Any ideas on getting a car on £600 budget per month?

theoretica

Does the £600 also need to cover insurance? Run a few examples of cars you might buy through quotes to see how much you need for that.

wgl2014

curious_1 wrote: »

By march/April next year, I'll be on at least £2,169 per month.
Is a PCP ok then?

If you can afford the payments then it's fine, just may not be the best decision from a financial point of view.

Also I would be wary of making any decisions based on expected future earnings, don't commit to something you can't afford now.

curious_1

neilmcl wrote: »

Not being funny but if you take home £1600 per month I don't think committing £600 of that over 3 or 4 years for a car is a very wise decision, maybe you should, at the very least, halve that figure.

Apologies, wrong choice of words. Since I'd have just £600 left to spend. I'm hoping to use about £250 - 300 max on a car per month. This will include tax, insurance etc.

To use all that is left on a car, is not smart at all. ha

Issue is, I have no idea what to get or where to look.

GunJack

curious_1 wrote: »

Apologies, wrong choice of words. Since I'd have just £600 left to spend. I'm hoping to use about £250 - 300 max on a car per month. This will include tax, insurance etc.

To use all that is left on a car, is not smart at all. ha

Issue is, I have no idea what to get or where to look.

So you'll want something that's £30 a year to tax, get minimum of 50mpg, what's your insurance generally like (i.e. <£500 a year, £500-£750, £750+) ?

What sort of driving? Annual Mileage? You really need to give more detail for a proper stab at an answer...

Cornucopia

curious_1 wrote: »

Apologies, wrong choice of words. Since I'd have just £600 left to spend. I'm hoping to use about £250 - 300 max on a car per month. This will include tax, insurance etc.

To use all that is left on a car, is not smart at all. ha

Issue is, I have no idea what to get or where to look.

That sounds more realistic.

Although I tend not to follow the general consensus here against all PCPs, I do think that they work best at the low end of the price range - below £200 pm. If you are happy with a small car, then they can be had for less than £120pm, and that's when a PCP can really make sense, IMHO.

Do you know what kind of car you want/need? What size, what fuel, auto/manual, what body-type, what usage, miles per year??

PCP deals are manufacturer-specific, but you can get a general idea from the Lease rates, where there are various search engines...

https://www.whatcar.com/car-leasing/


I would strongly advise against getting a loan to cover the deposit, though.

arcon5

Can't you buy a car on finance.. say £3k region. You can by a reasonable age car at that if you just looking for someone a bit nicer

ACG

Im just in the process of looking at PCPs and leases at the minute.
You can get a lot of nice cars for £200 or under each month.

https://www.lease4less.org.uk/search?mode=BCH&vt=car&minprice=150&maxprice=200 - Cars between £150-200 a month.

Ive been dealing with someone called Tony from there.

curious_1

GunJack wrote: »

So you'll want something that's £30 a year to tax, get minimum of 50mpg, what's your insurance generally like (i.e. <£500 a year, £500-£750, £750+) ?

What sort of driving? Annual Mileage? You really need to give more detail for a proper stab at an answer...

Thank you very much for this.

This will be my first car, so I've never taken out an insurance on my name to know a range. The car I'm currently driving is not mine, but I've got insurance on it. I pay the owner of the car £60 to put me on the policy.

That said, I looked at some quotes in the past, with a number of cars (VW golf, BMW 1series etc). And got about £1000 a year from moneysupermarket etc.

With regards to the sort of driving I'll be doing. The occasional inter-city driving and motorway driving (mainly Bristol - London and vice versa). Annual mileage, maybe 10,000 miles. But that's just guess. I've noticed car vendors use that number as limits. But don't see myself going over it.

I know I just want a car, and won't mind something simple. At the same time though, if I'm being honest, a decent car will be nice. Something fairly modern.

You see people driving new cars, I always wonder how on earth they do it on their wages. Students etc.

curious_1

Cornucopia wrote: »

That sounds more realistic.

Although I tend not to follow the general consensus here against all PCPs, I do think that they work best at the low end of the price range - below £200 pm. If you are happy with a small car, then they can be had for less than £120pm, and that's when a PCP can really make sense, IMHO.

Do you know what kind of car you want/need? What size, what fuel, auto/manual, what body-type, what usage, miles per year??

PCP deals are manufacturer-specific, but you can get a general idea from the Lease rates, where there are various search engines...

https://www.whatcar.com/car-leasing/


I would strongly advise against getting a loan to cover the deposit, though.

That would be idea. Less than £200, for a decent car. Just haven't seen much. Theres usually a trade off. cheap monthly, but expensive deposit.

I'm happy with manual, since I believe they are cheaper. Petrol too. heard laws on diesel could change (pollution etc). Body type, not fussed (coupe of hatchback) and at least 1.4 engine size. With decent electronics (sat nav) - electronics bit is probably wishful thinking. But hey.

Also, thanks a lot for the link. Having a look.

curious_1

arcon5 wrote: »

Can't you buy a car on finance.. say £3k region. You can by a reasonable age car at that if you just looking for someone a bit nicer

Don't know why I never thought this. For some reason, if it's less than £4500. I've always had the notion it's better to buy them out-right and not on finance. Maybe getting a loan to buy it or save (will probably take a little while).

But going on finance for a car of that amount, never thought of it. The monthly payments will be low, I believe.