How did you buy your car?

[lewiscapaldi]

We're a family of three, almost 1yo baby. Driving one 2010 Focus which is increasingly unreliable.

Today the car battery packed in and I started thinking about other options. It's so cramped in there with the toddler car seat and it has no parking sensors, Bluetooth or anything like that.

My question is, how did you/do you fund your car purchase, what is it, and are you happy with it?

Husband is reluctant to consider financing anything and thinks we should continue running this into the ground. And he may well be right, but it's mainly my baby I'm thinking of now. I don't want anything fancy or new - at all - but would love something with parking sensors and potentially would be open to hybrid/or even electric.

It's just such a BIG purchase! Interested to hear about what your setup is!

It all depends on your personal financial situation and mileage. We do far too many miles (30k plus per annum) to consider PCP. However if you do less than 10k, and can afford several hundred a month, then it’s an option worth considering, particularly if you want to switch to electric.

Given our high mileage any car we buy won’t have more than a 5 year life before mileage begins to take its toll, even with a Volvo. So we will provable do a combination of deposit, trade in, and whichever bank loan is offering the best rate, over 4 years. Our budget is about £20k.

I got my car on PCP in 2019. At the time I was doing a long commute and my 2004 car had suddenly started playing fun games such as "break system failure. Stop". Took it to the garage and it was eroded electrics which would have cost triple what I could afford (and a bit ridiculous considering the likelihood that the car was unlikely to outlive the cost of repairs with it's huge milage and age).

I traded that one in on a deal with dacia and got £1000 as a deposit. I pay £163 a month for a dacia sandero stepway which was obviously new at the time.

My balloon payment is £2400 and I'll be spreading that over 12 months.

It's been bloody perfect. 3 years without MOT, free services, no age related issues yet. It's been perfectly reliable and at the time (and still now with my DD who's 18 months) that's exactly what I needed.

It works out in the end that I've paid just over £10k for it plus an old car which wasn't working. It's a basic model but does me perfect.

Things are a lot more expensive now it seems but worth looking into.

Cash and 0% card over 36 months.
Paid now.
Will try and pay cash next time with a part ex but never buy new

We always buy outright, usually about 2-3 years old and keep until about 10 years old

I had a company car for a while but knew the tax benefits wouldn't last so I saved up. £100 a month into a savings account for 7 years.

Then after buying the first one, I just kept going. I put £120 a month away now. My cars last, on average, about 10 years and that gives me £14k to spend. I have a little Volvo at the moment.

As a system, it works for me.

Nobody on MN finances cars, they all buy brand new/three year old cars (never any other age), pay in cash and 'run it into the ground.'

Back in the real world, when financing I prefer HP to PCP as the cost over the entirety of the finance is almost always identical, but one end ends in ownership but the other ends in a large bill...

We have a Kia Sportage (on HP...) and absolutely love it. Intend to keep it as long as possible, but will happily finance again if necessary. DH's car is owned outright after 3 years of HP payments.

We’ve always saved and bought outright and driven for several years then sold to part fund the next one.

later this year we will buy a new one outright for the first time but normally we have bought a 1-2 yo car.

🤣

Well my car was six years old when I bought it. Never bought new or three years old.

I buy from savings once a car is going to cost more to keep on the road than it is worth. 2009 recently replaced with a 2013. Never had parking sensors and always had small cars with a child seat, the baby won't know any difference!

Nobody on MN finances cars, they all buy brand new/three year old cars (never any other age), pay in cash and 'run it into the ground.'
I buy 10 year old cars, the newest I've had was 8 years old.

We always buy 6/12mnth olds off forecourt, with cash. Buy end of March and they will be clearing stock. My latest is a 2015 fully specced mini Cooper, high mileage for age when I bought it, but done bugger all mileage since. Bought in 2015 for £15k. Still worth about £12k 8 years later!

Smart girl

Are parking sensors really worth it? My car is several years older than yours but still running OK - it is noticeably more reliable than much younger cars with more electronic sensors in to go wrong! When I've been in friends' cars that have parking sensors they don't seem much help - beeping hysterically when you're still
quite a distance from anything!

We're planning to save up for a secondhand EV. But our current car will probably be at least 20 years old
by the time that's feasible.

We buy new and finance. Current car cost 75k and there was no way I was paying cash for that or taking out a loan!

So it's leased. We have it for 4 years and then it goes back and we get another new one.

I love it and don't have to worry about anything going wrong with it.

Dh has similar but his goes through his company.

I had an old car I drove into the ground. When it died I took out a 10k bank loan and bought a new to me car with a three year warranty. I pay £200.05. A month back on the loan over 4 years.

We also got a bargain on DH's. £75k new, we bought two years later 28k. Still worth £25K. We don't t do much mileage though, particularly the last few years.

Im the same... save what i can until car dies and what ever i have left is what i can afford. I never have more than £4k but my last few cars have averaged.... 7 years, 5 years and unfortunately 4. Ive just bought another and I really need to get 6-7 years out of it as things are on the way out in the house and bills so high, so zero chance of saving. I do however pay the tax and insurance monthly. I couldnt meet a large payment for a car every month.

There's also a lot of Mumsnetters who get something about 10 years old with full MOT for no more than a grand or two that they run for several years without it ever breaking down or needing much more than windscreen wipers.

Seemingly free from real world experiences of being left at the side of the motorway in the middle of the night waiting for breakdown to take them to the garage for a new clutch, gearbox or engine rendering the car worthless.

I was this person once... oh how I miss the luck I had with that car. Bought a 13 year old car, for £350 that had been on a driveway for nearly 2 years. No MOT and 4 flat tyres. Needed a good jump but got it to a garage where it failed its MOT... on a light bulb. Fixed that and it ran well for 5 years until eventually meeting it's end up the back of another car on the A34 when lent to a friend.

However. Every other car I bought for a few hundred died a death within the year! One within 6 days, which stung! I adore my PCP and AA are pleased to see the back of my dodge driveway buys.

That's more than half what we paid for our house! (Yes, it was a cheap house, no, not very long ago - about three years ago now.)

Hope it's a very nice car. I can't imagine paying that much, up front or through a lease, but if you've got the money good for you. That sounds sarky but I mean it genuinely.

Motability.

2023 Kia Sportage £279.50 per month includes insurance, priority roadside assistance, all tyres inc punctures, free tax. Basically includes everything except fuel.

Truthfully? My dad bought me a Range Rover. I'm at how posh the garage is I take it to for servicing (I used to have a second hand Nissan I bought myself and used to take to my local garage). I am also at how much a tyre costs but as I didn't buy the actual car I appreciate I am quids in really.

We took out a personal loan for 10k a couple of years ago and bought a 3 year old car from a dealership.

I was driving a Range Rover sport today. I was utterly bemused by the rear view, what’s normally a mirror, being a tiny screen that shows a live feed from the rear camera. Sometimes just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Although I was enchanted by the tiny holographic projection of my speed. Land rovers are such fun to drive but so expensive when anything goes wrong.