Best way out of a PCP

True but that's not what he is arguing. It's the level of debt people get themselves into for a heavy depreciating asset. Especially young people trying to get on the property ladder. I've met more than one person tell me he can't afford a home and has a brand new 3 or 4 series BMW or similar outside the door. The car is a necessity, doesn't have to be a Dacia but budgeting is just not something many seem to do anymore. Money is very easy to get for commodities.

@Mad_Lad can confirm but pretty sure he was an early adopter and had a Leaf and a i3 rex. Not sure which order. Neither of those would be considered well to do for Mrs Jones, so I don't think that's it. He is just setting out the mistakes he made and hopefully someone else doesn't get caught in the same trap. No reason for a load on here about it.

To be fair theres a lot of people who make decent money who are happy to put €500 or so a month of their income towards a nice new car with no maintenance, repairs, NCT etc. Might not be the best financial decision but it suits a lot of people.

The lashing out anytime Dacia is mentioned in this forum is one illustration of the problem. Driving a Dacia instead of a VW or Audi appliance costing 30k more should not make a person's life miserable. If it does there is something very wrong with their priorities and lifestyle

This would be indicative of immaturity, insecurity and lack of life experience. What does a 50k new VW Tiguan bring to someone's life that a 26k new Dacia Duster doesn't? Both cars are utilities and are mundane. It could be argued that the Tiguan is safer in a crash but the minutiae of EuroNCAP testing is not going to influence the average buyer.

The purchase of a Tiguan so it can look good on the driveway and impress the neighbours with its badge is a passive thing. It's not like the owner is going to be doing their own maintenance or bringing it on a trackday LOL. It's not like tinkering with a classic car or enjoying bringing it to a car show to display it and meet other like minded enthusiasts.

It's consumerism, it's keeping up with the Joneses and it's facilitated by the financial services industry . Some people who engage in this consumerism cop themselves on with age or when life suddenly slaps them in the face which it has a habit of doing. Others will never cop on .Then they'll be on their deathbed thinking about what they achieved in life - well they worked in a job they disliked until age 65 and spent less time with their family because they "needed to" to buy a new Audi on PCP every 3 years - but on the plus side at least the neighbours only ever owned VWs. Great.

The brand new car is loosing multiple thousands per year tho. Whereas the 15 year old diesel will only loose a few hundred per year. Have you taken that into account?

of course I have taken that into account.

"crazy Lad" ( I like it, nice ring to it ) bought a couple of new cars, on PCP, the BMW i3 Rex was 2nd hand, all my other vehicles were either cash financed or regular finance.

PCP only entered the equation when I wanted to buy EV for the reason being I had no intention in keeping the leaf or BMW but the id3 could have been the one I kept only it fell well short of my expectations. As an early adopter to EV, PCP seemed like an attractive alternative to regular finance until trade in and having no equity, same with the BMW i3 and much worse with the id3 so at that point I swore I'd never again use PCP to finance a car again. It took me a while but I finally figured it out.

Now my attitude has changed toward car ownership in general and now I see a car as just a means to get from A to B.

Regard not having a pot to p1ss in, I have been mortgage free since age 37, 8 years now since it was paid off, I have no rent so I'm in a pretty good position, I have money in investments and no intention of wasting it on cars again but if this is what someone wants to do that's their business but my experience with PCP will hopefully give others thinking of PCP something to seriously reconsider.

We've heard here before on Boards that salesmen have said that people are ignoring the perfectly good 2nd hand car they could mostly buy with cash for a brand new car on PCP double or more the price.

Nail on the head there, never even mind the 26 K duster but the 18,500 Sandero, I see nothing wrong with the current Gen Dacia cars, in fact , I view people who drive Dacia as people living within their means a lot more than someone driving a 51K Tiguan, 84% if all Volkswagens were financed using PCP , this is data from I think 2023, probably the same today, a Google search will pull up the article on either the Times or Independent.

I can probably bet most people buying Dacia cars are not financing via PCP but regular finance or mostly Cash.

NCAP is a joke because they gave the Jogger a 1 star if I remember correctly when in fact it would probably get a 4 or 5 star rating only for it had a lack of electronic trash to bing, bong and pull the steering from ones hand, what's worse is that NCAP didn't even test the Jogger but based it on the old estate car which seemingly it has some roots, I can't remember the estate name. Absolutely atrocious behaviour, I do wonder how much the car companies are paying them ?

The Government have worked to make cars much more expensive over the years as they are a gravy train of revenue and they can add on more and more carbon taxes to pretend it's to save the planet which we all know is pure horse sh1te, all they care about is the Euros flowing in.

I guess you could say that age and experience has influenced my current way of thinking.

still have the 15 year old diesel. Plus a model y.

Running costs for diesel ( rough but I did an accurate calculation recently

depreciation 0

Motor tax 750

Annual service and replacement of wear and tear parts. 1200 ( actual cost this year and last)

NCT x 2 130 euro

Fuel for 10000 km. roughly 1300

Total 3400

costs for model y

Depreciation 6000

motor tax 120

Annual service and upkeep 0 ( nothing needed and it’s under warranty )

NCT 0

Fuel for 30000 km approx 650

Total 6750

650 euro for 30k kms sounds about right using night rates of around 8-16 cent per kWh. In terms of consumption, Bjorn Nyland got 15.6 kWh per 100 km @ 90 km/h @ 5 degrees for the Model Y.

For a fella that was done with the thread you have gotten a second wind.

Just making an observation, waiting for you to wax lyrical about how your car is better to drive than a EV now aswell that's the next segment.

I think this thread is too valuable to turn into a bitching session. There are excellent points coming from all sides, and it's rare to see someone openly share a financial mistake. Shared experiences like these are gold.