Getting out of car finance

fivetide

Be good if you answered some of the questions OP.

If, for example you are doing a lot of motorway miles, there is no way you'll get 50mpg from a 1.2 corsa as it will be revving pretty hard. It is more likely to need maintainence parts too as it isn't really a car built for that sort of driving.

As said, sit down, do the sums and don't rush into anything too quickly.

bodgerx

mccormick90 wrote: »

Hi there,

7 months ago I stupidly bought a 1.8 Astra on 5 years finance. I needed a new car as my previous car was nackered, so I felt rushed into this. I now regret this as the mpg of the car is far too low and struggling to run it with all the miles I do. I am looking to get a more economical car, perhaps a new corsa, on 0% finance. Was just wondering if anybody had any advice on getting the car swapped without taking too much of a financial hit?

Of course, the car is in negative equity. About £3000.

Is there anything I can do or am I pretty much trapped with this car?

Any input greatly appreciated, cheers

If you are in negative equity, the last thing you need is more debt.

If you have a debt problem, more debt is rarely the solution. Governments are only just learning this lesson.

The calculation you need to do is based on paying down the rest of it until:

a. You get to the half way mark (2.5 years in) so you can hand the car back and pay nothing further.
b. You have paid for the whole car (5 year).

VS:

c. Selling now and paying off the rest of the loan + purchase cost of new car.

Factored in needs to be the total running costs per year of the new car vs the old car. Use Parkers.co.uk running cost calculator. You can just put the reg plate in of your car and it will give you a figure per-year/per-month based on your car and any other car you want to enter. Multiply this by the ownership period.

You may be surprised about the small differences between a car that does 35mpg and a car that does 50mpg over one year, at a modest mileage of around 10k, and the time it takes to recoup the money you spend on any new car and its interest payments.

iolanthe07

Astras with automatic gearboxes are notorious gas guzzlers; it might be worth taking a hit to change, depending on your mileage and type of use.

Strider590

The old smaller/lighter 1.2 Corsa struggled to achieve 38mpg, there's no way on this earth that the new bloated Corsa will see 50mpg.

To put this into perspective, I get 34mpg from my Vectra and I don't hang about......

OP, it's been hinted at at several times, you cannot save money by buying a new car. Your best bet is to get your finance paid off ASAP and never take out finance again!

OddballJamie

The OP is talking about a brand new Corsa, the diesels will see over 60mpg but he's going to have to do some miles for the trade to pay off.

motorguy

OddballJamie wrote: »

The OP is talking about a brand new Corsa, the diesels will see over 60mpg but he's going to have to do some miles for the trade to pay off.

And for the finance payments - you'd be talking about £200-£250 a month for a diesel corsa.

mccormick90

i do about 18-20k miles per year. a lot of this is travelling to work which is 20 miles there and back single carraigeway. i have worked out that it costs about 17p per mile for my astra. which works out at roughly £3100 per year.

if i was to get a car, say a corsa(doesnt have to be) getting 52 mpg that would be 11p per mile. that would work out at about £2000 per year.

over 5 years i would, including money saved on tax and insurance, be saving upwards of £5500.

i spoke to a salesman and he has said hed be able to swap me on to finance on a corsa but with a £2000 deposit from me, thats including £1000 put towards it by them. i dont have that sort of money saved up so i may try another garage and see if they can do anything for me.

also, i am tempted to phone up the finance company and ask for length of finance to be cut to 3/4 years. would this negate the interest accrued from these years or would the total payable stay the same? i would rather pay more per month to get the car paid off quickly.

oliverr

If you are doing nearly 20,000 miles a year then it was definetly not a good idea to get a 1.8 petrol with an auto box.

If you are going to swap the car you would be crazy to buy anything other than a diesel. Otherwise I would follow the advice of what others are saying and try driving smoother if that is possible though I don't expect that will make that much of a difference.

eschaton

mccormick90 wrote: »

i do about 18-20k miles per year. a lot of this is travelling to work which is 20 miles there and back single carraigeway. i have worked out that it costs about 17p per mile for my astra. which works out at roughly £3100 per year.

if i was to get a car, say a corsa(doesnt have to be) getting 52 mpg that would be 11p per mile. that would work out at about £2000 per year.

over 5 years i would, including money saved on tax and insurance, be saving upwards of £5500.

i spoke to a salesman and he has said hed be able to swap me on to finance on a corsa but with a £2000 deposit from me, thats including £1000 put towards it by them. i dont have that sort of money saved up so i may try another garage and see if they can do anything for me.

also, i am tempted to phone up the finance company and ask for length of finance to be cut to 3/4 years. would this negate the interest accrued from these years or would the total payable stay the same? i would rather pay more per month to get the car paid off quickly.

If you can't raise £2k then maybe you need to review what you can afford to drive.

What about something like an old Fiat Siecento or something like that?

TradePro

mccormick90 wrote: »

i do about 18-20k miles per year. a lot of this is travelling to work which is 20 miles there and back single carraigeway. i have worked out that it costs about 17p per mile for my astra. which works out at roughly £3100 per year.

if i was to get a car, say a corsa(doesnt have to be) getting 52 mpg that would be 11p per mile. that would work out at about £2000 per year.

over 5 years i would, including money saved on tax and insurance, be saving upwards of £5500.

i spoke to a salesman and he has said hed be able to swap me on to finance on a corsa but with a £2000 deposit from me, thats including £1000 put towards it by them. i dont have that sort of money saved up so i may try another garage and see if they can do anything for me.

also, i am tempted to phone up the finance company and ask for length of finance to be cut to 3/4 years. would this negate the interest accrued from these years or would the total payable stay the same? i would rather pay more per month to get the car paid off quickly.

Your numbers definitely won't add up mate, unless of course you're negative equity disappeared, and the payments on the Corsa were identical to the Astra, etc.

On the upside, you should be able to make overpayments if you have HP, and yes, if you pay it off sooner you will pay less interest.