Second car

[cdjpb]

Hi, I hope to soon own a campervan and ideally that'd be a Cali, however I need to decide whether I can afford to run both a car and a Cali.

I currently drive 15,000 miles/yr and I'm unsure whether putting that amount of mileage on a Cali is a wise use of my hefty investment. I spoke to a VW dealer last week who suggested that most Cali's only do 5,000 miles/yr and so to protect my investment I should probably do the same. The dealer suggested that a Cali with 60,000 miles on it after 4 years, although it'd depreciate much less than a car, wouldn't be that desirable for resale.

So it's either just a Cali for £55K (and trade it in after 4yrs with 60,000 on the clock) or a cheaper conversion (say £40-£45k and 5,000 miles/yr) and running a cheaper second car for the commute; any thoughts appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[hirsty]

This came up last year - several people* made the point then that it seems a bit daft to have a £50K dream machine sat there & then go out every day in a crap second car just to keep the Cali nice for the next guy.

On the second point if you're looking to spend top-end money then my personal opinion is that you'd be much better off with a factory van rather than a conversion. Depreciation on conversions isn't as bad as some would have you believe, but the VW option will retain more value.


EDIT: possibly just me.

 

[Gavinskii]

Why don't you buy a decent low mileage T5 for between £35-£45k and keep that for your fun miles (then the value will hold up) and that will leave you budget for a sensible car to rack the miles up on in between adventures.

 

[andyinluton]

Any saving on the future value of the cali will be wiped out by the cost of buying / running the second car. From what I saw looking at used cali & what has happened with ours, it's the camping bits that show the signs of wear & tear rather than the running gear. These are based on vans designed to do high mileage.

If anticipating a high mileage I would go for the 150 as a manual with none of the expensive options. That way when you come to sell you would be competing with the less expensive end of the market where a buyer would see it as a cheap nearly new van.

A higher spec van whilst being attractive will still be seen as high mileage & will be competing with low mileage lower spec vans.

To be honest I did a bit of man maths to justify buying a car that I wanted just to keep the mileage on our van down. It does depend what your mileage is & what you do with the van, I wouldn't want to leave mine in the station car park every day or do lots of very short journeys. We did 12k in the van last year, about 6 of that was in holiday use including 2 trips to spain. I used it for commuting in the winter, the remote heating & heated seats were perfect & used the sports car in the better weather. This year it will get used for work less as I'm working from home more.

A good compromise might to be to get a low mileage 2nd hand van & put lots of miles on it to bring it back to average.

 

[WelshGas]

Dealerships will always undervalue a California on trade in as they treat it like commercial van , but when it comes to selling it on their forecourt it will be a different picture. They are built to do the mileage. Sitting around on the drive for 9 months of the year, whether inside or out does them no good. Look after the camping side of things and don't trade in and give the Salesman a very large bonus. Just look at the builders vans people buy and then spend £10-15000 converting. 1000,000 miles and still going strong. Just depends on what value you put on the desire and lifestyle.

 

[Ciki62]

Average miles for last 11years in my T5 and now T6 is 25000miles/year. I use smaller car time to time only for short ride. Btw when I sell my t5 after 10years it was 250000 miles without any significant repair. So my advice is to use our vans as much as we can


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[Verity]

I kept my little IQ because I was nervous about driving/parking a bigger vehicle, but having owned it for 6 mths now I need not have worried. I still use the little car for popping around as it's here, but I suspect I shall part with it soon. My boy is off to uni in Sept and we hope to sell up and downsize, so I may be a super generous mummy and give the IQ to the boy as it's probably worth diddly squat! (He's currently taking lessons, but won't practice in the IQ as it's so different from the Corsa he's learning in. Thank goodness as I took him out a couple of times and my nerves were shot to pieces!).

I thought having the little car would stop me putting too many miles on the Cali, but we've already done over 5k in the first 6 months. We just love it so much we keep finding reasons to go out and play in it!

 

[jts46]

133,000 miles and still no problems, apart from DMF at 130,000 which i expected

 

[Jonathan Duke]

We will cover between 30-35,000 miles per year, in our T6 Beach. I try to always use a push-bike or motorbike, for short trips around town (under 10 miles.) Especially, as the California wouldn't even get up to temperature, due to the short distance. Parking the Cali around town isn't easy either, plus I can use the city-centre bus-lanes whilst on 2-wheels.

Our T6, which we purchased new, is a longer term investment.... Previously, we changed cars every 2-4 years on average. We look forward to seeing 250,000 miles on the clock of the Cali, and hope that means we get a good 8-9 years out of it. The cost of running a second car, over this term, would (for us) be approx £14-18,000 when insurance, tax, servicing, depreciation etc all considered (even on a basic car i.e. Skoda CityGo.) Which equates a good percentage of the California's purchase price.

So, all in all, we hope are calculations work-out, and now we've settled the same query/decision, we are happily ignoring the miles, as they clock-on at a rate of just under 100 miles per day.

Everyones usage requirement is different, but you should be able to do your sums, and work out what's best for you over your intended replacement/annual-mileage cycles.

These vans are certainly built to be used daily and to cover plenty of miles in their lifetimes. Their design/construction is based on this expectation, and not really a more sedentary lifestyle as a camper/leisure vehicle. Commonly, a van that lies-about, suffers more problems, than one which is used more often IMO.

 

[Moakesy]

Wow....I find this thread really interesting. As I've just purchased my Cali, I still have my rather large Discovery and my plan was to downsize to something like a fiesta (so one big, one small vehicle)...BUT...

a) I do LOVE going out anywhere in the Cali
b) The point about 2 vehicles = 2 x depreciation / insurance / fuel etc is a really good one
c) The point about using the bike for smaller trips really appeals

Don't wish to highjack the OP's thread, so will watch this one with interest as hearing what other people do and how it works for them really gets me thinking.

 

[Jonathan Duke]

Just to add..... If a second smaller car, is on occasion needed, we hire one from Sixt Car rentals. They have a depot near (within walking distance) to us, and we can get a car from them for 3-days for under £25 (that's about £8 per day) which includes insurance, tax, and deprecation - We use this option 3 or 4 times a year, and it works really well for us when there's contention on who gets to use the California.

 

[2into1]

I've wrestled with this one for 5 years....
It's not just the cost of 2 vehicles, it's the added admin work of remembering servicing, timing belts, insurance, tax, mot's etc, plus the time off to make those things happen.
When I looked at the costings, I could make it work either way, so it's probably close to cost neutral, but just having the Cali means you've always got your kettle with you, and that's hard to beat.

 

[Chriswoody]

It's funny that you also see threads on here about folk agonising over which colour to buy, because of perceived resale value as well as agonising over the milage. As others have said, it's essentially a commercial vehicle and as such, built tough and for high milages.

In my view, if your going to lay down the sizeable chunk of cash that a Cali costs you to buy, then use it how you want, not how you think the next owners might want!

I've got a lurid green Cali with 340,000 kilometres on. It's our only vehicle and I've put over 40,000 kilometres on it in two years. It's used for my wives daily commute all through the year, as well as lots of trip out. I've also taken the seat out and used it as a commercial van on several occasions (Once to lug half a tree's worth of logs and another time to lug over 600kg of cement!) I'm really not precious, I've bought it to use and enjoy, and it's in better condition now than when I bought it.

 

[Rhyddin]

Mines just turned 1 and has 18,000 miles on it from being my daily driver. I considered a cheap second car but I just decided, as mentioned above, it was nuts to sink so much money into a vehicle and then have it sat on the drive.

Took it for its first service recently and the guy at the dealers went out to check the mileage and returned saying "Finally, a California that's getting used!" I liked that. We get too bogged down on resale, sometimes to the detriment of enjoying things while their ours.

 

[pjm-84]

Three other cars and a motorbike.

I'll get my coat

 

[sapto]

Hi cdjpb
Yes, got another car. Love both of them. I use both of them regulary and there seems to be 39k/3years on the Cali and about 20k/1 year on the Octavia.

The Octavia is daily driven to school and for my winterjob on the skislopes and thw Cali for fun and holidays.

 

[Mr & Mrs B]

We traded in our car when we bought Cali, so she's our only vehicle. She's lovely to drive (although I'm still a little nervous about driving her along narrow roads!) and comfier than our old car. Also we can stop whenever we want and pop the kettle on to make a cup of tea - not something we would do with our car.

On the odd occasion that Steve will need a vehicle for work (we don't have business use on our insurance) he plans to hire a car. Cheaper than running a second vehicle.

 

[andrew bazeley]

Interesting chat. I wonder how realistic is the concern about resale values: I love my my old 2008 Cali so much, and it's so versatile, I honestly can't see me ever selling it! I sometimes justify buying old guitars by saying "ah well - they're a good investment", to which my wife responds "yes - but would you ever actually sell them?" Er - no! I love driving the Cali so much that I never drove my wife's Polo Tdi - even just to nip up to the shops. But she's just swapped it for a new Golf 1.4Tsi automatic. Bloody hell - what a drive! Maybe the Cali will get a bit more of a rest! I think all I'm saying is: "live for now"!

 

[Joker 1299]

Three other cars and a motorbike.

I'll get my coat

Three motor bikes and another car.

I'll get mine too! None of them get used as much as the van (sorry, the Cali).

 

[Ciki62]

Interesting chat. I wonder how realistic is the concern about resale values: I love my my old 2008 Cali so much, and it's so versatile, I honestly can't see me ever selling it! I sometimes justify buying old guitars by saying "ah well - they're a good investment", to which my wife responds "yes - but would you ever actually sell them?" Er - no! I love driving the Cali so much that I never drove my wife's Polo Tdi - even just to nip up to the shops. But she's just swapped it for a new Golf 1.4Tsi automatic. Bloody hell - what a drive! Maybe the Cali will get a bit more of a rest! I think all I'm saying is: "live for now"!

Ha ha. Bloody hell we just swapped old seat Ibiza for new Leon FR coupe. 1.4 Tsi 150hp. what a drive


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[BikerGran]

I love driving my Cali but my husband still has his old jag cos he loves that. And we kept my old estate car as it had no value and it's very useful for taking stuff to the dump, etc, and as a spare vehicle when Mike's is in dock.
BTW my now 10 year old Cali which is my daily driver passed its MOT the other day only needing a couple of wipers (which I thought at the time were a bit expensive but they are SO much better than the cheaper non-VW ones it came with!)

 

[WelshGas]

From the sublime to the ridiculous.
I have the California and SWMBO has a Smart fourtwo.

 

[DM]

Sadly the Cali added tour my fleet which now stands at 4 vehicles. Can't really get rid of any at the moment as I drive too far for work (sometimes 30,000 miles per year) so the fuel costs would be astronomic and I already own another car that costs be very little to run. Mrs DM needs to have her car insured for business use and we the fourth car is the only one we can afford to insurfor the kids (3 students).

Hoping we won't need to replace any soon and the plan is eventually to get down the the Cali and 1 small car.

 

[cdjpb]

Thanks all for your responses; food for thought!

 

[flying banana]

I ditched my car straight away. it was the car sat around doing nothing once I had my beach. it's a tough one though. really depends on how long your commute is I suppose. I take the train and shove iron to work most days but I did that when I had a car so nowt changed. I was just saving cash to buy a cali and now I have it I still stick with the shove iron and train out of habit