Is now the time to buy a new car?

onlyroz

I read on Sky News today that *now* is the time to buy a new car, because dealers are offering massive discounts as they can't shift the stock. I was planning on buying a new (or nearly new) car in about a year, but I'm wondering if I should do it sooner, given the current market.

I currently have a Citroen Xsara Picasso, 55 reg, but we'd like to upgrade it to either a C4 Picasso Grand, or a Ford SMax. Both have list prices of around £18-20K, but if it's true that you could get a new one for around £15K (would like a diesel manual with air-con) then I'd be interested.

So... are prices likely to drop further over the next year? Buying now would put a push on our finances (would have to borrow from the bank-of-mum-and-dad) but in a year we'd be in a better position to do it.

Any advice?

TiTheRev

Citroen or Ford??? :rolleyes:

I think you've missed the boat with this one now im afraid. Stock was a pain to clear a couple of months ago, but with the interest rate reduced so greatly it's sparked hope that sales will increase, and they have, so dealers are less likely to offer the same deals now as maybe they would have only 2/3weeks ago. It's still better now than next year, as hopefully the economy will continue to pick up and the deals will only get worse as demand increases...

Hope you find a deal

Inactive

TiTheRev wrote: »

It's still better now than next year, as hopefully the economy will continue to pick up and the deals will only get worse as demand increases...

I wish I could share your optimism, alas I have a distinct feeling that you will be proven wrong.

GM are on the point of bankruptcy, Ford are not far behind etc. etc.

ArsenalFC

The economy next year will be much gloomy and prices will fall further as big job losses are begining to increase in the coming months, meaning very little disposable income to spend. Next year is the worse year, only in 2010 the economy will have any chance to get slowly better. So I would advise you to wait and the deal should be better next year.

MX5huggy

It never the time to buy a new car!!

markelock

MX5huggy wrote: »

It never the time to buy a new car!!

exactly. why not look at something that is 6 months or 1 year old, and save an extra few £k

thescouselander

I reckon now is the time to buy a new car. There is currently a surplus of stock becuse the factories were pumping out cars at the same rate as the past few years. Now that production has been dramatically cut back it might be that stock levels could start to drop off again.

New registrations are currently very low, you should be in a strong possition to negotiate. If I was after a new car I would probably buy it now.

onlyroz

I've thought about the new vs. nearly new debate - it depends on the current climate, but sometimes dealers are so desperate to flog the new cars that they offer 0% finance deals, free insurance, free AA cover etc etc. I think this is because they actually make more profit out of used car sales, but they still need to sell the new cars or the used cars never materialise.

Also, as the C4 Grand, in particular, is still a fairly new model (about 2 years old, I think), most of the nearly-new ones available are ex-demo, and so are packed full of expensive features that you probably don't need (I saw 1-year-old model on sale recently for £18K, which the dealer assured me would have cost £27K when it was new), and which they charge a premium for. From next year I think there will be better used deals available on it.

DKLS

The deals on used cars are looking good at the moment, especially on gas guzzlers I was looking at a Merc CLS AMG yesterday, 80K new!!!, 2 years old with 24K on the clock, with a 23K sticker on it.
I will wait till March and pick up something tasty, as my commute has been reduced from 100 miles a day to 1 mile, so can justify something that isnt that economical.

Hintza

Let me put this bluntly things are not going to improve in the short term. You might not even have a job in a few months time stick with what you have for at least a year or until things start to pick up. Saving an extra grand might be the least of your worries in 6 months.

The party this country has had over the last few years has finished and we must all suffer the hangover.

thescouselander

Hintza wrote: »

Let me put this bluntly things are not going to improve in the short term. You might not even have a job in a few months time stick with what you have for at least a year or until things start to pick up. Saving an extra grand might be the least of your worries in 6 months.

The party this country has had over the last few years has finished and we must all suffer the hangover.

Surely you are making a lot of assumptions about the OP's financial position here. They might be in a position where they do not need to worry about losing their job.

Also, if everyone decided not to spend their money the economy will be completely stuffed and recovery might never come about.