£4k~ loan to buy a 3 Series

B@Th*nG

B@Th*nG

B@Th*nG

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
6,905
Hi guys,

I'm not sure whether this is the right forum for such a question but... i'm looking at replacing my dirty Vectra with a decent car and was looking at e46 3 Series BMW's, where £4k can buy you a good condition 85-100k example.

I don't have the readies to buy this now so would need to get a loan. Is a loan a good idea for something like this and what would be the best way of borrowing the money?

B@
 
Have you got the readies to afford BMW parts if something serious goes wrong?

Perhaps at this price point Mondeos, Vectras etc make more sense due to typical running costs.

Do you rely on the car to work?
 
Tesla said:
Have you got the readies to afford BMW parts if something serious goes wrong?

Perhaps at this price point Mondeos, Vectras etc make more sense due to typical running costs.

Do you rely on the car to work?
Click to expand...

I do rely on the car to get to work.

I see your point about parts if something goes wrong, but if there's a serious (say a head gasket) failure then it's going to cost nearly as much to repair a Mondeo as a 3 series isn't it? If it's a minor failure then there are as many 3 series BMW's out there as Mondeo's now so there's no shortage of 2nd hand parts or independents willing/knowledgeable to do the work. What do you think?

paradigm said:
A £4k (decent engined, decent specced) E46 will be a bit tatty IMO.
Click to expand...

here's an example: http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1256052.htm

B@
 
Apart from the fact that the E46 is a better car (but more expensive car to maintain), why would you want to take out a £4k loan in the current financial market of high lending rates to buy a car NOW? It smacks of a not very sensible, vanity decision.

If you want an E46, save up for it. Setting up a standing order of £250 pcm towards a seperate 'car fund' should set you up nicely. There's not much difference between that and the £150pcm you'd be paying in loan repayments, with the latter of course, costing you a lot more in the long run.

Personally, I think you'd be bettter off keeping the Vectra or chopping it in for a Mk3 Mondeo.
 
Last edited:
Muffin` said:
Contact: shabz s
Click to expand...

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1248855.htm

Contact: Chris Davis

any better you massive racist? ;)

MarkDavis said:
Apart from the fact that the E46 is a better car (but more expensive car to maintain), why would you want to take out a £4k loan in the current financial market of high lending rates to buy a car NOW? It smacks of a not very sensible, vanity decision.

If you want an E46, save up for it. Setting up a standing order of £250 pcm towards a seperate 'car fund' should set you up nicely.
Click to expand...

Ah, I was hoping for some financial advice like this. Part of it is that i'm sick of the vectra being generally poor handling/performing car but don't get me wrong a large part of it is just that I want a nice car. If getting a loan on something like this (or anything "unnecessary") is a stupid idea at the moment then I guess I'll have to re-think :/ thanks

B@
 
Last edited:
the door looks like it doesn't fit properly on the first
the second is just awful. CHECK MY FAKE EM FREEZ AND FULLRUN TYREZ YO

just no.

£4k will get you a nasty 3 series, with nothing left to fix whatever goes wrong, because something will.
and those 'fullrun' cost £50 for 18", which is about a third of what good tyres cost :/
 
Last edited:
Tesla said:
Have you got the readies to afford BMW parts if something serious goes wrong?

Perhaps at this price point Mondeos, Vectras etc make more sense due to typical running costs.
Click to expand...

my thoughts exactly. if youre scraping the money together to buy the car then its not wise, you always want an emergency fund

with £4k id be looking to spend about £3k so you dont have to maintain it on a shoe string and turn the car into a skip

mondeo time for you i think
 
If you need to borrow £4k, perhaps entering BMW sector is not a good idea. Everyone deserves good car but just consider this - even if you find clean and well kept example, without money to maintain it to high standard it will soon be.. well.. basically what any E46 under £4k is at the moment.
 
Listen to v0n. Older BMWs are great but not the sort of car you buy without your eyes wide open and spare cash for the running costs. They also attract idiots as owners and buying cars from idiots is bad.
 
Facelift Sport or nothing TBH!

7k minimum for at least a decent mileage and well kept Facelift Sport E46 even today.
 
IMO, if you are taking out a loan for this type of car, the interest rate doesn't make a huge amount of difference (to an extent).

For example, at 9% APR you'll pay back £777 extra over 4 years. At 5% APR (a historically low rate for personal loans) you'll pay back £420 ish. So over the 4 years the difference amounts to only about £300.

If you are set on financing a car, do it now, if you'd rather save up, start saving now. But don't discount finance because rates are "high" when in monetary terms it doesn't make a huge difference.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom