A year to wait

I am presently selling my car - very low mileage and in excellent condition. By comparison it has done a quarter of the mileage as like for like models. I can basically ask what I want for it and people are queuing up to buy it. Definitely a sellers market.

When I traded my 4 year old Golf in recently, they almost bit my hand off as the VW dealership had very few 2nd hand cars coming in. They gave me a really large amount against a new one and - so long as I wasn't picky about colour etc - I got a new one in just a couple of weeks. Apparently though, there were only 3 Polos coming in that month so I was lucky. Shortage is due to many of the parts being made in Ukraine, as well as shortage of chips etc from China.

There are only 3 (very large) factories manufacturing computer chips needed in cars in the world. As a previous poster said, Covid dramatically effected production, but also one factory suffered a large fire and burned to the ground. Following this, due to the difficulty in purchasing the chips that were available, Apple made one manufacturer an offer they couldn’t refuse and purchased one of the factories for their own use alone. That currently leaves only one factory for chips needed for all computerised devices, including TVs, cameras, computers, cars etc. Car manufacturers are frequently working short hours as a consequence. The situation won’t get better any time soon.

crazyH

I believe a brand new car loses 10% of its value, the moment you drive it off the forecourt. My present car is a 2018 low mileage car, Kia, bought in 2020

I thought it was 20% the value of the VAT

Our car (bought brand new) is now 14 years old and still going strong, just passed it's MOT with flying colours. We usually keep our cars until they fall apart so I don't think we'll be trading it in for a while yet. If we did it would be a second hand car which would probably last us until we kick the bucket!

My Volvo is 16 years old and is running well at only 84,000 miles. It's petrol and I don't see any point in wasting cash on a new car. The only snag is the road tax at over £600 by a greedy government but I may stop driving before it reaches 26 years old! A Volvo should do 200,000 miles and I've seen one at 300,000.

Why in heaven's sake are you buying brand new?!?! Are you bonkers? All that extra tax when you can get a 3year old model with already mot tested and first big service done and dusted, and ridiculously less expensive! I'd think again before dishing up over 20% vat plus car purchase tax etc etc which is slashed from the value the second you jump into it! Folly and I think not very savvy , pre loved are available immediately too!!

20%plus purchase tax plus first year's depreciation.....what a waste....

Sara1954

I ordered a new electric car in May, and was told to expect delivery in November.
Whether or not this will happen, I have no idea, and am not really concerned, because I think I was too hasty in going electric, wish I’d stuck with petrol, the problem was, there seems to be much less choice now if you want a petrol/diesel car.

We rushed to swap our beloved Saab for a diesel when cartax shot up to over £450! few years ago and believed the diesel lie....then had Jag for 10 years diesel but fuel prices went daft, now lease Toyota SUV hybrid 3yr old second leaser, best car I've driven since my Saab! Uses hardly any fuel and no charging so no panic! Not ours either so no worries with repairs or selling on! Win win win we think!

Because a new car is very nice And, it's our choice.

Having said that, we have now 'bought' our car from the lease company and will keep it till we see what happens

My D-in-law works for a company in Australia that leases cars to commercial customers. When Covid struck they sold off a lot of their fleet, thinking that they would replace them when demand came back. Unfortunately new cars are impossible to get hold of, in the short term. As a result the price of secondhand cars has rocketed.
My DD finally got the new car she'd ordered over a year earlier, for herself, and could have immediately sold it at a considerably profit. Even old bangers are selling for inflated prices over there.

DD2 ordered an automatic Mini Clubman before Christmas last year - delivery is in 3 weeks time ?.
Newcastle is imposing a congestion charge soon for buses, lorries and taxis and eventually my now almost 10 year old (quality, expensive, well maintained) diesel car will incur a daily charge of £12.50 to cross the Tyne. I don’t want to get rid of it, but it’s looking as though ‘needs must’.

‘Gabriella’. DH had 9 Saab Tutbo 9000s in a row in the 80/90s. Cracking cars! We bought a couple from the lease company for me and one for my DF, which he drove, very safely, until he was 90!
I’m considering a Toyota hybrid now as I can’t afford the car I’d really like.

Gabrielle56

20%plus purchase tax plus first year's depreciation.....what a waste....

I don’t understand your logic. It’s not a waste at all if you plan to keep the car, as you get the full warranty, and exactly the car you want. Also, where do you think cars are going to be available from if nobody buys them new?

We had to wait 10 months for our new car. Should have had it in March but didn’t get it until June. All due to a shortage of electrical chips I think.
We did go to the dealer to see if they had any 2nd hand ones on the forecourt. They had one which was 6 months old which we would have had but it was more expensive than the new one we’d ordered 8 month before!

kittylester

We spent ages chosing a make and model for our new car. When we went to order it we were told that the model we had chosen suddenly no longer offered the extras we particularly wanted. That was blamed on the lack of silicone chips due to the pandemic.

lol and no mention of the B word!

Who mentioned the b word?

My son ordered a new car in March and was suooosed to take delivery of it in July. He is still waiting - he may get it at the end of this month. In the meantime, he is struggling to hold the mileage down on his own car or they “will penalise” him!

We're in the same boat. We put off ordering until the electric model we wanted was available, told delivery was July. We aren't expecting to get it before November now. We have been keeping our mileage down but not it's due for a service, and possibly some new tyres so we'll have to pay for those too. I'm getting closer and closer to cancelling the order (good news for the next in line) and making do with what we've got.

I went through the process of getting an ex-demo car last year, due to get it in October but in the end they said I couldn't have it until January so I pulled out as my car was on its last legs.
In the end I did get a new car, but didn't get the colour I wanted. It was the only new one I could find in the whole country! I know the waiting time then for a new car was very long, they couldn't even give me a date for the exact car I wanted.

My last car was a Jaguar which I bought as an ex-demo 21 years ago and expensive things were starting to go wrong with it so we had no choice but to replace it. It was just unlucky that it started to fail at just the wrong time!
I probably wouldn't buy an older second hand car because we tend to keep them for at least 20 years so it's good to know that it's been looked after properly from the start.

M0nica

You cannot only use energy from green sources, unless your supplier turns your power off when the wind isn't blowing.

Your supplier, over a year may contribute as much to the grid as all its customers consume, but there will be times when winds are low and their contribution to the system are less than 5%, and then the electricity you are consuming will be mainly generated from gas.

There is also the power consumed when the car and, especially, it's battery are manufactured. Do you know how that was generated?

Sorry M0nica, I’ve just seen your post. I am sure our solar panels count as green electricity.

Sara1954

I ordered a new electric car in May, and was told to expect delivery in November.
Whether or not this will happen, I have no idea, and am not really concerned, because I think I was too hasty in going electric, wish I’d stuck with petrol, the problem was, there seems to be much less choice now if you want a petrol/diesel car.

Don’t cancel your order Sara you will be able to sell it for lots more than you paid for it.
Fuel for an electric car is a fraction of the cost of petrol or diesel. You don’t pay road tax. There is so much less to go wrong so it will be much more reliable and if our experience is anything to go by your insurance could be less.
As the supply of new cars improves the value of non electric cars will fall as they are to be phased out.

Gosh I could walk onto a garage forecourt and buy a decent low mileage second hand car tomorrow. Why do you have to wait a year, you must want something desirable and quite new to the market? How about phoning around garages (around the country) who sell the car you want and asking if they have a nearly new or demonstrator? Just maybe you’ll get lucky and a weekend away into the bargain.

I bought an ex lease car here in AUS Low mileage & good price I’m thrilled with it

graceQuirrel That is what people have been doing. As a result the price of second hand cars has shot up. Some secondhand cars sell for more than their new equivalent.

Both DD and I have needed to replace our cars this year, and both of us have had to pay considerabley more for our cars than we wuld have this time last year. The only (minor) plus point, my car was a write-off because an idiot drove into it. I got considerable more for my car, from my insurance company than I had expected.