stilover

As title

With petrol prices soaring, with little chance of them falling anytime soon, how many people are thinking of selling their Scooby for a Diesel?

Found myself in the VW dealership on Sunday looking at Golf GT Sports. Wasn't planning on changing my car till next year, but the sooner may be better if petrol prices keep going upwards. The higher they are the less trade-in value you'll get as the dealer will struggle to shift a thirsty car.

Was planning on getting a new Focus RS next year, but if petrol gets close to £2/litre, I don't think I can justify getting one.

Specced up a 5 door Golf GT Sport TDI 170 DSG. £24,210

Spec'c'57

iTrader: (1)

Never sell either the scoob or the noble for a diesel... The way the diesel price is going that will cost just as much to run TBH.

scoobynutta555

Amazing that someone is worried over fuel costs and not about the swinging depreciation they must be hit by from buying what appears to be a new car

Anyhow, I'll be selling mine later in the year, partly to do with the high fuel costs.

StickyMicky

you only have to look at pistonheads to see how many scoobs are for sale to answer this question!

shed loads will be

thing is, nobody can afford to run them so i`m doubtfull of any will sell, you would be better of trading it in IMO

scoobynutta555

Add a poll?

Spec'c'57

iTrader: (1)

its defo a buyers market at the moment. hence why a friend has just purchased an 05 Type 25 with 12k miles for 16k.

stilover

Because I'd keep the car for many years. At least 5

Plus, I am also looking at second hand ones. 12-18 month old.

RLE

iTrader: (2)

Agree. Its just cost me £70.00 to fill the 306 HDI.
People said I must be saving a fortune now that I've sold the Scoob. Irony is as a weekend car I'd perhaps spend £50.00 a month.

scoobynutta555

You'll still lose each year in depreciation in what you'd have paid in tax/fuel increase unless you're doing mega miles. That Golf will probably be worth £5k if you're lucky in 5 years time, a £19k loss.

DanUK

Done it already!

JimmyBFC

Mine gets used 2-3 times per week at most and not long runs so I don't really even think about petrol cost...occupational hazard of having a performance car...however if it was a daily drive.....differnet story, i think id be buying some old banger to get me there and back.

stilover

£5k in 5 years time? Are you serious?

Look on Pistonheads & Autotrader. £5k will not get you a 5 year old Golf. Not by a long way.

I'm not thinking of changing just of the fuel increases. Mine is 3 years old now so I'd due for a replacement. The increased fuel prices is just making me think about it sooner rather than later.
So if I replace the car anyway, buying a Diesel over my previous choces will work out cheaper in both buying & running costs.

Previous choices were, in no order

Focus RS
Audi S3
Golf R36
Evo X

All far more expensive than the TDI, and running costs are considerably more.

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

As long as you've looked after it a 3 yr old car should drive like new and have nothing wrong with it at all - in what sense is it 'due' for replacement?

By all means change cars if you're bored and want a new one, but at least work out what you'd have lost in depreciation and compare that to what you've paid in fuel. I can't see that it ever works out cheaper to change a car sooner, especially a nearly new one.

EddScott

I'm still buying

I've got an old golf for daily duties and a 4L Jeep for mucking about in. When I can afford to keep a classic as a weekender, I'll sell the golf and convert the Jeep to LPG. LPG is about half the price of petrol (right now anyway) and means for the same money the Jeep will make a good 40mpg.

Keep them both on limited miles, tax the jeep using todays prices at £100 between October and March and tax the classic between March and October for £100.

Should keep me going until the oil runs out

madisonmonkey

iTrader: (4)

I don't get it

Approximate figures to keep the maths simple for me

10,000 miles a year (I only actually do 5k)
My car will give 200 miles to a 50 litre tank with a mix of m/way and town
10,000 miles = 50 tanks = 2500 litres
2500 litres @ £0.80 a litre = £2000 a year
2500 litres @ £1.00 a litre = £2500 a year
2500 litres @ £1.30 a litre = £3250 a year

It was 5 years ago that the 80p litre existed so thats an increased fuel cost of £1250 since 2003. Looking, more realistically, at the recent £1 to £1.30 increase gives an increase of £750 on your yearly fuel bill.
If £750 a year is enough to make you think twice about ownership then you bought /are thinking about buying the wrong car. These are expensive cars to own generally. If you take into account servicing, tyres, insurance, depreciation etc. I'd say fuel costs were the least of your worries.

I know I wouldn't sell mine because of the fuel costs but perhaps I'm in the minority

Don't even get me started about the insignificance of the road tax increase....

lordretsudo

I'm in a similar position. I ran my first STI as a daily driver, and it was fine. When I got my current STI, I also bought a beater to use for work as I couldn't bear getting my gleaming white paint work dirty all the time Now that petrol has rocketed I wouldn't like to be using the Scoob for work, though that still doesn't avoid the road tax hike unfortunately... I'll be keeping it for some time to come I suspect.

We're more concerned about our year old S2000 as that's also very thirsty and will be in the second-to-top tax band next year (though it was already in band G). We were half thinking about changing it for something a bit more economical, but I dread to think what it would be worth, and that's if we could manage to sell it. The market for second hand performance cars is completely dead IMO :-(

scoobynutta555

Firstly the Golf in question will be 6, 6.5 years old not 5. I also never said just fuel duty, I mentioned taxes as well, in any case your OP solely dealt with fuel prices. Also, £5k will get you a few hundred Golf's on Autotrader (up to 5 years), not factoring in discounts on listed prices.

I stand by my original comment that you'll lose more in depreciation if you buy a new/nearly new Golf than you will on fuel/taxes in your current car unless you do high mileages. Also, something to consider, the price of diesel may even further appreciate in price than petrol.

I don't know your car requirements but a 2001 Elise will lost far less than your cars in the list, will be a better drive, won't lose any depreciation, is in a lower tax band and can do 52mpg on NUL.

FWIW I've also owned 3 Golf TDIs, 2 have been GT's.

Blueblaster

I think you are right to change to a diesel. You will always get people who overdramatise the numbers by using the highly unusual case of very low annual miles and the idea of switching from a very cheap to a very expensive car. Assuming two cars of equal value, one a Scoob and another a diesel, the Scoob will be massively more expensive to run. Changing my old STI to my diesel Civic cost basically nothing and yet I am now saving £4000 a year in running costs. No brainer.

I think this thread would have gone in a different direction if the title had been something like: Going to change my car, it must be a new one, should I make the switch to diesel? That way it wouldn't have gone off on a tangent about the merits of buying new vs used.

If you're changing car then rather than look at only the purchase price I suggest you also look at the running costs and residuals. If you do that then you can either save a truck load of money or get a car with a much higher purchase price by going diesel.

dunx

iTrader: (3)

Highly unusual ?

I do 6500 pa, "she" does 7000 pa

We don't all do stoopid mileage.

Work is 4 miles away, MTB in spring/summer/autumn, STI for fun and if needed shopping.

I agree if you do have to do huge mileage pa then think twice.

IMHO

DunxC

andy97

iTrader: (1)

Keeping a car 3 to 5 years isnt keeping them for long. Im in my 11th year of owning my subaru turbo 2000. My other car I had 8 years and the one before that 8 years aswell.

Andy

madisonmonkey

iTrader: (4)

How are you making these kind of savings

moff1888

I'm selling mine at the end of the year but I'm looking at getting a P1.
I use mine every day and do around 15/16K a year.
Expenisive - yes
Stupid - debatable
Bothered - nope, probably should be though.

scooby-tc

iTrader: (2)

Ive been trying to sell one of my imprezas for a year now with no joy probably due to the fuel costs (can't be VED as its still cheap) so ive given up trying to sell it now i'll just keep both

OLLIeRB5

***** to it, i`m just spending the money making mine faster

i got given a tidy 1.2 corsa to nip about in so the scooby can stay away for weekends and sunny days.... and keep the miles down.

no petrol hike will ever force me to buy a derv, or stop owning performance cars... lifes too short.

greenonedave

sold my WRX on 8/5/08, done around 1200 miles since then saved around
£120.00 in fuel, got a 16v 150bhp diesel, full leather, full service history, tinted glass,lovely interior alloy wheels,all the extras,£150 year road tax. it will never be as good as my scooby but, I am not going to give this theiving government any more of my hard earned money.They are paying for two wars and the olympics and its your money they are using.

Cream

Well I'm still looking to buy an 05/55 PPP wagon. Hopefully looking at one this weekend if the HPI report comes back O.K.

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

I was considering selling recently, as it has been off the road off and on for the last 18 months just costing mega money, I drove it over the weekend and wont part with it now

Blueblaster

Okie doke...here we go.

Fuel (15,000 miles/year @60mpg vs 20mpg) = 500 fewer gallons @ £5/gallon= £2500
Tax (£115 vs £400) = £285 (£325 next year)
Insurance (£375 vs £650) = £275

That brings the total to £3060

To this you have to add the slightly controversial element of maintenance costs. My Impreza was getting through tyres and brakes like they were going out of fashion. I needed new pads all round after 8000 miles of very easy driving and the tyres probably had another 5000 miles in them. Because I drive my Civic more slowly my front tyres lasted 22,000 miles and the rears are currently only half worn. So I'm going to get through 6 tyres (4 front, 2 rear) on my Civic in 3 years versus 3 complete sets (12 tyres) on the Scoob. Scoob tyres are about £150 a pop (same as the 18s on my Civic) which works out at £900 extra or £300 per year. My brakes are also lasting forever. I reckon the pads will be good for a minimum of 40,000 miles and I won't need to replace the discs before I sell - they looked like new when I had the front tyres changed last week. So that's 3 extra sets of pads saved at £200 each (I am not doing DIY on a £25,000 supercar!).

So tyres £300
Brakes (only pads not discs) £200

That takes me up to £3580

The final element is one which I avoided by selling up and that is the rate at which Scoobies get through shock absorbers. Doing 15,000 miles a year I think an annual allowance of £420 for new shocks is being conservative. That takes me up to a nice round £4000.

One thing I must point out about this comparison. I now drive much slower and that is a huge factor in my fuel saving and to a certain extent my maintenance saving. However, I in no way abused my STI and was in every sense the "one careful owner" - my car was mint. In like for like driving my Civic is massively lighter on tyres and brakes.

The way I like to look at it is that if you say I get a conservative £3500 saving each year it equates to almost all the deprecation my car will suffer over three years. So I get to drive my Civic for free.

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

If I were to use my scoob as a daily commute, it would cost far more than that on top of what my diesel 306 cost me! thats only £80 a week ish

Fantom

I sold my WRX. Couldn't take the 160 miles to a full tank anymore. Got a clio 172 now and it does about 300 miles to a tank and is still a lot of fun to drive.
Hardly have to do any miles though. I'd probably go turbo diesel if I did more mileage