Bad credit and car lease ending

Newmum92

Hi everyone 

I’m in the process of entering a debt management plan and have been using the advice from this forum to do so. 

My current vehicle is a VW Tiguan on a lease and I pay £275 a month (ouch). It ends in November 2023. At this point I’m not going to be able to get any credit as my credit file is awful and is going to get worse with the DMP. 

I’ve always had cars on finance and I need a reliable car as I have a young child, big dog, and work commitments etc. 

I’m looking for advice on the best sort of car to go for that is family suitable, big enough and will be the best value for money? The budget will be between 6-7k. Does anyone know what sort of figure I’m looking at for a second hand car that is reliable. 

Thanks everyone 

Herzlos

How long is a piece of string? Everyone here will give you a totally different idea of what is reliable; from a mythical £200 thing to needing to be brand new. You'd just need to get something within budget, and think carefully about what you actually need.

Will you be able to extend the lease?

MEM62

Newmum92 said:

I’ve always had cars on finance and I need a reliable car as I have a young child, big dog, and work commitments etc. 

I'm struggling to see the link between having finance on a car and reliability.  Just buy what you can afford from your savings.. You will have plenty of time to put something away before your current lease ends.  

Newmum92

Herzlos said:

How long is a piece of string? Everyone here will give you a totally different idea of what is reliable; from a mythical £200 thing to needing to be brand new. You'd just need to get something within budget, and think carefully about what you actually need.

Will you be able to extend the lease?

I just edited the post as I realise I didn’t include my budget. I’d be looking to spend 6-7k. 

I don’t want to extend the lease tbh as I want to get out of paying for everything on finance so I’m using between now and then to save the cash. 

Herzlos

MEM62 said:

Newmum92 said:

I’ve always had cars on finance and I need a reliable car as I have a young child, big dog, and work commitments etc. 

I'm struggling to see the link between having finance on a car and reliability.  Just buy what you can afford from your savings.. You will have plenty of time to put something away before your current lease ends.  

With leases at least, if the car breaks down you can usually get a replacement pretty quickly.
If it's still in warranty and a warranty issue, you'll usually get a courtesy/rental car whilst it's getting repaired.
If it's out of warranty, then you may get a courtesy car if you book it in with enough notice and are lucky. In my 20 years of driving I've never once managed to land a courtesy car.

Newer cars should break down less *in theory* because they've had less wear and tear. However if it's in warranty and you don't like that close to a warranty dealer then getting the car there/back is a pain.  I'm on my first in warranty car and whilst I've got a few things repaired under the warranty, the nearest garage is a 4 hour round trip on public transport, Versus the garage 5 minutes walk away that I've always had do my paid maintenance work.

Herzlos

Newmum92 said:

I’ve always had cars on finance and I need a reliable car as I have a young child, big dog, and work commitments etc. 

I’m looking for advice on the best sort of car to go for that is family suitable, big enough and will be the best value for money? The budget will be between 6-7k. Does anyone know what sort of figure I’m looking at for a second hand car that is reliable. 

That budget would get you a newer shape Zafira, which is a pretty spacious family car:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202205276235425

Or you'd have plenty of choice of larger estates (Dacia Logan, Skoda Octavia, Vauxhall Insignia, etc).

Grey_Critic

Or you could get rid of the dog which is not cheap so impacts on your finances. You could then look at a smaller more economic car.