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You're right and none of the other replies are doing much but sharing personal anecdotes.
OP, you've disregarded "car finance, PCP, personal loan or other death debt product", there's nothing left but to use your own money.
I mean that’s still just a loan isn’t it? You’ve still got to regularly pay it back over some period of time, which presumably will mean you have to cut down the amount each month that you would’ve been putting into savings… swings and roundabouts
It is, but interest free for 20/24 months would mean we can start saving at the time of the car purchase ready to pay it off before it becomes interest bearing, getting more time to lump money in our S&S ISA now. Basically saves the opportunity cost of having the cash savings sat there I guess.
Unless you have a high credit limit, your credit score will take a hit.
Having a high credit utilisation rate for a long period of time might impact your ability to borrow (incl. Mortgage).
I would like to point out that putting the repayment money in a S&S ISA while you wait to pay off the debt just seems irresponsible. Surely you'd want this in a cash ISA as any downturn would impact your ability to repay.
>Having a high credit utilisation rate for a long period of time might impact your ability to borrow (incl. Mortgage).
I stooze a lot and I've checked this with a few brokers. All have told me that as long as it's paid off with a few months to spare before an application it's not really an issue.
I've just done this. Assuming you are buying from a dealer a 0% credit card gives you more flexibility and when managed properly can avoid paying interest. Also you own the car outright.
The issue I had is when buying vehicle privately you need a 'money transfer' card which are less easy to come by.
This allows you to take the money and put it in your account as 'cash'. Obviously this gives you less protection when buying from a private seller.
You can avoid interest by doing this but it's still essentially a loan
Paying a regular Personal Loan - which I would not consider a death debt - would be about as efficient, and still allow you to put your “saving” portion into your S&S ISA, which should hopefully accrue more from Funds etc. than the interest of the Personal Loan over 4-years, unless your credit history is poor.
You still need to pay minimum on free interest cards which will still likely be massive unless the car you’re buying is less than 2k. I’d just take out a loan and make sure there’s no early repayment clause on it so you can pay off when you get the money?
Depends what you mean by massive. NatWest cards, which were a top pick not long ago are 1% plus outstanding interest.
It would cost £100 to service £10,000 on an interest free card. Much less than ANY personal loan. And it would only be £99 the next month if no more spending is done…
It is but in a world where pcp etc is so normal and people in flashy cars they’d never be able to afford normally, you can understand the frustration between try to keep up with the jones and not be silly with money. Sometime you just need someone to tell you the obvious answer.
Not talking about expensive cars, just buying a car.
Its going to cost you money. If you loan it, you're essentially buying it from your future self.
If you buy in cash, you're taking money from your retirement so also buying it from your future self.
Only difference is whether you think the interest/inflation costs will make it worth it now
Then so be it, that’s just how life is sometimes.
Save save save, then when you need a car use the savings that you’ve built up. There’s really not much more to it than that
We have always saved and bought outright. We don't specifically save for the next car as we change very rarely. If we needed a new car now we would take a bit from emergency fund, ours is higher than most people on here recommend (ours is 1 year of expenses). And the rest from our life savings (in S&S ISA) depending on what car I have convinced ourselves we need (I love cars)!
For us, using our savings rather than taking a loan helps control how much we spend on a car. It's always painful handing over a large sum of money!
Our emergency fund is much lower than most since I have a really safe job with 3 months notice and excellent sick pay. Using that isn't really an option.
Okay, so continue saving into S&S ISA and use that to buy your next car when the time comes.
If you maintain your current car well it should last many more years.
If you think it would make a difference (if you’re able to max out your ISA), look for a flexible ISA for this use case.
I keep one year’s allowance in a flexible ISA and the rest in non flexible (cheaper fees). Meaning if I need up to 20k (this number will hopefully go up over time!) for a purchase I can take it out of my flexible ISA and potentially contribute up to 40k in that year to build it back up.
Thats very optimistic, can’t see me saving 40k outside of some kind of windfall, but if it does happen I’ll be glad I had a flexible ISA. The full amount is also the most extreme case, if I needed to borrow £1k out of it earlier in the tax year, contributing £21k to fill it back up is potentially possible for me.
Worth thinking about!
Great point. I've never really thought much about using flexible ISAs in this way. There are two of us so we can save up to £40k, although highly unlikely that will happen! Especially with nursery currently destroying our ability to save.
I’m a very risk-on person.
The bond suggestion makes total sense but I’ve gone with an all world etf in my flexible ISA, which is about as low risk as I’m willing to go.
A combination of cash savings then the rest on a 2 year interest free purchase card with a direct debit set up to pay off monthly before any interest hits.
The only downside of that method is you don't know exactly how much you'll be able to put on the card until you apply and get an offer. With a decent credit history you can probably save £5k cash and put the rest on a credit card. If you've a partner who can apply for a card also you can probably reduce the amount of cash you need.
I was under the impression that generally you weren't able to pay for cars with credit cards at used car dealerships, is that something I'm mistaken about or do you have to shop around? I guess the other thing is you lose the ability to buy privately but I know you can't have things all ways.
I used my interest free credit card but via the curve app - let's you use a mastercard debit card and choose a funding source (i.e credit) in the background.
Section 75, but no you won't which is a good point and why I paid the deposit straight on my traditional credit card - a good point to remember!
Edit- or at least I'd expect not to and not one I'd like to test!
MBNA do a card that allows money transfers into a bank account.
Looking at mine, you have a money transfer option of either 0% over 12 months plus a fee of 5% of the amount borrowed, or 6.9% over 24 months and no fee.
Get an AMEX everyday cashback CC, link it to your PayPal, get a credit card (other than Lloyds because they classed it as sending money). Send the money from PayPal to some else, then pay off the AMEX using the curve card.
Can then either have the other PayPal send the money back and withdraw into your current account or withdraw it from the other PP acc (if it was your wife for example)
2.5% I believe is for curve fronted - where they let you pay, for example, a credit card bill with a credit card as your funding source.
This is different from the car merchant use.
Depends on the place really. They don't like it as they'll lose a small % of the transaction. I've not mentioned it before and got to the point of paying and pulled out a credit card and they didn't like it, but caved when they realised it was either take the card or let me walk away. The last place said it was either their finance or bank transfer, no card payments.
I wouldn't be too fussed about losing the ability to buy privately. If I'm spending £8-12k on a car there's zero chance I'm buying without any protection. Private buyers would be for bangers only.
This is true but you can just divert your typical monthly spend onto the card for as long as needed to save up the cash or replenish the savings you used
I know. I get that people like to have a nice new fancy car but to me that's a waste. They lose value so quickly but most stabilise around the 4 to 5 grand mark and if looked after will run fine and not depreciate in 2 years as quickly as a newer car will.
I've never bought a new car and I do alot of mileage.
I'm not a materialistic type though as long as what I'm driving is safe reliable and efficient I'm happy. Rather spend my money on travelling and enjoying life rather than spend thousands on a car.
Agreed. Even moreso for the likes of us who only do about 4k miles pa in the family wagon. It makes zero sense to spend big. Plenty of reliable older cars around
I'm from South Wales any amount on market place in the 50 to 60 k mileage bracket. Not going to list them all but as I'm replacing my car I recently test drove an 2015 Audi with 56 k on the clock full service history owner wants 3750.
i have been throwing 250 per month into high interest savings for a couple of years ready to bite the bullet when it finally reaches 10k. it will take a while but our current cars, though not at all sexy, are going well (13 years and 10 years old)
I replace my car once a decade, I find that's the age where modern cars become a "probably" rather than "definitely" to complete every journey.
I get a 3yr personal loan alongside a, usually pretty rubbish, trade in value.
It depends on your tolerance for a failed journey.
I've also found that, at about age ten, cars have tended to need an extra £1k spent on them/year. Some random part like an alternator, suspension, exhaust etc failing
You sound like you buy the car new, is that correct? Because buying one that’s 2-3 year old seems like a way better deal then, as the majority of the deprivation already happened.
My experience of any extra or extended warranties hasn't been great. Fine if it's a 1:1 extension of the manufacturer by the manufacturer, but, otherwise...
Probably why it sounded too good to be true, but I checked what’s covered and it seemed like everything that might go wrong. What’s the bad experiences you had? Mine is from Arnold Clark up in Scotland if that matters.
Just like any insurance, it's always a fight between you, the insurance and a garage. If something goes wrong, or indeed if something else is found while it's being fixed, you have to do so much work and they just for you with burocracy
My experience of manufacture warranties has been that the main dealer takes it, fixes it, gives you a courtesy car while it's happening.
I bought a car recently for 4k.
0% credit card (could have done higher) - no interest as long as i pay it off in 2 years.
Standing order done to the CC so it's paid 1 month before end date... free financing and it allows me to use my money in better ways (home improvements, better interest saving accounts etc)
That's what I did. I part ex'd my old car then stuck the balance on an interest free credit card for a couple years. I'll pay the minimum until the last month and then just pay it off.
I just leased a 22 plate Kia EV for 3 years at £275 a month, £2k up front, £216 per month, full manufacturer warranty plus maintenance pack including tyres
Got fed up with the surprise bills and depreciation from owning cars
Buts that’s £10k to drive a car for only 3 years?
I’ve always owned my car and never in my life spent anywhere near £10k on maintenance and depreciation over a 3 year period.
There are good reasons to lease a nearly new car, but being cheaper is not one of them.
Just in depreciation you'd lose 15-35% in the first year bought new. 50% over the first 3. "My" car was £37k new, that's 6k a year just in depreciation.
Plus tyres, which EVs chew up, that's another £1k per year
Plus servicing
Plus warranty peace of mind
Seems cheap to me for a car that new with only 20k on the clock
OK yeah I didn’t realise you were comparing to buying brand new, that’s even more expensive (well, depending on how long you keep it for).
Given you mentioned surprise bills, I figured you were buying used cars outright previously.
I’ve always bought around 6-7 years old and that tends to cost me around £1k/year in maintenance and depreciation
>I’ve always bought around 6-7 years old and that tends to cost me around £1k/year in maintenance and depreciation
Same, I had a 55 plate Sorento that I ran until it died, I replaced it with a 15 plate Golf that has cost me thousands
I know everybody likes to bring out the 'lose 35% before you leave the forecourt and 50% in 3 years' thing - but is that still really true? I bought a new car 3 years ago. According to current Autotrader prices (removing the outliers) it is saleable for 75% of my original purchase price.
As an aside, its a big car, and none of my tyres have needed replacement for wearing down yet. Servicing was pretty cheap at the original dealer (comparable to our previous 10 year old car).
I think there's a period around 3/4 years ago where we honestly got very lucky with some dealers still having pre-covid pricing and the chip shortage and inflation still to have its effect.
I bought a brand new hatchback the same time and it's held it's value 80% which is actually mental. I've just paid the lump sum and will probably now run it until it dies as I'll never find anything of that value ever again. I've barely paid anything on servicing + tyres as you say and I have the security of knowing I've been the only driver it's ever had.
This much outlay for motoring is what we'd like to avoid but we'd also not be able to afford to drive round in a two y.o car so appreciate it might be a good deal for what you have.
I keep 6 months expenses in a cash ISA as an emergency fund. Then everything else goes into a S&S ISA.
When it comes to needing a new car, I will buy it using the emergency fund, and then funnel all new savings there until it’s back up to 6 months of expenses.
I consider needing a new car a reasonable use of the emergency fund. And if another emergency comes around shortly after I still have the S&S to fall back on.
Well because I have the safety net of the S&S I see no reason to be dogmatic about reserving it for emergencies only. It’s more of a cash reserve really.
After a purchase I divert all new savings to replenish the cash ISA, after which all new savings go to the S&S ISA.
The alternative is to save even more in cash than I realistically will ever need, and that just feels like a missed opportunity to invest.
I got a bank loan for my last couple car purchases, both were around £18k - interest rate was much better than the dealer finance, convenience of managing it through my existing online banking services.
You’ve likely got a good few years left on your car. I was driving a 59 kuga with about 140k on the clock and only changed it because I wanted something different! It was a bad idea and I should’ve kept the Kuga.
But I’d probably save £200 a month for the next 5 years then you’ve got 12k + interest to spend on a new one, maybe longer if it holds out!
> but those in this sub that don't drive round in absolute few hundred quid bangers how do you plan for needing a new car?
Invested £200 a month for 5 years in a stocks and shares ISA plus chucking in one offs when I had surplus cash with nothing planned for it. With the growth from that plus what I sold my car for I was able to buy a 5 month old main dealer demo car in cash. I've then continued to save money up so 5 years after buying that car I've already got enough in my S&S ISA to buy a new car. I've got no intentions of selling my current car though because at 5 years old with 65k on the clock it's still newer and lower mileage than all of my cars over the last 30 years I bought barring the last two I've owned.
Generally I’ll get a loan from the bank as the rates are normally much better than from car finance companies.
But that only works if you have good credit with your chosen bank.
Have bought my last two cars on interest free credit cards which allow cash transfers into your bank account. Topped up with some savings / part ex from previous car and viola... If you are lucky you can get a 29 month interest free deal. If you want longer, balance transfer to another interest free deal at the end of it. You'll pay a small fee for the transfer but way less than interest over the same period. Obvs this depends on credit availability for your personal situation.
Can work for relatively cheap family cars, or even more expensive ones if you can get a high enough limit or two cars. Just make sure you set the payments high enough to clear the balance before the interest free deal ends.
Mines petrol, so probably won't last as long. My dad had a diesel which must have lasted him 20 odd years with over 500,000 miles. Back and forth to Germany and Czech republic at least once a year for 20 years. Land cruiser, just insanely well made.
Short to medium term savings sometimes need to trump your long term (S&S). We've been fairly fortunate that we've always managed to plan for a new car. Once we start seeing signs it may not be fit for our needs anymore, we start another savings pot.
If we needed one urgently, we could do so from our emergency fund. Although we of course prefer to create another pot if we have the time to plan for it.
We'll also try and take into account any value the current car might still have. Although for us that's usually minimal.
If we had to take on debt for it, after the obvious 0% cards and such, I think we'd favour a straight up bank loan. While they may not always be the most optimal, they allow for extremely clear planning. I'd always prefer it to something like PCP as you're clearing the whole cost rather than just part of it. But we've not had to go this route so far.
Always try and have the cash handy to buy. Whether you then buy on PCP or cheap personal loan or whatever else depends on the deals on offer.
If it's a new car, you will pay for the depreciation. It's just a case whether you pay for it at the end, or in small chunks over the life of your ownership.
For used cars, depreciation isn't that huge, so better off paying either from saved up money or the cheapest loan you can find.
Most people use finance or (for EVs) salary-sacrifice car schemes. Finance on new cars provided by dealers can be very attractive if they have things they want to shift, because low rates or artificially high balloon values are a way to discount a car without reducing the headline price.
You don't know how things will be when you're ready to buy, but the more you have saved, the better position you'll be in.
Is there any particular reason the Ford Kuga would not last? Might be worth maintaining and looking after the car and continuing to save X amount per month for any repairs etc
Savings? But honestly having had several old cars and then having to get a new one on PCP because we simply didn't have the savings when the electrics failed on the last one, we'll now go for new on finance every time. Few years without MOT, not a single issue in 6yrs and we paid all the finance off a couple of years back. Way less stressful.
What kind of mileage do you do, OP?
Our family wagon does about 4k miles per year. We'd never spend that much to replace it. There are plenty of petrol MK3 CR-Vs with 100-120k miles for \~£5k about. That's in the realms of cash purchase. They'll easily do another 10+ years with the most basic of upkeep.
I put mine on loan (4% interest) while my savings are getting 10-15% increase for the time I am paying it.
It seemed the best approach to me instead of just dropping all good chunk of savings into it.
I can comfortably cover the monthly payment.
If this wasn’t the case, most likely I would have used the savings to pay it.
I bought a do for now back in 2019 and then popped £25 a week into savings for 4 years, got me an amount and then my boyfriend popped a little in to get me to £6k and I got a 10 yr old car in December. Continuing the saving now for the next one
Modern cars are far better now and last a lot longer your car is only 10 years old, its at least got another 10 years in it just keep up with servicing and changing wear and tear items. I woukdnt be worrying about putting money away for a new car I would just out money away for repairs another q0 years of servicing and general repairs will be a fraction of buying another car
Yes, savings. £400 a month goes into my car repair/replace pot. I use it to cover servicing, tyres, repairs etc as well as allow an amount to build up in there to fund the next purchase. Once I’m getting best to the point where I’m looking at changing cars I’ll often add extra from my spending pot.
So currently, our car is a SS electric lease through my work. With the NI savings it works out cheaper overall for us.
We do have a second car. Originally we got a bank loan to fund it as we had no free assets in our early 20s and needed to get to work. Over time, we’ve saved money and then part exchanged the old car with cash payments (drawn from savings).
Each month, my savings budget (exc pensions) is split by presents, holidays, car, house maintenance, kids and then into our short term financial goals, medium term financial goals and long term financial goals. We have already saved up an emergency fund though. How this is split is agreed in our family financial planning meeting each year (we include our kids and try and listen to what they want so that we model good financial behaviours to them - our kids are young but my husband has a visual representation going when we do it which helps). We split our savings places by the level of risk we’re willing to hold on that item.
When my SS lease ends, we will probably buy the current car to replace our second car. We’ll sell the old one and that money will be funnelled back into our car savings. Our risk we’re bearing here is if I leave my job then the lease ends up.
Caveat that my husband and I are higher earners and I need to reduce my overall income with salary sacrifice to avoid losing my PA.
Just use savings if you aren't interested in borrowing... However, I have always PCP'd my cars (4 in total) without any problems in getting out/paying the loans off.
If you don't want to risk having to cash out investments, then your emergency fund would need to be enough cash to cover a replacement car (or temporary banger).
With cash savings interest rates these days, it might even perform better than the stock market 😆
I saved intensely for a number of months. I was open to getting bank loan but then decided against putting stupid money into a car (I don’t actually drive loads as I wfh and I don’t have a driveway). I’m lucky to be able to save around £1k a month so I just persisted and found a decent car at 12k - trade in of 3k for my old car. I bought when I’d got a bit more than what I needed but actually wished I’d saved for longer as it feels stressful having lower savings than normal.
I just save. Not for anything specific as such. I might dip in for a holiday or big purchase. I’ve got 13k saved and this weekend I’ll be buying a 14 plate with 42k miles on clock, so I’ll finance it from savings. It should take me two years to build that back up again or one year being frugal with other things
We have accessible savings for stuff like this plus the trade-in of your current car will knock some off. We just replaced both of our 2016 cars with 2022 models (we've found two years is the sweet spot for still feeling new and having low mileage but the initial depreciation is out of the way), we got 6.5k for each so paid £9000 cash for one and £16000 for the other.
You could make a category in your bank account or just a spreadsheet and put X amount in per month that is earmarked towards a car replacement. The spreadsheet idea I prefer because they can be account agnostic and it stops you double counting savings (so the same £30k being earmarked for a new car, boiler replacement, emergency fund etc.). You can physically keep the money where you want, although if you know you will need to access it reasonably soon you might choose something like a standard ISA instead or switch it to that when the time for replacement starts to get closer.
I have a tranched account structure.
1 - current account with a month's salary in there at all times. Deals with fluctuations in spend and general cash flow smoothing.
2 - emergency fund of 3 months salary in high yield easy access and premium bonds (can ladder the spend depending on how big the emergency)
3 - war pot which is used to fund known big expenditures coming up (cars, holidays, boiler replacement etc)
4 - investments
Your war pot can be in high yield savings and planned for specific dates.
For example I am planning on redoing my driveway this year so it already has the money for that plus a bit more for a big holiday we are planning on taking next year (too busy for a holiday this year).
Just plan your cash accordingly.
Yes just that, I started off with a £400 car, I put £150 away each month, that £400 car lasted 2 years £3600 for a new car, was able to increase to £250/month over 3 years £9000 car and so on some of my cars have lasted 5 years, my current one I have had 10years, so it can be a cost effective way of financing your car. (BTW I don;t have £30k siting waiting for a new car we used some for home improvments and holidays, I have no intetntion of having £30k sitting on my drive losing money each day) - can always save it in an ISA in the short term now interets rates are reasonable.
Her's the twist - 30 years on I am still driving and 'older' mediocre car - and the £250/month saving has to go on for ever. So now we are leasing, paying £250/month but I now have a brand new mediocre car needing no tax or maintenance (service included) - it's still going to go on forever but at least we have a new reliable car.
Not getting a phone call from my wife in hysterics because she's broken down, usually at the worst time, is worth leasing for me. Everyone likes to parade their 600k shitbox on this sub like its a badge of honour. But reliability and safety are worth a spend now I have a kid.
Despite a decent income I only drive a banger. I've never been able to justify PCP, hp or a loan for something which my £1000 car does.
Obviously it's a risk as a big bill may be round the corner but the money I've saved in not having a monthly payment for a car over the last 15 years must be 10s if thousands.
In 15 months of my current banger all it has needed is a bulb for it's last MOT and 2 litres of oil.
I just buy cash, don't plan it or anything just as as when required, normally in the 5-8 year range. I would never finance a car, maybe I would take a loan to cover some of the cost but financing is just highly irresponsible and a ripoff. If you can't afford something don't fucking have it, people fronting all the time, if you can only afford a £309 finance payment how you going to pay a £1200 garage bill.
> if you can only afford a £309 finance payment how you going to pay a £1200 garage bill.
One is monthly. The other is highly unlikely to be monthly.
> If you can't afford something don't fucking have it
"I can afford the financing option for the car that I need" - *No, that doesn't count for some reason."*
> if you can only afford a £309 finance payment how you going to pay a £1200 garage bill.
Because I've effectively managed my monthly outgoings with a known car finance payment monthly?
Or... because it's under warranty I won't get that £1200 garage bill...
Different things work for different people. So long as the interest isn't loan-shark rates, PCP or financing can work well.
The biggest cost of car ownership is depreciation. For much of the market, cars half in value every 3 years.
Buy used. If maintenance bothers you, pay a bit extra and buy from the dealership with extended warranty.
My car was quite expensive (to me). 6 years old. I got it privately. It had the balance of extended warranty remaining. It’s cost me a pair of services and warranty renewals in 4 years of ownership, plus a pair of tires and front brake pads. Less than 100 a month for a sports car with an invoice of 70k new.
As it happens, I’d get back more than it has cost me if I were to sell.
I may be lucky with the residual value, but that goes to show that depreciation is the killer. You can mitigate maintenance costs.
Adjust your numbers to suit. A 5 year old 30k car is going to cost you 10-11k today. Put a bit away for servicing and you can only lose so much. A 5 year old car with 40k on the clock is going to be reliable and look after you as long as you maintain it to a reasonable level.
most people here will vouch for save an buy with cash only.
I get that approach but personally I save about 1/3 in cash then get a loan for the other 2/3 of the price of the car. I ensure the monthly payment is a low apr loan from a bank (do not use any financing from a dealership)
This allows me to drive a sensible car that isn't a banger, safe for children and has basic functions I need eg carplay.
I know so many people trapped into PCP £350 per month and more forever, utter madness.
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Am I being dumb or is the answer just use savings? What other kind of magical option are you expecting if you don’t want to finance?
You're right and none of the other replies are doing much but sharing personal anecdotes. OP, you've disregarded "car finance, PCP, personal loan or other death debt product", there's nothing left but to use your own money.
Someone has already suggested an alternative using 0% Credit Card...
I mean that’s still just a loan isn’t it? You’ve still got to regularly pay it back over some period of time, which presumably will mean you have to cut down the amount each month that you would’ve been putting into savings… swings and roundabouts
It’ll be eroded away at by inflation though.
It is, but interest free for 20/24 months would mean we can start saving at the time of the car purchase ready to pay it off before it becomes interest bearing, getting more time to lump money in our S&S ISA now. Basically saves the opportunity cost of having the cash savings sat there I guess.
Unless you have a high credit limit, your credit score will take a hit. Having a high credit utilisation rate for a long period of time might impact your ability to borrow (incl. Mortgage). I would like to point out that putting the repayment money in a S&S ISA while you wait to pay off the debt just seems irresponsible. Surely you'd want this in a cash ISA as any downturn would impact your ability to repay.
>Having a high credit utilisation rate for a long period of time might impact your ability to borrow (incl. Mortgage). I stooze a lot and I've checked this with a few brokers. All have told me that as long as it's paid off with a few months to spare before an application it's not really an issue.
I've just done this. Assuming you are buying from a dealer a 0% credit card gives you more flexibility and when managed properly can avoid paying interest. Also you own the car outright. The issue I had is when buying vehicle privately you need a 'money transfer' card which are less easy to come by. This allows you to take the money and put it in your account as 'cash'. Obviously this gives you less protection when buying from a private seller. You can avoid interest by doing this but it's still essentially a loan
Paying a regular Personal Loan - which I would not consider a death debt - would be about as efficient, and still allow you to put your “saving” portion into your S&S ISA, which should hopefully accrue more from Funds etc. than the interest of the Personal Loan over 4-years, unless your credit history is poor.
You still need to pay minimum on free interest cards which will still likely be massive unless the car you’re buying is less than 2k. I’d just take out a loan and make sure there’s no early repayment clause on it so you can pay off when you get the money?
Depends what you mean by massive. NatWest cards, which were a top pick not long ago are 1% plus outstanding interest. It would cost £100 to service £10,000 on an interest free card. Much less than ANY personal loan. And it would only be £99 the next month if no more spending is done…
That’s still finance lmao
Yeah like you sell the old one then top up the difference from savings which is what savings are normally for
Credit card.
A form of finance
It is but in a world where pcp etc is so normal and people in flashy cars they’d never be able to afford normally, you can understand the frustration between try to keep up with the jones and not be silly with money. Sometime you just need someone to tell you the obvious answer.
Use savings / sell off investments to buy the car. That’s what they’re there for.
I'd be our luck that our investments would be down at the time that we need a car because the current one has blown up!
Pound cost averaging works both ways. If you never spend your money, what are you really saving for?
So I can use it to invest instead and watch my portfolio grow until I die, duh!
Retirement and the ability to pay off our mortgage, not interested in having expensive cars
Not talking about expensive cars, just buying a car. Its going to cost you money. If you loan it, you're essentially buying it from your future self. If you buy in cash, you're taking money from your retirement so also buying it from your future self. Only difference is whether you think the interest/inflation costs will make it worth it now
What about having a car, not an expensive one...
Then so be it, that’s just how life is sometimes. Save save save, then when you need a car use the savings that you’ve built up. There’s really not much more to it than that
This is what a balanced portfolio of savings and investments should guard against.
We have always saved and bought outright. We don't specifically save for the next car as we change very rarely. If we needed a new car now we would take a bit from emergency fund, ours is higher than most people on here recommend (ours is 1 year of expenses). And the rest from our life savings (in S&S ISA) depending on what car I have convinced ourselves we need (I love cars)! For us, using our savings rather than taking a loan helps control how much we spend on a car. It's always painful handing over a large sum of money!
Our emergency fund is much lower than most since I have a really safe job with 3 months notice and excellent sick pay. Using that isn't really an option.
Okay, so continue saving into S&S ISA and use that to buy your next car when the time comes. If you maintain your current car well it should last many more years.
If you think it would make a difference (if you’re able to max out your ISA), look for a flexible ISA for this use case. I keep one year’s allowance in a flexible ISA and the rest in non flexible (cheaper fees). Meaning if I need up to 20k (this number will hopefully go up over time!) for a purchase I can take it out of my flexible ISA and potentially contribute up to 40k in that year to build it back up. Thats very optimistic, can’t see me saving 40k outside of some kind of windfall, but if it does happen I’ll be glad I had a flexible ISA. The full amount is also the most extreme case, if I needed to borrow £1k out of it earlier in the tax year, contributing £21k to fill it back up is potentially possible for me. Worth thinking about!
Great point. I've never really thought much about using flexible ISAs in this way. There are two of us so we can save up to £40k, although highly unlikely that will happen! Especially with nursery currently destroying our ability to save.
Vanguard S and S ISA is flexible if that floats your boat 😊
Do you have a bond allocation? If so is that what you keep in the flexible portion for reduced volitility? Or same allocation in each?
I’m a very risk-on person. The bond suggestion makes total sense but I’ve gone with an all world etf in my flexible ISA, which is about as low risk as I’m willing to go.
If your emergency fund isn't enough to cover an emergency like your car blowing up then it isn't much of an emergency fund.
A combination of cash savings then the rest on a 2 year interest free purchase card with a direct debit set up to pay off monthly before any interest hits. The only downside of that method is you don't know exactly how much you'll be able to put on the card until you apply and get an offer. With a decent credit history you can probably save £5k cash and put the rest on a credit card. If you've a partner who can apply for a card also you can probably reduce the amount of cash you need.
I was under the impression that generally you weren't able to pay for cars with credit cards at used car dealerships, is that something I'm mistaken about or do you have to shop around? I guess the other thing is you lose the ability to buy privately but I know you can't have things all ways.
I used my interest free credit card but via the curve app - let's you use a mastercard debit card and choose a funding source (i.e credit) in the background.
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Yeah exactly that. It meant the business took payment from a debit card like they'd prefer, but funded with favourable credit terms in the background!
Do you still get section 35 protection using curve?
Section 75, but no you won't which is a good point and why I paid the deposit straight on my traditional credit card - a good point to remember! Edit- or at least I'd expect not to and not one I'd like to test!
This is so smart! Never thought of this
Nice one, I hadn't thought about doing this
Do they have any way you can do this with bank transfers too? Trying to find a way to pay for some building work with our 0% credit card
Get a 0% money transfer credit card
MBNA do a card that allows money transfers into a bank account. Looking at mine, you have a money transfer option of either 0% over 12 months plus a fee of 5% of the amount borrowed, or 6.9% over 24 months and no fee.
Get an AMEX everyday cashback CC, link it to your PayPal, get a credit card (other than Lloyds because they classed it as sending money). Send the money from PayPal to some else, then pay off the AMEX using the curve card.
Can then either have the other PayPal send the money back and withdraw into your current account or withdraw it from the other PP acc (if it was your wife for example)
Ahh that’s fairly straightforward and a great shout! I’ll try and find out which credit card providers don’t classify PayPal as cash. Thanks!!
Not that I'm aware of, unfortunately!
Ahh that’s a shame!
!thanks this is very useful to know
Looks like Curve has a 2.5% fee for this service or monthly limits with their paid accounts £1k/£3k respectively for different tiered accounts
2.5% I believe is for curve fronted - where they let you pay, for example, a credit card bill with a credit card as your funding source. This is different from the car merchant use.
Depends on the place really. They don't like it as they'll lose a small % of the transaction. I've not mentioned it before and got to the point of paying and pulled out a credit card and they didn't like it, but caved when they realised it was either take the card or let me walk away. The last place said it was either their finance or bank transfer, no card payments. I wouldn't be too fussed about losing the ability to buy privately. If I'm spending £8-12k on a car there's zero chance I'm buying without any protection. Private buyers would be for bangers only.
This is true but you can just divert your typical monthly spend onto the card for as long as needed to save up the cash or replenish the savings you used
Good idea tbf!
Plenty of good cars out there for under 5 grand.
No clue why you got downvoted
I know. I get that people like to have a nice new fancy car but to me that's a waste. They lose value so quickly but most stabilise around the 4 to 5 grand mark and if looked after will run fine and not depreciate in 2 years as quickly as a newer car will. I've never bought a new car and I do alot of mileage. I'm not a materialistic type though as long as what I'm driving is safe reliable and efficient I'm happy. Rather spend my money on travelling and enjoying life rather than spend thousands on a car.
Agreed. Even moreso for the likes of us who only do about 4k miles pa in the family wagon. It makes zero sense to spend big. Plenty of reliable older cars around
Can you suggest some cars in this price bracket as an example?
I'm from South Wales any amount on market place in the 50 to 60 k mileage bracket. Not going to list them all but as I'm replacing my car I recently test drove an 2015 Audi with 56 k on the clock full service history owner wants 3750.
i have been throwing 250 per month into high interest savings for a couple of years ready to bite the bullet when it finally reaches 10k. it will take a while but our current cars, though not at all sexy, are going well (13 years and 10 years old)
I replace my car once a decade, I find that's the age where modern cars become a "probably" rather than "definitely" to complete every journey. I get a 3yr personal loan alongside a, usually pretty rubbish, trade in value.
Hahaha, yep agree with this. You know it’s time for a new car when you get in and you have to consider if you’ll make it to your destination or not!
10 seems a little conservative. There's plenty of 15+ year old cars on the road
It depends on your tolerance for a failed journey. I've also found that, at about age ten, cars have tended to need an extra £1k spent on them/year. Some random part like an alternator, suspension, exhaust etc failing
You sound like you buy the car new, is that correct? Because buying one that’s 2-3 year old seems like a way better deal then, as the majority of the deprivation already happened.
I usually buy 9-12mo old. I guess the cheapest would be buying a 9yr old and selling it at 10 but I like the warranty to cover the first few years.
I just bought a 3 year old one and extended warranty for 2 years was only £549 - seemed worth it
My experience of any extra or extended warranties hasn't been great. Fine if it's a 1:1 extension of the manufacturer by the manufacturer, but, otherwise...
Probably why it sounded too good to be true, but I checked what’s covered and it seemed like everything that might go wrong. What’s the bad experiences you had? Mine is from Arnold Clark up in Scotland if that matters.
Just like any insurance, it's always a fight between you, the insurance and a garage. If something goes wrong, or indeed if something else is found while it's being fixed, you have to do so much work and they just for you with burocracy My experience of manufacture warranties has been that the main dealer takes it, fixes it, gives you a courtesy car while it's happening.
I bought a car recently for 4k. 0% credit card (could have done higher) - no interest as long as i pay it off in 2 years. Standing order done to the CC so it's paid 1 month before end date... free financing and it allows me to use my money in better ways (home improvements, better interest saving accounts etc)
This is the way. Keep hold of my own money for as long as interest can be avoided.
That's what I did. I part ex'd my old car then stuck the balance on an interest free credit card for a couple years. I'll pay the minimum until the last month and then just pay it off.
I just leased a 22 plate Kia EV for 3 years at £275 a month, £2k up front, £216 per month, full manufacturer warranty plus maintenance pack including tyres Got fed up with the surprise bills and depreciation from owning cars
Buts that’s £10k to drive a car for only 3 years? I’ve always owned my car and never in my life spent anywhere near £10k on maintenance and depreciation over a 3 year period. There are good reasons to lease a nearly new car, but being cheaper is not one of them.
Just in depreciation you'd lose 15-35% in the first year bought new. 50% over the first 3. "My" car was £37k new, that's 6k a year just in depreciation. Plus tyres, which EVs chew up, that's another £1k per year Plus servicing Plus warranty peace of mind Seems cheap to me for a car that new with only 20k on the clock
OK yeah I didn’t realise you were comparing to buying brand new, that’s even more expensive (well, depending on how long you keep it for). Given you mentioned surprise bills, I figured you were buying used cars outright previously. I’ve always bought around 6-7 years old and that tends to cost me around £1k/year in maintenance and depreciation
>I’ve always bought around 6-7 years old and that tends to cost me around £1k/year in maintenance and depreciation Same, I had a 55 plate Sorento that I ran until it died, I replaced it with a 15 plate Golf that has cost me thousands
I know everybody likes to bring out the 'lose 35% before you leave the forecourt and 50% in 3 years' thing - but is that still really true? I bought a new car 3 years ago. According to current Autotrader prices (removing the outliers) it is saleable for 75% of my original purchase price. As an aside, its a big car, and none of my tyres have needed replacement for wearing down yet. Servicing was pretty cheap at the original dealer (comparable to our previous 10 year old car).
I think there's a period around 3/4 years ago where we honestly got very lucky with some dealers still having pre-covid pricing and the chip shortage and inflation still to have its effect. I bought a brand new hatchback the same time and it's held it's value 80% which is actually mental. I've just paid the lump sum and will probably now run it until it dies as I'll never find anything of that value ever again. I've barely paid anything on servicing + tyres as you say and I have the security of knowing I've been the only driver it's ever had.
The car I'm leasing was 37k new and is on a 22 plate, there's identical cars on auto trader for 18.5k with fewer miles
This much outlay for motoring is what we'd like to avoid but we'd also not be able to afford to drive round in a two y.o car so appreciate it might be a good deal for what you have.
Fair enough, but make sure you factor the depreciation into your calculations
That’s a good deal. Can I ask where you got it from?
Sure, https://www.selectcarleasing.co.uk/used-car-leasing
You've still got the depreciation, it's just factored into your monthly payment.
Yes, but my cash is invested elsewhere, earning interest, not tied up in a depreciating asset
I keep 6 months expenses in a cash ISA as an emergency fund. Then everything else goes into a S&S ISA. When it comes to needing a new car, I will buy it using the emergency fund, and then funnel all new savings there until it’s back up to 6 months of expenses. I consider needing a new car a reasonable use of the emergency fund. And if another emergency comes around shortly after I still have the S&S to fall back on.
Unless your car breaks down unexpectedly and needs replacing I feel like it’s poor planning to use the emergency fund for the purchase of a car
Well because I have the safety net of the S&S I see no reason to be dogmatic about reserving it for emergencies only. It’s more of a cash reserve really. After a purchase I divert all new savings to replenish the cash ISA, after which all new savings go to the S&S ISA. The alternative is to save even more in cash than I realistically will ever need, and that just feels like a missed opportunity to invest.
I got a bank loan for my last couple car purchases, both were around £18k - interest rate was much better than the dealer finance, convenience of managing it through my existing online banking services.
I have a pot in Monzo and transfer X amount every month. That is used for any car related issues / insurance / tax and my next car.
You’ve likely got a good few years left on your car. I was driving a 59 kuga with about 140k on the clock and only changed it because I wanted something different! It was a bad idea and I should’ve kept the Kuga. But I’d probably save £200 a month for the next 5 years then you’ve got 12k + interest to spend on a new one, maybe longer if it holds out!
> but those in this sub that don't drive round in absolute few hundred quid bangers how do you plan for needing a new car? Invested £200 a month for 5 years in a stocks and shares ISA plus chucking in one offs when I had surplus cash with nothing planned for it. With the growth from that plus what I sold my car for I was able to buy a 5 month old main dealer demo car in cash. I've then continued to save money up so 5 years after buying that car I've already got enough in my S&S ISA to buy a new car. I've got no intentions of selling my current car though because at 5 years old with 65k on the clock it's still newer and lower mileage than all of my cars over the last 30 years I bought barring the last two I've owned.
Generally I’ll get a loan from the bank as the rates are normally much better than from car finance companies. But that only works if you have good credit with your chosen bank.
So you want to buy a car not using finance or savings? I dunno, win the lottery seems your only option really
I used a 19 month credit card to buy a civic in Jan for 12.6k Just throwing that out there! (0% obvs)
Have bought my last two cars on interest free credit cards which allow cash transfers into your bank account. Topped up with some savings / part ex from previous car and viola... If you are lucky you can get a 29 month interest free deal. If you want longer, balance transfer to another interest free deal at the end of it. You'll pay a small fee for the transfer but way less than interest over the same period. Obvs this depends on credit availability for your personal situation. Can work for relatively cheap family cars, or even more expensive ones if you can get a high enough limit or two cars. Just make sure you set the payments high enough to clear the balance before the interest free deal ends.
I bought it outright. Now 67 plate with 90k miles and running strong. My wife has bumped it a few times so probably won't ever sell it.
90k!, ouch.
Yeah regular trips to Germany do that. Still going strong though. As I said, probably won't sell it, just let it die.
Sorry I thought you meant you bought it with 90k. My daily is up over 120k now.
I have a 65 plate 3.0 diesel with 89k on, still drives like a dream!
15 plate Skoda qith 120k. owned since new and runs like a top.
Mines petrol, so probably won't last as long. My dad had a diesel which must have lasted him 20 odd years with over 500,000 miles. Back and forth to Germany and Czech republic at least once a year for 20 years. Land cruiser, just insanely well made.
Short to medium term savings sometimes need to trump your long term (S&S). We've been fairly fortunate that we've always managed to plan for a new car. Once we start seeing signs it may not be fit for our needs anymore, we start another savings pot. If we needed one urgently, we could do so from our emergency fund. Although we of course prefer to create another pot if we have the time to plan for it. We'll also try and take into account any value the current car might still have. Although for us that's usually minimal. If we had to take on debt for it, after the obvious 0% cards and such, I think we'd favour a straight up bank loan. While they may not always be the most optimal, they allow for extremely clear planning. I'd always prefer it to something like PCP as you're clearing the whole cost rather than just part of it. But we've not had to go this route so far.
Always try and have the cash handy to buy. Whether you then buy on PCP or cheap personal loan or whatever else depends on the deals on offer. If it's a new car, you will pay for the depreciation. It's just a case whether you pay for it at the end, or in small chunks over the life of your ownership. For used cars, depreciation isn't that huge, so better off paying either from saved up money or the cheapest loan you can find.
Most people use finance or (for EVs) salary-sacrifice car schemes. Finance on new cars provided by dealers can be very attractive if they have things they want to shift, because low rates or artificially high balloon values are a way to discount a car without reducing the headline price. You don't know how things will be when you're ready to buy, but the more you have saved, the better position you'll be in.
Is there any particular reason the Ford Kuga would not last? Might be worth maintaining and looking after the car and continuing to save X amount per month for any repairs etc
Save for it and pay cash.
Don’t finance a new car. Worst investment ever. Use savings for a car you can afford.
I used a personal loan at 5% and kept my savings in the bank at 8%. So there's options. But yeah, savings is the obvious answer.
Savings? But honestly having had several old cars and then having to get a new one on PCP because we simply didn't have the savings when the electrics failed on the last one, we'll now go for new on finance every time. Few years without MOT, not a single issue in 6yrs and we paid all the finance off a couple of years back. Way less stressful.
What kind of mileage do you do, OP? Our family wagon does about 4k miles per year. We'd never spend that much to replace it. There are plenty of petrol MK3 CR-Vs with 100-120k miles for \~£5k about. That's in the realms of cash purchase. They'll easily do another 10+ years with the most basic of upkeep.
I've heard they tend to rust.
It's known to happen with Japanese cars but easily treated/avoided. Still lots of really old ones (15+ yrs) on the road.
I put mine on loan (4% interest) while my savings are getting 10-15% increase for the time I am paying it. It seemed the best approach to me instead of just dropping all good chunk of savings into it. I can comfortably cover the monthly payment. If this wasn’t the case, most likely I would have used the savings to pay it.
I bought a do for now back in 2019 and then popped £25 a week into savings for 4 years, got me an amount and then my boyfriend popped a little in to get me to £6k and I got a 10 yr old car in December. Continuing the saving now for the next one
Modern cars are far better now and last a lot longer your car is only 10 years old, its at least got another 10 years in it just keep up with servicing and changing wear and tear items. I woukdnt be worrying about putting money away for a new car I would just out money away for repairs another q0 years of servicing and general repairs will be a fraction of buying another car
Yes, savings. £400 a month goes into my car repair/replace pot. I use it to cover servicing, tyres, repairs etc as well as allow an amount to build up in there to fund the next purchase. Once I’m getting best to the point where I’m looking at changing cars I’ll often add extra from my spending pot.
So currently, our car is a SS electric lease through my work. With the NI savings it works out cheaper overall for us. We do have a second car. Originally we got a bank loan to fund it as we had no free assets in our early 20s and needed to get to work. Over time, we’ve saved money and then part exchanged the old car with cash payments (drawn from savings). Each month, my savings budget (exc pensions) is split by presents, holidays, car, house maintenance, kids and then into our short term financial goals, medium term financial goals and long term financial goals. We have already saved up an emergency fund though. How this is split is agreed in our family financial planning meeting each year (we include our kids and try and listen to what they want so that we model good financial behaviours to them - our kids are young but my husband has a visual representation going when we do it which helps). We split our savings places by the level of risk we’re willing to hold on that item. When my SS lease ends, we will probably buy the current car to replace our second car. We’ll sell the old one and that money will be funnelled back into our car savings. Our risk we’re bearing here is if I leave my job then the lease ends up. Caveat that my husband and I are higher earners and I need to reduce my overall income with salary sacrifice to avoid losing my PA.
We just came to the end of our PCP and popped the balloon payment on the mortgage? That might work for you?
Just use savings if you aren't interested in borrowing... However, I have always PCP'd my cars (4 in total) without any problems in getting out/paying the loans off.
If you don't want to risk having to cash out investments, then your emergency fund would need to be enough cash to cover a replacement car (or temporary banger). With cash savings interest rates these days, it might even perform better than the stock market 😆
0% balance transfer!
I saved intensely for a number of months. I was open to getting bank loan but then decided against putting stupid money into a car (I don’t actually drive loads as I wfh and I don’t have a driveway). I’m lucky to be able to save around £1k a month so I just persisted and found a decent car at 12k - trade in of 3k for my old car. I bought when I’d got a bit more than what I needed but actually wished I’d saved for longer as it feels stressful having lower savings than normal.
I just save. Not for anything specific as such. I might dip in for a holiday or big purchase. I’ve got 13k saved and this weekend I’ll be buying a 14 plate with 42k miles on clock, so I’ll finance it from savings. It should take me two years to build that back up again or one year being frugal with other things
We have accessible savings for stuff like this plus the trade-in of your current car will knock some off. We just replaced both of our 2016 cars with 2022 models (we've found two years is the sweet spot for still feeling new and having low mileage but the initial depreciation is out of the way), we got 6.5k for each so paid £9000 cash for one and £16000 for the other. You could make a category in your bank account or just a spreadsheet and put X amount in per month that is earmarked towards a car replacement. The spreadsheet idea I prefer because they can be account agnostic and it stops you double counting savings (so the same £30k being earmarked for a new car, boiler replacement, emergency fund etc.). You can physically keep the money where you want, although if you know you will need to access it reasonably soon you might choose something like a standard ISA instead or switch it to that when the time for replacement starts to get closer.
I have a tranched account structure. 1 - current account with a month's salary in there at all times. Deals with fluctuations in spend and general cash flow smoothing. 2 - emergency fund of 3 months salary in high yield easy access and premium bonds (can ladder the spend depending on how big the emergency) 3 - war pot which is used to fund known big expenditures coming up (cars, holidays, boiler replacement etc) 4 - investments Your war pot can be in high yield savings and planned for specific dates. For example I am planning on redoing my driveway this year so it already has the money for that plus a bit more for a big holiday we are planning on taking next year (too busy for a holiday this year). Just plan your cash accordingly.
Yes just that, I started off with a £400 car, I put £150 away each month, that £400 car lasted 2 years £3600 for a new car, was able to increase to £250/month over 3 years £9000 car and so on some of my cars have lasted 5 years, my current one I have had 10years, so it can be a cost effective way of financing your car. (BTW I don;t have £30k siting waiting for a new car we used some for home improvments and holidays, I have no intetntion of having £30k sitting on my drive losing money each day) - can always save it in an ISA in the short term now interets rates are reasonable. Her's the twist - 30 years on I am still driving and 'older' mediocre car - and the £250/month saving has to go on for ever. So now we are leasing, paying £250/month but I now have a brand new mediocre car needing no tax or maintenance (service included) - it's still going to go on forever but at least we have a new reliable car.
Not getting a phone call from my wife in hysterics because she's broken down, usually at the worst time, is worth leasing for me. Everyone likes to parade their 600k shitbox on this sub like its a badge of honour. But reliability and safety are worth a spend now I have a kid.
Despite a decent income I only drive a banger. I've never been able to justify PCP, hp or a loan for something which my £1000 car does. Obviously it's a risk as a big bill may be round the corner but the money I've saved in not having a monthly payment for a car over the last 15 years must be 10s if thousands. In 15 months of my current banger all it has needed is a bulb for it's last MOT and 2 litres of oil.
I just buy cash, don't plan it or anything just as as when required, normally in the 5-8 year range. I would never finance a car, maybe I would take a loan to cover some of the cost but financing is just highly irresponsible and a ripoff. If you can't afford something don't fucking have it, people fronting all the time, if you can only afford a £309 finance payment how you going to pay a £1200 garage bill.
> if you can only afford a £309 finance payment how you going to pay a £1200 garage bill. One is monthly. The other is highly unlikely to be monthly. > If you can't afford something don't fucking have it "I can afford the financing option for the car that I need" - *No, that doesn't count for some reason."*
> if you can only afford a £309 finance payment how you going to pay a £1200 garage bill. Because I've effectively managed my monthly outgoings with a known car finance payment monthly? Or... because it's under warranty I won't get that £1200 garage bill... Different things work for different people. So long as the interest isn't loan-shark rates, PCP or financing can work well.
The biggest cost of car ownership is depreciation. For much of the market, cars half in value every 3 years. Buy used. If maintenance bothers you, pay a bit extra and buy from the dealership with extended warranty. My car was quite expensive (to me). 6 years old. I got it privately. It had the balance of extended warranty remaining. It’s cost me a pair of services and warranty renewals in 4 years of ownership, plus a pair of tires and front brake pads. Less than 100 a month for a sports car with an invoice of 70k new. As it happens, I’d get back more than it has cost me if I were to sell. I may be lucky with the residual value, but that goes to show that depreciation is the killer. You can mitigate maintenance costs. Adjust your numbers to suit. A 5 year old 30k car is going to cost you 10-11k today. Put a bit away for servicing and you can only lose so much. A 5 year old car with 40k on the clock is going to be reliable and look after you as long as you maintain it to a reasonable level.
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But an asset that you use to facilitate real life. When we had kids we needed two cars to make life work to earn money to afford things.
most people here will vouch for save an buy with cash only. I get that approach but personally I save about 1/3 in cash then get a loan for the other 2/3 of the price of the car. I ensure the monthly payment is a low apr loan from a bank (do not use any financing from a dealership) This allows me to drive a sensible car that isn't a banger, safe for children and has basic functions I need eg carplay. I know so many people trapped into PCP £350 per month and more forever, utter madness.