Thetownend.com

Right we have put it of long enough, but now we have the dag we are going to have to replace the 12 year old Polo with something newer and a bit bigger.

Any suggestions in the Focus/Fabia Estate kind of scale (that's what we have looked at so far), don't want to spend a fortune so also considering the pros/cons of buying outright v. leasing.

Away you go.....

BMW 3 Series Touring

Did you miss the bit about not wanting to spend a fortune....  ;) :D

If you lease purchase with a balloon payment you’ll end up paying the full list of whatever they have available for that purpose. You also have to consider that the lease element is infact a finance agreement of which the garage get a slice of commission and the finance company are also making on the actually value of the loan plus Bolton’s like admin fees etc.

If you just lease and hand back it’s very similar because you’re covering the three years write down on the residual sale value to the trade or when it goes on their forecourt.

If you have the wonga/bunce/spondoolicks you can haggle down from the list price assuming you can find out what that is but you can trade off dealers with each other. Or you can borrow a sizeable amount from someone like Sainsburys bank @ about 2.8% interest depending on your credit rating of course.

Might be worth looking at a nearly new where someone else has coughed up the three years loss from the forecourt list price. Another tool to use is buying a copy of Parker’s guide which is the retail equivalent of Glasses guide to help you look for the best deals and how much your chosen vehicle is likely to set you back.

I think you're conflating leasing and PCP, but still valid points.

Personally - I wouldn't pay cash for anything that depreciates. A car is a life cost, not an asset.

I've got a CX30 - really well spec'ed for the price.

I don't agree with buying a car at list when leasing. Certainly in my experience that wasn't the case, and I managed to get my car to 23,800 from a list of 31k. Which I then leased.

I used carwow.co.uk to spec up a car I was interested in.
It then invites dealers from an area + a distance you're prepared to travel to quote on the car you've specced.

For convenience, I chose fish brother skoda who quoted for my car, and whilst you cannot haggle anything further off I was pleased not to have to go to and from playing dealers off against one another as they give their best price first.

I will certainly be using carwow again when the current lease deal concludes. They also have a very good YouTube channel and review most new cars.

Good luck!

Estates work well for dog + kids. We've gone even further and bought a van!

Leasing works well if the cost of the lease over 2 or 3 years is less than the depreciation from buying new. For example, I leased a BMW hybrid that cost me ~£6k over 2 years, the car would've easily lost £8k in depreciation.

I've been looking because I'm also looking for a new car, but there just aren't any good lease deals available at the moment like there were 2 years ago. There's limited supply because factories have been shut down due to COVID, plus the residual values on petrol/diesel cars is a bit of an unknown because of the move to electric.

I'm in the market for a small SUV. Probably going to buy 2 to 3 years old.

Also another question to the thread could be what dealerships to purchase from and who to trust/not trust

Up your way

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202103019602073?advertising-location=at_cars&year-from=2015&maximum-mileage=35000&price-to=11000&postcode=LA45DL&body-type=Estate&sort=price-asc&page=2&price-from=500&radius=25&include-delivery-option=on

Just to avoid any confusion I would never buy new due to the depreciation the second it leaves the forecourt, likely to be 1-2 years old or leased seems the main choice.

Looking at What car it seems little can match the Fabia in terms of price and general goodness.

Ta, albeit Fleetwood is a total ball ache to get to from here, its less tha 15 miles as the crow flies, unfortunately I don't have a hovercraft!

One thing that has popped up is remarkably the Fabia Estate actually has more boot space than the much larger Focus estate!

I've never leased and always bought.

Think it depends on what you want and how long you are going to keep it. I can see the rationale of buying new and trading back in after a year or two to avoid major upkeep costs and to keep the 'cost to change' at a level that is less than leasing costs. I can also see the rationale in buying new and then keeping it for many years and running it into the ground.

Personally, I would rather buy 'lesser brands' as I think you get more for your money. I've been buying Seat's instead of VW for the last few years and have been really pleased with them. For a smaller car then I have had several Suzuki Swifts. I think they have been the best of the small cars in the last 10 years. But, I'm not sure they have moved that far forward and have rested on their laurels. I think next time I will be looking elsewhere and that will probably be towards electric.

I've only had a brief look at the electric cars. From what I have read, the Kia Nero is the best of the bunch - I have always liked the thought of their 7 year warranty too. Also, I dont think electric is perfect yet, but I think that if the long term aim is to trade Kia for Kia then the Nero might not be a bad buy. Having said that, the £30+k price tag plus a couple of grand to install a charger puts me off somewhat to say the least!!!

 

There are a lot of pre-registered cars available at dealers. I ended up getting one for my son and finding one for my mother-in-law a couple of years ago. The initial depreciation had gone and I still had the 3 year warranty.

Electric is far from perfect, the range is still appalling.

I test drove the Kia Nero when I got the Hyundai Ioniq, awful car to drive and gutless in comparion for similar money. The only fault with my Ioniq is the build quality and poor quality plastics compairs to the other bigger brands I have got new, the Kia was even worse build quality and rattled with about 2,000 miles on the clock.

I will get self charging hybrid again for sure probably in about a year s time as we can't have an external charging source at our house so its ideal for me and for £45 to fill up it gives me an achievable range of 780 miles easily with a gentle right foot and 600 if you are lead footed.

I’ve had a Fabia for 2 years. Great little car. Had zero problems with it.

A Swift was my previous car, now got a Mini JCW.

Would agree that they're great cars for their purpose, so reliable and cheap to run (£30 road tax, 54mpg). Would totally disagree about them not improving - drove the new model around 18 months ago when I had mine serviced and it was excellent. 1 litre turbo I believe, but my god it shifted. Very pokey little engine.

Bought a new swift sport in late 2007 when few cars were being sold. Paid about £10k - in those days I actually paid cash money for vehicles.  It was a steal.  Great little lukewarm hatch.

Suzukis are also very reliable in my experience.

Later this year we're looking to get a slightly larger car for driving to Ireland/Scotland etc. Now we're more in the country would like something SUV ish. The Kia Sportage looks quite nice and I've been reading about the 7 year warranty which seems a winner. Would anyone recommend or suggest something similar. Nothing pretentious like a Ra nge Rover thank you.

Dacia Duster

Ah cheers, will give that a look also.

 :no:

No good 4D?

You should probably go for a few test drives and make your own mind up.

Well thank you Captain obvious for that ever so helpful advice. No harm in getting some suggestions on here first to give some kind of idea.

No problem.  Happy to help.

My point was, leaving badge snobbery to one side, the Duster is a decent option. I think the reviews generally support that.  Kia, as a brand, was looked down on only a few years or so ago.

Of course, it may be that 4D has one or has owned one in the past.

To be honest I'm past badge snobbery now. Is Dacia owned by Renault or vice versa? An in law has a Duster and he's had no problems with it.

Yeah be interesting to see what 4D's thoughts are on it.

Yeah, Dacia is basically a Renault underneath.

I think Kia & Hyundai (sister companies) offer good value for money. I'm looking at getting a Kia Stonic or Hyundai Kona.

Badge snobbery is good. It pushes the price of decent cars down!

My Octavia is the best car that size I've owned, better than 2 Mondeo, a Laguna and an Avensis by a mile.

Suspect a beamer or Merc would be a better drive but not really the market I was in

Have a look at the nearly new market too. My current car had 4k on the clock (7 months old) and was £7k cheaper than brand new.

My Ford Eco sport was a year old when I bought it and had previously been part of a mobility fleet to take people shopping and what not. Had 700 miles on the clock but like yours it had already lost it’s ‘I’m off the forecourt’ value of about 7k.

It was the closest thing to brand new without being brand new.

PP, would you flesh out this comment, please, don't get the logic ? Currently, with interest rates lower than inflation, cash on deposit is eroding in value, why not use that cash rather than pay the additional leasing costs ?

I'm currently looking at a Hyundai i20, or a Ford Focus, something small and nippy around Swindon, but enough oomph to get down/back from St James Park comfortably. Been considering the myriad of PCP/leasing options rather than cash, just not sold on them as per above, could well be missing something though !

Living down here on the South Somerset/Devon border I couldn't live without a car as everything is so far apart and with pretty much zero public transport, miles from any biggish town, 3 buses a day, miles from a railway station if you don't have a car you are essentially house bound. Home delivery slots have to be booked 6 weeks in advance and only Asda and Tesco deliver to my area anyway.

For my family cars are essential and can't imagine living without one, ever, its a cost I have to accept, thats one reason I have the most economical car I can get so costs are far smaller than they could be and I still have a decent size car for everything I need.

You can get an older SL Mercedes for way less than a run of the mill motor. Will probably appreciate, too.

There’s loads of nearly classic top brand models out there

If you have cash see if there are any additional benefits available by taking a lease/PCP agreement and take out an agreement then pay it off immediately to save the interest but keep the benefits you were offered.

Would be really surprised if they haven't already closed that loophole with hefty early termination fees !

In my case I've only enough cash to buy a reasonable second-hand motor, so weighing that up against the costs of a leased/PCP brand new motor ?