Thoughts on buying a second car

[Andy T 0]

Who runs a second car for commuting to work etc?

 

Last night I saw a quite a tidy looking mk2 GTI on a G-plate, mint interior, dent on door, only 81k on clock! lowered on very nice polo alloys, was only £550 o.n.o , got me thinking.....

 

The main sting would be the insurance, Is there a good/cheap way to insure 2 cars on the same policy or something? (Corrado on limited milage, golf for 20mile a day commute)

 

My G60 Is currently insured with brentacre for £630 TPFT. I'd love to have a second car to keep the miles down on the corrado, but I'm not made of money and I'm not sure if I could justify it, only doing 100 miles a week travelling to work! Would I be better off looking for something with lower insurance/better MPG?

 

Any advice would be great.... :wink:

[Kevin Bacon 5]

I looked into doing that too but the idea of two of everything was offputting for me, plus the Corrado would be sitting at home all day and any potential thieves would soon notice that.

 

And also I would have the fun and games of moving one car off the drive to get to the other.

 

If you've got the space and don't mind two lots of tax and MOTs etc, I'd say go for it and a MK2 GTI would be reliable and still reasonably quick, fun etc.

[LJ 0]

Two insurance policies is painful!

I used to run a Polo GT and Corrado G60. Full NCB and fully comp' on the G60 and 0 NCB TPFT on the Polo. Made sense to me though as my work round trip was 62miles a day plus I could then keep the G60 garaged and out of the weather. Work commute was rarely any fun. Used the C for Fridays and w/e fun.

 

Made the mistake of putting Golf GTI steels and 185/50R14 tyres on the Polo. Light car and wide tyres make for interesting aqua plaining experiences.

 

If the insurance is bareable, then the Mk2 8v GTI would be an excellent second car!

[belfastfumanchu 0]

What i do at the minute is drive the Corrado 6 months and the Saxo for the other 6 months. Only having one insured at a time.

This way the Corrado is stored away in winter and only adding around 5000 miles per year.

 

Too good a car to destroy so quickly. Want it to be in top quality nick 10years from now.

[Scott 0]

I run two cars... one for work - Pug 306 TD (which is great fun to drive IMHAO) and the VR6 obviously... :roll:

 

It necessary for me as I do about 30k work miles per year as so would cost me loads in fuel if had to use the VR6...

 

So with the savings I have made from buying the Pug for work with my mileage it actually works out cheaper for me (just) to run two cars like this rather than just the VR6 on its own...

 

Put it this way if I used the VR6 for work it would cost me £80 per week in fuel plus maintenance and higher insurance.... the Pug costs me £35 - 40 per week in fuel so I save £40 per week.... thats £160 per month SAVING... the insurance is £40 per month.. tax £15 per month... so am down to a saving of roughly £100 per month... take away maintenance / MOT spends and I reckon I save £50 per month... not alot but there are obviously huge benefits of having two cars.... guess which car does the shopping and parks in dodgy areas? :lol:

 

Fair enough I had to find the money to buy the car in first place but I will get some of that money back if I sell the car (I upgrade it every 12 months to keep the mileage sensible) but the advantages of running two cars seriously outweigh that factor..

 

The VR does get a blast every Friday to work though :lol: - bit of a treat really...

 

Also makes me appreciate the VR more as dont drive it all the time!

 

So it really depends on what your work mileage is... if its low dont bother... if its over 50 / 60 miles per day then it may be beneficial...

 

Cheers

 

Scott.

[coullstar 0]

Well my Corrado is my everyday transport and the bike is the fun bit. To be honest I would only ever think of running a 2nd car if the other was just so impractical. I kinda hate having something that only gets used at weekends etc.

 

But yeah the two insurance etc is a pain although my tax for the bike is only £45 for the year.

[Henny 0]

I was running a Golf Driver as well as my Corrado while I was finishing the rebuild on the Corrado... HIC sorted me out with a "mirror" policy where I got a completely seperate policy which just used the no-claims from my Corrado to lower the price... That came in at around £200 for the year... The bit which annoyed me the most was the road tax... I still don't get why I should have to pay for 2 cars to be taxed when I can only drive one at a time... :mad:

 

If you do buy a second car, make sure it's in the lower tax band... something my MKII driver isn't... :( I'll be selling my driver soon (once the Corrado's finally been in for a respray) and I'll probably end up buying a little diesel of some sort to use as a workhorse/ backup/ bad weather car...

[Andy T 0]

Cheers for all the different opinions - it puts it into perspective!

 

I like the idea of insuring another car over the winter months, but then I haven't got a garage to safely stow away the C.

 

It probably won't be worth it as when I start my new job its only 20miles a day, 99% of that is motorway, as opposed to doing 40miles a day mainly on B-roads in my current job.... add to that I move into my first house in a couple of weeks and will be mortgaged up to the hilt :(

 

If I do get one at some point in the future it would probably be best to get something simple, small engined and low on tax - I just know if I got a mk2 GTI again I would end up modifying it - The slipperly slope that we all know about !

 

At least the girlfriend has got a sensible, low milage car that (I hope :wink: ) we can use for shopping trips and long journeys down south etc, if I can convince her that it will save me, ahem, I mean 'us' some money! :)

[Scott 0]

Henny:

 

The mirror policy only works if you are the sole driver of both vehicles.... I tried this and the insurance wont allow it as the missus is covered on the Corrado so technically we could be using both cars at same time.... so was two seperate insurance policies for me :mad:

[crazymarcel 0]

I had this idea earlier in the year.

 

Must have lasted a good couple of months, Could not get two cars on one policy, best i could do was flux would take in to account my full no claims and offereing me insurance on the Jetta.

 

400 insurance

180 tax

+ mot and parts for jetta just was not worth it.

 

Plus i hated driveing it, I did like the kerb it and dump it where u like feel too it.

 

Like you said u would end up modifying it, some clear indicators here etc, I dont think theres much saveings to be had. Unless ya doing huge mileage in the Corrado.

[Henny 0]

Henny:

 

The mirror policy only works if you are the sole driver of both vehicles.... I tried this and the insurance wont allow it as the missus is covered on the Corrado so technically we could be using both cars at same time.... so was two seperate insurance policies for me :mad:

 

Ah, bugger, didn't know that, sorry... Another benefit of being single I suppose... ;) :lol:

[chubbybrown 0]

I run two cars and a bike.

 

The main car is on a pay as you drive policy,its as a trial for them so I get another 20% off,so its insured for £200

 

they are all with norwich union and they offered a introductory 60% when we got our Golf Gti

 

The Main car and bike policies have max on them anyway !

 

Bike Tax is £15 for me as its only a 125 :wink:

 

I havent gone for a trade policy as it would only pay out trade values,

I.E not much at all !

 

chubbzsy

[Andy Brookes 0]

I used elephant for insurance on my VR and Seat Ibiza D, they gave me 6 years NCB on both cars. Worth checking out.