what to do with incredibly costly mistake

Bouncybubbles

Hi all


Long story short I have an 18month old 3 door corsa which I brought new. However due to me being stupid as I was I also chucked a load of negative equity from a previous vehicle onto this finance...
So I now own a car worth no more than 7K owing roughly 12.5k (rough estimate) and paying £300PCM which will not end until February 2020 making monthly living quite tight at times! Now I need a car as my job involves travelling so the option of getting rid is not possible. we hope to start a family in the next couple of years so here is what I think could be my options but any advice please feel free to give!


1) keep my current car and ride it out until the debt is gone
2) somehow sell my car pay off as much as possible then add the remaining to my debt management plan? (leaving me without a car though)
3) hand the car back to the finance people after half the term and hopefully wipe it completely (I don't think this sounds right but cant remember)
4) get a lease car from my job and sell this one nearer to the end of the finance
5) try and get rid now and pay cash for an old banger (literally £400-£500 max) saving £300PCM but then having large repair bills.


I will be honest as I just don't know what to do here

Exemplar

1) keep my current car and ride it out until the debt is gone
3) hand the car back to the finance people after half the term and hopefully wipe it completely (I don't think this sounds right but cant remember)

mcjordi

1) keep it till paid off and own it outright
3) once you reach the 50% of the total amount paid you can VT it and walk away, itll be in your paperwork the figure you need to reach to be able to do this

motorguy

Bouncybubbles wrote: »

Hi all


Long story short I have an 18month old 3 door corsa which I brought new. However due to me being stupid as I was I also chucked a load of negative equity from a previous vehicle onto this finance...
So I now own a car worth no more than 7K owing roughly 12.5k (rough estimate) and paying £300PCM which will not end until February 2020 making monthly living quite tight at times! Now I need a car as my job involves travelling so the option of getting rid is not possible. we hope to start a family in the next couple of years so here is what I think could be my options but any advice please feel free to give!


1) keep my current car and ride it out until the debt is gone
2) somehow sell my car pay off as much as possible then add the remaining to my debt management plan? (leaving me without a car though)
3) hand the car back to the finance people after half the term and hopefully wipe it completely (I don't think this sounds right but cant remember)
4) get a lease car from my job and sell this one nearer to the end of the finance
5) try and get rid now and pay cash for an old banger (literally £400-£500 max) saving £300PCM but then having large repair bills.


I will be honest as I just don't know what to do here

I think you need to ride the storm on this one. Driving a banger sounds like fun but its not. Invariably they need repairs and you could end up having to find ad hoc sums to keep it going - AND it be off the road for repairs.

If you're on a DMP then i dont think you'll be able to lease a car?

cts_casemod

Can you not get a loan with lower monthly repayments that could be used to pay off the existing one? It seems quite a high monthly figure...

I would advise against getting an older vehicle. Anything over 10 years is usually plagued with rust and other issues, plus, as a minimum, you're looking at a cambelt replacement and a full service for peace of mind. It adds up...

Even if they kept the car and wrote off the debt you're still looking at the expenses above to get any other vehicle...

anotheruser

A new car is no more worse than a new car for repairs.
A 10 year old car with a proper full service history, kept well by the owner, garaged etc would be better than a 2 year old car that's done 100,000+ miles already, ragged around by the owner.

However, as other people have said, number 1 would be worth looking at in greater detail.
You may as well have a modern car that won't have as much rust and is safer than an older one.

harrys_dad

It seems to me this is as much a debt issue as a car issue. You are already on a debt management plan ( a free one I hope) yet you carried a loss from a previous car into a bigger new loss on this car. Once you have options from here I think you need to make a wider post about your whole financial situation on the Debt Free Wannabe board.

Joe_Horner

Option 5 does rather depend on the particular "older car". My old Pug has given 3 years of pretty well trouble free motoring apart from tyres, front brake pads & disks, a battery & a suspension arm for MOT last year. I also did the cam belt & water pump when I got it as a matter of course but mentally included that in the "purchase" price.

For that we've taken it from Anglesey to Devon, Essex, all round the North West, and towed maybe a little more than it really should have. But it's a crap shoot if you're not happy with spanners and can get very expensive.

BeenThroughItAll

cts_casemod wrote: »

Can you not get a loan with lower monthly repayments that could be used to pay off the existing one? It seems quite a high monthly figure...

I would advise against getting an older vehicle. Anything over 10 years is usually plagued with rust and other issues, plus, as a minimum, you're looking at a cambelt replacement and a full service for peace of mind. It adds up...

Even if they kept the car and wrote off the debt you're still looking at the expenses above to get any other vehicle...

Have to take issue with this gross, incorrect, generalisation.

Outside my house right now:

2003 BMW (13yo) 330ci, 126K. Not rusty, have done 6K miles in it in the last five months, no expenditure beyond servicing, just passed its MOT with no advisories.

2004 Audi (12yo) A4 cabriolet, just turned 100K. Not rusty, have done 5K miles in it in the last 10 weeks since purchase, no expenditure beyond servicing, passed its MOT when I bought it with no advisories.

2005 (11yo) Iveco Daily based Carthago motorhome, 55K. Not rusty. Done 5K miles since February, no expenditure beyond servicing, passed its MOT last week with one advisory.

My Dad's 22yo 1994 Peugeot Boxer based Swift motorhome, 127K. Not rusty. Done almost 100K miles in 20 years of ownership. Three breakdowns, one as a result of a broken auxiliary belt, one from a holed radiator, one from a flat battery in Glenshee, and one from a broken spring. Has failed two MOTs in its life, both on minor items quickly fixed.

The family workhorse 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee 2.7, 113K. Not rusty. One breakdown from a failed waster pump. Passed its MOT in February with no advisories.

Seeing a pattern here? Newest car I've had in over a decade was 7 years old. Oldest was over 20. Highest mileage well in excess of 200K. None have been 'plagued by rust' or unreliable.

I've bought one brand new car in my life - it first broke down three hours after purchase, and spent 214 days of my 355 days' ownership off the road before the manufacturer bought it back off me.

dlm

Learn....that's what you do with mistakes....learn!

Had a friend in a similar circumstance, always bought new every year, what he lost rolled over and so on. It was when he bought a house the penny dropped as to how much he owed.

Choose an older car wisely, service it, maintain it and you will have a cheap car. No breakdowns, no issues, no money owed. The 'old banger' theory is just an excuse to justify the losses.

I tend to drive older cars, not for affordability, but because why waste or lose more money than you have to.....thats why you are on this forum, right?

So, an 8 year old ,LPG Merc 80k on clock, £1700 to buy 60 mpg average cost in three years, two antiroll bar bushes, £2.60 (main dealer too!) , a wheel bearing £9 and front discs/pads £55 with ol filters on top...maybe £100 in two years.


PT Cruiser 64k, £1100 to buy. 40mpg Service £30, Alternator belt £9 Alternator Pulley £30,
£69 in two years

Jeep Grand Cherokee £1150 to buy, 84k lpg, 40 MPG, Brake caliper, £65,discs/pads £60, pin £9, £13 Brake pipe
£150 in 18 months

And you in two years spent £7200.......So, why are you spending 7200 again? so you get reliability? So you don't have to spent up to £150????

Make sense?

£1500 - go and buy a car.....

Silver-Surfer_2

dlm wrote: »

Learn....that's what you do with mistakes....learn!

Had a friend in a similar circumstance, always bought new every year, what he lost rolled over and so on. It was when he bought a house the penny dropped as to how much he owed.

Choose an older car wisely, service it, maintain it and you will have a cheap car. No breakdowns, no issues, no money owed. The 'old banger' theory is just an excuse to justify the losses.

I tend to drive older cars, not for affordability, but because why waste or lose more money than you have to.....thats why you are on this forum, right?

So, an 8 year old ,LPG Merc 80k on clock, £1700 to buy 60 mpg average cost in three years, two antiroll bar bushes, £2.60 (main dealer too!) , a wheel bearing £9 and front discs/pads £55 with ol filters on top...maybe £100 in two years.


PT Cruiser 64k, £1100 to buy. 40mpg Service £30, Alternator belt £9 Alternator Pulley £30,
£69 in two years

Jeep Grand Cherokee £1150 to buy, 84k lpg, 40 MPG, Brake caliper, £65,discs/pads £60, pin £9, £13 Brake pipe
£150 in 18 months

And you in two years spent £7200.......So, why are you spending 7200 again? so you get reliability? So you don't have to spent up to £150????

Make sense?

£1500 - go and buy a car.....

I think you're grossly exaggerating your mpg.