Help with car options please.

spadoosh

Head gasket gone on our car (56 plate peugeot 207). Been quoted £800 to fix, cars not worth a huge amount more.

We're in the middle of paying off some debt (all interest free), recently received a modest inheritance pay out which means we have about £1k-2k 'knocking about'. The plan was for it to go straight to the debt but plans clearly dont always work out! The debt is reducing and will be paid off before term although ive not done the numbers on different options.

Trying to weigh up our options, i think i know we're the only people who can decide but would like to hear all views.

Never been a fan of car finance in more or less any form. I really dont like the idea of getting caught in to a £200 a month for the rest of my life paying for a car trap.

But we would like a working car. so i see my options as

1) Pay for the repair and hope nothing else goes wrong on a pretty high mileage car (£800)

2) buy a cheap car, more than likely with high mileage and a potential liability (£1k - £2k)

3) Go the car finance route.


The issues i see with the finance route apart from it being expensive is we will be looking at remortgaging mid next year. Ive also got a few credit cards (unused and not interest free) which makes me look quite highly geared. OH should have a more finance friendly file.

The reason im including car finance is because im not sure if im missing something. It never seems like a good deal to me but then people on HUKD seem to suggest some finance deals can be good? Im guessing its a case of its a good deal for a finance deal and not a good deal for the car. Also when im talking a financed car we'd be looking at cheap cheap, think along the lines of dacia.

Any help? Sorry for waffling.

missile

PCP can be a good deal for some, but check the figures carefully. My main reservation is it is very expensive to cancel part way through the term.

However, if I were you I would not increase my debt.

ratrace

I have done this in the past on a citroen c4 my head gasket also went and the car was worth around £400 tops if i sold it as spare's, so i went and bought the same car another c4 in the same colour and parked the knackerd one up and used it as a doner car, over time taking parts off as needed

I was also getting out of debt at the time so was really watching the £'s i would not advise you to go down the finance route as you say its just another commitment for just a car

hope this helps

System

missile wrote: »

PCP can be a good deal for some

The car manufacturer, the dealership, the finance company. They're the only people who it is a good deal for. For the majority of the rest it is a trap that commits them to monthly car payments for donkeys years.

£800 to fix a head gasket sounds quite expensive. Usually its within the £300-£500 range depending on the car so I would definitely get a second opinion from another garage. Fixing your current car then putting aside £100 a month into a "new car fund pot" is the better way forward. As you say at £1000 whatever you buy is going to be a risk so better the devil you know.

The way to work up to a much better car is put say £100 or £200 a month into a pot for a year, take that pot and what you can sell your car for, buy a more expensive one, keep putting the £100-£200 a month into the pot, sell the car after a year for what you bought it for, put that together with your pot, buy a more expensive car, rinse and repeat until you are able to buy a car a couple of years old in cash which you can then run for several years.

Sure its a slow way of doing it and with PCP WE CAN GET YOU IN THAT NEW CAR TODAY, JUST £2000 DEPOSIT AND £150 A MONTH FOR FOUR YEARS!!!!! but as you point out at the end of that 4 years you end up having to get another car on PCP.

ratrace

Tarambor wrote: »

The way to work up to a much better car is put say £100 or £200 a month into a pot for a year, take that pot and what you can sell your car for, buy a more expensive one, keep putting the £100-£200 a month into the pot, sell the car after a year for what you bought it for, put that together with your pot, buy a more expensive car, rinse and repeat until you are able to buy a car a couple of years old in cash which you can then run for several years.

Sure its a slow way of doing it and with PCP WE CAN GET YOU IN THAT NEW CAR TODAY, JUST £2000 DEOSIT AND £150 A MONTH FOR FOUR YEARS!!!!! but as you point out at the end of that 4 years you end up having to get another car on PCP.

Totally agree, thats the way self made millionaires do it, we live in a world where this kind of thinking is seen as silly due to the fact manufacturers and advisers and fantastic at convincing people that they are missing out if they dont live a certain way

I know of a chap who just sold his car to save on the fuel and has bought a tesla model s on lease paying £500 a month plus a hefty deposit - (thats a lot of fuel) the mind boggles that people are happy getting up to go to work everyday just to make payment on stuff thats not really a need more of a want.