Car options for £300pm

[onthelookout]

Currently own 56 plate Vectra, 90k miles... probably worth less than my phone.

Been holding off buying new car but sick of spending small fortunes on maintenance and repairs. MOT due in Sept and refuse to put any more £ into it. So new car it is.

Looking at spending around £300 ish per month, and wondering what best options are.

£300pm allows me a personal bank loan of £10k over 3 years, £13.5k over 4 years or £16.5k over 5 years.

Or PCP at same monthly payment.

Like the idea of bank loan as car would be mine to do what I wanted, poss even sell early and renew loan. For loan amounts looking at newer Vauxhall, Ford or similar... or (much) older BMW, Audi or Merc.

Whereas PCP for same monthly cost could get me a lower spec but newer BMW, Audi or Merc. No MOT costs. Love idea of having £30k car sat on the drive but would obviously never own it and tied into contract.

Decisions decisions... apologies for yet another loan vs PCP post but just looking for some direction. Any recommendations on a strategy?

Many thanks

PS. Drive approx 8-10k miles / year.

Edited by onthelookout on Wednesday 21st February 21:09

[Integroo]

You can get a 177bhp Volvo s60 on a 10k, 600 up front 200pcm a month loan. Might be worth considering.

[coljoh148]

As above, lease hire for no more than 2yrs, with no more Than 3 upfront payments. Can't go wrong really.

Like Pcp you still don't own the car but....really, why would you want to? They just drop in value.

https://www.contracthireandleasing.com/main-dealer...

[Toed64]

Totally disagree - why would you choose to rent, paying someone else's wages and the depreciation?

I've leased when I could claim the costs against tax, otherwise, why not buy?

Here's my suggestion:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-135-i-M-SPORT-Turbo...

[cholo]

To me what route you take depends on the car.

Do you have a particular car in mind?

What do you need from the car??

[onthelookout]

cholo said:

To me what route you take depends on the car.

Do you have a particular car in mind?

What do you need from the car??

If poss would love a Beemer, Audi or Merc. But not dead set on it.

Petrol as only do 8-10k miles/year, mostly around town.

[mattman]

Toed64 said:

Totally disagree - why would you choose to rent, paying someone else's wages and the depreciation?

I've leased when I could claim the costs against tax, otherwise, why not buy?

Here's my suggestion:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-135-i-M-SPORT-Turbo...

an 8 year old BMW that you have to tax, service, fix, MOT, unknown history and will continue to depreciate vs a cheap lease with fixed monthly cost unbder OP's budget and no scares that you don't have to worry about - no brainer for me.

That Volvo deal quoted is superb, just have to be ready to take a deal when they come up and not deviate from the standard models as that just pushes prices up. Play the game well and there are some great bargains out there.

I've done them all, Lease, PCP, cash - and lease has definately been the least stressful in regard to unknown costs

[Wooda80]

Each of the different funding options will be the right one for some people.

To find out which one is best for you, you should ask yourself how long you would intend to keep the car.

Your Vectra is quite an old car now, have you had it a long time or are you in the habit of changing often / regularly?
How do you feel about driving an older car? Does it not bother you or do you not really mind?
Your preferred payment is £300pm for up to 5 years. Would you prefer to have a period after that with no car payment, or are you happy that that sum will always be available to provide for a car?

If you like the idea of changing regularly, prefer to always be in a newish car and are comfortable about always having a monthly car payment then go PCP or lease. Lease often works out to be a lower monthly payment then PCP, but PCP is more flexible than lease in that you can decide to pay it off and keep the car if you choose, and is less punitive to return early if your needs change.

If you think you will keep the car beyond the finance period and like the idea of having a payment free period at some point in the future, effectively being in the same position as you are currently, then go with HP.

HTH

[nickfrog]

Toed64 said:

Totally disagree - why would you choose to rent, paying someone else's wages and the depreciation?

Because it can work out cheaper. But not always. It depends.

The depreciation is the same irrespective of method and paying someone's else wages can trigger a deal otherwise not available. We're talking about one-off fees of around £200 to £300 here really, or none at all. But then again the lease company will indeed dedicate a bit of labour, but not very much per car considering the number of cars on their books.

On the other hand, having the cash tied up yields an opportunity cost. All swings and roundabouts really...

Just a bit of due diligence does normally answer the question for a particular car at a particular time.