Skoda Octavia IV estate

Given what I have written about replacing old, but still reliable vehicles with brand-new ones, you are now in for an unrepeatable opportunity to accuse me of duplicity. In the second half of 2024 I am bound to drive out of a showroom in a car mentioned in the post title.

My Megane III by that time will be over 13 years old and will likely have more than 110,000 kilometres on the clock. Reliability-wise, I cannot complain about the car's performance. Except for wear-and-tear and regular maintenance, the car haas not needed additional visits in a Renault garage. Conceivably, it might serve somebody well for years, though at the back of my mind I see a risk it might become a piggy bank all of the sudden.

If so, why am I replacing it? Firstly, this is probably one of the last moments to lock in a car from the "old motoring" era. You know my skepticism towards electric vehicles, which I believe are a dead-end street and are far from being environment-friendly. I intend to keep the new car going for possibly long, even if it involves bans for city centre entrance (I don't need to drive there anyway) and paying sin taxes for the combustion engine. If I use the new car sparingly and not replace it for two decades, my carbon footprint will be much lower than of somebody who will buy three electric cars and drive much longer distances than me over the same time.

Why the very Skoda Octavia IV estate? Firstly, it is quite capacious (plenty of space for 4 passengers inside, boot of 640 litres) and is not an SUV. Secondly, it offers reasonable price-to-quality trade-off. Thirdly, the comfort and pleasure of driving the VW 1.5 150 hp engine with manual gearbox (I still dislike the automatic transmission after driving several thousand kilometres in company cars equipped with it) is superior.

I believe reliability of this vehicle, if I use it respectfully and have it maintained with proper care, might still be good. The weakest spot of each brand-new car is electronics. Octavia IV is also spiked with it and here I envisage some room for spontaneous visits in Skoda garages.

I will not pay up-front over PLN 130,000 for the car, as I will not even purchase it. It will formally be a company car, with rental instalments deducted from my pre-tax salary, which effectively means a tax shield of approximately PLN 35,000 during the three-year lease term. After that I will have the option to prolong the lease for next 2 years or buy out the car for PLN 70,000. All in all, the net savings in such financing scheme add up to more than PLN 30,000.

As written before, I plan to use the car sparingly - I will keep avoiding short-distance journeys and city traffic, have it serviced each year and park it in a dry garage, with a hope it pays me back with trouble-free service for at least 15 years.

Since my car is customised, its manufacturing has been queued for the last week of June, so I will pick it up in late July or August. The vehicle will be still before the facelift, which will spare me gadgets, but save an equivalent of my monthly salary.

All in all, I feel a bit guilty on account of buying it, yet with a prospect of raising a family I would need a new car anyway - the Megane would not serve me for next 20 years and the best moment for fixing myself up with a non-electrified vehicle with a manual gearbox might be missed soon.