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Post by Humph on Oct 23, 2023 12:50:53 GMT
I’ve owned, or had long term use of a lot of cars in my 48 years of having a licence to drive them.
However, I was chatting to a very old friend at the weekend and was reminded by him that over the same period of time, while he has always wanted, needed and used a car, that he is still only on his third vehicle.
He’s a self-employed signwriter and has always had small/medium sized estate cars so that they can double as a van for his work purposes.
His first car at the age of 17 was an Escort estate and that lasted for nearly two further decades, it was replaced by a Renault Laguna estate and when that finally packed up he bought a Kia Ceed estate about 15 years ago. That car is still going strong.
He freely admits that they haven’t all been entirely trouble free, but his attitude has always been to fix and keep them rather than replace.
He says he might well have one more to see him out!
It’s not a money thing as far as I can see, he and his wife have a lovely house and regularly treat themselves to interesting holidays etc, but he just doesn’t see any attraction in buying cars on any kind of regular basis.
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Post by EspadaIII on Oct 23, 2023 13:09:46 GMT
A very sensible person. There was a member of our comminuty who was known for being very very wealthy. He lived in a lovely house, looked after his family very well and was very generous to a wide variety of charities. But he never bought a new car, and when he did change it it was after decades of ownership. Whilst I went through a period of swapping cars regularly, some were changed for very sensible (family) reasons. I slowed it down a few years ago and really should have kept the S-Max I sold at six years old in 2015.
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Post by Humph on Oct 23, 2023 14:07:37 GMT
Another of my friends has a 1999 Volvo V70 estate that he’s had from new. Still looks absolutely fine in a very Volvoesque burgundy metallic with beige leather interior. 2.4 petrol I think.
It doesn’t get treated with kid gloves being a platform for his mountain biking hobby. His bikes will be worth way more than the car!
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Post by EspadaIII on Oct 23, 2023 15:13:07 GMT
If I had been able to persuade Espadrille to drive something different to what she did at any particular time, then I would not have given my Forester XT to my father. It was perfect for the mix of driving that I did and still do 95% of the time. Dad decided he wanted it and gave me the carrot of buying the Outback 3.0. A great car the Outback but in hindsight I should have found another XT - maybe the 2.5 version rather than the 2.0 I had. The only other car I should have kept was the S-Max. I loved that car and 100,000 miles after I sold it, it is still on the road.
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Post by Humph on Oct 23, 2023 15:48:39 GMT
Never had an S-Max, but I had a Galaxy (new in 2000) for a couple of years. Couldn’t fault it really. Handy things. Cavernous loadspace if that’s of use.
Drove very much like a Mondeo, so in other words really quite well.
I stupidly replaced it with that dreadful Espace. Chalk and cheese experience.
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Post by dixinormus on Oct 24, 2023 7:28:30 GMT
Must be an age thing - us, not the cars. Older and wiser n’ all that. SWMBO’s Outlander is nearly 9 years old, but we expect to keep it a further 9 years minimum. It might become a bit of a unicorn at 20 years old, 1 owner from new, and at this rate it’ll still be well under 100k miles! We leave it unused in the garage for weeks at a time; will just need to buy a battery charger..!
Any cash that I might have saved for a new car is going in the holiday/sabbatical fund instead these days! (Or early retirement!)
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bpg
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Post by bpg on Oct 24, 2023 7:29:17 GMT
I've held a driving licence for over 37 years, the last 17 years I've had two Volvo S60s, the current one I'll have been the registered keeper of 10 years at the end of next month.
The last six years I've also had a Focus RS toy which only covered 20,000 miles in three years and my current ST estate which is creeping up to 18,000 miles over the last 38 months.
The only thing that will get me out of my S60, barring catastrophic failure, is retrospective emissions legislation being applied.
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Post by Humph on Oct 24, 2023 7:47:35 GMT
As is well documented here, I’ve agonised about whether to move my Merc on. However, every time I think I’ve come up with a solution/replacement, it comes to me that what I have is still the best option. Potentially, it could be a very long term arrangement. It’s as miley as hell, but it still seems to be willing and able to do everything I want and need and a whole lot more.
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bpg
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Post by bpg on Oct 24, 2023 8:04:05 GMT
Your car is EU VI, as long as it keeps within the parameters set when the car was built it should have a good ten years plus left in it as EU VII is not due until 2025-ish.
Banning cars that are still compliant with the legislation applied when they were built is counter intuitive. The vehicle will wear out naturally over the next decade or two. Banning it early before end of life smacks of a toddler tantrum given it was OK when the car was considered safe and the taxes and profits made at the time. The universe has been going for 13+ billion years what's another 10 or 20 years ?
Edit: Banning it early before end of life smacks of a toddler tantrum given it was OK when the car was new and considered safe and the taxes and profits made at the time.
You now have the situation whereby EU V diesel fuelled vehicles are effectively banned by additional charges while a 40 year old diesel Fiesta or an old smoker built before 1973 are exempt ? 🤔
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2023 8:39:15 GMT
Ah, I had assumed Humph's 220 was old enough to make it an EU V. Makes more sense keeping it if it's an EU VI.
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Post by Humph on Oct 24, 2023 8:41:04 GMT
I agree with that BPG. Natural wastage of older vehicles would have taken care of it. However, politicians have to have something to hang their hats on to raise their own profiles.
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Post by Humph on Oct 24, 2023 8:42:10 GMT
Ah, I had assumed Humph's 220 was old enough to make it an EU V. Makes more sense keeping it if it's an EU VI. No, it’s a Euro 6. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2023 8:45:04 GMT
That's good. I do wish Autotrader had a Euro rating filter on their search. Not that anyone old enough and wise enough to be in the "long game" would be looking at that pernicious strumpet of a website, of course.
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Post by Humph on Oct 24, 2023 8:49:27 GMT
Autotrader is a bit like heroin.
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Post by EspadaIII on Oct 24, 2023 14:13:53 GMT
The obvious solution would have been to require that when someone sells a car they must replace it with one less polluting. But it is so obvious the politicians won't do it.
It would have meant poor people could keep their older cars until they collapsed rather than forcing them to change.
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