Buy and sell frequently or buy and keep?

[Borris]

Here's a subject that I've pondered over many times with other vehicles that I've owned. Is it better to replace your car frequently or keep them for as long as possible?

Now I know that there are many variable factors involved in making this decision but lets just consider this issue in relation to the California. The three main points to keep in mind are:

1. The very strong residual values almost regardless of age.
2. The California is basically a commercial vehicle designed to do galactic mileage.
3. The ever increasing costs involved in buying and taxing a new Cali.

Taking myself as an example. I have a extremely well specced Beach which has done 25000 miles in the last thirty months. It has a five year extended warrantee and is in mint condition. Nothing has gone wrong and if I were to change it I would only order an almost identical vehicle albiet with the odd non essential minor change to spec. So given it's remaining warrantee, its relatively low miles and the £15 - 20k that it would probably cost me to change it is an easy choice for me. I shall keep it at least until the extended warrantee runs out and maybe a lot longer. However others may have a different view.

There are always plenty of Californias for sale with very low mileages. Leaving aside hire companies updating stock, why?

 

[kp64zl]

Have always kept cars until they become super-uneconomic to repair.

Currently driving a 20 1/2 year old Audi A3 - covered in dents, scratches, bits fallen off etc etc. I never worry about it, gets me where I want to and is mostly 'free' motoring.

Buying a new vehicle is a first for me...and it worries me....

 

[Max-Felix]

I'm probably towards the extreme (of buying and selling frequently) - I can only make proper use of a Cali for the summer - the rest of the time it would be a total white elephant for us at this stage of our life in terms of actual use/need but most importantly financially - it would be crazy to have £25-£35k tied up as well as the yearly running costs when that money could be invested elsewhere.

So, each year come late June I buy one and each early September I sell it. We buy and own it purely for the kids summer hols. Costs us 3 months tax and 3 months insurance as these are rounded up to full months come cancellation. Both done on a yearly basis and cancelled/refunded pro rata come sale time. I only buy a fully sorted Cali of the right spec and at the right price that I know I can re-sell quickly and with up to date servicing, tyres etc and a long or new MOT so no further costs there.

Doing this you have to be confident wheeler/dealering and know how to fully check one out but buy right and sell right and it costs nothing but quite the opposite.

Come 'retirement' we will do it differently but for now this works great for us.

 

[Borris]

I'm probably towards the extreme (of buying and selling frequently) - I can only make proper use of a Cali for the summer - the rest of the time it would be a total white elephant for us at this stage of our life in terms of actual use/need but most importantly financially - it would be crazy to have £25-£35k tied up as well as the yearly running costs when that money could be invested elsewhere.

So, each year come late June I buy one and each early September I sell it. We buy and own it purely for the kids summer hols. Costs us 3 months tax and 3 months insurance. Both done on a yearly basis and cancelled come sale time. I only buy a fully sorted Cali of the right spec and at the right price that I know I can re-sell quickly and with up to date servicing, tyres etc and a long or new MOT so no further costs there.

Doing this you have to be confident wheeler/dealering and know how to fully check one out but buy right and sell right and it costs nothing but quite the opposite.

Come 'retirement' we will do it differently but for now this works great for us.

Interesting. You've obviously found that it's cheaper to buy rather than to rent for the summer holidays!

 

[Andy]

Generally acepted cheepest way to run vehicle is either extreme. Buy & sell within a year or keep till uneconomical to run.

In future emissions may stop an older vehicle being driven in certain areas or cost money to do so & would need to be taken into consideration.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[Max-Felix]

Interesting. You've obviously found that it's cheaper to buy rather than to rent for the summer holidays!

Rental is nuts and the costs would be £4000+ for the use we make of a Cali for the summer.

 

[GrannyJen]

No brainer for me. I am hopelessly incompetent at any form of DiY, try to fix a screw in the wall and the wall falls down

The high residuals of the Cali does the work for me. As soon as it's out of warranty and I can't trundle to the garage to get things fixed then I change it, Cost me practically nothing to sell Albert on and buy Alfie.

I do have an advantage though in that I am a constant traveller and if I did not have Alfie then I would have to find other accommodation so offsetting hotel bills is a big saving that goes into the calculation.

 

[Borris]

Generally acepted cheepest way to run vehicle is either extreme. Buy & sell within a year or keep till uneconomical to run.

In future emissions may stop an older vehicle being driven in certain areas or cost money to do so & would need to be taken into consideration.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

I used to buy a new car every 12 - 18 months when I worked but I had an allowance then. It worked out very well with the first two actually making me a profit. The later ones still worked out very cost effective.

My thinking at the moment is to use the entire five year extended warrantee period up then reassess the situation. There are a lot of factors that may change in the next two years plus.

 

[cbdubs]

Rental is nuts and the costs would be £4000+ for the use we make of a Cali for the summer.

What does it cost you to buy and sell? I know it may be possible to even make a small profit if bought keenly.

Also, what if you couldn't find one in June that ticked your boxes, where would that leave you for the Summer?

 

[PaulMilton]

I don’t know that I could take the stress of buying and selling every year. But I admire someone who can!

I imagine we’ll keep ours for 10ish years. One of the reasons I would upgrade is for new features that make driving/owning easier.

One of the reasons I wouldn’t change our van is we put things in that couldn’t be taken to the next van that we find useful: cupboard shelves and the interior topper.

 

[bvddobb]

Our approach is a bit different. We bought ours second hand and then invested into rugging it up to be able to do the holidays we like, including bad roads, a bit of terrain, river crossings etc. We will never recoup those investments when we sell it now, so we plan to run it until it is beyond repair. We hope to do another 200.000 km at least...

 

[Max-Felix]

What does it cost you to buy and sell? I know it may be possible to even make a small profit if bought keenly.

Well, that's where the 'wheelering/dealering' and 'buying the right example at the right price' etc comes in...

Many times the 'right vehicle' also includes extras (awning, roof bars, cool box etc) that can also be sold on separately.

Also, what if you couldn't find one in June that ticked your boxes, where would that leave you for the Summer?

It's just not an issue, done it three years in a row now, always lots for sale and we leave plenty of time to find one. IME as mentioned on here before and converse to what one might think June/July is a great time to buy and September to sell.

 

[Borris]

No brainer for me. I am hopelessly incompetent at any form of DiY, try to fix a screw in the wall and the wall falls down

I don’t know that I could take the stress of buying and selling every year. But I admire someone who can!

I am inclined to agree with you.
If I could be sure of being able to sell at a very keen price and then strike a brilliant deal on a new one thereby minimising any aditional cost then I might be persuaded to change every twelve months or so. However even with the very strong residuals those things can never be guaranteed. I think I'd rather just enjoy it and get what I can for it when the three or in my case five year extended warrantee is coming to an end and then find the extra cash needed.

 

[cbdubs]

You seem to have it down to a fine art. It's not something I could do I think. If I buy the right vehicle, I tend to keep it as I like to personalise them. I will probably keep my current van until its around 10 years old.

 

[Max-Felix]

You seem to have it down to a fine art. It's not something I could do I think. If I buy the right vehicle, I tend to keep it as I like to personalise them. I will probably keep my current van until its around 10 years old.

Absolutely - it is something that works well for us in many ways but for most it is not workable or desirable and like everyone on this site, we are all different in what suits us best - just sharing ideas of what is possible.

Generally I only ever buy older cars and frequently keep them a long time - up to ten years for one recent Landy. But the Cali for us is just a camper and we only need it in summer.

 

[jqp]

I'm definitely in the buy and keep camp. I bought my T25 Westy new in 1986 (~£12000 tax free in Holland, say £18k UK price), sold it in April with 280,000 km on the clock for £6k. No major repair costs, original engine, gearbox, cooker, fridge, heater ..).
If my Ocean lasts as long I'll be mighty pleased (and proudly displaying my telegram from the Queen on the dashboard!). Although as I've already done 12,500 miles in year 1, perhaps it will wear out before I do.

I'm with Max on cars too. Buy a good lowish mileage around 6-8 years old and keep. Last one I had for 10 years, the one before did 7 (could have done more but written off by impact with a careless driver).

jp

 

[reserves]

I used to buy a new car every 12 - 18 months when I worked but I had an allowance then. It worked out very well with the first two actually making me a profit. The later ones still worked out very cost effective.

My thinking at the moment is to use the entire five year extended warrantee period up then reassess the situation. There are a lot of factors that may change in the next two years plus.

You might want to consider selling just before the warranty expires, rather than just after, this giving the new buyer peace of mind and also I’m guessing being able to sell for a little more.

 

[sidepod]

Cars, bikes, houses, jobs, wome......(best not), bored now. Change. Economics rarely get a look in.

 

[westfalia]

So given it's remaining warrantee, its relatively low miles and the £15 - 20k that it would probably cost me to change it is an easy choice for me.

It was an easy choice for us many years ago when we thought we might upgrade
and get the latest version, T5.1 at the time.
We would´ve had to give them ours + about 30k€, we didn´t really see what the
extra 30G´s would give us so decided to keep it.

When new, it was one of our daily drivers, its now semi retired although gets used often
and i like to keep it tip top.
So i´ve got no regrets not upgrading.

 

[Whistler]

We tend to buy cars at about 3 year old and get rid of them about 6 years later. Bought the Cali this year and it has just turned 8. Plan to keep it for a while. Don't think I would ever buy a brand new one just too much money.

 

[GrannyJen]

just one question:

Do you buy a Cali as a chap investment or something that gives you something priceless?

I'm in the second category. I don't care if the roof rots to a complete open space above my head, the life it gives me is an unaccountable commodity.

 

[Legin]

Well, that's where the 'wheelering/dealering' and 'buying the right example at the right price' etc comes in...

Many times the 'right vehicle' also includes extras (awning, roof bars, cool box etc) that can also be sold on separately.



It's just not an issue, done it three years in a row now, always lots for sale and we leave plenty of time to find one. IME as mentioned on here before and converse to what one might think June/July is a great time to buy and September to sell.

I take it you have sold it then. Was it once again straightforward ? I think your logic is sound but two reasons it wouldnt work for me, my specific requirement /customisation and I just dont like the wheeler dealer piece.

 

[Max-Felix]

I take it you have sold it then. Was it once again straightforward ? I think your logic is sound but two reasons it wouldnt work for me, my specific requirement /customisation and I just dont like the wheeler dealer piece.

The Cali we had this summer sold in one day, same as last year's purchase and two other people were waiting in the wings if it fell through - they are the easiest vehicle in the world to sell on if you get it right. The first year ('16) we had a yellow Beach and this took a little longer to sell on - Beaches were much less popular then and yellow still puts some people off but you have to be a little patient and in the end we had a couple of people chasing it. Due to rising residuals it's probably worth similar now to what we sold it for back then.

Remember if you only need the Cali for a month or so then in our circumstances we don't need to be fussy about spec - manual/auto, colour, trim, climatic, sat nav etc does not matter one hoot - ideally it has privacy, an awning and cruise. And for it not to be a 180 in case it goes bang on our watch. All that is important in choosing the correct one is condition/history/price. And the seller too.

When selling on, it all comes down to a very well presented vehicle, a fully descriptive and well written and photographed ad and the right price. Plus being flexible and super helpful/polite with viewings, info etc. I'm not a dealer but I do seem to end up buying/selling cars a lot just through general changes of circumstances - you have to enjoy the wheeler dealering though, just worked out I've bought/sold a car privately fourteen times in the last three years!

 

[ShedMojo]

We were the ones who purchased the 2011 140SE from Max.

Having owned a split, two bays and two T25’s over the years we were looking for our retirement vehicle. After lots of research we knew we wanted a manual 140, we were not bothered about year but wanted FSH and a clear unmolested van.

We started looking, distance wasn’t an issue so anywhere in the UK was fair game. Trawling through the adverts on a daily basis, several vans almost made the cut, but after a quick phone call or email for some clarification these vans dropped off our list. As soon as we saw Max’s ad on this site we jumped at it, everything was right, one phone call later and a small bank transfer for a deposit, thus proving our commitment to view, we had first refusal.

Now the fun starts, we live in Cumbria, the van was in Sussex, a few days later we set off the view the van, after 5 trains and a tube ride across London Max collected us from the station and took us back to his place for the viewing. The van was exactly as described, the deal was completed and that evening we drove back to Cumbria in our new van.

This was on the September 13th, to date we’ve covered nearly 3000 miles, had zero issues and are extremely pleased with the van.

Although the van came with FSH, it wasn’t fully clear if the timing belt had been changed when the tensioner was, so for peace of mind we’ve had this done at a local independent VW specialist. Our only other expenses have been accessories, namely waterproof seat covers and the rainbow topper.

We’re very pleased with Max’s annual buy sell strategy, it worked for us

 

[2haw]

I've had my 2nd Beach for nearly 5 months and so nearly ordered a 3rd one before the price rise at the end of last month.

Wish I had now, and will really regret it if WBAC give me a good valuation next spring!