Rob
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Post by Rob on Mar 9, 2024 0:12:04 GMT
After the huge sums of money spent to develop and advertise the brand, all of the delivery trucks, staff, facilities/buildings... Cazoo is going to become an Internet sales portal like Autotrader.
So the existing stock will be sold off. I took a look and saw some cars that perhaps aren't discounted yet (thinking electric here) for less than I thought.
I'll take a better look tomorrow. At some point I should replace our 23 year old FIAT but it runs fine. But for local runs (a lot of our journeys are) it could save by charging overnight on a low tariff. At the moment the FIAT isn't used much.
Interesting. But I still like that e-Up! I linked too in terms of colour.
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bpg
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Post by bpg on Mar 9, 2024 0:22:18 GMT
For short urban runs an EV would be perfect IF you need to change your car AND you weren't planning to emegrate any time soon.
Buying an EV now and you're going to have to hang on to it for a while. Glass palaces don't want them on their forecourts yet due to targets for new EV sales, used car places don't want them, not enough knowledge yet, private sales, it'll have to be cheap enough to entice people in.
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Rob
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Post by Rob on Mar 9, 2024 0:30:24 GMT
There will soon be good discounts on new EVs to avoid the fines the manufacturer's also selling ICE cars have to pay. The discounts will be cheaper than fines. But then that impacts second hand prices... so begins a bit of a vicious circle.
For us, we know running the FIAT is not a long term option because more little jobs are cropping up and adding up. The car is worth practically nothing. If an electronic module were to fail then that's game over.
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bpg
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Post by bpg on Mar 9, 2024 7:23:45 GMT
I'm not so sure, the discounts are based on the old stack 'em high sell 'em cheap model.
Fossil fuel vehicles have significantly been reduced in availability, in order to avoid environmental penalties that supply will be further reduced forcing the switch or the Norway model could be used and heavy tax applied to fossil fuel vehicles, disincentives rather than discounts.
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Post by Humph on Mar 9, 2024 9:42:25 GMT
Not that it’s any of my business, but I can’t help noticing that a few people here, and presumably therefore in the wider community, have vehicles that they hardly use. Even in my own family I’ve previously mentioned the in-law’s Suzuki that has done 2 miles in six months.
All could probably give valid reasons why they keep them despite there being little benefit in doing so.
I’m not sure I’d do that though.
All of our cars seem to get regular, pretty much daily use and are “needed” in our lives, or at least we are happy to tell ourselves they are.
Just curious to know why anyone would keep and carry on funding something that isn’t much use to them when taxis, hire cars, bicycles etc would probably provide a cheaper and less hassle laden option?
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Rob
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Post by Rob on Mar 9, 2024 11:01:38 GMT
If we got a newer smaller car, especially electric, it would get used a whole lot more for the local trips. My wife uses the FIAT a few times per week - she won't drive a car as large as a Mazda6.
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Mar 9, 2024 11:17:34 GMT
Generations, probably. We’ve grown up with the aspiration to own a car (and latterly a car per individual, not just per household.) Society, especially post-Thatcher, developed that aspiration into a near-necessity. We saw the effects in longer commutes, distorted property markets and hollowed-out towns. Now we’re living this scattered, car-centred life but without much of the essential daily travel. We still have the cars — and the habits that go with them. We’re just not wearing them out as we used to. People replace their car because the PCP is up and the cost of everything else — especially housing — precludes simply buying it and carrying on. You’d need to be a very infrequent car user for taxis to be an economical alternative — although the autonomous robot future will change that, maybe even in our lifetime. Our children are already making the shift, though. Look at the numbers of 25-year-olds today who don’t have a driving licence: tiny in our time but significant now. It’s partly because the over-50s have all the money, but also they’re less concerned than we are with owning stuff. (Again, they have to be, because they can’t afford a permanent home to keep it in.) So the reckoning is coming. It just — as always — takes a little longer than we might expect. Thought-provoking article today from the ever-excellent Tim Harford on why it’s important to stop burning stuff. www.ft.com/content/7865e436-7757-4768-b0d0-e30f566c41ee |
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bpg
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Post by bpg on Mar 9, 2024 13:22:20 GMT
Have generations of over-50s not always had the money to a lesser or greater extent depending on weather they were working class and in rented/work provided accommodation vs those who had their own property ? Families grow up, move out and start their own family leaving parents feeding fewer mouths and lower utility bills. If they were lucky some inheritance eased the way.
When the current over-50s were in their twenties was property significantly cheaper in relation to income ? Remember 15% mortgage rates of the late 80s/early 90s ? Property prices were also fuelled by relaxation of mortgage rules, remember 3.5 times single income or 3 times joint income rules for mortgage applications ? People are paying significantly more than those multiples now. Why ? Because the 'free' market was allowed to run wild.
I could easily give up the family estate car if hire companies didn't wear masks. Sending vehicles with known defects out and then hitting the customer for pre-existing damage. It's a whole load of arseache I really cannot be bothered with and so avoid hire cars and hire car companies in general - these were the big internationals not some back street garage running old bangers for pennies. They have become the transport of last resort for me.
I'm sure hire companies can counter that with individuals who have dishonestly returned damaged vehicles and kept quiet. The less I have to do with big business and people the better I like it. The biggest driver to the status quo is convenience. I do not have to rely on anyone else with the car sitting at the door. Yes, depreciation is a silent factor, in my head I've already written the price of the car off and since I bought it and the huge increases in new car prices since I took delivery of mine in 2020 means it is still worth 20% more than what I bought it for at the end of the loan period.
The UK keeps the bulk of the money locked up in the South-East forcing more and more people into one area and then setting directives for the country based on that overcrowded area. Economics of madmen.
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Post by Humph on Mar 9, 2024 14:47:01 GMT
Interesting, and as you know I dallied recently with treating myself to a two seater convertible. I know I would enjoy such a thing having had them before, but I wouldn’t want to not have a large load lugging car as well, so it would mean having an”extra” car all the time. My wife would enjoy a sports car too, but she wouldn’t want to be without something that is suitable for shifting parents etc.
There are just too many occasions when I would want to shift bikes and people at the same time as she would want an accommodating car for other reasons so to live with a two seater as part of a fleet of two cars wouldn’t easily work.
While we are not about to starve by anyone’s measure, but running three cars on a reduced income doesn’t seem prudent even though we could easily afford it I suppose.
Ironic isn’t it that when you’re cash rich you’re often time poor and when you’re time rich…
🤔
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Post by EspadaIII on Mar 11, 2024 11:33:42 GMT
"I could easily give up the family estate car if hire companies didn't wear masks. Sending vehicles with known defects out and then hitting the customer for pre-existing damage. "
It is interesting but in the last two years I have returned a rental car with damage that I swore I had not done, nor had been done during my rental. The people on the desk were very polite and diligent and spent a good ten minutes looking through the return photos of previous rentals. In both cases they said 'we are not sure either so please let us check'. and they did and in bath cases they said, sorry for our trouble, we can see the damage was pre-existing, so nothing to pay.
They are not perfect either. These days, when people video the car as soon as they get the keys seems to have stopped the nonsense that used to go on. In fact when I get a car now, the rental compnay tells me to do that.
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Mar 12, 2024 9:05:23 GMT
I think the worry there is of putting something important — your credit card — at the mercy of others, just to get mobile for a day or two. But we accept doing this for short term accommodation, as I did this weekend, and it generally works out OK. It may be that if renting cars becomes more normal again — I did it a lot in the 1990s but haven’t at all for 20 years — it may improve competition and put upward pressure on service standards.
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Post by dixinormus on Mar 12, 2024 9:17:17 GMT
Am currently looking for a 6-day car rental at Heathrow at the start of August. Feel compelled to use a big name brand in the naive hope that they are more likely to be scrupulous…. 45 quid/day for a Fiat 500, plus CDW of course.
Hey Al, want to rent me your idle Corolla instead?! 😁
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 12, 2024 9:23:17 GMT
You pay for the new calipers to be fitted, and put the MOT, VED and insurance on it, and it's all yours!
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Post by dixinormus on Mar 13, 2024 8:06:49 GMT
Yikes!
Now Humph is retired and has time on his hands perhaps I should ask him to chauffeur me around instead? He’s got the airport taxi already… 😛
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Post by Humph on Mar 13, 2024 9:02:39 GMT
Have you seen “Transporter”?
😉
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