Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

I would too. Half a bag a month for a Kia. Fuck me.

I've used ~3% interest bank loans for cars in the past, the camper is the first that I'm going to use an actual finance product for, from Oracle Finance IIRC.

I could (with Oracle) finance ~70% of the it but I just don't want to, instead I'm going to finance ~£20k of it, which they've said they'll do interest only as a balloon payment. Does this make sense? Unsure, but they seemed to think it was the right thing to do.

yes, had the exact same reaction!

You are paying the purchase cost minus £20k up front and financing the £20k interest only?

And then at some point you pay back the £20k or sell the van and settle with the proceeds?

seems like a reasonable plan assuming interest rate is ok.

Yes and yes, and I hope so.

My intention would be to part-ex the camper in 3 years for the hybrid T7, so I imagine I'd either settle the finance then or swap it into a different type.

I don't have much love that big old silly thing. But On Fire I always have time for

Fuck me I must admit I’m glad to be stuck in the banger end of the market (buying outright), I think I’d lose my mind trying to understand these more complicated finance options.

Neighbour has a new Fabia on lease that she recently bought at the end of the lease period - I’m not sure if it was a lease exactly, but monthly payments with an initial down payment then the option to buy outright. Even on something small like that the costs seem astronomical to me. £2-300/mo, at least 2k up front, and probably a sizeable final payment.

A £3k Astra (50k miles and 5 years old at purchase) did me for 80k miles and 10 years. I’ll accept that it wasn’t the classiest of motoring, but it was massively affordable and never skipped a beat in the decade I owned it - never broke down and never suffered any major component failure. Is it just the reality that car ownership is getting a lot more expensive?

Im with you, I can’t compute the monthly outlay just on the cost of the car, especially with the depreciation factored in. There’s probably higher maintenance expenses with bangernomics but for me it’s about all the quality of life things I could do with the £300 p/m I might be spending on a boring base level hatchback, but if you’re in the position to do nice things after spending whatever you spend on car payments then it takes some stress out of motoring I guess.

that's a Skoda PCP. You can normally change the deposit / balloon payment values to suit your repayment schedule if i remember correctly.

I originally bought my Fabia estate on a PCP but iirc i put down like 1% up front and then paid 180/month for 3yrs and had a 6k balloon payment at the end.

I also had 3yrs free servicing and some other stuff included

Same here, but I am more and more loathing sitting in traffic with the type of driving I do (young family, non bike friendly drop offs, visiting in-laws in London) with the engine idling away so can't see myself getting anything other than a hybrid on my next purchase. The C Max, if looked after, could well have another 10 years in it, or it could go pop tomorrow, I don't know.

The only hybrids (or at least the ones that are everywhere) in the banger buy it now range, are those big Lexus 400/450h with 100k miles. Or old Ubers.

Yeah for sure. Looking at the market and what’s available, I reckon we might end up with a Nissan Leaf because they’re small and relatively affordable to begin with. Hopefully the secondhand market for them will be ok in a few years time, but how economical the second hand electric market actually is with regards to battery life and replacement, is a separate matter.

I would 100% go fully electric if I had a drive/garage, or better charging infrastructure round here.

honestly, check out any lease deals if you can.

https://leasing.com/independent-brokers/zenauto-limited/hyundai/kona/834858926/

Not much different to what keeping my old 14yo Panda for 2 years cost me overall.

Per month, I mean

It won’t be for a few years as we can’t install a charger at our current home and it would be to replace the jazz which has plenty life in it yet. Was more just speculating on what might be the affordable option second hand in the coming years.

WRT a second hand hybrid/BEV I’d be a little cautious due to battery degradation- the potential bork cost there is likely to write off the vehicle, and could mean (for a hybrid) that you’re running an inefficient and underpowered petrol engine most of the time. Or, it could be fine.

Point is, lease of a new one should take that potential headache away.

My E63 looks like it’s going to cost less (and I mean, way, way less) from a TCO perspective than my C55. By a frankly insane margin. Why? Because it was 25,000 miles and 10 years newer.

That’s absolutely bonkers money to me still.

another thing to look at is whether your employer has any car financing schemes in their benefits package. these will typically let you lease a car but your payments will be net of tax so you can save a wodge of money

These are my exact fears about EVs. We don’t really know what the second hand market will be like in terms of resale and reliability. Maybe you’ll be able to buy battery insurance or something.

My C Max is 14 years old, cost £4k to me to buy. I've spent probably £500 on it. If it does pop any time within the next 18 months, it will have cost me more per month than that lease deal. Such is the unpredictability of (some) older cars. It could go on for another 10, I just don't know.

My mate did this, also gets free charging at work, he’s definitely saving decent cash when he’s commuting (WFH might’ve swung the economics of it a bit tho!).

Did you buy new? It seems mad to me that the costs stack like that. But I’m clearly looking at this from the complete budget end. Neither me or my partner has ever spent more than £3k on a car.

What do you think will "pop"? AFAICT what kills old cars is getting a garage bill for "more than it's worth" for something routine (brakes, tyres, suspension bits, etc) rather than the car breaking.

If you're happy with the car, there's no particular reason you can't run it forever if by throwing occasional money at it. You'll still come out ahead over the silly money you could spend on financing another one.