Can I trade in instead of using cash for PCP deposit?

Fr Tod Umptious

We have a 161 7 seater Citroen that we have lost faith in.

The broken rear axle that has been replaced with a second hand one was the last straw.

Either I nor my wife are willing to spend the next few years praying that it doesn't happen again.

I'm looking at PCP for the peace of mind of having a new car,

But we don't have much cash for a deposit.

Could we use the current car as a trade in instead of a deposit?

We put a good few bob into the car in the last year, tyres, timing belt, battery etc so it's worth something.

Similar on DD are advertised for €8k+

JoeA3

You can of course. But brace yourself for low ball trade in offers.
Or you could try advertising it yourself on DD, should be decent demand for a 7 seater.

GPoint

you will likely get 3k offer for it going by what dealers want their margin to be these days.

Mad_Lad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058412218/can-i-trade-in-instead-of-using-cash-for-pcp-deposit

If you haven't much cash for a deposit then it makes no sense getting into debt for a 30-40 K car just because you think you can afford the monthly payments doesn't mean you can afford the car because on PCP you are only paying the deposit + calculated depreciation + interest over the 3 years and x amount of Kms.

At the end of the contract you have to pay the balance on the loan to own the car and most likely have to refinance it at much higher interest. You can walk away and pay any additional mileage or you can hand it back via the half rule once you have half the loan paid back without any financial implications.

Don't be fooled by PCP, if you go on to your bank website and see how much a car loan is on the cost of the car you want to buy vs pcp , ask yourself, why is it so cheap on PCP ? the answer is to keep the monthly cost low so at the end of the pcp contract you will think to yourself "hmmmm, maybe I won't pay that 20K balloon payment , I'll get another new car for another 500-600 a month for another 3 years" and around and round you go , next you realise the amount of money absolutely wasted which would have been better off in an investment plan. Believe me, all those payments and deposits add up fast and you will not get anything near what you think you'll get 2nd hand for the car come trade in, in fact, there's a high chance you will have to come up with another deposit, from the 3 PCP I got I had no equity at the end.

The difference for bank loan can be as much as 1200 a month over 3 years vs 500-600 a month on PCP, this is why so many cars now are on PCP, 83.5% of all Volkswagens are financed on PCP. That was the case in 2023, I doubt much has changed.

All that money you can keep, drive the Citroen or change it for something much more affordable than a new car.

Let's be honest, and as someone who went with 3 x PCP I am trying to make you realise what PCP is all about rather than insult you but if you are hard strapped for the cash for a deposit what makes you think you're going to have the cost of the balloon payment at the end ?

The cost of cars is beyond a joke now and for good reason , people are buying new cars which are more expensive than the majority would have bought before PCP became available, so manufacturers copped on and made much more expensive cars and bigger and bigger and more and more expensive because they know all people care about is how much deposit and how much per month, the cost of the car is ignored.

As the cost of cars go up so does the tax bill to the Government, robbing shower will take a huge cost of the car in tax.

If people weren't buying them then the manufacturers would make sensible priced cars again.

And don't think that just because you have a new car that you won't be having to take trips to the dealer to sort issues under warranty. You may or may not but it does happen and it's a big inconvenience dealing with car dealers , they're nice as pie to you when buying new but don't want to know you after that and for warranty reasons you'll have to pay main dealer service prices to keep your warranty.

Mad_Lad

"We put a good few bob into the car in the last year, tyres, timing belt, battery etc so it's worth something."

It's part and parcel of car ownership, they are machines that need maintenance. Sometimes, if you are spending money maintaining a car then it's better to keep it, the Devil you know and all that.

The missus had to fork out for a new ECU for the Outlander diesel around 5 years ago maybe, cost something around 2000 Euro if I remember correctly, it was unfortunate, very, very rare I believe.

Last year she had to replace clutch slave cylinder which of course is in the gearbox so the subframe had to come out before the box and I asked them to throw in a new clutch while all that work was being done to save it being done again should the clutch fail, because at that time there was around 100,000 Miles on the clock, now it has 120,000 Miles. It's 10 years old.

My 1.0L T-GDi Kia Cee'd had to go in for timing chain and tensioner replacement this week, got it back today, 46,000 Kms on it but it started rattling around 26,000 Kms. Lucky it was replaced under warranty thanks to Kia's 7 year Warranty which I was clever enough to make sure the car had a full service record because they told me no service record, no warranty.

Cars cost money but nothing costs money like a brand new car !

Fr Tod Umptious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123500770#Comment_123500770

That's a very good and informative post.

Thanks for taking the time to post it.

The reality is I'm not that keen on carrying too much personal debt myself.

I like to pay for things, and keep loan terms as short as possible.

But I'm just coming to the stage of asking myself "Am I not in debt enough" I have good credit and a good job, why not go PCP and and the end of the term just roll it over and continue on forever, and have a good reliable car for once.

But I totally get your point about the main dealer service expense with a new car.

No more just bringing it to reliable Joe down the road for a service and a few new tyres.

Another factor in this thinking is the shortage of 7 seaters out there.

There are a ton of Dacia Joggers (and I'm going to have a good hard look at a few in a couple of weeks, I'm not ruling them out as an option) but little else.

They stopped making the Citroen C4 in 2019, and th UK import market also vanished for obvious reasons.

So the thinking was if there is feck all out there why not go new PCP.

At the end of the day our concern about the second hand rear axle breaking will subside in time and in the meantime I'll keep an alert on DD for the very last of the C4s or good value Peugeot 5008s and might just go to the CU for a loan.

Or get a Jogger.

I test drove one a few months ago and I felt it was a bit cramped and restricted, for driver and passengers.

But it was a very very wet day and me and the family didn't get enough time to go through it in a bit more detail, getting in and out of the boot, trying different kids in different seats/rows etc, we were too busy trying not to get soaked wet.

Hopefully in a few weeks I'll get a better day and a bit more time to test one out.

Again, thanks for the advice.

You are dead right, the country is full of PCP cars.