Not sure whether to get a car on finance

[carfinancee]

Recently started in a graduate job and I feel like one thing I want to improve is my car. However, my living situation is likely to change quite a lot over the next couple of years (moving out from a house-share to hopefully a flat on my own, wanting to eventually buy a house but I'm nowhere near that point yet) so I'm nervous but not sure if I'm just being overly cautious. My current car is 13 years old and I feel quite vulnerable when driving it although it runs ok.

I have £8000 in savings at the moment but that is to put towards a deposit/for an emergency so I don't really want to buy a car with that.

Cars I have looked at range from £10-£18,000 for what I want/need. The car I'm looking at is one which depreciates the least, although obviously all cars depreciate a lot.

At the moment I could easily afford a £250/month payment. However, like I said previously, my living situation is likely to change with more expensive rent and bills to think about. However, progression opportunities at my job are good and my salary should gradually start to rise.

The only 'debt' I have is £2000 on a credit card which I pay off monthly (£200/month) and my student loans.

I'm not sure what to do. Does anyone have any advice?

A couple more things:

• I would rather own the car afterwards so I have an asset at the end of it.
• I'm not really bothered about cars (have had my current car since I was 17) but I do want to upgrade from a tiny 1L car to something a bit more sturdy and spacious but once I have made that upgrade I will likely stick with it until I literally need another car so I see it as a long-term thing.
• I can trade in my old car which should get around £2000.

I know you’ve said you’d prefer to own, but have you considered lease? It would give you a more flexible future, and if your mileage is low it can be very affordable (if you’re not swayed by the fancier models)

@glasshalfsomething how does lease work. My partner just started work so takes my car (I don’t work I have a baby) so I’m looking to get a 10-12k car on finance
Only ask as you state mileage low can be affordable and I don’t go anywhere most of the time car is parked in the garage and it’s days before I use it then it’s only to Asda :) x thanks and sorry @carfinancee for jumping on your post x

Id pay off the credit card using my savings as youd still have a chunk left and then can put the £200 per month back into savings and save on any interest on CC - unless 0%. Ive had cars on finance before and the APR can be quite high on anything thats used. I ended up getting a bank loan and paying it off with a much lower rate. Paying £250 odd per month gets really tedious after a while and you cant swap a car very easily without loosing money on finance deals. So I would say look for a decent used car at more of the 10k mark and get a bank loan with lowest APR you can x