How would you pay for this car?

[CateringPanic]

Fiancé needs a new car. It’s non negotiable, he needs it for work and his current one requires over £1000 worth of repairs and it’s not worth that much.

Our joint income is about £70k and we currently have a bathroom we paid for on finance at £230/Month.

We currently have about £6k in savings after having shelled out on various home improvements over the last 18 months including £3k on a new boiler last month. This hasn’t come at the best time but it is what it is.

Fiancé doesn’t want to commit to financing a new car. He thinks it’s too expensive at the moment with the money required for the deposit and the monthly repayments with the other financial priorities we have - our wedding and we desperately want a new kitchen!

We have seen a second hand we are interested in for £5k. Options are:

• Pay it in cash and wipe out almost all remaining savings
• Buy it on hire purchase for about £100
• Credit card and request a balance transfer to 0% (one of mine currently has an offer on until the end of June) and commit to directing all the money we would usually save to paying it off before the 6m ends.

WWYD?

Another vote for fixing the old car. I also don't agree with the "not worth it" angle. You can't buy a car for £1000. And having to fix one or two things doesn't mean it will be a money trap - you know your car and its history. As soon as you buy the £5000 car it will be losing money - as the majority of cars do.

I wouldn't spend the 1k fixing the old car as I'd be worried about what would come next.

I also wouldn't pay for the car in my name unless I was the legal owner of the car.

I'm sure he's a good guy but how many times do we hear 'my boyfriend left me in loads of debt' on here. His car, his debt.

The issue is it needs a new head gasket

The perspectives on here are really interesting by the way. I would rather that we could just keep driving the old car for a few more years but I just get the feeling it’s time has come.

I totally get the people saying I shouldn’t pay for it on a credit card in my name. The problem is my fiancé doesn’t have his own credit card and we do need to make a decision quite soon. I was raised in a household where my parents used credit appropriately and within their means and generally towards the greater financial good with no issues thanks to a hefty income. Fiancé was raised in a credit averse household following a bankrupt business. It was a lot to persuade him financing the bathroom (interest free) was a good idea which he agrees with now so slowly coming round to the idea that it’s not as binary as credit = bad

Get a new car.
Ask your partner to get it under his name.
I have mechanical warranty which might not cover some repairs but for what my last car needed fixed I wish I had that covered too.
New kitchen & wedding could be pushed back with that being incentive to really save for.
Set up a car saving account for any minor repairs, tyres, services also.

I wouldn't spend the 1k fixing the old car as I'd be worried about what would come next.

OP will have the same worry with a 9 year old car as well though. So I tees of paying out £1k plus another £1k in repair she could be paying £5k and another £1k in repairs.

Get the new car on a 0% credit card definitely

If you're getting it repaired, make sure they put in a new timing belt which will cost very little extra, where it would cost hundreds if it needs replacing at a later date, as they have to take the top of the engine again. Both jobs are very time consuming, the cost of the parts is pretty minimal.

@Spottedsox wedding can’t be pushed back. Deposits are already paid which we would lose.

Why isn't your partner looking to finance the car on his £600 per month spending money ?

I would not be fitting a head gasket in an old car you are really just throwing good money after bad, talking from experience as I replaced a full engine in an old car cost me 2250 and 6 months later it went woosh bang again, clutch gave out and at that point I'd spent over 5000 on a car that was worth about £500.

If you really need to get him a new car I would use the 18 months free credit card but make sure he pays for it from his portion of his monthly spending money.

Not all car dealers let you pay by credit card straight out so I wouldn't check first if you go down this route. Some may do but not all

Would check first

He doesn't get to transfer the burden and responsibility of credit to you because he 'doesn't believe in credit'. That's unfair and hypocritical.

Also, not having a credit card puts him at quite a lot of financial risk and inconvenience as he is finding out. Plus, paying deposits for wedding things on a credit card gives you protection if the supplier goes bust, fails to deliver, or fucks up the item or service you have bought from them.

£600 pm personal spending money is quite a lot when you have other expenses like a bathroom on finance, a wedding to pay for, a kitchen on a wish list and savings that aren't really keeping up with the ups and downs in your expenditure. Could you both cut this back at all until you're a bit more financially secure?

@BarbaraofSeville thanks for your reply.

He will be repaying the finance that’s not an issue. Sorry if it wasn’t clear the kitchen is a pipe dream when we can afford it and certainly won’t be until after our March 24 wedding by which time we will have paid off the bathroom finance (which is interest free). Fortunately my parents are putting about £12k into our wedding so we don’t have masses to pay for just the photographer, flowers, string quartet (I know this is totally optional lol) and outfits for groomsmen and bridesmaids (my parents also bought my wedding dress)

Also the reason the savings are so low is because we bought a house that needed a lot of work and over the last year have done:
-bathroom
-downstairs loo
-all upstairs flooring
-all internal doors
-fences and repair a retaining wall
-boiler and radiators

all paid in cash, except the bathroom

Who's name is on the bathroom finance?

Your dp could take out a 0% card online in minutes.

@CateringPanic

Fortunately my parents are putting about £12k into our wedding

If they're "putting in" £12k "toward it" what on Earth is the total cost? Presumably a lot more than £12k. Sorry, but that's insane.

@Kazzyhoward its probably going to come in at about £16k which is less than average for a wedding nowadays

Our 11 plate car is costing us a fortune right now. However we've worked out that buying a new car would cost us around £250 pcm on finance (minimum, we'd get a loan and probably spend £12K on a much newer car).

So if we spend £1500 on repairs (which we have) we need it to run for 6 months to be worth it.

That six months is up soon. So any moment after that is a "saving".

We want to wait as long as possible before getting a new car.

We've got a kitchen loan to pay off and Uni to pay for in the near future!