Hi Mate,

I've just spent the last month intensively looking for a family car. In the end I purchsed an Audi A6 Avant  (£30k + one year old). The next step was sorting the finance??..I came across a company called car-finance.net, they were brilliant. 

I dealt with Adam Canay (01782 854 690) who was excellent and very knowledgeable, he sorted my finance on a lease purchase and beat every other main dealer quote by miles. The most astonishing thing was he sorted my finance package and paid my dealer within 2 days!!...I have never been so impressed.

I telephoned every "so called car finance company"  and I can say hand on heart these chaps are excellent!!..they do exactly what they say. Even if you don't eventually deal with them - just telephone them for advice - you won't be dissapointed!!..

the focus CC-3 TDCI with a load of extras - hence the 4 month waiting list at the moment. Either that or an EOS but it depends on getting the price to the £350 or under mark and being able to get little ones pram in the boot.  The Focus CC-3 has the biggest boot space out of the EOS, TwinTop, C70(!!) and Megane CC. The rear space in things like the 207CC and 307CC dont look to be too big as i need that car seat in for the odd times i take the little one out in the car :)

Looking at the RBS car site (forget the url right now) It seems that might be the best way to tackle the car.  the focus comes in at around £294 a month and even the EOS comes in at a really good spot. 

 The problem i have with the EOS vs the Focus is the standard kit on the Focus CC-3 is superior (cruise control in particular)
 

You can do a PCP with your mileage, just need to declare it at the start. This determines the GFV (final baloon payment) amount and consequently, the monthly payment. If you go over your mileage then you will probably face a charge of around 6p per mile (+vat) at the end of the term. 

You don't own the car at the end of the term (say 36 months), but if you had a 60 month HP agreement, you wouldn't own the car at the 36 month point anyway. Further, you would probably have a good chunk of negative equity to soak up and be stuck with the car (MOT's, no warranty etc) or have to borrow the neg eq on top of the price of any new vehicle, getting yourself deeper into negative equity next time and so on... 

Out of interest, what car are you looking at getting?

JJ

Pondering what to do with the next car purchase and looking for ideas...

 My current car is on a lease which is due to expire May of next year.  I have it on a 2.88ppm contract and after checking a few things out it isnt viable for me to bail out of the lease at this point in time.. (i took it on a 4yr which wont happen again!) and with the mileage cost so low i might as well keep it going ..

 I'd describe my mileage as around 18K-20K a year. The car im looking at is currently on at least a 4 month waiting list so im planning to order it around December time as I suspect i will be able to hand my current car back in April next year with little or no penalties bar the mileage.

 What im struggling with is how best to finance the car.  I'm aiming to have a deposit around the £4K mark.  the car will cost between 21K and 25K dependant on model and i want to set the limit of the monthly payment to as close to £350/month as possible and keep the car at the most 3yrs.  The options obviously: Car dealership finance (11.5-14%APR) a bank loan - but to keep the payments to target it probably would end up needing to be around 4 - 5yrs or a lease/pcp/pch type scenario (I just looked over that Freewaycars.co.uk website and the cost comes out around £300 (which since i cant see anything suggesting add VAT is a really good deal).  My issue with leasing is the perception that the car isnt your own at the end - though it served the purpose for the current car.  The other concern i have is the amount of mileage i do .. its generally upto 1500 / month.

 Thoughts