would you make use of the scrappage scheme?

EddScott

EddScott

EddScott

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Pembrokeshire
Currently we have two cars, a Leon TDI and an old MK3 Golf Driver.

The Leon is my wifes, the golf is mine. The Leon is probably worth about £1500 on a good day and has at some point had paint. The Golf hardly anything (130K, mechanically OK but cosmetically tacky).

I was planning to buy a BMW E46 but I'd like to keep hold of some money for the house and other things so I'm probably going to get a cheap scoob - a turbo wagon for fun and practical thrills.

Now the scoob will be my daily driver as I don't have time for weekend cars (hence selling the last scoob) so I won't need the golf anymore. I'm wondering if I should make use of the scrappage scheme and get a new little car for wifey to burn around the shire in. The Leon we would probably sell.

I've looked at different manufacturers and Fiat offer a pretty good deal to me.

A 1.1 Fiat Panda Active with no deposit and £89 a month for 47 months. At the end of the term we would just give the car back. Yes its poverty spec but it'll be cheap to insure, cheap to tax, cheap on fuel etc. If the car is £4999 after the scrappage cost, she would pay a little over 4K over the term. A 5K loan over 4 years would cost her £125 ish.

Seems like a reasonable deal for a little runabout??
 
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So you'll be effectively paying not far off full price for a car, then giving it back and having nothing to show for it afterwards? No deal.

As for whether I'd take advantage of the scheme? Yes, if I had a requirement for a brand new car and was actually saving £2k+ off the sticker price.
 
[TW]Fox;14820142 said:
It's a rental car.
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Which may or may not be a problem, as long as you're aware of it. You'll be essentially shelling out just over a grand a year for use of the car, (with the option to pay £1700 at the end of it and it being yours). With the APR of 6.9%, that's a pretty good deal, a quick look at moneysupermarket.co.uk shows you aren't going to get a similar rate from the bank on a similar amount.

All of this does rely on you actually wanting the car, and not just changing it because it looks like a good deal, it's almost certainly not as good a deal as not changing the car.

It's a good deal for getting into a new car, but that doesn't make it necessarily a good deal overall, because new cars are rarely a good deal anyway.
 
[TW]Fox;14820205 said:
Is it? Works out at £4k + £2k scrappage so really its a £6k car budget. You can buy and OWN a new Panda for this surely?
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To own the panda outright at the end of the agreement will cost you £5,912.15 in total (including the final payment) (source)

A quick scan of pre-registered car sites gives a price for a new panda of 5945 for the same car (source), prior to any finance considerations. As I said, a quick glance of money supermarket shows that you can't borrow £6k for the same cost Fiat are quoting (best APR is 7.7%, most are around 8.5%+, against fiat's 6.9%). So to buy the pre-reg car (if you could) with zero deposit is going to involve borrowing the full amount at a higher APR, and the full amount is already more expensive than the total amount you will be paying fiat.

On that basis, it's a good deal. It might not be if you don't make the final payment, or if you don't want/need to borrow the money to pay for whatever £6k car you are going to buy, but that is somewhat besides the point.
 
Dolph said:
To own the panda outright at the end of the agreement will cost you £5,912.15 in total (including the final payment) (source)

A quick scan of pre-registered car sites gives a price for a new panda of 5945 for the same car (source), prior to any finance considerations. As I said, a quick glance of money supermarket shows that you can't borrow £6k for the same cost Fiat are quoting (best APR is 7.7%, most are around 8.5%+, against fiat's 6.9%). So to buy the pre-reg car (if you could) with zero deposit is going to involve borrowing the full amount at a higher APR, and the full amount is already more expensive than the total amount you will be paying fiat.
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How much is it to buy a brand new Panda from Fiat, receive £2k off due to scrappage and then borrow the remainder?
 
Well the OTR price of the poverty spec Panda is just over £7K. The scrappage + some made up bonus incentive thng brings it down to £4999. At £89 a month thats £4183 and we just hand the car back after.

It seems like a reasonable deal but I think Dolph is right its not as good a deal as not doing it as we don't owe anything on our current cars. I just thought that as we won't need the golf much longer and the Leon is getting a bit long in the tooth we could revamp the driveway a bit for not too much money.

Mind you, shes more of a brand snob than me so I would imagine she's highly likely to turn her nose up at a Fiat Panda - albeit a new one. :)
 
[TW]Fox;14820276 said:
How much is it to buy a brand new Panda from Fiat, receive £2k off due to scrappage and then borrow the remainder?
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To borrow £5k? MS shows no-one is beating Fiat's rate on an unsecured personal loan for a start, so let's look.

http://www.moneysupermarket.com/loans/quick-search-results.aspx?pageid=100

We can discount the nationwide one, because you have to be an existing nationwide customer with a certain type of account with them in order to qualify.

The next best is Sainsburys, with a total cost of £5901, you'll save yourself about £11 over the course of the loan, assuming you qualify for that rate.

So yeah, I'd still say it is a good deal, if you want a new fiat panda.
 
Another thing I want to mention is that I mention Fiat as they seem the only ones with £0 deposit. As I would see the car as nothing more than rental, any deposit seems like a waste of money.

The scheme only applies to cars that have a current MOT - the Golfs ran out in July :D
Its in on Monday and should pass hopefully.
 
Sell the golf, they're good runabouts the mk3's, I still like mine, even if it is heavy and a little sluggish, I like the way it drives.
You'll get a 2-300 for it at least.
 
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