At what point do you consider your Shite owes you nothing?

[holbeck]

What do you reckon guys, is there an autoshite formula?

 

If so maybe

 

AS = (m x t)

             £

 

where, m= miles covered,

t =time left on valid mot

 

Seriously, when do you consider you've had your money's worth?

 

Or do we change our cars so often, such a calculation is bollox?

 

 

[The Moog]

Mine is calculated as car cost < saving per litre x tank vol

 

So current 405 needs 17 tank fills of veg to have free motoring.

 

Already achieved 😊

[purplebargeken]

This is an alien concept and I am struggling to even comprehend the basics 

[castros_bro]

I use this

 

N  x unit volume  >   2 x space available

[320touring]

On the 735 it was done after 100 miles.

 

On the 172 it was after a year of use-even buying it and paying for cambelt was cheaper than paying monthly repayments on a new 1.2 clio

 

On the 320 it's so far ahead it doesn't even matter

[CortinaDave]

I consider if my car costs me a grand a year (about 30k miles for me!) I'm happy enough.

 

So if I pay £600 for it and it costs 5-600 quid over the year in repairs/servicing/MoT and tax, then I weigh it in and get 200 back thats fine by me.

[AlabamaShrimp]

I never think of any car I'm going to keep as costing me anything.

 

What I mean is I wanted it so I got it, drove it and got rid. I would only want back what I paid, or put into a car when I specifically bought it to sell it

[Bobthebeard]

Based on experience after many years of purchasing Shite my formula is thus:

 

Buy X at Y. Once bought, X will be worth 50% of Y.

Advertise it and the value of Y increases by internet wisdom, but no one actually buys it.

Spend over £600 on the MOT, £30 in eBay fees, sell it for >Y minus £900.

Use man maths.

It owes you nothing. You have made a profit! Yay!

[2MB]

If I go out for a drive and come back laughing or grinning it's paid for itself

[Cavcraft]

Varies, really. I never liked the idea of running things into the ground, but the 306 and the Kangoo will be killed after their next respective MOTs. Both pretty much owe me nothing as they're sort of company cars so pay for themselves in a roundabout way.

The Kangoo cost me £250 and I've just had to tax it again, but I would estimate it's already paid for itself at least once, probably twice over.

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

It is a complex accounting equation which will generally involve wanting something else. In the cold light of day (looking at the bald figures would be akin to glancing at that portrait hidden in the attic) I don't think I could possibly get to the point where my Jag "owes me nothing". Nobody lives that long.

[lisbon_road]

I struggle with this.  I have three longer terms cars, the Viva bought in 1984 for £60, the Sierra in 1996 for £1500 and the Astra in 2004 for £700.

 

I don't think any of them owe me a bean.

 

I often buy cars just to sell, or sort of collect them from friends.  That is different, I expect to see a return.  I don't think I have ever made a loss on one thought the profit has been a bit small sometimes.

 

Not really my concept......

[Junkman]

When it moves under its own power.

[Cheggers]

The day before you buy it

[mercrocker]

Given that driving something built this century would probably make me kill myself then I owe my life to driving old shit.  Priceless.....

[DVee8]

A quick add up.I have had my astray 4 years now worth 1/2 of what i paid some man maths about £14.50 a week.It has passed it's test every time,My mate services it and stamps its history,i get around 40mpg .i look after it,i hope it will look after me.

[rml2345]

You mean an old car isn't a wheeled pit into which you throw money?

In all seriousness I haven't a clue as cars are treated as a sort of hobby. As long as its reasonably affordable and doesn't have a massively expensive failure then its value is my enjoyment of it.

Once I stop enjoying it, then it's time for a new car.

[dollywobbler]

Why ruin my hobby by thinking about money? 

[bub2006]

I just look at it as if it earns more than what i paid. Vectra bought for £800 in April with 134k on clock. Service,cam belt and new front discs and mot paid out for it. Now has 140k on clock and learnt at least 3k in wages from getting wife to work and pizza delivery which we don't do anymore anyway. In my eyes the car has paid for itself already. If it keeps going with just general servicing that's a bonus

[Squire_Dawson]

If I can get away with just putting petrol and oil in, consumables and paying the necessary road taxes/charges, then I am happy. (Do maintenance myself). But I don't moan when the time comes to pay a professional to do a job, as safety and knowing a good job has been done are more important.

 

If I buy something which needs a lot of work and money throwing at it, it is because I have deemed it worthy, and the reward is putting another old car back on the road.

[garethj]

The drawback to trying to put a formula to it, is that you then need to stick to it, that's what equations are for.

 

The advantage to the wonderful thing that is the Autoshite lifestyle is that you can usually chop it in whenever you feel like it, you're not tied into a 7 year lease deal leaving you in negative equity.

 

And the idea of a car paying for itself is silly, because it depends on what you compare it against.  Compared to walking everywhere, my miserly 60mpg Skoda is farkin expensive.  Compared to walking it makes Easyjet look like Air Force 1 in terms of extravagance.

 

But compared to £3000 deposit and £200 a month on a black, ex-lease Audi on 18s, an XJ-S is an absolute bargain

[holbeck]

I spose the bottom line is when you could weigh the shite in and think you had your pound of flesh.

 

I bought a Suzuki Vitara a couple of months ago, with 115k on the clock, if I got 10k out of it  then drive onto the bridge on the last day of the MOT then that's fair enough.

 

(I probably wont keep it that long, cos I'm as fickle as everyone else).

[bub2006]

I don't see the idea of a car paying for itself as silly Gareth. If for example a cabbie picked a car up for 5k and over the course of its working life it bought home 20k then its paid for itself as without buying the car,said cabby couldn't earn money. Same can be said for tradesmen. When it gets needing silly amounts spent on it then buy again

[Justin Case]

Although it may appear otherwise, I am actually highly qualified in Man Maths. I can therefore prove conclusively (to Mrs Case) that the acquisition of anything from a new Audi A4 S-line on a three year lease to a 20 year old Astra with an MOT measured in hours can be a shrewd investment and so will effectively owe me nothing.

[garethj]

I don't see the idea of a car paying for itself as silly Gareth. If for example a cabbie picked a car up for 5k and over the course of its working life it bought home 20k then its paid for itself as without buying the car,said cabby couldn't earn money. Same can be said for tradesmen. When it gets needing silly amounts spent on it then buy again

Just wait while I just split this hair, that's not a car you're talking about but a commercial vehicle.  I don't think many of us here run our shite in that way?  If you run your car to make a living it's slightly different.

 

If, at the time of deepest sorrow, the undertaker arrived in an Austin Princess hearse where the hydrogas had leaked on one side and it left brown, rusty stains on the church's gravel, I would consider calling a better undertaker.

 

If a cabbie arrived in a crappy old Vectra with huge crack across the windscreen, one hubcap and all the engine management lights on, I would - hang on, that's most of them around here

[bub2006]

OK wrong scenario! Our car was used for pizza delivery when money was tight to keep a roof over our head. Earned at least a grand doing it too so the cost of the car was recovered!

[Sloth in a bowl]

 

Seriously, when do you consider you've had your money's worth?

 

One very cool shitefest weekend

 

Though for the Laguna it was 22,000 miles between Birmingham and Gloucester based on the 15p/mile profit I made (post petrol, tax, servicing and insurance) of the 40p/mile I was paid.

[Micrashed]

I think its fair to say Ive had my moneys worth out of the Micrashed.

 

The C8 is a cavernous black hole with a pound note attracting super dense dark star at its centre, and will need to be mobile for 20 years to break even.

[forddeliveryboy]

If you start totting up the £s once you're using something reliable and enjoyable you're missing the point. Provided your leg wasn't lifted on purchase to an unnecessary degree then it's a good buy - you wanted it. If it turns out wrong, you've learned for next time. Invaluable.

 

Anything 20th century is almost by definition cheaper than what has been sold in the 21st.

[UmBongo]

If you start totting up the £s once you're using something reliable and enjoyable you're missing the point. Provided your leg wasn't lifted on purchase to an unnecessary degree then it's a good buy - you wanted it. If it turns out wrong, you've learned for next time. Invaluable.

 

 

 

I try to to adhere to this philosophy but every now and again I think what the feck am I doing with my money???