getting a car or financing a car
 

I would like to ask fellow brits what the easiest way to get a car is. Should i buy an old 10 year old car cash or is there a way of getting finance on a newer model.

Re: getting a car or financing a car
 

So many threads on this.

Best bet is getting finance, even on a banger. Pay as much of it off as you can and keep a small amount on the loan going for 12 months, it'll get you credit history and should be easy to get, especially if you put a good chunk down. Also be better on your insurance than getting a new car.

Thing is, depending on here you are, probably get a pretty decent car for $6K in the 5 year mark with 50-60K on the clock and that's a low mileage motor.

Plenty more info in the wiki though.

Re: getting a car or financing a car
 

hey bob, am in florida just now. i did go to some of the dealers but miles were high and some said they could get me credit but i know the interest would be sky high and others say i need history. does having a us bank account and address for 3 years count towards history.

Re: getting a car or financing a car
 

Ouch...well Florida doesn't have annual inspections, so you're more likely to get a right shitter...so good luck there.

And back account and address mean nothing. Credit history is having debt, so even having utilities unlike in the UK means nothing here, they only report late payments.

If you can afford to put down $10K, look to get a $11K car with a loan that doesn't have a over payment penalty and then pay off $10K straight away leaving you with a grand to pay off over the year. That'll build you decent credit history and leave you with minimal interest payment on top.

Adjust the figures to what you can afford.

Re: getting a car or financing a car
 

You will be hard pressed to find a low milage car. Auto sales plummeted during the recession so there are less cars around and people are hanging onto their cars. CARMAX and the other large operators have lowered their standards. The good news is cars last a long time and recon engines gearboxes on not that expensive. My wife gave her Dodge Caravan to her brother and he did over 300,000 miles in it. Not the most exotic vehice granted but realtively cheap parts and easy to maintain.

Re: getting a car or financing a car
 

But there is something called The Lemon Law or Florida lemon law so check that, because that might be worth something:)

Re: getting a car or financing a car
 

Lemon laws only work for a new car -- can you imagine if everyone selling an old banger was subject to it? The backlog in the courts would be incredible!

Re: getting a car or financing a car
 

I have to agree with Nutmegger, the lemons here are all over the joint, even in dealers. Seems if you get the chance to get a car with less than 100k you grab it. Also i was quoted 2200 for 6 months insurance.... i have 10 years no claims in uk and no one seems to take it up. Crazy

Re: getting a car or financing a car
 

It's actually very state dependent. It's very good here in MA....but only if you buy from a dealer, car has to pass inspection and you've got 90 days to lemon a second hand car in this state.

Even if you buy private, the car has to pass inspection, but you can only get value of sale back if you lemon a private sale rather than additional costs.

So it's worth looking into....but as there's no inspections carried in FL, the laws might not be so good for second hand.

Re: getting a car or financing a car
 

True! :)

Re: getting a car or financing a car
 

watch out for them adding extras and making you buy insurance on the loan itself normally v expensive!

Re: getting a car or financing a car
 

My husband paid $1800 for 6 months insurance on a $10,000 Escape. That was with lowest level of coverage.
We still pay $1600 per year, but that's for 3 cars (4 yr old highlander, 2 yr old tc and a 5 yr old cobalt) with max coverage for everything except cobalt which is 3rd party fire theft only (saves us around $300). Not taking any chances with these people with no insurance who will purposely pull out in front of you, or make you run into the back of them and then try and claim.

We had 12 yrs no claims in the UK and are both over 40.

Son has done his driver ed here but not driving as I daren't think what the insurance would be ,even for the cobalt:eek:


We got a loan for my car (tc) after husband had been here 7 months, but the only credit history was the secured credit card which he'd had for around 5 months. The interest rate on the loan was 11.5% (on a new vehicle).
2 years later we've just changed over to one that's 4%.

Re: getting a car or financing a car
 

ouch, high interest rate there linda, i am considering just purchasing a car outright for a few thousand until i have some history.

Re: getting a car or financing a car
 

Yep-husband paid outright for his Escape, but we couldn't do that with my car as we only has one car in the UK, so money wouldn't stretch that far!
Yes-was a ridiculous rate ,but we borrowed less than 50% of the vehicle cost and overpayed each month.
My husband just purchased the highlander very recently, so we borrowed enough at 4% to pay off the small amount left on the 11% loan for my car and for the purchase of the new vehicle.
Didn't think that a car dealer would be able to do that, but wasn't a problem.

Over the past 6 months we'd been trying to get a different loan at a lower rate to pay it off, but the minimum anyone would lend was $8000 and we only needed about half that!

I would see if you can get a small loan for part of the purchase as it'll help your credit score, but I know some dealers don't want to lend you really small amounts. Someone else said about borrowing more and overpaying, but you would need to try and make the payments over 6 months at least, unless of course you can get another line of credit in the mean time eg secured credit card and start building that way.

We have a good score- built it up over 2-3 years with just the car loan and one credit card (at a time)-which we don't use very much. We're now onto our 3rd card (we change whenever the interest free period runs out) and the credit limit is around $3,500 now, so I guess that helps towards the score too.

Re: getting a car or financing a car
 

If you don't have a early payment penalty, why not get the $8K loan and put $4K back on in the first payment then?