18 plate polo with no problems to date!

[monkeyhanger]

I don’t care about depreciation, I kept my VW Up for six years and 130,000 miles, and it cost relatively little to maintain. I hope to keep the Polo more than six years, as my mileage will drop significantly in a few years t8me. Incidentally these small three pot engines warm up very quickly, far more so than older engines, and I get good mpg over 15 miles and even 6 miles. The real killer is traffic and congestion as you suggest.

If I were doing 25k miles pa then i'd not worry about depreciation either, i'd run it into the ground or buy an old crapper diesel for the work miles and a newer car for the weekend and as backup for the crapper. I'd be under no illusions that a 6 year old car with 130k miles on it will be worth very little (relative to the purchase price). Not sure about the longevity of the 3 pots, but my dad ran a mk4 Golf 1.9 TDI for 160k miles and is up at around 100k miles on his 2013 Golf GTD. 130k motorway miles should do most well maintained petrols, but on Ford petrols at least, the tappets are usually shot at that mileage.

[mike sel]

I was having this debate. I have owned second hand cars for years always trying to keep my driving costs down to around 3k per ann.

I had a brand new company BMW 3 series 330d on a 07 plate. It was not a free car the tax man really went for me me on it. I think it cost me nearly 2.4 k per year tax. I did over 40k miles per year in it I had it 2 years and the company changed it. its depreciation was a joke, 2 years old and nearly 90k miles on it. it lost a fortune I think at the time it was a 35k car and when sold they got less then 16k for it.

I am forgetting maintenance for this exercise as its not quantifiable either way.

I paid 21k for my polo, (paid off pcp in the cooling off 14 days) got 2 years free servicing thrown in as well as VW contributions.

PCP over 4 years was 5k down and £235 per month limited to 10k miles per ann. If I took the PCP road I was looking at £16280 cost over the 4 year PCP including the 5k down. No car residual value.

Over 6 years cash purchase a PCP would have been 21,920 with no residual car value where as my polo 6 years old with about 80k on the clock will at least be worth 3-4 grand, giving me a saving over 6 years of about 4-5k. so 21k purchase - the 4_5k residual gives me a cost of say £16.5 k over 6 years or £2750 per ann. add £200 a year insurance and a couple of hundred per ann maintenance (I have free maintenance for first 2 years) and I am around £3100 per ann for the next 6 years).

For me the cash option works financially. I know I don't get a new car in 3 or 4 years time, but I am not a car fan anyway I just have to have reliable one to get to work and back etc. I am just hoping this VW polo will be that reliable run around.

[silverhairs]

Going back to "Monkeyhanger" three reasons why I never had a mortgage, wrong on all three accounts. Now if you had a 4th idea, you could have given

4. WORKED BLOODY HARD FOR IT You would have been correct

I purchased my first house back in 1968 in Bromley Kent for £3,000 as a derelict. I paid off the bank loan off in less than 18 months, (I suppose you could have called that a mortgage) Went to work during the day, then at night straight down the house, filled 14 skips (the first skip was filled up with neighbours rubbish), as everything came out all lathe and plaster walls, all the plaster as it was dead, all the wood work, you walked in the front door and you stepped down to mother earth all the bedroom flooring and joists, the first job (not by me) new timbers and roof, ripped out the front and back chimneys, so don't think I've had to rely on other people giving me an easy time.
I'm now retired, saved money and invested well. I save at the moment about 3 times the amount monthly, you pay in PCP monthly !
Please don't speculate how I never had a mortgage, you stick to your PCP, and having a nice new car on your drive, it might impress the neighbours? Reading other members comments about keeping their car for more than three years, and their costing's, really knocks your theory into a cocked hat.

I only joined the forum for information about the new Polo, not for another forum member to speculate how I earned my money, Keep your thoughts to yourself. I hope the explanation above allows you to sleep well at night and not worry about my situation

[Leif]

Your mortgage/rent-free lifestyle is pretty unique, most people here will be PCPing and I can only think of a few ways people could buy a house outright with never having rented :

I effectively paid cash for my VW Polo. I took out PCP and then paid it off a few days later to get the £500 PCP discount. I don't like owing money, and cash is always the best option for a new car in my opinion.

I almost paid cash for my first house. In practice I took out a £15,000 mortgage (on a £290,000 purchase price) to allow me to keep some savings for emergencies, a decision that turned out to be wise when I was subsequently laid off. I was in the 'worked bloody hard and saved/invested wisely' group.

[monkeyhanger]

The 4th idea was "had a bank loan/mortgage even though I never had a bank loan/mortgage", would never have guessed that, because you were so adamant ygat you've never borrowed money. You keep putting it out there about your financial situation - reminds me of the Harry Enfield " I do believe i'm seriously richer that yow" sketch.

No shame in borrowing money if you have the means to pay it back over the term agreed.

You do seem to enjoy being the argumentative contrarian, as well as asking for experiences and advice then disregarding that which is offered and bemoaning the posts that current owners offer because they're mainly from GTI owners.

There isn't a lot in it between keeping an initially slowly depreciating car 6 years and paying out for consumables beyond 3 years and any out of warranty parts failures if you're unlucky - for people doing average mileages. The car companies engineer the financials that way.

Case in point is my Golf R - RRP £32k car bought for £28k, worth £18k in px at 3 years old and likely worth £8k-£9k privately at 6 years old. So at 0-3 and 4-6 years it is losing me £10k. I'd rather have warrantied driving on a new car with newer tech gor the same costs than keep it 6 years. It's not an obscure choice either, it makes perfect sense to do do.

I aim for a car to cost me no more than £300pm over the length of my ownership. I buy new and outright and then save the money it is depreciating by so I am good to go again when I want a newer one.

[monkeyhanger]

Your mortgage/rent-free lifestyle is pretty unique, most people here will be PCPing and I can only think of a few ways people could buy a house outright with never having rented :

I effectively paid cash for my VW Polo. I took out PCP and then paid it off a few days later to get the £500 PCP discount. I don't like owing money, and cash is always the best option for a new car in my opinion.

I almost paid cash for my first house. In practice I took out a £15,000 mortgage (on a £290,000 purchase price) to allow me to keep some savings for emergencies, a decision that turned out to be wise when I was subsequently laid off. I was in the 'worked bloody hard and saved/invested wisely' group.

I've done that before, but only once have I bought a car that had a decent deposit contribution, when i've had the means to pay outright - the Audi A1 that the Polo GTI replaced - play them at their own game. Shortly after I bought my R, there was a decent contribution available.

I used to PCP performance diesel VWs for about £400pm, then the missus learned to drive and I had the means to buy outright for 2 cars, so a £480pm PCP term Golf R becomes a £300 a month coverage for the depreciation, same story on the Polo.

I wouldn't even pretend to have the means to buy my house outright at the moment, but not many people under 50 do these days when the cost of a very ordinary house in an ok area is around 7.5 times the average UK wage, unlike 40+ years ago when it was more like 2.5 times the average wage. I have a sizeable sum tied up in 2 cars. For me and what I have it's a better option to save £250pm on PCP interest for those cars rather than knocking that money off my mortgage while i'm paying less than 1% interest on it.

[Leif]

Yes house prices are absurd. Best not discuss why or big arguments will break out.

[silverhairs]

Hi "Leif"

Don't take any notice of "Monkeyhanger" and his ramblings, he's trying to have a sly go at me. He get's to engrossed in percentages, just read his posts and said I looked down on people who paid for their car by either PCP (which he loves) and HP. I've never said or think that.
I own my own house and never had a mortgage. so he stated 3 reasons for that, and all wrong. I PM'd him offering him a loan at a very reduced interest rate, cheaper than his PCP at the moment, as long as he has the collateral to cover the loan??
All these percentages he keeps coming out with makes me laugh. You can just imagine, he's got a calculator in every room, and one under his pillow as he has a job sleeping.
Can he disclose the company that's giving him less than 1% on his mortgage, I expect many members would like to know the name of the company who's providing it

I think what really "Pd" him off was my statement about people having PCP with a nice new car on the road and the neighbours thinking "he's doing all right for himself" and in reality don't have two farthings to wipe their **** with, must have got a bit too close to the bone !

But I expect he'll come back with some more percentages, he cannot help it?

[mike sel]

Supermarket last night in the same car park 3 different new polos. one on a 67 plate! all looked either S or SE (no spot lights & 5 gear manuals and small wheels & loads of black rubber). No not a fetish convention.

One asked me what I felt about the car, she sat in mine and liked the digi dash etc. I sat in the one she had and it felt just the same but I have to say the analogue dash is still very nice and probably be working in 10 years time where as my digi dash (who knows).

I speak to one of the others and thy had no issues to report. so there are 3 of us with new Polos (albeit one on a 67 plate) and no issues to report. By the way each had wiper judder but it cleared up itself as has mine.

so that's

[DuncanM]

Hi "Leif"

Don't take any notice of "Monkeyhanger" and his ramblings, he's trying to have a sly go at me. He get's to engrossed in percentages, just read his posts and said I looked down on people who paid for their car by either PCP (which he loves) and HP. I've never said or think that.
I own my own house and never had a mortgage. so he stated 3 reasons for that, and all wrong. I PM'd him offering him a loan at a very reduced interest rate, cheaper than his PCP at the moment, as long as he has the collateral to cover the loan??
All these percentages he keeps coming out with makes me laugh. You can just imagine, he's got a calculator in every room, and one under his pillow as he has a job sleeping.
Can he disclose the company that's giving him less than 1% on his mortgage, I expect many members would like to know the name of the company who's providing it

I think what really "Pd" him off was my statement about people having PCP with a nice new car on the road and the neighbours thinking "he's doing all right for himself" and in reality don't have two farthings to wipe their **** with, must have got a bit too close to the bone !

But I expect he'll come back with some more percentages, he cannot help it?

I just hope you dont have to go into long term care for years and years and then the government take your house and capital to fund your care rather than allowing you to leave it to who you wish. After all the hard work years ago Better to go suddenly rather than a long lingering decline. Thats what I am hoping for in my case. Unfortunately it's those of us that work hard who end up funding the have nots.

[monkeyhanger]

Hi "Leif"

Don't take any notice of "Monkeyhanger" and his ramblings, he's trying to have a sly go at me. He get's to engrossed in percentages, just read his posts and said I looked down on people who paid for their car by either PCP (which he loves) and HP. I've never said or think that.
I own my own house and never had a mortgage. so he stated 3 reasons for that, and all wrong. I PM'd him offering him a loan at a very reduced interest rate, cheaper than his PCP at the moment, as long as he has the collateral to cover the loan??
All these percentages he keeps coming out with makes me laugh. You can just imagine, he's got a calculator in every room, and one under his pillow as he has a job sleeping.
Can he disclose the company that's giving him less than 1% on his mortgage, I expect many members would like to know the name of the company who's providing it

I think what really "Pd" him off was my statement about people having PCP with a nice new car on the road and the neighbours thinking "he's doing all right for himself" and in reality don't have two farthings to wipe their **** with, must have got a bit too close to the bone !

But I expect he'll come back with some more percentages, he cannot help it?

I'm good with numbers, which helps decipher the financials that dealerships try to bamboozle with for anyone considering how to fund their Polo. It also helps me make the most of the money I have - I always look around for a good price or terms for anything substantial i'm buying. Just helping out to demonstrate that a lease deal posted is good value next to the PCP offerings even with a broker size discount. I've posted about the very car we're all here for, offering real life experience of the new Polo as an owner and comparisons with my Golf and a string of previous VWs owned from new.

What has Mr Silverhairs contributed here at all, apart from frustrated words of his wait and clear demonstration of low wit while trying to offend?

So when is a mortgage not a mortgage? When it's a sizeable loan (only £36k in todays money, but still a few years average wages back then) loan used to buy a house (isn't that a mortgage, by definition?).

My mortgage is with the Woolwich, it is a Bank of England Base rate +0.19% for life, taken out in 2007, not long before the crash. Given the 10 years of historically low interest rates we've seen, I've had a variable rate as low as 0.44%.

Monkeyhanger, You really make me laugh. I was 23 at the time, engaged and looking for a house, what did you have behind you at 23? Are you 23 yet?
Did I say there was any shame in borrowing, you brought that one up. But then again there are people who have a new car sitting on their drive, and all the neighbours thinking "their doing well" who in reality haven't got two farthings to wipe their **** with?

But I'll be willing to give you a loan with a good interest rate, that's as long as you have the collateral? Not holding my breath.

I'm not going to get into a slanging match with you in the forum, your not worth the effort.

You contradict yourself constantly, and are criticising those for whom you know nothing about their background with comments like

But then again there are people who have a new car sitting on their drive, and all the neighbours thinking "their doing well" who in reality haven't got two farthings to wipe their **** with?

. Why do you care so much about why someone has a new car and judge whether they can or cannot really afford it?

Comes across as being a bitter, judgemental and grumpy old man, yet immature in attitude.

Anyway, always happy to provide a bit of "popcorn" entertainment for the other readers.

[SRGTD]

I for one welcome the contribution to the forum of the likes of monkeyhanger and their actual experience of Polo ownership. In my opinion, forum members can provide really useful feedback on what the new Polo is like as an ownership proposition on a day to day basis, highlighting the positives and the negatives, which can be very valuable to future owners and those waiting for their cars to be built and delivered. I will certainly feel better informed as a result of forum members feedback when I pull the trigger and order the replacement (GTI+) for my previous generation Polo GTI.

Keep up the good work monkeyhanger - and the other forum members who’ve taken delivery of their cars and have shared their ownership experiences; your collective contributions are really appreciated!

[mike sel]

Yes we need a mix of opinion and I don't understand why anyone should be talked down. monkeyhanger has a right to his view

[silverhairs]

Please don't worry yourselves about the government taking a large percentage of my money and property when I peg it, It cost me a few thousand but everything is all wrapped up in a trust, and they cannot touch it, that was done long ago. Thanks for thinking about my financial matters

[silverhairs]

And as for "mike sel" who wanted to stop his account in the forum because of one of my comments, and is now backing "monkeyhanger"

Grow a pair .

I joined to get information about the car I ordered, only to find, one know it all and keeps on about percentages and another member hanging on to his shirt tails, you make a lovely couple .