Please help!! Buying car etc

clairebear79

I need help – we are buying a car and we are pretty clueless!

We have around £25k saved and as theres not much interest to be earned in bank at the mo planned on buying a 2nd hand car outright – hopefully not spending the whole £25k so we can then save towards a rental property deposit / invest etc. thinking about 1 -3 yr old car with low mileage.

Does anyone have any insider knowledge on how to negotiate with dealers on 2nd hand cars? They don’t seem to be prepared to negotiate which has surprised me. They just push the new cars and say they’ll negotiate on those…

Also any informed opinions on petrol v diesel? I would naturally go for petrol as like to do whats best for environment but seems most larger 2nd hand cars for sale are diesel – apparently as people think cheaper to run but with taxes etc it doesn’t seem this will remain the case? We are mainly doing 5 – 20 min jouneys with a monthly 1 hour trip to other side of m25 and back. Nissan dealer said for those shorter journeys we would be better with petrol. Local car repair garage manager said he would only buy petrol as he sees lots of diesel cars with filter problems etc. So leaning towards petrol… Just read which magazine which is quite frightening re emmissions and looks like BMW is main option which I don’t think we can afford for the age and low mileage we would like to buy.

We are looking at SUVs with a big boot: Nissan x trail, volco xc60 (although put off by the fact theres a new model coming out as feel ours will quickly then fall in value,) etc. Really want a safe comfortable reliable family car for 2 kids plus dog etc.

We have been going to the main dealers and speaking to friends who I would have thought were relatively clued up and everyone is saying we would be better to buy brand new because finance is so cheap – 0% for 3 years at most dealers. But MSE says don’t buy new etc which makes sense to me so I think I’ll stick with 2nd hand outright purchase – any other views on this? Just throws you when everyone says the opposite?

Last thought - part of me thinks buy about 5 yrs old as burglar less likely to break in for keys. At the moment our 10 yr old banged up focus makes us look pretty broke which gives me some peace of mind! Hate the thought of being burgled! Anyone else think along those lines?!

Thanks – really appreciate your help…

Claire.

BeenThroughItAll

You'd be better off buying an estate if you want a decent sized boot. Most SUVs are smaller inside than comparably sized estates. They're also often more expensive to buy, and less economical.

With your money, I'd be looking for something like a Mondeo estate:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201704074169537

forgotmyname

Finance is so cheap. Yes maybe but the depreciation on a new car is far greater than that of a 3 year old car.

Their new car maybe 0% but the £3000+ depreciation in the first year alone soon pays for that.

kmb500

I've recently been shopping around for cars and wouldn't say that there were any outstanding deals on finance for new cars, although I was looking at different cars from you.
Ended up going with a leasing contract for 3 years, which was £100 (!!!!) cheaper per month than the same car to purchase on PCP/finance - this is a car with a £20K RRP, was £300/month to buy vs £200/month to lease. Still get a brand new car without any of the worries.


If I was buying with cash though, like you said you have savings, I would go for a nicer, older car. Your choice really. Although the difference between a brand new car and say a used car with under 30,000 miles on it, will be neglible, but the price difference may be huge.

iolanthe07

Unless you're doing plenty of long journeys, the advice these days is to stick with petrol. Diesel Particulate Filters are prone to clog up with short stop and start use.

jimjames

The only comment I'd make is that if you are trying to save up for a property do you really need to change your car? That's a guaranteed way to lose money! You may not get much interest in a cash ISA but if you invested the money instead you'd have more chance of it increasing and unlike cars, depreciation over time isn't a guaranteed fact of life.
Investing isn't suitable if you're needing the money in the short term but equally spending the money on a car will only delay the point at which you can buy the property.

martinthebandit

kmb500 wrote: »

Ended up going with a leasing contract for 3 years, which was £100 (!!!!) cheaper per month than the same car to purchase on PCP/finance - this is a car with a £20K RRP, was £300/month to buy vs £200/month to lease. Still get a brand new car without any of the worries.

So, if I understand it, your paying £7200 over three years to end up without a car when you could have paid £10800 over three years and ended up with a car worth what? maybe £8000, so actually only £2800 out of pocket?

What have I missed?

Strider590

You could could start a debt collection business with my Mondeo's 550 litre boot.

[simon]

if nothing major is wrong with current car why not just keep it.

Or buy a ex company car

Or sell the dog. Buy a 5 year old 5 door corsa.

flashg67

martinthebandit wrote: »

So, if I understand it, your paying £7200 over three years to end up without a car when you could have paid £10800 over three years and ended up with a car worth what? maybe £8000, so actually only £2800 out of pocket?

What have I missed?

They'd still have had a balloon at he end of the PCP, probably close to, or equal to the value of the car, or with maybe a small amount of equity left

clairebear79

Thanks for all your help guys! Sell the dog - haha - he definitely wasn't a good investment financially but he is lovely! :-)

Your comments are all really appreciated. I think we are going to go for more like a 3- 5 yr old estate having had your input. Our car is 10 yrs old and getting to that point where it constantly needs things done. Ive broken down on boiling hot days last yr entertaining 2 little ones with blowing bubbles while waiting for the AA and hoping we didn't run out of drinks! Got a drive to cornwall this summer so I think we do need to change it, but dont going to go for a slightly older car now. I did get the finance thing but even clever/informed people I know kept telling me it made sense so I just wanted to check I wasn't missing anything! Will save a bit more on the car and try to invest the rest. Thanks again.