New car recommendation

Hi,

I made a post recently for a used car recommendation, but I'm leaning towards getting a new car financed through a hire purchase plan.

I know very little about cars, so hopefully I can be pointed in the right direction

I'm looking for a car that has an excellent safety rating, reliable/robust, easy/cheap maintenance and parts, good for motorway and city driving, good MPG, comfortable, and easy to drive.

I estimate my yearly mileage will be up to 20000 miles, with probably 2/3rds of that being motorways and A-roads. Although this may be quite a bit less depending on where I'm working.

Budget wise, I'm not really sure. I'm after good quality and value for money, but as a starting point probably around 15-20K.

Thanks

Welcome to OcUK, where every other recommendation will be for something either very fast or quite old. I'll get that out of the way now for you by suggesting you purchase a Mercedes Benz S350 CDI, which is the ideal car for your requirements. Or perhaps a 5 year old Audi!

Now we've got that out of the way, buy a used 12 month old Skoda Superb with DSG gearbox. You'll get 2 years factory warranty, which can be extended at reasonable cost.

Pretty much what Fox says. The Superb will get you the best overall "bang per buck" for that money. Cheapest way to finance it is probably with a bank loan though rather than dealer finance, where for a used car you are most likely looking at over 10% APR.

What about a I40. Seems like good value

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...s/1501/make/hyundai/model/i40/page/1/usedcars


Skoda sounds good also

Something like

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201511279027499

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201506114239082

You could look into the Octavia if you don't mind the smaller car and less refinement. If i recall, they had some pretty good value lease deals too, if that was a route you were considering? They're not greatly cheaper to buy though and you might appreciate the comfort if you're doing significant mileage.

Seem to be good value at a couple of years old

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif.../1501/make/skoda/model/superb/page/1/usedcars

That's because there is a new generation out making that look quite dated.

There are used current gen MQB-based Octavias floating about though, £12-14k gets you a good 11.6 or 2.0 diesel.

Spent some time looking at the suggestions, but could do with more advice

I'm highly likely to go for a Hire Purchase (or even PCP), and I'm probably going to keep it for quite a long time, so I feel it makes sense to go for a new car rather than a used car. Any tips on deciding whether I should go for PCP or HP?

The Octavia and Superb are nice, but not sure if it's too big or if I like the style, which I'll only know once I see it in person. I'd probably lean towards the Octavia based on the reviews as it might offer better value for money.

What do people think of a VW Golf or Ford Focus? I quite like the look of the Golf, and the reviews regard them quite highly. Any particular 'edition' I should go for? I was thinking the Match Edition or BlueMotion.

I'm quite keen on having a lot of the safety and convenience features, so a car with many of these features that work well and without having to spend a fortune on them would be great.

Appreciate your help, and any other recommendations.

PCP is likely to work out the most expensive overall. Although the monthly payments will be the most attractive. With a PCP you are "offsetting" the residual value of the vehicle until the end of the term. What this means for you, how might be likely to keep it past this term, is that you will always be paying the interest on this amount. Whereas with HP, you are steadily paying off the amount down to zero. But with either a much larger monthly payment, or over an increased term. But most likely cheaper overall.

New is a better shout than nearly new, because you can often get big discounts with a new car, and is using dealer finance, you can often get a good deposit contribution for their finance products as well as much better finance rates. This isn't the case usually if you are going down the route of HP with a bank loan though, and this could be the cheapest option for you.

The Golf and the Focus will both likely be great cars. The Golf will probably have a slightly nicer interior too. And both will likely be marginally nicer than the equivalent Skoda on the inside, but that might be subjective. However, spec wise, the Skoda will likely have by far the better standard specification, and will likely be cheaper for it too.

Having a look on Broadspeed gives these numbers on estate versions :

Ford Focus TDCi ST-3 2.0 Diesel Manual 5dr : £22,769
Skoda Octavia TDI vRS 2.0 Diesel Manual 5dr : £21,039
Skoda Superb TDI SE L Executive 2.0 Diesel Manual 5dr : £23,315 (I specifically didn't pick the L&K here, which despite being the top of the range model like the others suggested, kind of, it is more expensive at £26,211)

They are for "poverty spec" examples though. But only marginally above your upper budget.

Of course, the Superb appears to be a lot more car for not much more money in my opinion. And would be my choice all day long.

If you don't like the Skoda for whatever reason and want to spend as little as possible you could donworse than the likes of a year old Optima

Quite a lot of car for the money and a good balance for motorway work. Not the best engine in the world but it at least feels adequate. It's also got a massively better (design) interior than the i40 imo

Be in no doubt the Skoda is a better car, but at circa £13k for a year old 'crdi 2' I'd say the Kia makes a case for itself. They seem to take a massive first year depreciation tumble then even out so buying new wouldn't be advised, though as above with some cars the discounted new price isnso close to that of a few months old you would only ever want to go new

Thank you both for your advice.

xs2man said:

New is a better shout than nearly new, because you can often get big discounts with a new car, and is using dealer finance, you can often get a good deposit contribution for their finance products as well as much better finance rates. This isn't the case usually if you are going down the route of HP with a bank loan though, and this could be the cheapest option for you.

The Golf and the Focus will both likely be great cars. The Golf will probably have a slightly nicer interior too. And both will likely be marginally nicer than the equivalent Skoda on the inside, but that might be subjective. However, spec wise, the Skoda will likely have by far the better standard specification, and will likely be cheaper for it too.

Having a look on Broadspeed gives these numbers on estate versions :

Ford Focus TDCi ST-3 2.0 Diesel Manual 5dr : £22,769
Skoda Octavia TDI vRS 2.0 Diesel Manual 5dr : £21,039
Skoda Superb TDI SE L Executive 2.0 Diesel Manual 5dr : £23,315 (I specifically didn't pick the L&K here, which despite being the top of the range model like the others suggested, kind of, it is more expensive at £26,211)

They are for "poverty spec" examples though. But only marginally above your upper budget.

Of course, the Superb appears to be a lot more car for not much more money in my opinion. And would be my choice all day long.

Click to expand...

How do you get the discounts? Do I just ask when I'm at the dealer? Any examples of how much of a discount?

The Superb sounds good, but I worry the car is going to be too big, which may affect handling and fuel usage, and perhaps not suited to inner city driving? I'm having a hard time choosing the Octavia vs the Superb!

These prices are just taken straight off the broadspeed site (https://broadspeed.com/), as I find that to generally be the easiest broker site to get a price from. Other brokers might do a better deal though.

So, the Focus was a saving of £4825, Octavia was £4835 and the Superb £4964.

You can spec up the car you want there, get your price, print it off and take it to your local / preferred dealer. They will either match it, try to get close, or not even bother. Then you decide if it's worth it to you to stick with them, or go through a broker. These broker cars are all main dealer supplied anyway, so no difference to buying from your local dealer.

To help simplify the different ways of purchasing

- Hire purchase - Similar to a loan but you dont own it during the hire period. Take the whole value of the car, divide it by the number of payments and add the APR. You own it at the end.
- PCP - You're effectively taking a loan for the depreciation of the car during the period. Take the purchase price, deduct the expected value at the end of the term (Known as guaranteed future value) and pay a loan for the difference. At the end you can buy it for the GFV, hand it back or use the "equity" as a trade in for another. The equity comes from the fact that the GFV is normally lower than the actual market value
- Lease/Personal contract hire - you're literally hiring the car for a long period. Cheapest monthly for a new car, but the initial payment is not a returnable "deposit" and can be significant, so you need to take into account the total ownership cost. You return the car at the end - no equity and no option to buy.
- Bank loan/personal finance - you get a bank loan and buy the car. From the dealerships perspective they're selling a car in cash so not subsidising finance deals. APRs can be very low if your credit history is good.

If you plan to keep the car for a long time then the latter option is the cheapest overall - lower APR and better purchase price on the car, but does depend on you having a good credit score. If your credit score is poor then subsidised HP finance might work out better.

Leasing is the cheapest monthly payment to have a new car, but the lackof ownership means its the most expensive in the long run.

PCP is somewhere in the middle - gives some of the flexibility of changing cars or being able to exit the deal with a total ownership cost which can be lower than leasing in the long run.

If you're not sure about your needs and finances in the future then be wary of leasing - as it's a rental, if you want to give the car back early then it's normally very expensive to do so. If you had a 3 year lease then needed something different, or move abroad etc after 1 year, then you'd have to pay 2 years of payments (less a small deduction) in order to hand it back. All of the other options will allow you (with varying difficulty, check the terms of each agreement) to get out of them without too much hassle.

[TW]Fox;28879056 said:

Welcome to OcUK, where every other recommendation will be for something either very fast or quite old..

Click to expand...

You sir, need a Lotus Elise.

Thanks for all your help.

Speaking to a few more people about recommendations, and they're suggesting the following used cars which may be within my budget: Audi A4, Mercedes C Class, or BMW 3 series.

What do people think of these options? I'd still finance them rather than buying outright.

They all would have models in budget. But you will be looking at older examples. And if you want similar spec levels, you're looking older again to remain in budget.

The A4 will really be a "posher" Superb (well, actually probably somewhere between the Octavia and the Superb). I am not a fan of the C-Class personally, they do nothing for me. The 3 series is ok, but as Fox will no doubt come in to confirm, the interior is just almost lifted from a 1 series, and so does appear to be on the cheaper end of the German saloon market.

To be fair though, if you are happy to look at an older car, you should be able to pick up a F10/F11 520d or 530d for around £20k, and there will be no better motor to do that sort of mileage in. Pick one up with under 60k on it, and you can extend the excellent warranty for a not entirely unreasonable monthly cost, and keep it rolling for as long as you own the var.

If you're going to own them outside of the warranty period and are trying to keep potential costs down therefore not wanting to pay for any extended warranty then I personally wouldn't bother as you'll be walking into an older car for the money then putting reasonable miles on it within a relatively short period of time.


If you don't mind paying to extend warranty both BMW and Audi do a reasonably priced comprehensive cover, not sure about Mercedes but would be surprised if they didn't offer something (probably at lol cost)

Another thing to consider is that, being older cars with potentially expensive problems, you'd want to make sure you have a warranty. I know the BMW aftermarket warranty is very good, but when you're buying on finance you have to consider what ~£50+ a month for a warranty could mean if you added it to your finance payments instead

Been reading up quite a bit on the suggestions, but still having a hard time ranking them. I'll definitely pop down the local dealers to see them once I have some sort of priority list.

Some of the features I like the sound of are:

• Auto dimming headlights
• Front and rear proximity sensors
• Rear view camera
• Safety features like lane straying warnings, automatic braking, blind spot detection, etc.

I currently do a lot of mileage, but this may change in the future depending on the job so I want a car that is a good all-rounder, rather than just for motorway cruising. I can definitely stretch the budget a little more than £20K as I plan to take a monthly payment finance plan.

Skoda - Can't decide whether to go for Octavia or Superb.
Upsides: seems to be good value for money.
Downsides: bigger car than I need, reviews suggest driving performance isn't great, but I may not really notice the latter. Not sure on having a larger engine as it pushes up insurance a bit.

I'm looking at smaller cars like the Audi A3, BMW 1-series, and the Golf.

The 1-series and A3 are both very nice, and to me seem quite similar, so hard to distinguish between them. The reviews seem to give the A3 an edge.

The Golf seems like a good all-rounder based on the reviews, but may be a bit 'ordinary' compared to the A3 and 1-series. Not that I think that would bother me that much.

What do people think? Apologies if this is dragging on, I'm finding it very hard to make a decision

The Octavia is traditionally considered a Golf sized car, albeit with a boot. So when considering 1 series / A3 / Golf, the Octavia is around this same size. Again, the Skoda is most likely to have the best standard spec, so will likely require the least optional extras to get everything you want. And be the cheapest.

I don't know how old you are, or how much engine size affects your insurance, but it will likely be, by far, not your biggest expense with such a car. That's not so say dont worry about it, but I would weigh it up overall and go for whats best. For the amount of motorway driving your, at least initially, expecting to do, a bigger, more powerful car makes the driving easier and more comfortable.

I used to commute 100 miles a day in an old, rattly non-turbo diesel Polo. It was doable, sure, but I wouldn't want to do it again. I hated the car slowing down for hills, and while it was fine buzzing around the town, it isn't really what you want for the longer drives. You always felt like you were exhausted when you arrive.