How do you finance your cars?

I've paid for all of the 3 cars i've owned outright in full. Having said that 2.5k was the most expensive one.

I'm of the opinion that if you haven't got the money, then don't get it. I'd easily be able to get finance to get an expensive car but that's not how i roll.
 
Savings when possible. A couple of times I've needed a small personal loan to make up the difference. I've got no problem doing this as long as I know I can clear the loan before selling the car on.
 
I've financed all of my cars except my first couple. All with a deposit (20-30%) and the rest in monthly payments. Works fine for me.
 
I never got my head around the finance on cars.

Isn't it always best just to buy outright?

Not trolling with the next bit but if you have to finance a car does it not mean that you can't actually afford the car? Aka you can only afford it by going via finance?
 
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pepsilol said:
I never got my head around the finance on cars.

Isn't it always best just to buy outright?

Not trolling with the next bit but if you have to finance a car does it not mean that you can't actually afford the car? Aka you can only afford it by going via finance?

Thats regarding people who finance cars that are less than 15-20k.
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Why do you think the value of the car makes a difference?
 
Not necessarily - I guess its whats important is the amount relative to your monthly income. I have a friend who financed (in some way) his 996 despite having a very good salary - he just didn't have £60,000 cash available to pay for it outright. He could definitely afford it
 
If he can definitely afford it then he should have 60k for the car.

If you need finance surely you can't afford it..

So essentially he can afford the finance package?
 
pepsilol said:
If he can definitely afford it then he should have 60k for the car.

If you need finance surely you can't afford it..

So essentially he can afford the finance package?
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I'm not sure where you're actually going with this debate... Just because you don't have the capital saved up doesn't mean you can't afford something...
 
pepsilol said:
I never got my head around the finance on cars.

Isn't it always best just to buy outright?

Not trolling with the next bit but if you have to finance a car does it not mean that you can't actually afford the car? Aka you can only afford it by going via finance?
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I didn't have the spare cash to buy my car outright 3 years ago, but did have the money to repay a loan over 3 years.

So bascially I got my car 3 years earlier. If I wanted to buy outright I'd be buying it this year.
 
NickXX said:
I didn't have the spare cash to buy my car outright 3 years ago, but did have the money to repay a loan over 3 years.

So bascially I got my car 3 years earlier. If I wanted to buy outright I'd be buying it this year.
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Nail on the head.

People use finance to get what they want when they want it for a small-ish fee.

Unless you earn very large amounts of money, getting say £60k together would take quite a while.

Also generally if you are in the market for £60k+ cars there are better ways of using you capital than just putting it all in a car.
 
Nothing wrong with using finance for a car purchase as long as you know what you're getting into. Most people don't have the large amounts in savings required to buy a car outright. The important stuff is getting a decent interest rate, making sure the repayments are affordable, and making sure the finance will be paid off when ,or before, the car is sold.
 
pepsilol said:
If he can definitely afford it then he should have 60k for the car.

If you need finance surely you can't afford it..

So essentially he can afford the finance package?
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What about your house? If you mortgage a house for 250k could you not afford it...?

I financed my 35k M3 even though I could have paid for it. I chose not to simply because the 'cost' of financing to me was negligible to having the money in the bank. Sure, if you look at absolute bottom line it would have cost me more to finance than outright - but that cost to finance was a reasoned choice.

Also, some people get car allowances in lieu of company cars - how would they use that to buy a car via capital outlay? Or should they 'finance' the car themselves and the company pays them back via monthly car allowance?

I do kinda understand what you're getting at, but I don't believe it's as black and white.
 
MeEsH BaKkA said:
Also generally if you are in the market for £60k+ cars there are better ways of using you capital than just putting it all in a car.
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I'm not even sure it's at the 60k value. Paid 27k for my M3, and I was deffo umming and aaahing about just financing it. The cost to finance isn't really that much, and having 28k of cash in the bank is a nice security blanket.

//EDITed for clarity - had two E92s, previous was 35k, current one was 27.
//EDITed again as none of my figures made any sense :D
//EDITed for spelling. Sod it.
 
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I've always bought outright, but I've never spent above £2k on buying a car so far. I intend to spend around £8k on a car later this year, and am saving for that at the moment. I will put down as much as I can afford, and then probably finance the rest with either a small loan / OD
 
Fair enough, I'm not saying I am right. Just the way I look at it , which is probably wrong.

But it just "feels" that way to me.

If fianance didn't exist, I wonder what cars everyone would have!
 
pepsilol said:
I never got my head around the finance on cars.

Isn't it always best just to buy outright?

Not trolling with the next bit but if you have to finance a car does it not mean that you can't actually afford the car? Aka you can only afford it by going via finance?
Click to expand...

Would you apply the same logic to a house? You should not live in a house until you have saved up enough to buy one outright?
 
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