 

I wouldn't really mind driving the 2,500 miles or something (I think it could be less actually), and I have friends along the road, so it could be great actually: 1 stop in Paris, one further south, 1 stop in Italy and then the boat to west Greece.

but as CJ says, driving a right handed wheel car is at least not enjoyable in Greece (probaly a bit dangerous as well).

Thanks for your opinion guys!

[Radiant]

You should totally stop in Amsterdam. It's even on the way to Paris, if you take the boat rather than the chunnel.

[Stupot]

Hehe.. "Chunnel"... I like it.

I agree with what Rick said.  Find out what's wrong with it first.  It might not need a full service just yet.

If you know anyone who knows about cars get them to have a look at it for you first... If you just take it to a random garage they will tell you it needs more done to it than it actually does.  And don't let them touch it before telling you how much you will have to pay.

If it does need a full service, 600 pounds sounds like a lot, but if it's going to get you another 2 years life out of the car then it's not really such a bad sum.  Up to you at the end of the day... motoring is an expensive hobby no matter which decisions you make.

[Gregjazz]

I thought the chunnel was the official name for it, isn't it?

[SSH]

Might be best to buy a car in Europe so that the steering wheel is on the right (i.e. left ) side. Also, the likelihood of breakdowns is highly dependent of the make and model of car. Honda and Toyota are generally the most reliable (and any French or Italian cars the least reliable) and I can thoroughly recommend the Honda Jazz. I've never bought new, always used, but not had any major problems with the cars I've bought until they got really old.

Oh and Chunnel was never the official name for anything. There are various differently named entities involved: Eurotunnel, The Channel Tunnel, Trans-manche link, Eurostar but Chunnel was always made a nice headline in news stories

[Stupot]

Remember.
Left is right and right is wrong.

Yeh I'd never heard of "Chunnel" until today... I love it.