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!

We got a brand new Toyota RAV4 and used dealers finance but it’s interest free for two years so we aren’t being ripped off with finance. We negotiated a good price for the car before we took the finance too.

The car was 24k and we have been paying £420 a month for two years, and now it’s almost up there is a balance of about £14k which we need to pay to own the car. I think we’re going to use part savings/part interest free credit card.

it’s really tempting to move to another deal and get a new car but we’re trying to be sensible as financially it makes more sense to try to pay and keep the car.

@19lottie82 No it doesn't. It depends on the manufacturer and the car. A 3 year old car that is known as a reliable car could be much more reliable than a newer one. DP and MIL have both had brand new Fords in the past couple of years and they've been riddled with problems.

PCP. Change it every 3 years

I find the comparison of PCP and house renting a bit ridiculous. Houses are (as well as a place to live) an investment. You buy one hoping that they'll last forever and go up in value. Cars are not an investment. You're most likely never going to get back what you put in. Owning one outright is really of no benefit.

After a series of rubbish old cars, I got one on PCP. I pay £116 a month. I've gone from 3rd party to fully comp insurance for half the price. Road tax paid for the first year, no MOTs for first 3 years. Spending half the price on fuel as it's so economic.

I've got a brand new car that's completely reliable. I'm with skoda and I don't know if others are the same, but at the end of the 3 years I can pay the value off and keep it, trade it in for another or simply walk away. I'm intending to get a new car every 3 years.

It's a bit silly to think there's some value in owning a hunk of possibly unreliable metal that will only ever decrease in value.

I used to buy old cars. Last time I was looking for a 2 year old car to try to get reliability, but discovered that a new car of the same model was actually cheaper! This was for a Zafira. New price was £11k and a second hand dealer had a two year old one for £11.5k!

So keep an eye out for end of line bargains too. Added bonus is no mot for two years, no wear and tear, free breakdown and a warranty.

No one is saying newer cars never break down, and older ones always do, but of course in general newer cars are going to be more reliable and need less work.

On the contrary, if car reliability follows the "bathtub curve" then a brand new car will be less reliable than a recent second-hand one. The brand new car could have manufacturing faults that will send it back to the garage to fix, the car with 10,000 miles on it has put the risk of those failures behind it.

I don't know if car reliability does follow the bathtub curve, but a lot of other products do. Computer hard drives for example.

£800 fiesta had it 6 months just passed mot and I travel alot. Previous 3 cars £600 each and had about 1year each, travelled alot of miles. If the cars start needing expensive repairs, buy another one

£200 BMW drove for 9 months alot of miles. Then drove across Europe and scrapped abroad when Mot was due. Was paid £60 scrappage. Great fun!

We tried to buy a Toyota - cash in hand, from the local dealership recently.

They were desperate to get us to lease it instead.

0% finance, £129 a month, free road tax, full tank of petrol, a years insurance, I can scratch it without penalty, my limited mileage is about double what I need and I can buy it outright for about £3k when the three year lease runs out. So I get a 3yo car for £3k, hopefully a half decent one if I look after it.

If you can afford it you'd be mad not to lease it.

£2k deposit on a Ford Fiesta ST and £189 a month nothing to pay at the end of the 5 years