Used family car advice needed - £10k budget

[Ancient Citizen]

And incidentally, the approach I recommended - of going for as high a balloon as possible, and thereby making sure the lender (and not you) is liable for any negative equity - is another financial crisis ticking timebomb. In much the same way as the 2008 crash, lenders are giving loans to anyone who can walk with barely any credit checking at all. And the value of the assets these loans are secured upon are not as solid as people might think.

Yep, it's now becoming piss easy to borrow again, another timebomb ticking away.

 

[stonerblue]

I saw one of the newer RAV4’s drive past me yesterday - looks nice. Can’t afford that one on my budget though, are the older ones just as good? Might be another for the shortlist.

You guys are legends, cheers for all the recommendations.

Very hard to find.

 

[DiscoSteve]

If you want a branny, and you want to pay cash, and it is possible, go for the Duster - should be big/good enough and have warranty you need/want. It has NO street cred whatsover but don't underestimate the kudos of a 19 plate on the drive! #shallow

Alternatively, based on the amount of crap a small child attracts for even the smallest trip, a would recommend a double cab Pick Up truck like mine! ha ha ha

 

[Tricky_Trev]

This is good advice. I worked in the industry when PCP was first introduced into the UK, it originated in America,
and was adopted, at first, through selected Ford dealers, and marketed as 'Options,' the options being, Keep the car
and pay the final (balloon) payment, hand it back and pay nothing, or use it,(with any equity left going towards the next
car), as a part ex. Paying a large deposit up front reduces monthly payments, but if the car is worth no more than the
Guaranteed future value set at the outset, then, as said above, it's better to pay increased rentals.
Some PCP's now stretch over 4 years, and VW were marketing their little VW UP, offering it at £99 down and £99
per month over 4 years, which is amazing value, it's irrelevant that there is a large payment left at the end,
as you'd just hand it back, and start the whole process again, for £99 for a brand new car, why pay cash?
The reasons for the low payments is simply that borrowing rates are now historically low, around 1-2%,
when I was selling PCP's it was 8-10% flat. They make their money by charging the set interest rate on the whole value
of the car, say £10,000, even though payments are based on approximately half the value, ie; £5000.
So PCP's are great now, but not so great during high periods of interest rates, but as the rate agreed stays constant,
unlike a mortgage, they're now selling like hot cakes.

Cheers for that, good to know.

Maybe I’m being a bit optimistic with the car choice but I used the new Kia Sportage for this example, since I like it and they have a good finance calculator on their website, I chose the trim I’d want, selected £0 deposit (they seem to allow no deposit), over 37 months (the max), and the payments worked out at £357 per month. So that would be £13,200 over the 3 years.

But for the same price, I could buy a 4 year old Sportage outright, with less than 30,000 miles on the clock, and maybe have it for 8 years or so if I look after it.

Perhaps I just don’t know where to look for the good PCP deals, or perhaps a brand new Sportage is too ambitious, I don’t know, but it still doesn’t seem to stack up as being a good idea in my mind!

 

[Ancient Citizen]

Cheers for that, good to know.

Maybe I’m being a bit optimistic with the car choice but I used the new Kia Sportage for this example, since I like it and they have a good finance calculator on their website, I chose the trim I’d want, selected £0 deposit (they seem to allow no deposit), over 37 months (the max), and the payments worked out at £357 per month. So that would be £13,200 over the 3 years.

But for the same price, I could buy a 4 year old Sportage outright, with less than 30,000 miles on the clock, and maybe have it for 8 years or so if I look after it.

Perhaps I just don’t know where to look for the good PCP deals, or perhaps a brand new Sportage is too ambitious, I don’t know, but it still doesn’t seem to stack up as being a good idea in my mind!

If I were you, I'd go for the used model, if it retains its reliability, then as you say, it could last years and cost you
nothing, if you can afford such a one off payment. If you do go down this route, let me know on this thread, I can tell
you what to bid when faced with a car screen price, if you buy from a dealer, bear in mind they're not that interested in cash deals, although public perception believes they are,
they'll try to offer used car finance, as they get commissions from the finance company.

 

[Tricky_Trev]

If I were you, I'd go for the used model, if it retains its reliability, then as you say, it could last years and cost you
nothing, if you can afford such a one off payment. If you do go down this route, let me know on this thread, I can tell
you what to bid when faced with a car screen price, if you buy from a dealer, bear in mind they're not that interested in cash deals, although public perception believes they are,
they'll try to offer used car finance, as they get commissions from the finance company.

Legend, cheers mate. I’ll let you know what I decide to do. Won’t be any rush with it though as I still need a few refresher lessons and to do a bit more research, but i’ll let you know.

As for the high one-off payment, it’s less that I can afford it and more that my dad is able to lend me what I need. I can do about £5k-6k myself and then borrow the rest from my old man. But obviously I don’t want to be repaying it to him for the rest of time, so trying hard to stick to a budget!

 

[sir baconface]

A two or three year old car is well worth considering. Obviously you’ll get less warranty and stand to pay out for MoTs, repairs, consumables, etc. To offset that some other bugger has paid the biggest cost, namely early depreciation.