How to get the best car finance deal as costs rise by 50 PER CENT in three years
PCP costs have skyrocketed since 2016, leaving drivers out of pocket by as much as £98 per month
CAR finance costs have increased by as much as 49 per cent in the last three years.
The tumbling pound has left UK drivers out of pocket by as much as £98 per month, or £4,606 over the course of the full contract, according to new research.
Sterling has dropped in value from more than 1.3 euros to the pound in May 2016 to barely 1.1 euros in February 2019.
And it's had a significant impact on personal contract purchase (PCP) finance costs for numerous cars, with a large proportion of the UK's motors imported from Europe or using many European parts.
Research by found some PCP contract costs rose by as much as 49 per cent in monthly payment terms.
Monthly payments have increased more than one-and-a-half times as fast as cars’ cash prices, putting real pressure on household budgets when drivers come to the end of their current contract and look to change their car.
How to get the best finance deal on your new car
- Push for a cash discount before talking about finance
- Make sure you get a finance discount – known as a deposit contribution
- Choose an in-stock car for more scope to haggle
- Ask the dealer to throw in extras like a service plan
- Get quotes from more than one dealership
- Walk away if you’re not getting a good deal
- Give yourself plenty of time at the showroom
PCP finance costs have been hit hard recently because the monthly costs are based upon the difference between cars’ rising cash price and their predicted values at the end of the contract – which have gone down in many cases.
This means that drivers signing up for a new contract have to pay far more every month simply to get the same car.
Drivers can make sure they get the best finance deal by pushing for cash and finance discounts when making a deal, along with asking for extras to be thrown in.
Getting multiple quotes and allowing plenty of time in the showroom can also help you to make an informed decision.
Parkers studied 14 different models and found worrying increases across the board.
A driver of a supermini could expect their costs to leap from around £200 per month to £234 when they came to hand their car back for an identical new one.
And worryingly, it’s the cheapest cars that are increasing in cost fastest.
Many city cars have spiralled out of control in cost terms, with one model ramping up from £76 to £113 per month in just two years – an increase of 48 per cent.
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Chris Loyd, Parkers Finance Editor, said: “With more than 90 per cent of privately purchased cars being financed, potentially millions of drivers could be in for a shock when they come to replace their car.
“Consider the fact the average UK household spent £900 more than it earned in 2017, and hundreds of thousands of families could find themselves priced out of the new car finance market – with the inability to stomach higher monthly bills and no savings to put down a bigger deposit to shrink the instalments.
“Parkers research reveals that costs are increasing so fast that drivers who are tied into finance contracts currently may not be able to afford to finance the same car next time around (assuming the same contract terms).
“A Fiat Panda city car that would have set you back £119 per month two years ago is now £153 per month for new customers – despite being one of the oldest small cars still on sale and scoring an abysmal zero-star safety rating.
“Sign up for a new Panda today, therefore, and that same car could cost you an additional £1,580 over the four-year contract compared with someone who signed the contract in January 2017.”
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And the Panda is far from the worst culprit.
Opt for a diesel BMW 1 Series and you’d have to stump up an additional £98 every single month on PCP finance compared with someone who picked up the car 18 months ago.
That means you’d pay a total of £4,606 more in total for exactly the same car.