Confusing double standards from Carfinance 24/7

ben_794

Hi All,

I have been looking at buying a specific model of car that I have wanted for ages. I approached 5 or 6 lenders but ended up discovering that none of them would finance a car older than 2012 or over 100k miles, "for my own protection". Which is a ridiculous premise because the cars I was looking at had lower mileage than most cars within their age limit. Anyway, I tried Carfinance24/7. I searched to find what their restrictions were before hand to avoid more of the same but couldn't find anything online. So in the end I contacted them and asked them flat out what their vehicle restrictions are. They told me no vehicles over 2012 with max mileage 110k. So I told them thanks but I'll have to go another route. Then I get an email saying my application was denied. What application? All I did was shop around and I'm the one that told them I was going elsewhere! But anyway, I went browsing pistonheads and found a car I was looking for which is a 2001 jeep wrangler. They had a button, "finance this vehicle", so I click it and guess what, it takes me to Carfinance247. So what's going on here? Did I just get an agent that was trying to force me to buy a more modern, more expensive car so he could get the commission or what? I am so annoyed with these companies.

WellKnownSid

The golden rule is that finance should align with the economic lifetime of the product you are securing the loan on.  That is why you have a 25 year mortgage on a house, a three year loan for a car and you don't have finance options secured on your weekly grocery shop.

A 12 year old 100k mile car is considered at the limit of its economic life - failure of a relatively benign component that's no-longer in production over the duration of the finance agreement could easily put the car permanently out of use.

I guess there will always be lenders out there that are prepared to secure a loan onto something else that has a longer economic life, presumably your kneecaps or maybe one of your kidneys, I wouldn't recommend that route personally.

Arunmor

Take out a personal loan then.

cw8825

ben_794 said:

Hi All,

I have been looking at buying a specific model of car that I have wanted for ages. I approached 5 or 6 lenders but ended up discovering that none of them would finance a car older than 2012 or over 100k miles, "for my own protection". Which is a ridiculous premise because the cars I was looking at had lower mileage than most cars within their age limit. Anyway, I tried Carfinance24/7. I searched to find what their restrictions were before hand to avoid more of the same but couldn't find anything online. So in the end I contacted them and asked them flat out what their vehicle restrictions are. They told me no vehicles over 2012 with max mileage 110k. So I told them thanks but I'll have to go another route. Then I get an email saying my application was denied. What application? All I did was shop around and I'm the one that told them I was going elsewhere! But anyway, I went browsing pistonheads and found a car I was looking for which is a 2001 jeep wrangler. They had a button, "finance this vehicle", so I click it and guess what, it takes me to Carfinance247. So what's going on here? Did I just get an agent that was trying to force me to buy a more modern, more expensive car so he could get the commission or what? I am so annoyed with these companies.

Chances are it’s just an automated link that is on each listing. 

Once you apply it will be denied due to their terms. 

Have you actually gone through the application from the link? Or just seen the name 

born_again

CarFinance24/7 is only a credit broker. Also called Yes car credit

GrumpyDil

As above can you not get a generic personal loan? 

WellKnownSid

GrumpyDil said:

As above can you not get a generic personal loan? 

Yes, but that doesn't detract from the issue that borrowing money to buy a 23 year old car is  reckless unwise.

Ectophile

As a general rule, don't take out finance that extends beyond the end of the warranty.

Goudy

Cars like these are hobby cars and you buy, run and repair them with hobby money, not finance.

If a previous owner has done a good job before you with things like refreshing the suspension, repairing and rust treating the chassis and generally looking after the engine, gearbox, transfer box etc, then you might want to take a punt on it as a weekend car. I bit of fun in the sun in and with a bit of luck the make/model might climb a bit in value while you own it.

This TJ model is considered the last true Jeep Wrangler and it has a limited following in certain markets, but it is small here in the UK. So the potential for it's value to climb is pretty limited.

Trying to run one as a daily driver is going to sting due to it's age and parts availability.
You'll be forced to either import parts or go to one of the limited number of specialists to get hold of them which tend be expensive.

Ok they are really low tech, but there are some weak points like the transfer and gearbox that tend to wear and can be quite labour intensive to repair.

Rust is another issue particularly the chassis.
They weren't really treated for our climate at the factory and I would expect at this age to show signs of repair, just how good has it been repaired.
A bad chassis will realistically kill the car if it needs the body off to repair or replace it.

I'm not saying it can't be done, but generally it's done by those with the knowledge, time and spare cash that don't mind getting their hands dirty.

As you are finding out, it's not really done on finance and the finance companies won't take the risk.

Herzlos

Finance companies want the asset to still have some value over the term as security, and I think 13 years is the average age of a scrapped car in the UK. So finance companies don't want to provide finance on a vehicle that's at or beyond end of life.


If you're buying a car older than that, you'll need to finance it yourself (via unsecured loan).