Best way of buying a car?

chelseablue

This isn't going to be happening until next year but I'd like to start planning.

We currently have a lease car that goes back to the lease company in April.

We don't want another lease car so would like to purchase one.

Looking at getting something about 3 years old and keeping it as long as possible.

Budget is around £150 a month, so thinking of borrowing around £7,000.

What would the best way be? Personal loan? Car finance? Something else?

[Deleted User]

Savings. .

System

You have 10 months. £500 a month saved gives you £5000 which is enough to buy a decent car and no more finance chains around your neck. Short term pain for long term gain.

Failing that, 0% on purchases credit card or maybe a balance transfer card if you've enough available balance on a card you already have.

chelseablue

Thank you both, we currently are saving at least £500 a month.

At the moment this money is earmarked for our wedding in June next year, most supplies it seems only accept cash or cheque as payment.

What ever we have surplus to the wedding will be going towards the car, but will probably borrow some of it.

I'll have a look at the longest 0% card. Want to pay it off as quick as possible.
Never had a loan before, can they be overpaid?

[Deleted User]

Yes, they can.

DCFC79

Although the last reply says "yes they can be overpaid" there's no harm in asking the loan company if you can do this.

Potbellypig

Do you need a £5k car? Roughly how many miles are you doing a week/month?

18 months ago I bought a Focus for a grand and I do roughly 40 odd miles a day in it. You can pick up a decent one for less than half the £5k you're looking to spend.

Herzlos

What are your requirements for a car?

You can get pretty decent cars for well under £7k (I'd stay above about £3k on forecourts to avoid the risky purchases), but it all depends on what you want from a car.

Start putting the £150/month into an account and that's you got £1350 when your car goes back. Use that as a deposit and borrow the rest you'd need to get a nice, if older, version of the car you need. Then overpay it by as much as you can to get the total cost down.

The_Real_Cheddar_Bob

save save and save again.

daveyjp

Have you considered buying your current car?

chelseablue

Its not a lease where we have an option of buying it at the end, it has to go back.


Its actually the car my partner drives, he commutes for work and drops our son off at nursery every day so want something not too old. Def wont be buying brand new.


My car is 11 years old and I'll be keeping that going until it dies (aiming to get it to 20 years old haha) but I only work less than 2 miles from home.