I've thought long and hard about posting this one but we really could do with some advice please.
We've had a small windfall ( unexpected) from Ian's Grandad's will. He was 91 yrs old when he died last year and loved his cars and proudly drove around Bristol until the last few months.
There is nothing we really need to spend the money on, so we thought it would be a nice thing to do to upgrade the CRV as we know he would thoroughly approve of that!
We bought the CRV SE Sport (02 reg) in November 2008. We paid £3000+ a trade in allowance of £1200 for the X reg Mondeo.
The CRV now has 104000 miles on the clock, has had a full set of brand new tyres and is in for it's MOT tomorrow.
We can afford to put £4000 to the trade in price for the CRV.
Having looked into this we are amazed to find the price that CRV's are making and have seen some like ours advertised for more than we paid for it.
We've also found that we're not going to get as new a one as we thought we would do.
We need to have a deisel one if we change it as we tow a caravan and it should improve the petrol consumption of the present one.
To further confuse us, we had a word with Pete, our trusty local car dealer, who we always deal with and he has advised us that to get the most for our money, it would pay us to sell the CRV privately as he could only allow us £2400 to trade it in and we would have lost £1800 for 17 months motoring.
He has offered to look for a newer one for us and to lend us a runabout FOC if there is an interim period between the two cars.
This has got us wondering if it's a good idea to change the car now or would it be reasonable to expect prices to alter in the future?
Any thoughts appreciated please!
Pat
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As you know and trust "Pete" and realise he has to feed his kids/pay the mortgage, I would think his advice will be as good as any. Sounds like he provides a good service.
Don't put petrol in the diesel when you get it! :-)
Last edited by: Old Navy on Fri 9 Apr 10 at 08:52
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I put deisel in the petrol Mondeo once:(
I'd been away using a deisel pump all week though, and on the way home decided to fill up the car.................that's my excuse!
Pat
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>> Having looked into this we are amazed to find the price that CRV's are making
>> and have seen some like ours advertised for more than we paid for it.
>
You bought at pretty well the bottom of the market generally, and especially for 4x4/SUVs - a salesman in the Honda dealer we use told me he'd taken one on for his wife around that time as prices were stupidly low and its value in Glass's Guide had gone up every month since he bought it.
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What Martin Devon says in 3 words will take me a few more.
A quick trawl through Autotrader confirms your current car probably would be anything up to £4500 retail... £4000 might be a fair guess though. It's trade in value should be close to £3400. So despite honest Pete giving you the getout that he advises a private sale his £2400 offer looks like he would want to make up to £1600 from your trade in alone... bit more than an honest crust??
Problem with the private sale & borrowing one of his cars while he finds you a car is that you will end up with a choice of one. If you did sell privately you'd probably be far better off looking at the choice from the private and garage sales elsewhere to get exactly the one you want.
If you decided a private sale was too much faff and considered a deal like honest Pete you might be looking at a replacement car he found for £6400 and putting in your £4000 cash. However if you had sold privately at £3500 and bought privately for £5800 (it's what you might get Pete's £6400 car for) your outlay would be only £2300 saving £1700 of the inheritance going straight into Pete's holiday fund.
Note 1: When a customer is on first names terms with a car dealer the advantage is always with the dealer.
Note2: The name Pete is used but please substitute any small car dealer of your choice
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That's interesting reading Fenlander.
We did an Autotrader online valuation for which we paid £3.50 and it said
Dealer Retail £4275 - £4550
Private Sale £3000 - £3200
Trade in clean £2850 - £3050
Trade in average £2550 - £2700
Trade in below £2250 - £2375
Isn't this a very accurate check to use?
Pat
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Pat,
Seems to me a mixture of rising prices, dealer profit and a relatively small budget are all working against you getting a worthwhile upgrade for your money.
How about treating yourself to a new computer instead?
Netbooks don't have disc drives, but I believe there's a 13" Apple Mac that does.
Really smart, stylish, tool - knocks spots off a standard laptop, and probably lighter, although you'd need to check that.
At around £750, it's certainly in treat territory. :)
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We've both explored all the possible 'treats' and there really is nothing we want!
It's a lovely position to be in at the moment and possibly we're trying to do something with this money to prevent it being used just to survive if the bad times come around again!
I've always been happier when I'm hard up:)
Pat
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Pat they're all just a guide and it really comes down to what you're offered on the day.
Ifithelps mentions an important point that my illustration hinted at.... sadly £4000 is quite a small amount to change and one way or another so much of it is eaten up by the dealers cut from the change.
I too wondered if there was something better to do with the money. Nice antique, a painting, classic motorbike, hi-fi, a small boat for the local drain, a years worth of interesting things from ebay????
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your CRV will sell for 3 grand private max.
gives you 7 grand to spend on new.
the best diesel CRV you will get for 7 grand is a 2005 with 100k up.
Its really not worth doing this change, The best way if you need a newer car is to choose a different car.
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If you want a CRV, from what's been said above you may be better to stick with the one you've got until it becomes uneconomical to repair (which may not happen for some time). If you are willing to conisoider another make of car to do the same job, try some sort of Kia. You'd get a newer one for your budget than you would a CRV.
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I would echo the the 'not worth changing' argument.
With the small-ish sums you're talking about, a good 30-50% of your 'pot' is going on arbitrage (dealer profit) costs - not a good use of money in my view.
Either wait until you want to spend more (so the arbitrage % goes down) or stick with what you've got & put the windfall money in an ISA.
As has been mentioned, being 'matey' with a car dealer or other trader usually means you're not quite as sharp come deal time. It's why salespeople do it, to establish 'empathy'.
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Thanks one and all for the advice, it really is appreciated.
We were thinking that we stood to lose quiet a bit by changing the present CRV too early, there's nothing wrong with it at all and we've been delighted with it. The fuel consumption could be better and the tank could be bigger but we can live with that.
The Fens is a little different and I will take heed of all the warnings about Pete, but out here everyone knows everyone and we all try and work together.
Just as we try and use local tradesmen from the village or close to it, because if we don't use them we will lose them. They may be a bit dearer but the service is good ( Ref: Shower post)
ISA.......yes, that's a thought but I know if we needed that money it would just get used if Ian gets ill again and is off work for a long time. If it isn't there, we'll manage, as we have done before.
We fetch the caravan back from it's annual service tomorrow, It's only 2 yrs old but the new model has a rear bathroom as well as a fixed bed so maybe.............:)
Thanks again all.
Pat
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Hang on and don't shoot me till you've heard me out and got a quote or two..
Have a really honest look at your CRV, body underneath and mechanically.
Be brutal, does it have another 5 years/80K in it with normal wear and tear items or is there likely to be a monumental bill soon....ok none of us got a crystal ball but does it feel good.
You might get a LPG conversion quite cheaply at the moment, i would have said that normally the car is too old to consider but if you can get a decent job done for twelve hundred fenland nicker say no more it might be worth doing.
The equipment could be retrofitted to another CRV if you get a similar newer model in the future.
Especially where you live there's bound to be a farm or other small site selling LPG at a decent price, considerably cheaper than normal petrol stations to be sure...one of the cheapest is at Corby..no use for you i know but they are around...LPGA forum used to have a list of sites at one time, it might still have one.
Anyway i'll get me coat.
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Just a quick update.
The CRV sailed through it's MOT yesterday for rhe second time since we've had it and didn't need a thing doing to it.
We had a long chat with the fitter who looks after it for us and he gave pretty much the same advice as you have done above.
Keep it!
Ian has now had time to read through the advice on here and is impressed at how helpful you all are, compared to the old place:)
We'd intended a blast on Bertha (GSX1400) to sunny hunny to sit on the sea wall and talk this over while the CRV was being tested but as usual, we had an urgent case come in for the charity we both work for, and it had to be dealt with quickly, so that went out of the window as usual.
In the afternoon we collected the caravan from it's service at the Dealer where we bought it new 2 years ago.
Despite, looking at the new models, we still like ours better and again we'd lose too much money just changing for the sake of it.
So, we're back to the drawing board with this one!
One suggestion appealed to Ian so I've closed his Ebay account:)
And I'm looking at large pieces of Cornish Driftwood sculptures for the garden before he gets up......
Thanks again, without asking that question we most certainly would have gone ahead.
Pat
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Gosh, I'm right for once. Yippee yippee yeah!!!!!!!!!!!
Have a good day all. Pheasants, Pigeons and Woodpeckers here in the garden along with a lone Rabbit and three Geese have just flown over. All here is OK.
M
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That brings us to the 4 grand.
Now clearly you want something to remember the donor of the legacy and not just fritter it away on household bills when money gets tight.
Suggstions?
4 grand will get you two flights to San francisco, a weeks Hire of two harleys, and motels on the pacific coast highway.
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Agree with Zero... we have to see this money spent! Either something like a memorable holiday as above or at the other end of the scale something permanent that perhaps links to the memory of the person who left you the cash??
We were left funds a couple of years ago and as it was *extra* money in the way you describe we tried not to waste/fritter it. We did a whole spread of things for the family including buying a painting and bronze associated with a common interest of us and the deceased... and sourced some nice bits of furniture that will probably stay with us the rest of our time.
Last edited by: Fenlander on Sun 11 Apr 10 at 12:17
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Get Martin to come and stay for a week or two and do something longlasting to PDA Towers - small extension, garden landscape, garden sun room/gazebo?
Last idea sounds like the best one.
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Decisions:)
The holiday is out, neither of us can think of anywhere we want to go other than our clifftop in Cornwall and the Insurance for Ian is something we both resent paying!
Got the gazebo and the extension and landscaping is a daily labour of love for me anyway:)
We looked at swapping the GSX1400 but we both love Bertha, she fits our bums perfectly.
I think we've both spent the weekend realising just how lucky we are.
Pat
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Honda CR-V II - Time to Change? - MD
