New/Newer Car

I now find that I'm in a happy situation whereby I can consider buying either a new car, or a much newer one, and wondered if anyone could advise me. I'm 64 now and on the pension, but I work part-time, and may have to do so for the forseeable,

The old girl I have is 13 years old and passed her MoT in July and she only failed her MoT once in her lifetime last year, so she cost me a good few quid to keep her on the road (just under £500).

I'm not minted by any stretch of the imagination, but I've saved me coppers up and now feel it is time to let the old lady go which saddens me, as my previous car was 18 years old, so I do hold real affection for my cars, even though that may sound a bit daft, but there you go!

She has a genuine 35,895 miles on the clock for her 13 years so I'd like to think I could get a minimum of £500 PX for her as she's at least worth £1000 of anybody's money, despite her age as I've seen much older cars selling for more than that on't internet.

I do prevaricate, don't I? So sorry about that!

I have £3000 which was given to me - it doesn't matter by whom - but I would like to put that down as a deposit, plus anything (+£500) for my Katy, towards a newer car.

My question is this. I have no knowledge of HP so, for example, if I bought a brand new car at say £8000, what would be my monthly repayments after a £3500 deposit, how much would I pay over the shortest period of time? I am absolutely useless at anything like this, and I have nobody I could take with me to help me and I don't want to get ripped off.

Re: New/Newer Car

I've only once bought a new car and when I came to PX it some 3 years later I got £6000 for it losing some £5500. The chap who bought it rang me up a couple of weeks later to ask if the mileage was genuine so I asked how much he had paid for it and he said £7500 so the garage had gained some £1500 on that one transaction. I normally buy a car some 2 years old and keep it for about 3 years and lose about £3000 when I next PX it. I think a low mileage used car is the best bet.I can't advise you about HP as I've always raided my savings to pay cash.

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We always go for nearly new Mollie, you can save something like a third to a half of new price on a car that's under two years old for the sake of just a few miles on the clock. When we had to borrow for a car we always took out a bank loan rather than HP as the rates were always cheaper because fewer people wanted commission from the deal and selling HP to a customer is almost as profitable as selling them the car. Most bank websites will have a loan calculator to get some idea of repayment rates.

Anyway I hope you find the right car for you, and best of luck with the search..

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Some garages do, or did, 0% finance. Might be worth looking into that. First decide what car you want and you can play one garage against another to get the best deal, extras thrown in, extended warrantee etc. An ex demonstrator car can be a very good buy, usually a couple of months old with little on the clock, and a vastly reduced price. As for payment, as has been said, a bank loan is usually a better option.

Re: New/Newer Car

Many thanks for your replies. I've heard of the 0% finance for 5 years which would be worth looking into, but I've also got a personal loan limit of £20,000 with my bank, so I'll have to make further enquiries on that score. 0% finance sounds better to me than the interest I'd have to pay otherwise.

To be truthful I've been looking for something with a 62 plate or a 13 plate (it's 64 plate now) and with reasonably low mileage, so I'm not sure what I can get for me brass, but I'll keep looking online at the local garages.

I have to tax Katy tomorrow which will set me back by £99 for six months, which is a lot of money on an old car, so I'll be looking for a smaller engine with low yearly tax.

My next car will have to see me out as I doubt I'll be in this position again, so I'll have to choose wisely.

Thanks for your help folks. Much appreciated.

Re: New/Newer Car

Happy looking Mollie. That's half the fun.

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Cheers. Hope to find something soon.

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I never get a loan for anything, if I can't afford to pay for it straight out I don't buy it.

You can get an idea of how much a bank loan will cost you online by googling a loan calculator for your bank.

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You may find many new cars you see on the road today are Private Leased, folks often think it is silly to pay for something you are not going to ultimately own, but it's only as silly as paying purchase tax, and suffering massive initial depreciation.

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Sadly Jimmy not everybody can afford an enormous pay-out for an expensive item, especially pensioners but, having said that, my philosophy has always been if I can't afford to pay cash, then I can't afford it.

For example, my old washing machine broke down on me a couple of weeks ago so I went and bought a new one for cash, because I could afford to do that.

However, I'm lucky to have been given a boost of £3000 otherwise I wouldn't be able to afford a newer car at all and, anyone who's owned a 13 year old car will understand my need to exchange it for something newer as Katy is now starting to cost me money to keep her on the road. Nothing major, but it all mounts up.

Spitfire, thanks for your reply. I am now NOT looking for a brand new car, but something around a year old, as Plantman intimated in his post, and I wouldn't dream of leasing a car as that would be just dead money.

Once again, thanks for suggestions. It's been very helpful as this is a massive undertaking for me.