False Economy…

I’m the kind of person that will sit and ponder things, however, after many hours of pondering, I cannot work this one out…

Why does anyone buy new?

I’m not talking about the wealthy who can afford to go and spend £60,000+ on a car quite easily, because they do it for an obvious reason. But why does the Average Joe ever buy a new car?

Last year, one of my friends told me that he’d bought a new car, after inquiring, it turned out he’d just bought a brand new, un-registered Citroen C4 1.6 HDi Semi-Auto, my first thoughts were that this was a frankly awful car, however, this feeling was replaced with horror when I found out that he’d just spent £12,000 on it. Yes, he went out and blew about 70% of his annual salary on a French, Unreliable, Ugly, Boring and slow car.

I suppose you are saying “Well, everyone likes different things” at this point, however, I have no problem with people liking different things, I have a problem with people being blinded by sales Jargon. The reason he bought it was because “It does nearly 50MPG!”. Yes, it might do very good fuel economy, but it’s just cost you £12,000! Where is the logic in that? Yes, another reason that he bought it was because it was safe, but still, there are plenty of cheaper, more interesting cars that are!

I suppose what I am trying to say is that you could buy that CItoren for £12,000 and kid yourself into thinking it was a good buy by telling everyone it does 50MPG, or you could buy the 1996 Jaguar XJ6 4.0 Sovereign I found with 60,000 Miles, Full Jaguar Service History, Original Bill of sale, 12 Months MOT and Tax for £1,900 and spend the £10,100 you have left on running it. The servicing, if you take it to a dealer, will be about £50-60 more each year, the tax £185 instead of £120 and it will only ever do 18-22 MPG, but, you’ve just saved yourself over £10,000 so who cares? You’ve got a car that has A/C, electric windows, electric mirrors, a harmon/kardon stereo with 6 CD changer, an automatic gearbox, electricly adjustable and heated seats, remote central locking, alloy wheels, and a 4 litre straight six engine! 0-60 in 6.8 seconds, 150MPH, all in near silence, for £1,900.

Even if you don’t want a huge car, you can pick up a top of the range (Sport Premium or Sovereign) 2003-2005 Jaguar X-Type 3.0V6 for about £6-7k.

It’s medium sized, fast, comfortable, fun to drive, has every option you could ever require and does 26MPG. All for £5-6k less than a Citroen C4 Diesel…

I don’t understand some people…