Going round in circles here, please someone talk some sense into me.
Ive always driven older cars, had repair bills much like anyone else but no more than £1000/year at a guess.
The cost of living has crippled our savings so there’s not much left for unexpected pull outs though.
I have two cars. One needs to be scrapped, the other is 12 years old and touch wood is fine at the moment. I need a second car, I have 3 kids and dogs so the bigger the better.
Option A is to buy outright a car for around £3k. That will buy me a smaller older car (2012 corsa/astra maybe) with approx 80-100k miles on the clock but I won’t have any monthly payments. I can potentially get something bigger but these are averaging around 7k for the same age/miles.
Option B is to get something bigger and newer on PCP. Quotes are coming in at around £300-£400 on PCP with servicing etc. I can just about afford it, but it means my spare income is greatly reduced. I wouldn’t want a small PCP car as if my other car died I would need a huge car to replace it and a PCP ties me in to the small car too long…chances are my other car won’t last as long as the loan.
Im torn between new and reliable with warranty etc or take the risk with an older less practical car and maybe loose £3k if it goes bang.
What would you do?