Finance, Loan or Lease

**Steve01** · 8th January 2011, 21:26

Hey guys n gals
After some advice, decided that when I get home we are gonna splash out on an Insignia, if buying it would be year or so old model and wondered if anyone had any experiences on Leasing which obviously would be "brand spankers" or would I be better getting a loan/finance.
I am after possibly a 1.8 SRI NAV hopefully VX line. Definately gonna be Black as I think they look well smart!
Any help/advice muchly appreciated!
Thanks

**RobW** · 8th January 2011, 21:57

Loan - sometimes good because its not secured against the car and there are good deals out there for blue collar clients BUT.... you will still be paying the loan if anything should happen to the car. You own the car though so can sell after any length of time you want.

Finance - 90% of the time is secured against the car, fail to pay and the car is gone! Easy to get a good deal on finance deals by playing dealers off each other, and the dealer will make a killing on the finance commission so a bit more 'wiggle room' if you like. Little known fact about finance os the voulantary termination. So long as you have paid half of what is owed, you can just hand the car back to the finance company (as long as it is in good condition!!) You don't own the car until you have paid the final payment and if you decide after a year you do not want it anymore, it can be expensive to get out of (unless you have paid half the borrowed amount). P.S. Against the law to sell a car with outstanding finance!

Lease - sometimes known as PCP (personal contract plan or similar) these seem like such a good deal at the time but please read the small print. Small deposit, smaller monthly's but a baloon payment at the end. This is avoidable by renewing into a new car or just terminating the deal but the low payments are based on a stupidly low annual mileage, usually in the region of 5-8k! And you never own the car unless you pay the baloon payment.

I used to work in car sales and my advice is if you go down the loan route, make it a short loan, pay it off ASAP, or only borrow the ABSOLUTE minimum.

If you finance then take over a maximum of 4 years, they up the APR's on anything over 4 years to really make some money! And put as big a deposit down as you can. IMO, never lease / pcp a car. It is a good scheme for very low mileage people who want a new car every 2-3 years but generally its older people with smaller cars or companies with a large fleet!

HTH, and sorry for a lengthy post!!

**RobW** · 8th January 2011, 22:00

And these deals you see advertised on the TV or in the papers for some cars

'£99 deposit and £99 per month' - they are lease / pcp plans and there would be a baloon payment of about half to two thirds the initial value of the car.

**Steve01** · 8th January 2011, 22:08

Thanks for that RobW, no apology needed for lengthy post good to get a full explanation.

**tonyord** · 8th January 2011, 22:09

ive just bought a insignia and got a loan from the bank with a good rate and the good thing is no set up fees or final option to purchace fees so defo bank all the way plus you can pay extra each month to reduce the term and the ammount of interest you pay back,hope this helps

**Steve01** · 8th January 2011, 22:11

Nice motor, what model you go for tony?

**tonyord** · 8th January 2011, 22:23

its a sri 160 cdti its lovely to drive but only got fuel economy up to 44mpg was hoping for 48mpg but i can live with it for now do you not fancy a diesel theres some good deals about

**Big Sig** · 8th January 2011, 22:23

Loan over finance, at least you own your own car then.

**Steve01** · 8th January 2011, 22:28

never been a lover of diesels to be honest tony

**tonyord** · 8th January 2011, 22:37

wow not many petrol ones about the only petrol one with nav is this one but not vx line ill keep looking for you

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2009-Vauxhall-...item2c586b2e2a