Car Change-over

[RMJ891]

I know this is of general application, but seeing as a bunch of you are going through this...

If you have a car on PCP, and you are buying another, what happens with dovetailing the end of one deal and the start of another?

Say your deal finishes in January, and you ordered a new car (say an RS3) then using the equity in your old car, but then your RS3 won't get to you til September... are you able to keep your old car for a bit (what happens to the GMFV / monthly payments / equity)? Or do you just have lump it?

My thought is that the latter would make upgrading harder, as you'd have to save a deposit for a new car whilst still paying for your old, if you wanted to order a new one 6 months before your old deal ran out to ensure you don't go without a car for half a year?!

 

[josedebardi]

They'd probably re-finance the lump sum at the end of your PCP in Jan so you carry on paying some monthly figure til the new car came. The GMFV is out the window and you'd just be negotiating with the dealer on a good trade in deal that covers whatever is left of your re-financed lump plus some equity.
To avoid this I always take 4 year PCP and change well before that!

 

[RMJ891]

Ah I see - yes I may have to change before the end, then...

Can you 'calculate' your end-of-36-month equity after, say, 30 months so that a dealers will say "okay you'll have £2k equity to play with in six months' time", so that you can run your own finance calculations and order something new? I guess it's just the uncertainty of what will be left. I have a GMFV of 16k and am hoping for 2-3k to stick on an RS3 saloon (or TT-RS) in a couple of years maybe... but would want to add to that to keep monthlys down!

 

[josedebardi]

It's all down to the market at the time. Dealers will normally only guarantee a deal out to say 3 months in the future.

 

[RMJ891]

Fair enough - I suppose three months with no car isn't the end of the world - and it's all extra saving time!

 

[Schuey]

I have/had an issue on my S3. They gave me a p/ex figure for September which left me with a good equity figure. However I obviously have to continue my payments until change over, but on speaking with the business manager he said my equity would stay the same yet I would have made 3-4 payments during that time.

So in effect they are pocketing that bit extra, probably upto £600 by my calculations which lead me down the route of paying off my S3 last month meaning they have to accept my equity as the full p/ex value they quoted for September which in fairness is more than I was offered in March!

 

[RMJ891]

Not sure I follow: you were given a figure in September (after how many months of your agreement?), and then were told that the same figure would apply the following March, even though i) the car was older, but ii) you had paid a number of payments more.

So you can turn the car in at that time to avoid paying those further payments, and retain the equity figure to use on your next one?!