Is PCP a good way to finance a car?

PCPs were introduced in 2013/2014 from what I can see, it's just they've come to the fore more recently as new car sales have risen. I don't doubt they have helped fuel the market, but so did a huge shortage of good quality cars at a reasonable price.

I've been wading through some very good threads on boards and one thing that keeps popping up is the relatively high cost of 1-3 year old cars in the main dealers. Some are speculating that this is done so as to make the new car with PCP seem like a no-brainer.

A case in point: 21k for a 3 year old old-model Skoda Superb with 80k on the clock

http://mynextcar.ie/used-cars-cork/skoda-superb-elegance-1-6-tdi-for-sale-used-skoda-ireland/

If the dealer really wanted to or needed to sell this car, surely they should be competing with what you could bring in from the UK, namely a 2 year old car, the current model with only 17k on the clock. I've been on to the VRT website and currency conversion included could bring this in all included for about 19k
 
I've been wading through some very good threads on boards and one thing that keeps popping up is the relatively high cost of 1-3 year old cars in the main dealers.

I've a friend who works for the Irish distributor for one of the big brands. He's been talking about it for some time, indeed he told me not to buy a couple of years ago as there was no value. He says the prices are just based on what the dealers are able to get due to the limited supply as a result of the crash in sales post tiger. The exchange rate worked in their favour as well for most of that time, but the recent drop in Sterling has made the UK market a far more compelling prospect for good recent-year bargains.
 
I've been wading through some very good threads on boards and one thing that keeps popping up is the relatively high cost of 1-3 year old cars in the main dealers. Some are speculating that this is done so as to make the new car with PCP seem like a no-brainer.

Are the prices of the second hands putting people off?

Are there a lot of one year old cars for sale.
 
Are the prices of the second hands putting people off?

That seems to be the sentiment I'm picking up alright - that the dealers are setting the price of 1-3 year old cars artificially high so that when you compare them to a new one (with the 0% PCP carrot) a new car looks about the same price.
 
From Joe Duffy website.

PCP on Volvo XC 60 D3ES

On the road price €40245
Deposit €12073
Finance amount €28171
36 payments of €390
PAR 4.9%
GMFV €18186

To own the above car through PCP requires 36 x 390 = €14040

Then to buy the GMFV of the car ie (€18186) through finance over 36 months @594 per month = 21384 ( using loan calculator on PTSB website. APR = 11.5%

Total amount repayed for the financing of the car with PCP is € 35424

A straight loan from PTSB for the full finance amount of €28171 over 36 months @APR 10.5% would cost €909 per month so total repayed would be €32724.

How is PCP more attractive?
I was looking at this example from Joe Duffy again as it didn't sit right with me. The figures here just don't add up. They claim on the website that the cost of credit for the XC60 D3 ES is €4,118.49. There is no way the cost of credit could be that much if the APR is 4.9%, even if you are paying interest on the full balance (€28171). The cost of credit on €28171 at 4.9% APR over 36 months is €2239.02 - which should mean the total via PCP would actually be just €30411, significantly less than the straight loan option. I'm not sure what Joe Duffy are at here but either their figures are wrong or they are hiding some charges somewhere.

I think Leo has provided better numbers in his key post which illustrate the differences.

I agree with the points made that the danger with PCP is that it could allow someone who is not financially savvy to think they can buy a new car for just €390 per month rather than €909 per month without thinking of the balloon payment at the end but for those fully aware of the repayments involved the PCP certainly beats the straight loan option on purely financial terms.
 
your worked example compared the interest cost of a 6 year loan to a 3 year loan, its time to let that one go,

fauxblade corrected it for you

fauxblade gave an example showing that if you saved the difference between the low PCP payments and the larger straight loan payments the PCP is more attractive, and only marginally so even though the APR for the PCP was roughly half that for the straight loan ! I'm comparing the overall cost of two methods of financing. The balloon payment has to be financed, if you want to buy the car outright, and if you can't save for it during the 36 months of the low payments. There will be many people who will finance the balloon payment at the end of the 36 payments so my worked example is a perfectly legitimate way of illustrating the typical total cost of a PCP. If the balloon payment is financed over 5 years the PCP will be even less attractive.

All the car adds in my local paper this week were plugging PCP and there's a reason for that and it's not altruistic. Caveat emptor when you're considering a PCP.
 
fauxblade gave an example showing that if you saved the difference between the low PCP payments and the larger straight loan payments the PCP is more attractive, and only marginally so even though the APR for the PCP was roughly half that for the straight loan ! I'm comparing the overall cost of two methods of financing. The balloon payment has to be financed, if you want to buy the car outright, and if you can't save for it during the 36 months of the low payments. There will be many people who will finance the balloon payment at the end of the 36 payments so my worked example is a perfectly legitimate way of illustrating the typical total cost of a PCP. If the balloon payment is financed over 5 years the PCP will be even less attractive.

All the car adds in my local paper this week were plugging PCP and there's a reason for that and it's not altruistic. Caveat emptor when you're considering a PCP.

where you are going wrong is the comparisons you are making, but i see you dont get that so i wont flog this dead horse any more
 
fauxblade gave an example showing that if you saved the difference between the low PCP payments and the larger straight loan payments the PCP is more attractive, and only marginally so even though the APR for the PCP was roughly half that for the straight loan !
As per my post above, the Joe Duffy example is flawed. See my update which shows that if you saved the difference between the low PCP payments and the larger straight loan payments the PCP is substantially more attractive, not marginally (which makes perfect sense when you think about it as how could a loan with half the APR not be substantially better than a loan with double the APR!).
 
There will be many people who will finance the balloon payment at the end of the 36 payments so my worked example is a perfectly legitimate way of illustrating the typical total cost of a PCP. If the balloon payment is financed over 5 years the PCP will be even less attractive.

The Key Post includes that in the examples, with the assumption that the GMFV will be financed at 11%APR over 2 years. That is a better like-for-like comparison using 5 year terms for all options.
 
where you are going wrong is the comparisons you are making, but i see you dont get that so i wont flog this dead horse any more

Cop out. How do you make the final balloon payment to buy the car outright if you haven't saved the money during the 36 months of the low payments?
 
As per my post above, the Joe Duffy example is flawed.

I agree, I've tried working out the numbers and I can't get close to what they're quoting. Financing 28k @ 4.9% APR, you'd need to go over a 7 year term to get the payments down to €390. They're also choosing a higher % GMFV than most other brands, and only have you knocking 10k off the financed amount over the 37 monthly payments.

If you were to straight finance the 28k @ 4.9% over 7 years with €395 monthly payments, the total cost of credit would be €5,045 over the entire 7 years. So how are they accruing 80% of the credit cost over ~40% of the term?
 
The Key Post includes that in the examples, with the assumption that the GMFV will be financed at 11%APR over 2 years. That is a better like-for-like comparison using 5 year terms for all options.

Ultimately the attractiveness of the PCP will depend on several factors and the cost of financing the balloon payment is one of them. Some folks may have to finance the balloon payment over 5 years so they effectively have an 8 year car loan which is going to be expensive, unsurprisingly.
 
Cop out. How do you make the final balloon payment to buy the car outright if you haven't saved the money during the 36 months of the low payments?

if you cant afford to save the balloon why are you comparing it to a 3 year loan with higher monthly repayments than the pcp and monthly amount you would need to save to clear the balloon,

its not a valid comparison
 
Ultimately the attractiveness of the PCP will depend on several factors and the cost of financing the balloon payment is one of them. Some folks may have to finance the balloon payment over 5 years so they effectively have an 8 year car loan which is going to be expensive, unsurprisingly.

Why are you assuming a 45% drop off in their ability to repay a loan? Why couldn't they continue to repay the same monthly payment and pay the GMFV off in ~2.5 years? Any modest savings they've made over the 3 year PCP period could also be used to offset this finance.
 
Why are you assuming a 45% drop off in their ability to repay a loan? Why couldn't they continue to repay the same monthly payment and pay the GMFV off in ~2.5 years?

I said "some folks" - circumstances change. You made the assumption in the key post that borrowers will be able to increase payments to fund the balloon over 24 months ie from €363.77 to €444.17 in your first example.

Also worth noting that a missed payment during the first 36 months of a PCP may result in an inability to get finance to fund the balloon, if finance is required. Unlikely you will lose your car if you miss a payment with a straight loan.

Any modest savings they've made over the 3 year PCP period could also be used to offset this finance.

Can this be done ie pay some of the balloon in cash and finance the rest?

To answer the original question in two words: It depends.
 
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if you cant afford to save the balloon why are you comparing it to a 3 year loan with higher monthly repayments than the pcp and monthly amount you would need to save to clear the balloon,

Don't understand this "sentence" at all, and I'm not being a grammar nazi.
 
I think it's clear that PCPs are a good option if you need a new car and have the funds to buy out the car at the end of the plan. 0% with servicing & anything else the garage throws in is pretty unbeatable. However, PCPs are clearly not designed for this, but rather for the repeat customer. Remember that a car loses most of its money in the first 2 years and by buying new every time, you're going to ultimately spend a small fortune (either through new injections of cash for a new deposit or higher payments). In the end you'll have spent a frightening amount of money and probably have nothing to show for it.
 
Don't understand this "sentence" at all, and I'm not being a grammar nazi.

i'm sure you could if you tried a little harder

thats the issue with responding while doing 3 other things i guess,

anyway:

if you cant afford to save the balloon (i.e. the final payment)

(then) why are you comparing it (the PCP Financing)

to a 3 year loan with higher monthly repayments than the (monthly) pcp (charge) and (the) monthly amount (that) you would need to save to clear the balloon
 
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