2001 Corsa £6390 - garage robbery!

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

MR MONEYMAN...............SHABBA!

 

 

They're getting rich off Essex thickos. Fair play I say.

 

Take it that you have never ever bought a new* car on finance then?

 

Yes - but it was zero percent.

[Charlie Croker]

Why oh why are peaple so stupid?

[Junkman]

Step right this way, Sir..

[Alexg]

Disgusting isn't it. Unfortunately there's enough desperate fools about with frigged credit history that are too stupid to understand what they're getting into.

 

How anybody can look someone in the eye and get them to sign-up to this type of deal is beyond me. They must be, what we call in the trade, a 'cunt'.

[Ben_L]

I used to live down this Dealers way and let me say, they're not on the "Straight and Narrow". There's a road with about 10-12 dealerships along it, all offering weekly payments/Monthly payments on old chod, V-Reg Omega's with 200k+ on the clock etc etc... AC, Electric Sunroof etc etc 'ONLY £150* A Month!!!!!'

 

When people didn't pay, there was a Range Rover full of pikeys sent to the persons house etc etc... The police were involved regularly but they'd just change their name and keep going... Absolutely sickening. Single mothers who needed a car to run the kids to school were probably spending their child benefit cheques AND more on these cars, that regularly broke down/failed etc.

 

Most finance companies will allow you to return the car if it knackers out, or let you go through them to get the garage selling to honour the SOGA... These guys ARE the finance company and threaten you pretty harshly if you complain about anything that will cost them money to fix.

 

It's all great if your part of their shower, if not, you're always on a massive lose with potentially painful consequences.

[ProgRocker]

What a shower of bastards. I remember doing a search of N16 Almeras once and this outfit had a pre-facelift one with similarly eye-watering figures. The total cost of it after the loan was over £8k! Eight f**king grand - around the price of a pre registered Micra with delivery mileage.

 

Perhaps Matt Allright should be sent there on his 'Rogue Traders' section on the next series of Watchdog? I wonder if they have had any complaints, or maybe the aggrieved customers are too scared.

 

On the other hand, individuals must learn to take control of their finances. Seriously, I think that money management and personal finance should be a mandatory subject taught to 11 - 16 year olds. They should be taught how interest works. How loans work, mortgages, credit cards, pensions and other investments too. Not to mention how much money new cars depreciate by. And other consumer goods too. This subject would help to prevent people getting themselves into so much debt and take greater control of their lives.

[Split_Pin]

 

Seriously, I think that money management and personal finance should be a mandatory subject taught to 11 - 16 year olds. They should be taught how interest works. How loans work, mortgages, credit cards, pensions and other investments too. Not to mention how much money new cars depreciate by. And other consumer goods too. This subject would help to prevent people getting themselves into so much debt and take greater control of their lives.

 

Amen to that.

[barefoot]

But if folk did this at school, do you think anyone would ever buy a new car, ever again?

[ProgRocker]

But if folk did this at school, do you think anyone would ever buy a new car, ever again?

 

I suppose it depends how much the students pay attention at school.

[cort16]

Aye it's the old problem of "I want it now". If you could save up 6 payments of 150 quid then you could buy something just as or more credible than the old crocks these guys are selling. Unfortunately everyone wants everything straight away (I've fell into this hole myself).

It's not just guys like this doing it. Reputable dealers will regularly sell 4-10 grand cars over 5 years on an 8% flat rate. That's 40% interest over the term of the loan meaning nearly half of your payment is interest.

 

A lot of folk don't know that if you have a car on finance you can return it half way through the term as well. As long as the car isn't totally hanging it lets you get out of OMG NEGATIVEEQUITYKARIGE (think of all the folk who bought MG's and Rovers 8 years ago). The don't like you doing it but it's da law.

[Justin Case]

But if folk did this at school, do you think anyone would ever buy a new car, ever again?

Probably yes Some business studies courses used to (and might still) include a consumer protection module, but it dealt more with the law (SOGA, etc), small print, and consumer rights when something goes wrong rather than getting a good deal in the first place.

 

New car deals can seem very attractive on the surface; for example a local vendor of Vauxhalls is offering the Corsa 1.2 SXi with a healthy discount for 'only' £189 down and 'only' £189 per month at 'only' 5% APR (over 'only' five years ) but fails to mention that depreciation will probably 'only' be about the same as that every month And it's not just the thick or vulnerable that get taken in. A friend who actually has a science degree is still entirely brainwashed into believing that buying a new car on a PCP every three years (no doubt as a result of the 'only' £X per month sales talk) is more cost-effective than buying a newish one outright in the first place and keeping it a few years

 

Do dealers, legitimate or otherwise, really make more from credit than from selling cars; they always push it?

[cort16]

The PCP deals over 3 years with a gaurenteed final value are the best way to buy a new car. You pay a monthly fee, which is lower by offsetting a lump of it until the end and then when you do get there you either give the car back or if it's worth more than the final value you get the difference.

 

They don't make as much as they do on cars (not used cars anyway) but it's significant. This is why the old "I'll pay in cash" thing doesn't work anymore as they want you to finance it. They'll maybe make 300-500 quid on a 4 year 6000 finance deal.

[phil_lihp]

The PCP deals over 3 years with a gaurenteed final value are the best way to buy a new car. You pay a monthly fee, which is lower by offsetting a lump of it until the end and then when you do get there you either give the car back or if it's worth more than the final value you get the differnce

 

This is the reason I ended up with my C'eed - combined with 0% APR it was genuinely decent value, I would never have even dreamt of a new car but this way I got a smart, reliable new car for my business for the same sort of money I was orignally expecting to pay out for a secondhand 4x4.

 

That silver Focus saloon mentioned earlier has been there a while, I posted it on the ebay thread a while back. Months of standing around won't have improved its value.

[ProgRocker]

That silver Focus saloon mentioned earlier has been there a while, I posted it on the ebay thread a while back. Months of standing around won't have improved its value.

 

I thought I had seen that car before. For the same £ one could buy a used last model Focus c.2007 or even newer.

[PhilA]

Heh. I'm not so upset about the fact both the vehicles on my driveway were purchased on finance, new.

However, vehicle depreciation here isn't what it is there, where 97% of the car's value is lost in the first three years. The first year is the kick here- the Dodge is set to lose about three grand this year, but next year hardly anything. The depreciation accelerates gently, at about the interest rate I got on the vehicle.

I can live with that as a "new car" tax- in fact, the Impala was about the same but at 9 months old it stung, considering I could have gotten a new one for not much more.

 

Decided that I might as well have a vehicle that so far in the market has held its value well. Went looked at several well thrashed, 2 year old ones with freeway acne, signs of having had a bump on the front and generally in "fairly dog-eared" condition... for the same price as I got a new one.

Rules here are similar but not as hellish as there.

 

Still, I'm happy I bought the GTA outright. But that was $150 and three years later I'm still not driving it around. Swings and roundabouts, given it has a blue-book value in "good" condition of $1250, 25 years on...

 

-Phil