To ask how you afford your car??

[inmyshoos]

I've always bought older cars outright. Never spending much more than 3k.
I really need a reliable car now because I travel up and down to see my parents once a month, on my own with 3 kids (around 200 miles.)

Is a pcp the way to go or just but the most expensive I can afford outright? I could afford to spend 3k or pay something up at max 200 a month.

Is an interest free credit card a better idea? Other than my mortgage I've never had debt so it's all new to me!! Help!

Bank loan for a car, you will then own the car outright rather than lease/pcp/hp.

For 2.4k we bought a 2006 Ford Mondeo diesel with 60k miles on it. It's my favourite car by miles, infinitely reliable, good mpg, comfy, and our other car is a 2012 Mitsubishi! Love our Mondeo

Take a mechanic with you (even if you have to pay a bit)!or a friend who knows their stuff.
The best car I ever had for reliability was a 12 old Mitsubishi carisma that cost me £200. Lasted me for nearly 6yrs, until my exes brother wrote it off (that's a story for another thread!)
Most of my cars I never paid more than £900. Bringing a mechanic with me to give me a no frills opinion on how well the car was going to do, what needed doing if anything was probably the best thing I could ever have done tbh.
Plus if you buy from private sellers there'll be loads of chancers... a Toyota with a fucked clutch that barely even moved and a Ka convertible that had head gasket failure spring to mind. Both cars had very obvious problems (Ka could barely get up the small hill I lived on!) but both times the owners feigned complete ignorance and carried on trying to flog them on Facebook without mentioning the issues
I digress.
Take a mechanic with you op, you should be able to get something very good with decent reliability for 3k.

Nissan Tino Almera diesel is v reliable car that loves the motorway. You can pick one up for under £1000

3k can buy you a very decent reliable car.

I lease mine. No hassle, no worries and a new car every three years.

My employers pay half as they insisted I had a certain car. I was leasing a smaller one before.

Most on here hate leasing though!

My mum gifted it to me nearly 10 years ago. It’s still doing alright. Maybe one day I will buy a new one.

Interest free credit card or bank loan is the way to go

PCP deals are just like renting a house, at the end of the term, you have to give the car back or pay more to own the car..

Interest wise, the credit card or bank Loan is best

You can lease something with no deposit for under £200 a month if you don’t have your heart set on a specific model. Yes Lease are pretty good.

I got a Skoda Yeti with all the toys for £197 a month (2 years / 8000 miles pa), and they were doing Nissan Jukes for about £150 a while back.

That’s a brand new car, with road tax included.

£168 per month (no deposit but £300 admin fee). 10,000 miles pa for 2 years.

www.yes-lease.co.uk/personal-lease-cars/citroen/c3-hatchback/c3-hatchback-12-puretech-82-feel-5dr-248303277

Mine is a leased company car, but I've never done this before. Previous cars have all been a mix of £500 bangers and one decent Ford Focus which cost £2500 and lasted 6 years before I sold it on (due to the company car).

£3k is a good sum of money. I'd look at Audis personally. My DH's last car was an £800 Audi A4 and it was amazing. My new car is an A1 and I adore it. My next car won't be a company car, I'll go back to bangers, but it'll be another Audi.

I bought mine with a bank loan due to the much better interest rates.

@VivienneWestwoodsKnickers I'm eyeing up Audi A1s for my next car! Would you recommend them?

I bought mine outright for £1795. It's a 2004 Fiesta but it came with four new tyres, a years MOT, had just been serviced and during the MOT it got new brake pads and a drive belt.

It depends on whether you're bothered about owning a car at the end of it, after all it's only going to depreciate in value with age. My friend has been getting new cars on PCP for years now. It means she can get a brand new car every 3 years. At the moment she's paying £130ish a month for a Seat Ibiza. She likes to do it this way as she doesn't ever pay anything for road tax, MOT, repairs etc, it's all covered by the dealership. She then hands the keys back at the end of the 3 years and uses the value of the car at the end of the 3 years as a deposit towards another new car. The main pitfalls with this seems to be you need to look after your car, as scratches etc are going to count against the value at the end of it. Also mileage, if you go over the mileage you specify at the beginning of the agreement, the dealership will try to get money out of you for this.

Personally that's how I would do PCP as I don't see the financial sense in ever buying a new car. I just started driving and bought a 4 year old car with lowish mileage outright for £4.5k. My plan is to keep it as for long as possible. I looked at PCP but was too worried that as a new driver, I may scratch or dint the car. Also I would have had to put a reasonable amount of cash in as a deposit, to make the monthly repayments attractive. It's something I would consider for my next car, as I could use my current car as the deposit.

I second the advice to get mechanic to help you buy a second hand car.

I have a 14 year old Citroen - hardly the most reliable of reputations - that I paid £1300 for 4 years ago. I have never been stranded, and my garage take good care of it. Drives nicely over long and short distances, and is by no means a banger, even if it's old.

The way I see it, you can either spend the money and save the difference to be ready to pay for bills and maintenance, or you can assume a second hand car won't be reliable and DEFINITELY pay through the nose for a lease.

A 2 year PCP deal at 200 per month would cost £4,800 in total and at the end you’d need to find a lump sum to buy the car or sign up for another deal. Most people sign a new deal. After 4 years you’ve spent almost £10k on cars you no longer have.

I’ve got nothing against PCP, but I think a lot of people now view a new car as a “must have” and think “it’s only £xxx a month”, but it is £xxx a month forever - and I personally have other priorities for my money.

I got my car on finance through the dealer. Biggest mistake I've ever made, interest is massive.

Next time I am going to lease, or get a bank loan and buy outright.

We lease ours through work and the only extra is for fuel, it's fantastic in terms of being hassle free. I don't think I'd go back to owning a car, not whilst we both work for companies that have car leasing schemes. I don't know if they do pcp on the same fuel only basis

happylantern it's great, got a lot of poke and decent mpg. Small boot though, and we got a dog just before it arrived, and she barely fits!

Cars on finance tend to cost a lot more overall, low monthly payments usually means a large cash payment to settle at the end.

If no other choice I'd do a bank loan as a last resort but bought mine outright new for an amazing price as end of line so a fab bargain that will last me years.

I'd get a bank loan for another 3-5 k and get something second hand but the next level up iyswim?

My last car was a 3 yo Astra with 15k on the clock and cost £6k. That was 10 years ago and it's still going strong! (Although it's for an MOT and I have a feeling it'll be the first year it doesn't pass )

@VivienneWestwoodsKnickers thanks! I drive a Fiat 500 at the moment so small boots don't worry me at all

We always use interest free credit cards with about 3 year deal where you can do cash transfer. Means we are not tied to a loan and can pay more. Then end of deal we usually paid balance down on one and to balance transfer again.

Interest free balance transfer on a credit card.

One of the cheapest ways to borrow a grand if you do it right!

My car cost £7k, got my limit raised on my cc to pay for it, then got a 29 month interest free card with no fees to pay off 4.5k of it. The rest I paid with savings.

Currently paying off about £200 per month which is more than affordable on my modest income.

We paid £6.5k for our car, a Kia with most of its warranty left on it. It’s been amazing. We took out a very low rate bank loan to do it with Halifax.