To not want to empty the bank to buy a car?

[Shannny]

We have around £8k in our bank. By the end of the month this will go down to about £6k - then we’ll get paid and it will go back upto £9k before dwindling down again with mortgage, bills and groceries etc.

Generally we add around £500 a month to the “max balance” but sometimes we lose that and we’ll be same as month before or less.

Anyway, we both desperately need new cars. Both of our cars are over 10 years old and are starting to fail and cost a lot in repairs. We’ve only had them for around 4 years.

I’m starting to think it’s false economy buying these old cars. One of them has cost us more in repairs than we actually bought it for. We’re talking thousands.

So we need to replace at least one of them. Looking at Ford Kuga. DH says the max we can spend is £7k and it has to come out of bank. No credit. This will wipe out our bank account (that we’ve spent years building up) for another old car.

I think we should get one on zero interest credit and spend around £10k. This will get us a much newer car with less miles.

YABU - DH is right, use the money you have in bank even though it will wipe you out and leave you with no safety net

YANBU - get in on credit so you get a decent car for once.

Can you not do half and half?

I would be vary of putting all of it on credit.

Obviously you still need a safety net.
But in sure some of the savings could be used and you could still have enough for a safety net

Go for a Kia , I have an 11 reg Kia Soul that I’ve had from new and he’s done over 120,000 miles and is still on the original clutch / exhaust etc aside from brakes and a dodgy sensor we’ve never had any bother with him . Unfortunately Souls only come in electric now so I’ve had to move away from Kia for my new car as I’m not keen on their other models in my price bracket but I’m keeping my Kia as a second car . I wouldn’t touch Fords now , my son had a Ford Ka from new in 2015 , did 50k miles and the gear box needed replacing .

If you both need new cars replacing one of them with the majority of your savings seems rather ridiculous. How will you manage any unexpected bills? Running costa of the car? To replace the other car? Have you actually explored the interest free option to make sure it's available?

As per my previous reply to you it's not always about keeping up with the Jones's, you have been lucky but that's not the case for everyone

I wouldn’t be looking to buy a bigger and more expensive car just because I had a big dog.

Small cars fit at least 2 grown adults in the back, sometimes 3, so big enough for any dog.

We hired a car in America recently. We had the choice between a Kia Sportage or their equivalent of the Ford Kuga. We chose the Ford originally, then looked at the Kia and immediately swapped. So, so much nicer!

In terms of your original question though, your option sounds better. You keep the money in your bank account (perhaps a savings account rather than a current account) and earn interest on it. As long as you're not paying any extra in financing the car this way, you're better off financially overall by keeping your cash and earning interest on it.

You may reduce the amount you're adding to savings, but at least you're maintaining that "rainy day" money.

If you used the cash to buy the car and your boiler broke next week, how are you going to finance that?!

@WetLettuce2 , it's a big dog, that probably weighs as much as a (smallish) adult human. Not like a boxer or labradoodle or something.

Is leasing/pcp a new car an option? Low monthly costs & if there's any issues with the car, it goes back to the dealer?