Cars. Buy £3000 car or pcp contract?

[AlwaysSunshine81]

Hi all.
So I have a car that is due to go back next April or I have to pay £6000 ish to the company to keep it. It was my husbands idea and he left me 2 years ago so I’ve carried on with it.
I can’t afford to pay £6000 for it so will hand it back but have recently looked into selling it privately or we buy any car and I would have about £2000 left after paying off the £6000. I don’t really know what to do.
Get another car on a lease type thing. Have 3 children, don’t drive a huge amount of miles. Or save some money between now and April and buy a second hand car but I worry it’ll go wrong etc
I appreciate any advice!

Yup, a wee 4 seat orange one

Bought at 13 months old, finance over 3 years, no substantial deposit.

Definitely check out loans available elsewhere if you decide to keep it. I tend to buy my cars outright and usually get them from motorpoint which is a car supermarket. My car new would have been over 14 grand but cost me half that when I bought it at 2 years old with a low mileage.

My DH has a Smart car he has just paid off. Absolutely loves it. Runs on bubbles, no tax and no problems with anything. We have driven all over Europe in it and it copes with hills and long journeys perfectly well.

I have a stupidly expensive to run second hand car that I love. Costs a bomb in tax, servicing and MOT faults though.

I will keep an eye on the used approved smarts
The only one in my garage worth buying has an orange interior which I don’t like!

@NameChangedForTheDay in the end I went somewhere a bit closer and bought a 17 plate with 5,000 miles on the clock for under 2/3rds of the list price. Pretty happy with it.

Now just need to get the current beast detailed and valeted ready to hand back next month and never again shall a car loan darken my account!!

I would make sure that whatever car I buy have a 5 star NCAO rating. It’s easily forgotten but very important.

Should be “NCAP rating”