Vauxhall 0% Finance scheme - too good to be true??

£15000 for a brand new focus, not bad at all in comparison to the Astra at least!

Been doing some more searching and come across a 2009 focus 21k on the clock and only £6890, because it's a category D. The seller told me it had both passenger side doors scraped but the doors have been fully replaced..what risks would one be taking with a
Category d vehicle...? And is it worth it?
 
Not when there are thousands of Focuses out there that haven't been crashed, no. It'd have to be more than just two doors being replaced for it to be written off at less than 3 years old. CAT D means that the repair was unecomical, so when it's worth 10K+, it'd have been a fair smack.
 
Guys I looked at a ford mondeo 2007 2.0 tdi with 38,000...no service history though the seller says the service book didn't come with car when they got it. This sounds suspicious to me though...?
 
manisinghb said:
Guys I looked at a ford mondeo 2007 2.0 tdi with 38,000...no service history though the seller says the service book didn't come with car when they got it. This sounds suspicious to me though...?
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Buying a 5 year old diesel without a service history would be very silly.
 
markyp23 said:
It's always difficult when you don't know a lot about cars (and I include myself in that group also). You just want something that works, yet you don't want to spend the earth on it. Then on the other hand, you want something cheap but it's very daunting, from a position of knowing nothing about cars, to buy from a private seller (what if something is badly wrong?) or from a dealer who can see you coming from the end of the forecourt. So people end up going for the big main dealers (on some kind of perverse lesser of all evils logic), who'll "look after you" with warranties and the like, but they'll also charge you an arm and a leg.

1) What do you want in a car?
2) Why do you NEED to get rid of your Vectra?
3) Take some time to think of all the other things you could do with that money...
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All very good and very true points...

1) something reliable and cheap to run
2) the Vectra is having electrical problems now and the ECU has gone, going to cost me £400 for a replacement, then again can get a cheaper alternative but I've had enough and it's time it went (also been banged up along the side by some stupid motorcyclist)
3) I'm always thinking what to do =(
 
Here's a quick helper to get you started with your search for a new car.

1. Don't buy another vauxhall.
2. Don't buy anything french.
3. The Italians (in your price bracket) aren't really any better.
4. Take your time deciding, although perhaps not as long as Fox would.
 
markyp23 said:
I despair when I see people who say they have no savings talk about spending over £10k on a car...no matter how long you're paying it off over. By the time you are making your last payment, the car will be worth about £3k, and you're still paying £3-400 a month to own it...let alone run it...no thanks!

I'm not one to advise on car choices, but what is good is anything reliable and common. Common is important because parts are cheaper and you can get them serviced at more places. Think Mk3 Mondeos and cars like that, another Vectra/Astra or something along those lines. We're talking about less than half of £10k for something reliable and nice...AFAIK, I'm sure others can confirm that though!

Perhaps other people can give links to appropriately priced examples of cars and what points to look out for when buying them (make sure it's had cambelt done by x miles etc). Then you'll have a lot more money to think about what to do with! :D

P.S. Sure you can't get the Vectra fixed for cheaper?
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Nah I've got another thread on the vectra ECU problems and it's just not worth the headache now to be honest. I'm sure I can get it done cheaper from somewhere private about £50 to get it tested and some more to get it fixed can't remember how much for that though, but what if that doesn't sort the problem? It's not for certain the ECU is the culprit.. Long story so let's just say as a last last last resort I might get it done but for now need to get shot
 
I was looking at replacing my car and finding out about 0% finance deals and a friend pointed this out.

As soon as I saw how much they wanted for one of the Vauxhalls, even the 1.0S Corsa or 1.3 Astra, I knew that it was far too much (over exaggerated) and they don't exactly get provided with a good trim level.

If you default on the finance payments, with one of the Vauxhalls in this case, GMAC will take the car from you and you will have no money back or come back and if it is even slightly damaged, you'll have big bills ahead and still nothing to show for. The car will always belong to them until all finance is paid for and any extra things (chips, scratches, lack of service history, excess mileage) are also paid for, including final payments where applicable.

Try to buy whatever you can afford to but if you do have to go for finance, a bank loan is best, at least it won't be secured on the car, even if you have to pay interest and you will be given more 'breathing' space.

I would still recommend that only a 50% loan is taken but that's my opinion. It still will feel like a millstone around the neck, whichever way you go, but then a Mortgage is like that anyway and at least houses generally appreciate...

I ended up giving up on the brand new market and looked at the secondary market instead and as my parents happened to be replacing their car, this helped me a lot and meant I could pay in cash and not get into debt.

Kind regards,

David
 
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To follow on from gamefreak501

Taking out a loan for less than the value of a car is generally a decent idea, the amount owed on a car will decrease more or less linearly but the value of the car will drop faster in the beginning and slow down near the end. This poses a problem that you could owe more on the loan than the car is worth!

Say someone crashes into your parked car and its written off, insurance company gives you a payment for the value of the car but you are unable to clear the finance from that, so you have no car and still need to pay for it :( No fault of your own, just bad luck.
 
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