Do I finance a car at University?

jordgoldsmith

I’m an 18 year old starting university in September. I will be working around 20 hours on a weekend so I would be able to afford finance on a car. I bought my first car in November 2019 and broke down on me after 2 days, I’ve looked at buying cars from dealerships from but the lowest I can seem to find is around £7000. I pay for it all myself and will not receive any financial help. From Mid-June I will be working over 50 hours a week until September 1st, which means it goes down to about 18 hours a week. Is it better for me to finance a car or buy one?

missile

I doubt you will be able to get finance(?)
Buying a car from dealer @ £7,000 is no guarantee that it will be reliable

mobileron

And we are paying taxes to send you to Uni,presume you will be doing economics?

jackieblack

burner01 said:

Why on earth would you need a car at uni? What a ridiculous waste of money.

That’s a very sweeping statement, OP hasn’t said what they will be studying, it might be a degree that requires work placements, such as nursing or teaching 🤷🏻‍♀️ 

My daughter did a Veterinary Nursing degree and having a car was essential, there’s no possible way she could have managed without one.

JamoLew

mobileron said:

And we are paying taxes to send you to Uni,presume you will be doing economics?

Not unless the graduate ends up not paying back the student loan

AdrianC

...or you could use your earnings to reduce the debt at the end of your course...

Wild thought, I know.

BTW, there are a LOT of perfectly good cars for sale in the UK for <£7k.

Jonesya

Before buying a car I'd check a few things:
1. Will your uni accommodation provide parking for it? Some unis were quite restrictive as there wasn't space for every student to run a car.
2. In later years, what are the student areas like for parking and distance - will you need it? Most unis are close to accommodation with shops nearby so you'd never drive anyway and even if you did, there were campus parking restrictions or parking charges.
3. What's the public transport like into the local town or city centre, for some big cities you'd use public transport anyway as cars are difficult and costly to drive into the centre.

If the accommodation is close and public transport reasonable for day to day use, I'd been inclined to avoid getting the car.

Also - working 20 hours each weekend ???!!! Why ? You don't want to be doing that, you want time for studies, socials etc. 

rach_k

Will you be living on campus?  It's worth checking your uni's policies.  Some don't allow students to have parking permits and you will probably find that roads around the uni are all permit-holder anyway.  Even if you're not on campus, will you actually need one?  I'd keep the money for now, go a term without and see how you go.  It's always possible to pick up decent cheap cars (and no, you shouldn't get a car on finance, you don't need a £7K car!).  

neilmcl

jordgoldsmith said:

I’m an 18 year old starting university in September. I will be working around 20 hours on a weekend so I would be able to afford finance on a car. I bought my first car in November 2019 and broke down on me after 2 days, I’ve looked at buying cars from dealerships from but the lowest I can seem to find is around £7000. I pay for it all myself and will not receive any financial help. From Mid-June I will be working over 50 hours a week until September 1st, which means it goes down to about 18 hours a week. Is it better for me to finance a car or buy one?

I very much doubt that to be the case. We have so many people coming on here in full time employment who are trying to get out of finance deals so I doubt a student doing a part time job at weekends is really going to fare that well with such a commitment. 

Scrapit

Depending on circumstances you could but is it a good idea, possibly not. Id get a car at a slightly lower price point, >7k is alot for a student on part time hours, i suspect you havent factored other expenditure in that that thought process. I would strongly consider buying private too.

Dr_Crypto

Why would you? I did my 6 year degree without one. Some people say you need a car for a medical degree but I didn't and neither did all bar about 2 people on my course.