Scrappage Scheme and 0% finance

gonnagetdebtfree

Hi moneysavers,

My car is on it's last legs. It will cost more to repair the clutch I think than the car is worth.

I've always owned old bangers and my wife and I are reluctant to waste another £500 on another, which will only cost us more in ongoing repairs.

Sadly we're paying off debt and so we have no savings - following Martin's advice to clear debt first.

This leaves us 2 options:

1) Lease a car for between 150 and 250 a month. We'd get a new car and all repairs would be covered, but would be throwing money away.

2) trade in our existing car (worth £300) and get £2000 for it on the scrappage scheme. We would only do this if we could get 0% apr over 3 or 4 years - ideally without a deposit! Also we'd look for piece of mind in a 3 year warranty.

What do you reckon folks?
Any recommended dealers or makes?
Who's offering 0% apr AND scrappage?

Thanks

Darren

youngie

just a point to consider scrappage is only offered on a limited range of cars and there can be quite a wait to get one

Premier_2

Most major manufacturers take part in the scrappage scheme.

Your desire for 0% finance shouldn't be affected by your wish to take advantage of the scrappage scheme.

But you'll probably struggle to find car manufacturer offering 4 years 0% finance with no deposit; typically its more like 12 months with 50% deposit when offered.

jaydeeuk1

Why not trade in for an older hyundai or kia. Some models have 5/7 year warranties and will be cheap as chips.

Inactive

gonnagetdebtfree wrote: »

Sadly we're paying off debt and so we have no savings - following Martin's advice to clear debt first.

So you have decided to follow Martins advice, and then get in to further debt by buying a new car.

gonnagetdebtfree

Inactive wrote: »

So you have decided to follow Martins advice, and then get in to further debt by buying a new car.

Fair enough. We both need a car for work (share) and need to replace ours, as I said an older car is an option but usually ends up costing a lot in repairs and maintainence.

bosseyed

I'm not sure you'll find 0% finance with no deposit - every advert I've ever seen for 0% finance requires at least 40-50% deposit.

Inactive

gonnagetdebtfree wrote: »

Fair enough. We both need a car for work (share) and need to replace ours, as I said an older car is an option but usually ends up costing a lot in repairs and maintainence.

Even a new car will still cost you to maintain it, a clutch isn't that expensive to replace.

Your user ID implies that you don't really want to get further in to debt, think long and hard about it.

rev_henry

Why not get a slightly newer old banger, maybe £1500. That'd buy you something pretty good. And at that price you could probably buy it on a 0% credit card.

ahillsy

To echo previous replies, you generally need a reasonable sized deposit for 0% finance.
Vauxhall seem to often do some good 0% deals over up to 4 years - at the moment you need a minimum 30% deposit by the looks of it. Skoda are doing a 2 year 0% finance deal but that requires 50% deposit.

I think you're probably best off buying something cheaper for the short term, to give you time to save up a bigger deposit. It will give you more options, and put you in a good buying position.

Homersimpson

What sort of cheap £500 cars have you been buying? If you want a good reliable car then you should get one for less than £1500. Best thing is to look for one thats low mileage, not rusty and has been fairly well looked after, there are plenty of cars around that fit this bill provided you don't mind what you drive, what colour it is or what extras it has. Nice simple cars are always good, a friend of mine has a 1999 mondeo which is in mint condition and he does around 10-15k a year in it with no problems, its probably only worth £800 but its utterly reliable, my dads mondeo on the same year is the same but he only does 3k miles a year in it.

Whatever you buy get yourself a haynes manual and some tools, it always amazes me how people trying to run an cheap car can spend so much money at a garage for simple things to be done when anyone with any DIY abilities can tacklemost of the jobs. Thinks like brake pads/ discs/shoes/ servicing/ wishbones etc. are all really simple on most cars. A haynes manual goes through it step by step. I'm not suggesting that you would want to change a clutch yourself but there are big savings to be made by DIY.