How do you fund your fleet

[Dan_ZTT]

I think it's just that in comparison to new car lease/depreciation/etc it's simply cheaper to run old chod, even if that's twice as many cars...

[eddyramrod]

My primary funding tools are one of each: a wing, and a prayer.  After several weeks off work and with the prospect of many more looming, I think I'm going to be running out of wings very soon.

[Tickman]

Man maths

[robinmasters]

Pour it all into the self service machine...

They now have coin slots on the hopper, so you can't just throw in handfuls of change. Taking ten minutes to feed in £3.57 of change doesn't bother me though.

[SiC]

*What my brain says*

Because it's cheaper to run old cars than have a new one on finance.

 

 

*Reality*

Spend far more fixing stuff and more stress than if I just had one on finance.

 

 

*Actual reason why*

Man maths

[BavarianRetro]

I think the last twenty years of motoring would actually have been cheaper if I'd taken out AITCHPEE on a new bleurgh.

Are we married?

[chodweaver]

My last job started out with a company car. This got boring after the first ten years or so. When opting out of the company car scheme became available to my job role, I jumped at it as the drop in income tax (this was when a company car was viewed as a massive perk and the tax hit was substantial) was nice AND I got an extra £330 'car allowance' every month after tax, plus about 12p per mile, to use my own car for work. Most of my colleagues headed straight for the nearest MB or VAG dealer to sign a lease deal and rub their sweaty paws* over something remarkably similar to what they'd been driving before.

 

(*sometimes other bits too, but let's draw a discrete veil over that...)

 

I however went through a Multipla that was one of Mrs CW's cast offs and an ex engineer's Scrote estate in quick succession... before realising I could drive whatever I fancied... when i bought an MR2.

 

I think I may have made a bit~ of money out of this arrangement, over the next 14 years, mainly through extreme good fortune with car selection, regular servicing, being nice to breakdown chaps and having a tolerant employer that never enforced any silly 'though shalt not bring the company into disrepute by showing up at customer's in slightly rusty 20 year old shite' regulations.

 

Alas, all good things come to an end, and this sort of explains why my fleet grew to an unsustainable size, courtesy of corporate funding, and then stagnated.

 

I'm happy because I have three very different pieces of shite, none of which I seriously envisage getting rid of. But I'm also frustrated as I now cannot afford to make fleet changes nor afford to renovate, repair or indeed even tax and insure one, let alone all three of those I have, so they are all sat around, torturing me with the promise of satisfying recommissioning and enjoyable journeys, while the little mileage I now do is exclusively in a resale silver folk-arse and a vomit coloured corsa.

 

Ah well, 'tis better to have smoked and SORNd, than to have never smoked at all.

[New POD]

Man maths

 

Or what I like to call Management Accounting. 

 

I justified the MV6 like this: 

 

The Astra Mk4 is worth £800. It's road worthy, but needs a cambelt and has very low miles so will last forever so It's worth £1000 if I sell it.

 

The Astra is so uncomfortable it makes me cry.

 

Oh look JohnK has 2 yes 2 omegas for sale. I wonder if the big one has cruise control. Oh it does. Oh it seems to be less money than the astra is worth. If I buy it I'll have £400 to spend on it. 

 

Petrol costs you say ? I'm not listening. What we need is a big engine, an auto and cruise control. 

High Miles you say ? It'll be fine. 

Dented door ? They'll be one in the right colour in a scrap yard. (There was - it took a year to find but was £CHEEP£) 

 

Finally The three blokes I was working with had this :

 

One bought a 3.2 CLS D for £17K and sold it 3 years later for £5K (with faulty gearbox) 

One bought a C class merc on RENTAL for £280 plus a month plus £6K deposit - give it back after 3 years)

One bought a Duster New and it was costing him £250 a month plus. (He recently sold it after 4 years for £5K ish)

 

I figured therefore that I couldn't get worse £/mile costs if I tried. 

 

In hiensight the astra was FREE in comparison.  

[gigglepin]

years ago i had so much petty cash it was quite obscene , now adays everything has to be the most cost effective  

phone bill £7 a month ,,that's running the businesses too

motor trade policy ..saves me about a grand a year

do as many of the vehicle repairs my self as i can

not  forking out mega money on any vehicle...not like some having a swanky van on the never never

my new work truck owes me 130 notes

other than that i have to go out earn it ,, the joys of being self employed  [apart from the cash an carry that i run ,,that earns me about 6K a year]

[BorniteIdentity]

Some great ideas in here that I’ll be adopting. I’ve been considering having a little savings account so that when I would USUALLY buy a coffee or whatever, I’d just drive past but transfer the £2.70 instead and see how much I could accumulate. If I really fancy one then fine - but most of the time it’s just habit or something to do.

 

At the moment, I run 5 cars. The 500c is paid for by hard work, but the shitty ones are funded by my persistence with Bangernomics. £850 on a Toyota 5 years ago has saved me a lot of money - plus I claim business miles too so that really is a big saver.

 

I still need to be smarter with money, but then you have to enjoy some aspects of life amirite?

[New POD]

Some great ideas in here that I’ll be adopting. I’ve been considering having a little savings account so that when I would USUALLY buy a coffee or whatever, I’d just drive past but transfer the £2.70 instead

 

I still need to be smarter with money, but then you have to enjoy some aspects of life amirite?

Spend Moore time on moneysavingeggspect/forums to learn how others are making the most of their HARD EARNED

 

Thats the key. If you earn say £7.50 per hour that is 1.25 every 10 mins so a cup of coffee out costs 20 mins of work.

 

Would you rather work for twenty mins?

Same with putting sugar in that coffee.

would you rather risk type 2 diabettes or not bother.

[BorniteIdentity]

Spend Moore time on moneysavingeggspect/forums to learn how others are making the most of their HARD EARNED

 

Thats the key. If you earn say £7.50 per hour that is 1.25 every 10 mins so a cup of coffee out costs 20 mins of work.

 

Would you rather work for twenty mins?

Same with putting sugar in that coffee.

would you rather risk type 2 diabettes or not bother.

Meh. I will hopefully never get to the stage where I’m obsessing that much about every last penny. It’d suck any last joy out of life almost immediately - certainly for me.

[Captain Furious]

I am quite fortunate to not only have a well paid job, but I also get paid overtime. You can usually guarantee that any time I have some overtime cash coming in the car will decide it needs that money spending on it.

 

Recently we've had a lot of project work that had to be done out of hours and I had about £800 worth of overtime.

 

Car goes for MOT..

 

Broken spring and leaking shock (got the garage to do the work) £384

Rear calliper seized £50 fitted myself

Starter motor packed in out of the blue £268 fitted myself

Needed 4 new tyres and alignment £377

 

Overtime money gone and then some. The sum total of these probably exceeds its current market value, but I persist with it because I’ve had it for years, it’s a known quantity and the air conditioning and heated seats still work. I try and save money by doing the work myself where possible but sometimes (ie replacing a front spring) I have to give in and suck up the garage labour costs.

 

The Mk2 Granada basically costs me nothing because I hardly ever drive it

[Bianconeri]

I don’t have a fleet at the moment due to my inability to drive, which in turn is thanks to a self-entitled millennial cycle rider who decided that ‘no cycling’ actually meant ‘mow down any pedestrains that get in your way because you are soooooo busy and soooo important andanyway “it’s all on cam” so I can blame the nearest driver’.

 

Next car will be funded from the insurance payout from claim that I only made because she tried to claim for the damage I caused to her bike. “It’s all on cam, entirely your fault or more likely that van driver who was parked 100 yards away reading his paper”.

[Lord Sterling]

Sod knows how the hell I fund my fleet. I'm a tight-fisted git, I've been called this by wife a few days ago. Nice. I've never really got enough money to stretch to my fleet, they are usually at the bottom of my list of spends. So funding my fleet is usually done on a wing and prayer.

[davehedgehog31]

Lots of man maths.

[captain_70s]

Mostly I'm not.

 

Indeed despite taking out a £2k 0% credit card to pay off my overdraft earlier this year I now seem to find myself at the bottom of my overdraft again, but now with a credit card to repay. MAGIC.

[The Old Bloke Next Door]

Bought a new Fiesta 1300 in March 2000, £100 deposit, then 60 payments of £199.

Current mileage about 97000, spent very little on it since apart from wear related items, mot and servicing. Been on sorn since March due to needing welding on the inner sills.

Planning on getting it back in service early next year.

 

When the finance was paid off I opened a separate bank account for motoring expenses paying £200 a month into it, which  has now risen to £260 a month.

This usually covers fuel, insurance, road tax and maintenance, not had to top it up too many times

 

During the early years a large surplus accrued which was used to add to the fleet as my three kids started driving.

 

In recent years the purchase of more shite has been more or less self financing when I sell or scrap one of the fleet.

 

This year I bought 

1. Peugeot 407 SW 05 reg, £300

2. Volvo 940 estate, R  reg. £350

3. Vauxhall Corsa , 06 reg,  £100

4. Fiat Bravo JTD, V reg, £100

5. Land Rover Freelander, W reg, £700

6. Rover Metro, M reg, £150

Total £1700

 

Sold

1. Nissan Vanette, Y reg, £375

2.Rover 100 Metro,  P reg, £350

2. Peugeot 407 SW, 05 reg, £250

4. Rover Metro, L reg, £250

Total £1225

 

Also have two Rover 100 Metro diesels for sale soon, hope to get £550 for the pair. A  Focus diesel estate to scrap, should make £125 on the bridge

I'm also not planning on buying anything else this year (although I say that every year), so funding for the forseeable future should be adequate.

 

It is of course very time consuming managing numerous vehicles. However I consider it to be more of a cost effective hobby, almost zero depreciation and I usually have at least at least three vehicles available to use.

Only had two days without a working vehicle this year when I sold the Nissan and a Metro the same week, then the fob on the Fiesta failed and I had to use the Bus for two days until it was fixed.

[mercrocker]

Traditionally, I have just borrowed more money.    Particularly over the last dozen years when interest rates have been so low.   I haven't borrowed to buy the cars, only to fix 'em.   Use of the aforementioned masculine arithmetic still proves in my head that I am better off than I would have been either leasing or buying nearly-new and then having to play repair roulette.    

 

The loan solution might not be long term though, I have just taken my pension and will carry on working but the bit I have banked is, I have told myself, NOT to be spent on shite.  Well, not on ones I currently have, anyway...... 

 

Since I refuse to roll over and play consumer I suspect this strategy will actually continue until the money and available credit finally runs out.

[danthecapriman]

I’m very lucky, something I’m very much aware of and grateful for. I don’t need a car for daily use as I’m provided with a company van and free fuel. That alone saves me a hell of a lot of £££ on commuting costs and it also means I can fuck off the disgusting idea of having something practical (and therefore boring!).

Secondly, I’m not burdened with a mortgage or much in the way of monthly expense on rent etc etc. That means the majority of my monthly wages go straight into my savings and also spent on basically anything I want, which is mostly my old cars.

My jobs good and pays well and over the last two years or so I’ve been doing lots of overtime and standby to get extra, which was mainly to get the Capri sorted.

Like I said, lucky. But it does mean sacrifice in other areas of life and not having other things most other people do have.

[Frogchod]

Lots of little cash jobs that I forget* to declare. I've got an XMV6 sized pile of cash under the mattress. It's been there about a year. I've still not found a worthy XM

Might blow the lot on a dozen mobyletts. Or if Mrs frogchod has her way, doing up the living room and getting a pellet burner 

 

*mate of mine took his accounts to the accountant showing his cash income. Accountant said "what le fuck is this" followed by "don't show me le cash nombres next year"

[Remspoor]

here is how I dooos it.

[eddyramrod]

Mostly I'm not.

 

Indeed despite taking out a £2k 0% credit card to pay off my overdraft earlier this year I now seem to find myself at the bottom of my overdraft again, but now with a credit card to repay. MAGIC.

Yep, that works for me too, in almost exactly the same manner.

[Vince70]

By K seal and hope

[Bren]

With great difficulty.

By doing as much as you can yourself - garages? A last resort.

Body repairs? Done at home.

[busmansholiday]

When we were both working we bought a new car every three or so years using a bank loan. Mrs BMH had this for her daily drive until the loan was paid off. Then we traded in the shite I was driving against another new one and I got Mrs BMH's car. Worked well, she did about 4k a year, I did about 25k.

The other shite was bought as and when, we've no kids so other than bills it wasn't a problem.

 

Now we are both retired Mrs BMH tells me what I can spend and puts some money into my account each month to cover tax, insurance etc. Any surplus gets wasted on the current shite fleet, which needs to be reduced from 7.

[DaveDorson]

Bit of this, bit of that.   Mostly buying stuff that's broken, spending a few quid fixing it and then flogging it off to pay for bits for the ones I want to keep.

 

I'm not sure what I'll do when I've sold all the cars I don't want to keep.

[leanycan]

I’ve wheeled and dealed a bit and got lucky. I don’t keep any more than one car at a time. I am however seeking more pleasure from driving rather than just have a commuting bus. I’ve pretty much exclusively owned Japanese cars all my life and if I could get a decent 1.4 Nissan micra k11 or one of those green Mazda 2,s I use to have (had to sell it to pay rent due to a job loss, regret it).

 

 

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[Matty]

Work. Cold dirty soul sapping work.

[Crispian_J_Hotson]

My cars are like kids. When they start moaning I stick a wedge of cash at them to shut them up. It's not having the time that ruins it for me. Not like changing a bulb time I can do that whilst putting the bins out, I mean like some major catastrophic failure which needs 3 days solid time.