What’s the best thing to do here?

ncfcfan

Hi there

I’d like to preface this post by saying “first world problems” - we know. 

Approx. 8 months ago me and and my wife celebrating both getting new working from home jobs by trading in our cars for something a bit bigger and more luxurious. 

We settled on an Audi Q3 diesel manual  on a PCP plan, paying £475 per month knowing full well we’d likely go to another dealer when the time was right for an upgrade.

My wife’s role has now changed and requires national travel. Our PCP agreement is only for 10k miles and she’ll be doing around 20k. We panicked and went back to Audi for some assistance - they were willing to get us out of the car and into a new Q3, with the right mileage for £550 per month. There was a car ready for us, it just needed delivery which would be approx. 2 weeks.

They called us yesterday to say there was a glitch and that infact this car was already sold and the new wait would be 20 weeks. This got us thinking that perhaps we might have been too hasty to jump straight into another Audi…

What’s our best option here? Our settlement figure is approx £29k, our valuation from webuyanycar is £30k - we’re not in negative equity. We’d like to get the payments down if we can although not critical - I think we’re just looking for a cost effective option without compromising on our needs. We need a bigger car for motorway driving, we need the miles. We’ve investigated hybrid…

we’ve baffled by b*llsh*t by car salesmen in finding out what the best option is….

thanks all

flashg67

Have you asked if you can increase the mileage on your current PCP, or worked out roughly what your bill will be if you keep it and pay the mileage excess, remembering that excess mileage only becomes an issue if you return the car, - otherwise you'll 'only' take a hit on the trade in value which might not be as bad as you think.
It's tempting to take advantage of the current used car prices (8 months into a PCP and not in negative equity is probably unheard of until recently), but I'd avoid jumping into the first car that you see? If you like your Audi, then have you looked at other marques in the VW group - Skoda, Seat etc - many have the same engines and underpinnings as the Audi.

iwb100

I’d switch to something cheaper than an Audi. As above there are options in the same group with all the same stuff just a different badge. But your only issue will be availability of cars right now.

 Seat Ateca, VW Tiguan, Skoda Karoq. Worth looking at what they would cost on a PCP. 

However I will also say that your mileage on PCP doesn’t matter if you aren’t handing back to the finance company at the end. So you can go over miles IF you are part exchanging. So time is not as critical as your think. However remember more miles reduces your cars value so try and get your PCP deal lined up whilst you are in equity as a dealer should guarantee the equity ratio.

ncfcfan

Hey folks - just to answer a few q’s raised…

We asked about amending the PCP plan, Audi finance said no. 

We are certainly willing to look at other cars - we looked at the Tucson Hybrid this evening and the monthly payment would reduce to £400, but it was a PCH offer. PCH feels more restrictive though…

Yes, availability is a huge problem. Something we must consider.

What I didn’t mention was that Audi will honour the original agreement before the glitch happened. So, we can basically run our current q3 into the ground in terms of mileage and when our new Q3 arrives, the finance deal will be based on the mileage we gave last week, instead of the mileage in 20 weeks.

The equity is in our favour luckily but I don’t expect that to continue. I don’t believe we’re in a race against time but I can’t deny that I’m seeing car values fall week on week…

at the end of the day - it’s a q3 diesel manual. We might be better in a hybrid, automatic… 

DB1904

Don't be surprised if your 20 week wait increases. Even before recent problems the true wait time on some cars were 57 weeks. I'm not sure what the customers were actually told the wait was. 

ncfcfan

DB1904 said:

Don't be surprised if your 20 week wait increases. Even before recent problems the true wait time on some cars were 57 weeks. I'm not sure what the customers were actually told the wait was. 

Totally, I understand where you’re coming from. Some dealers do have cars in the country though - Hyundai said they had two Tucson hybrids left, after which we would be looking Xmas for delivery. 

iwb100

ncfcfan said:

Hey folks - just to answer a few q’s raised…

We asked about amending the PCP plan, Audi finance said no. 

We are certainly willing to look at other cars - we looked at the Tucson Hybrid this evening and the monthly payment would reduce to £400, but it was a PCH offer. PCH feels more restrictive though…

Yes, availability is a huge problem. Something we must consider.

What I didn’t mention was that Audi will honour the original agreement before the glitch happened. So, we can basically run our current q3 into the ground in terms of mileage and when our new Q3 arrives, the finance deal will be based on the mileage we gave last week, instead of the mileage in 20 weeks.

The equity is in our favour luckily but I don’t expect that to continue. I don’t believe we’re in a race against time but I can’t deny that I’m seeing car values fall week on week…

at the end of the day - it’s a q3 diesel manual. We might be better in a hybrid, automatic… 

You can do your PCP deal now protect your part exchange and then rack the miles up in your car whilst you wait for the new one. So I’m not sure that works against you. Do the deal whilst you are in positive equity and then if you wait you are just adding miles to a car you are part exchanging anyway. Just make sure the dealer guarantees your equity, which they should. 

DB1904

iwb100 said:

ncfcfan said:

Hey folks - just to answer a few q’s raised…

We asked about amending the PCP plan, Audi finance said no. 

We are certainly willing to look at other cars - we looked at the Tucson Hybrid this evening and the monthly payment would reduce to £400, but it was a PCH offer. PCH feels more restrictive though…

Yes, availability is a huge problem. Something we must consider.

What I didn’t mention was that Audi will honour the original agreement before the glitch happened. So, we can basically run our current q3 into the ground in terms of mileage and when our new Q3 arrives, the finance deal will be based on the mileage we gave last week, instead of the mileage in 20 weeks.

The equity is in our favour luckily but I don’t expect that to continue. I don’t believe we’re in a race against time but I can’t deny that I’m seeing car values fall week on week…

at the end of the day - it’s a q3 diesel manual. We might be better in a hybrid, automatic… 

You can do your PCP deal now protect your part exchange and then rack the miles up in your car whilst you wait for the new one. So I’m not sure that works against you. Do the deal whilst you are in positive equity and then if you wait you are just adding miles to a car you are part exchanging anyway. Just make sure the dealer guarantees your equity, which they should. 

That's not going to happen.

iwb100

DB1904 said:

iwb100 said:

ncfcfan said:

Hey folks - just to answer a few q’s raised…

We asked about amending the PCP plan, Audi finance said no. 

We are certainly willing to look at other cars - we looked at the Tucson Hybrid this evening and the monthly payment would reduce to £400, but it was a PCH offer. PCH feels more restrictive though…

Yes, availability is a huge problem. Something we must consider.

What I didn’t mention was that Audi will honour the original agreement before the glitch happened. So, we can basically run our current q3 into the ground in terms of mileage and when our new Q3 arrives, the finance deal will be based on the mileage we gave last week, instead of the mileage in 20 weeks.

The equity is in our favour luckily but I don’t expect that to continue. I don’t believe we’re in a race against time but I can’t deny that I’m seeing car values fall week on week…

at the end of the day - it’s a q3 diesel manual. We might be better in a hybrid, automatic… 

You can do your PCP deal now protect your part exchange and then rack the miles up in your car whilst you wait for the new one. So I’m not sure that works against you. Do the deal whilst you are in positive equity and then if you wait you are just adding miles to a car you are part exchanging anyway. Just make sure the dealer guarantees your equity, which they should. 

That's not going to happen.

Yep it is. Been looking at replacing mine and all dealers are saying they will guarantee the equity. Fact is the price of second hand cars is holding up better than people are gaining equity with their monthly’s anyway. So yes it will happen. Just get it in writing,