GAP on year old
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Discussion

fourstardan

Original Poster:

6,158 posts

166 months

Tuesday 10th October 2017
quotequote all
Heads spinning on this one.

Just bought year old passat (24k purchase price, i've bought year old @ 17.5k)

I always get GAP on previous PCP's but on this car i've got a personal loan.

I'm just not sure if I should get GAP here.

Thoughts?

Alucidnation

16,810 posts

192 months

Tuesday 10th October 2017
quotequote all
You either want to take the risk or you don't?

CYMR0

3,940 posts

222 months

Wednesday 11th October 2017
quotequote all
All depends.

Buying a one-year-old car with a personal loan you've already dealt with a bunch of depreciation, and you won't have to find any sums to repay your debt immediately as you would with a lease or HP/PCP.

So, your potenital payout from gap insurance is less, and the time factor is less as well. As such, you shoudl be able to go out and buy a car that is genuinely like for like with what you had, in the event that the car is stolen or written off. So you don't need GAP to avoid hardship...

... but with all that, a policy should be quite cheap, and you might find that, even if you get full market value for your car, you're still better off in the long term buying another one-year-old for what you just paid, rather than a three-year-old car in two years' time. If, in two years, your £17,500 car is a £12k retail car, you'd still get a £5,500 payout and you would have a wider choice of cleaner, lower mileage cars to choose from. If you're in the habit of buying new, you might not exactly enjoy the experience of shopping for a like-for-like car, even if you weren't ready to change - in which case GAP could represent valuable peace of mind even if you don't think that a £100 gamble to win £4-10k over the life of the policy in the event of a total loss is worth it on its own.

(If you do think that feels like a good bet then - think again, because that's how the GAP insurance companies make their money, and if you still think it's a good deal then run get it regardless).

fourstardan

Original Poster:

6,158 posts

166 months

Saturday 28th October 2017
quotequote all
CYMR0 said:
All depends.

Buying a one-year-old car with a personal loan you've already dealt with a bunch of depreciation, and you won't have to find any sums to repay your debt immediately as you would with a lease or HP/PCP.

So, your potenital payout from gap insurance is less, and the time factor is less as well. As such, you shoudl be able to go out and buy a car that is genuinely like for like with what you had, in the event that the car is stolen or written off. So you don't need GAP to avoid hardship...

... but with all that, a policy should be quite cheap, and you might find that, even if you get full market value for your car, you're still better off in the long term buying another one-year-old for what you just paid, rather than a three-year-old car in two years' time. If, in two years, your £17,500 car is a £12k retail car, you'd still get a £5,500 payout and you would have a wider choice of cleaner, lower mileage cars to choose from. If you're in the habit of buying new, you might not exactly enjoy the experience of shopping for a like-for-like car, even if you weren't ready to change - in which case GAP could represent valuable peace of mind even if you don't think that a £100 gamble to win £4-10k over the life of the policy in the event of a total loss is worth it on its own.

(If you do think that feels like a good bet then - think again, because that's how the GAP insurance companies make their money, and if you still think it's a good deal then run get it regardless).
I did go for it in the end, its entirely for peace of mind over the next couple of years.

I searched around for a low price and got ALA to price match it, they then knocked 20% off which is good.

This car was a private sale, if I wrote it off and had to go looking it would be a ballache.