Why I won't be buying a new car anytime soon

Altamar

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I am currently driving a W212 220d saloon registered in October 2014. It has covered 78000 miles, 95% of which I have driven having owned it from new, and it has a full MB service history.

With one exception with glow plugs which was fixed under warranty it has been faultless. It averages 43 MPG and costs £30 a year to tax.

I am told it has lost 75% of its value and would only be worth £10k as a trade-in. If I hold onto it for another two years it is surely still likely to be worth £7k - £8k.

Everyone and his brother in the motoring media tells me I want an electric car next time, or at the very least a plug-in hybrid.

The problem with that is Mercedes and their direct competitors make very few pure electric cars (let alone with a decent range) unless of course I had £60k - £70k to spend on an EQC or IPace. One possible option I suppose is the E300de, the plug-in diesel hybrid, where I would need to put £40k on top to change, but it still has diesel in the title so who knows how the government will change the rules in future to get such cars off the road. Other "suitable" cars seem to be two or three years away from the showroom.

Oh, and any replacement would now cost £440 a year to tax for five years.

And they wonder why people are not rushing to buy new cars currently...
 
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Blobcat

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I am currently driving a W212 220d saloon registered in October 2014. It has covered 78000 miles, 95% of which I have driven having owned it from new, and it has a full MB service history.

With one exception with glow pugs which was fixed under warranty it has been faultless. It averages 43 MPG and costs £30 a year to tax.

I am told it has lost 75% of its value and would only be worth £10k as a trade-in. If I hold onto it for another two years it is surely still likely to be worth £7k - £8k.

Everyone and his brother in the motoring media tells me I want an electric car next time, or at the very least a plug-in hybrid.

The problem with that is Mercedes and their direct competitors make very few pure electric cars (let alone with a decent range) unless of course I had £60k - £70k to spend on an EQC or IPace. One possible option I suppose is the E300de, the plug-in diesel hybrid, where I would need to put £40k on top to change, but it still has diesel in the title so who knows how the government will change the rules in future to get such cars off the road. Other "suitable" cars seem to be two or three years away from the showroom.

Oh, and any replacement would now cost £440 a year to tax for five years.

And they wonder why people are not rushing to buy new cars currently...
If you really must change then Buy a 2016 or 2017 E220d and enjoy better fuel economy than a plug in hybrid will ever get and just £20 a year VED o_O
 
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Altamar

Altamar

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Look after what youve got and forget buying one of those dirty elecy things.

^ And that's where I have ended up. The car has been pampered to within an inch of its life so I think I will keep it another four or five years, keep up the service history, and wait for something expensive to go wrong - but even then you can do a lot of repairs before you spend the £20k - £30K it would take to change.

They say Mercedes diesel engines will do 200k miles with no issues so I am inclined to try and find out.
 

AMGeed

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^ More like 400k+ miles. Have you seen the mileage on some of those German E class taxis;)

I think you have adopted the right idea of keeping the car if you are happy with it and don't mind spending over and above what a newer car would cost to keep in tip top condition. You also have to offset the probably higher fuel running costs.

I usually keep my cars until either
A. I get fed up with it and want something different.
B. Its unreliable and needs to go
C. Something comes on the market that I really like and is now affordable.
 

M80

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^ More like 400k+ miles. Have you seen the mileage on some of those German E class taxis;)

Even the OM651?
I thunked they were made of chocolate with bungee timing chains
 

malcolm E53 AMG

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As already mentioned above there is a sweet spot here putting another £12k plus your trade-in towards a W213 E class 220d, that will buy you a low mileage pre March 17 car with £20 road tax. Anything over £40k purchase price post that date will be loaded with £320 + whatever the road tax is for 5 years.

My son is running a 16 plate W213 with the new OM654 220d engine and it gives 50+ mpg all day long and is a real step up from the 212, I wouldn’t hesitate to buy one if I was looking to change they are that good
 

Andy.M

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Is there a formula somewhere for working out if keeping an old "dirty" diesel is better or worse for the environment than having a new car built for you and then running that?

My uneducated guess would be that the building of a new car must pollute the atmosphere considerably.
 

robparker

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Is there a formula somewhere for working out if keeping an old "dirty" diesel is better or worse for the environment than having a new car built for you and then running that?

My uneducated guess would be that the building of a new car must pollute the atmosphere considerably.

But they dont care about the planet, they care about the pollution on their own door steps.
 

ajlsl600

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hang on to what you have as long as its reliable and cheaper to run. everything i see euro 3 onwards is ,it seems designed to keep us at the card reader in the dealer it seems sensors of all types are a lottery as to how long they may last,evidence on here and from across the pond suggests that the quality of these is at least questionable. dpf and electronic egr are not well thought out,for the end user anyway. .in my view anything that sits in grime ,carbon ,oil and is electrically/electronically controlled is on a pretty short life span unless the design allows for ease of access to maintain/clean ,which it is NOT. .ok if its £10 to replace !!!! not 600 plus for 2 nox sensors that prob cost ten quid to make.

eventually if i last long enough i will go electric and very small .. just for the hell of it i might even fit an electric start 2 stroke and a really good castrol R mix !! .. but i not going to fall for any more of this buy,bend over, which is rather how i see the recent automotive so called advances. presently i think we allow ourselfs to be fannied by the cockpit and only find out about the real dramas 5 min after the warranty lapses.
 
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Philedge

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Is there a formula somewhere for working out if keeping an old "dirty" diesel is better or worse for the environment than having a new car built for you and then running that?

My uneducated guess would be that the building of a new car must pollute the atmosphere considerably.

As far as I can work out, diesels dont have any more impsct on the environment than any other powered vehicle including eleccy. The diesel particulates are harmful to human health and thats thd reason for the drive to get rid of them particularly out of cities.

Your educated guess probably right and dont forget that the majority of eleccy cars are charged on non renewable eleccy so still pumping out s**t like all ICE cars.
 

LostKiwi

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[QUOTE="ajlsl600, post: 1740691, ]

eventually if i last long enough i will go electric and very small .. just for the hell of it.[/QUOTE]
Here you go Andy....
images (2).jpeg
 

LostKiwi

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Your educated guess probably right and dont forget that the majority of eleccy cars are charged on non renewable eleccy so still pumping out s**t like all ICE cars.
Unlike ICE electric cars don't have to be fuelled by carbon sources fuels - they can be completely carbon zero on fuel, unlike an ICE car.
 

ajlsl600

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[QUOTE="ajlsl600, post: 1740691, ]

eventually if i last long enough i will go electric and very small .. just for the hell of it.
Here you go Andy....
View attachment 52312 [/QUOTE]


about right ,tho i had a 2 stroke powered quingo in mind
 

Philedge

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Unlike ICE electric cars don't have to be fuelled by carbon sources fuels - they can be completely carbon zero on fuel, unlike an ICE car.
Potentially a few can be fuelled on clean eleccy, but as we only produce 25% renewable eleccy which should be assigned to essential services, the vast majority will be powered from nuclear or carbon based fuels. Only time an eleccy car is green is if its charged in the dead of night when theres surplus wind power.
 

LostKiwi

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