Best way out of a PCP

Without new cars, there would be no used cars.

It depends on what else the savings are needed for. I recently bought a car for cash because I had been setting aside a few hundred a month towards running my old car/saving for a new one. I certainly wouldn't be looking to pay any kind of interest when I have the cash there. If 0% HP was on the table I would have considered it as it means I'd hold onto 50% or so of my savings and continue to put that few hundred towards the new car/costs in the same way, but that would have really come down to fees and costs of setting up a HP agreement.

Most of the time, you'd be mad to finance it when you can just stump up the cash in this scenario.

If I had cash in Buddy's scenario I still would have taken the 0% HP. Year on year his payments are losing value in today's money.

Much better to use cash for accelerated mortgage payments, investments (maybe after Trump shenanigans) or maxing out work pension AVCs.

While your post is informative and extremely long, I made reference to a single purchase by a Boardsie who I believe got a discount and 0%.

Maybe he could have got another grand off paying cash, maybe not. I also stated what I would do in his scenario. Not the ultimate homo economus decision.

There is no such thing as zero% finance. If you buy without using your own money you can expect a discount off the list price.

I'm sorry, but this comment and other ones along similar lines need to be called out. The usual boards hyperbole and resident WUMs in here are still alive and kicking.

I've bought several new cars in the last 15 odd years. Some through personal loans, some through my own funds and a couple through dealer finance. I've availed of 0% twice (that I can remember).

For any of the cars I've bought, I've negotiated a price with the salesman (including discount or trade-in price I'm happy to shake on) before the finance question even came into it. Whether I paid for it via their finance, my own money, the credit union or via magic beans, it didn't matter a jot in terms of the bottom line. Salesmen have never seemed particularly bothered in my experience either, very much a case of "up to yourself now" and directing me to their finance person IF I wanted to see whats available. On one recent occasion I told them I was doing my own thing, but then when the car arrived, there was a 0% HP offer which wasn't available when I ordered so on collection day I decided to avail of it.. seemed to make perfect sense to me to take a small amount on 0% rather than chewing up all my own savings.

Actually, now that I think of it, there was just one occasion I can remember where the dealer finance was a factor in a deal. It wasn't one of my cars on this occasion, I was helping my Dad out with his purchase. On that occasion there was a "dealer contribution" - basically a small extra discount off the list price IF you availed of their finance. My Dad being old school and a lot like some on this thread, he was wary of it, but once explained to him, he happily availed of it - and repaid it in full the following week!

No such thing as cash discounts anymore. Dealers rather you take out finance.

0% you pay for in the price of the car, who is going to give you free money ? the finance company are there to make money doesn't matter whether it's Renault or VW. The big looser is always us.

The biggest winner in new car purchases is the Government taking around ball park figure here, 20K on a 50K car. On that basis alone I will never again buy new, if I had to , I'd find the cheapest sh1t box I could find.

@Mad_Lad Just on buying a sh1t box. That's fine if you have the know how to fix it. Most don't. My young lad is a mechanic and his outlook is similar to yours. He would never buy new and old stuff will do. Just seems to collect the damn things. But he can generally fix them. But most people need their car to reliably get to work. Brand new is not required but that's why nobody wants to buy the cheap sh1t box.

The secondhand market is still way overpriced for the sheer amount of stock available. So financing is still necessary even for cars that are 5-6 years old. Every garage seems to be bringing in jap imports also. And contrary to previous times, it's every make under the sun. The current flavour is VW's from Japan. Plentiful stock but dealers seem to be willing to sit on it forever.

Not so, discounts are available for new car cash purchases, apart from my own in January J was with a friend that had a significant amount deducted for a 252 Kia, more than I predicted before we got to the garage.

Depends on how good you are at negotiating.

They would have gotten the same discount if taking out finance

What is significant ? why are they willing to loose money ? a dealer doesn't loose money unless the price was inflated to begin with to make you think you're getting a bargain.

🤦‍♂️

Why are you whittling your day away on a motoring forum? Sh1tboxes? Kia Picantos? Utterly bizarre stuff. Is it any wonder most of the old regulars in here don't post anymore.

In my earlier post (which I don't think you read or grasped) I explained very clearly and concisely my direct experiences in buying new cars. To reiterate, sometimes I've financed cars independently, sometimes I opted for the dealer finance. It has varied from one car to another, I've never experienced pressure to take on finance and the deal agreed was the deal, irrespective of whether I opted for finance with them or not.

If the manufacturer or finance company are making a few quid on the deals in some way, good luck to them, thats what makes the world go round. In a 0% situation, I'm honestly not sure how they can possibly be taking even more money out of my pocket, but of course I'm sure they're making it somewhere along the way, e.g. greater sales volume / units sold due to the competitive finance rates.