All,

I have come to that point where I need to decide whether to keep a car and run it into the ground, or to chop it in whilst it is still worth something and change.

I bought my Octy 2 vRS Estate new in July 2010. Petrol, FL, DSG, Columbus, xenons, leather, rear park, curtain bags, maxidot, Brilliant Silver Metallic. It has been comfortably the best car I have ever had and has never let me down.

It has now done 83,000 miles. Its usage has now changed. It used to be for family days out, trips abroad and general SDP duties. It now does all that plus taking the wife to work and kids to school every day 12 miles away. We're on about 12,000 miles per year.

I'd like to reduce tax and fuel costs. I have already started this process by selling my petrol Scout in August and replacing it with a Citigo 75PS Elegance. £0 tax and >50 mpg.

The vRS is worth about £6700 privately sale or £5700 as a trade in - I would welcome views on this.

It is in excellent condition and also has steel wheels and winter tyres that could go with it.

I am tempted by a Superb 280 (who on here isn't) and by a petrol Mk3 vRS (I can't go to diesel) but neither will reduce my costs by much.

The sensible choice would be an Octy 3 1.4 TSI 150 SE L on 18s (Golus) with Nav and one or two cheaper extras. I doubt I'd find one in this spec second hand though. I'm prepared to take reduction in power, partly because the Citigo is so much fun (and has showed me power isn't everything) and partly because the Mrs will be driving the 'family car' 8/10th of the time.

So, if I change, do I lease (haven't done this before but it is very tempting), buy new (HP) or hunt down the perfect 2nd hand Octy 3? I could put down 4-5k, do some things that need doing in the house with the excess and then budget £250-£300 per month for the new car.

Or do I keep the car I love until it dies and start again with no deposit to put down?

All thoughts welcomed.

Thanks,

Dunc

Keep the existing car.

If you love it that much you probably should keep it longer. It seems a shame to see the car you have known from brand new to be sold or traded for such a small amount of money.

Plus that way you have the citigo for economy and can still take the VRS for a peg when the you get the itch to go faster!

I have my 2011 octy and target getting rid of it at around 80k miles, but I love the car so much I very much expect to be in a similar dilemma to you in 18-24 months.

The only way to work it out is to add up your monthly cost of your current car with fuel/tax/insurance etc. Then compare that cost against the price of the car you were looking at with monthly finance with fuel/tax/insurance. I am sure the new car will work out more but has the benefit of warranty.