Hello fellow Skoda owners i'm a new member just come on board, this is my first post and my wife and i have been happy with our cars for two years now, however on Sunday 17th April met our dealer/salesman and afraid now have cause for concern.

 

Start from the beginning we took delivery of His 'n' Hers new Skoda's in March 2014, Yeti for her and Citigo for me, the salesman that we dealt with all along in the initial buying process asked us to meet up for a 2 year review might be a chance of upgrading to the 150hp, this proved to be far too expensive so at his suggestion how about same again.

The Yeti was purchased for £20,545 in 2014 and we have been paying this off at 0% at £237p.m if we wanted to purchase a new  like for like Yeti our payment would go up from £237p.m to £335p.m (Ouch!!), a 41% rise, Skoda now do 2.9% A.P.R and Skoda will only give us the actual outstanding loan value of £12,700,(£7845 of depreciation in 24mths) we cant at this point upgrade to any model be it Yeti, Octavia or even an ex demo Octavia, i kid you not.

We are in the fortunate (yes i count ourselves lucky!!) position of breaking even on the loan, it's PCP so we need to be.

We can downsize to a Fabia at what cost i dont know, i lost the will at this point, no good to us we're caravanners with a 5 berth at approx 1200kg fully laden.

I admire the salesman for his honesty as he enlightened me that when our 0% deal comes to an end in Sept'17 we will owe £8,700 and thats maybe all the car will be worth to pay off the outstanding loan value of the PCP, if we haven't any equity at 0% what about the customers purchasing at 2.9%, i dont hold out any hope, they've got interest to pay.

 

We never bothered discussing upgrading the Citigo, time to withdraw and take stock, the salesman informed us if something comes up that he thinks will interest us he'll be in touch, first and probably last brand new Skoda's i rather feel, might be walking away at the end of the deal(s) in Sept '17.

Ironically the computer threw our names out for potentially upgrading, see they do make mistakes.

 

I would advise haggle your heart out for  the best deal i never, believe you me you need to save every penny you can get in the long run.

 

 

 

 

 

The idea of pcp is that you never need to buy a car. Just pay for it for three years (or whatever) then hand it back. Sounds like that's going to be about right. You were expecting to be able to make money out of this based on what the salesman told you two years ago? Welcome to car salesmen and their card tricks.

You could try another dealer and see what figures they can come up with. The dealer your using is only giving you the bare minimum because he already has you as a customer, whereas another dealer might have a different idea of what value you and your business are worth. But based on what you've said, the deal has panned out just about where it was supposed to, other than you believed the salesman with his dangling carrot "possibly upgrade to the next model in the future" lies.

As RustyNuts says above a PCP is designed to give you options at the end of the term, either buy the car based on GFV (Baloon Payment) or hand it back or, if you have equity it use the equity as part of your deposit for the next car. It is not designed to guarantee you equity but if you have done less than the agreed mileage you might have equity. You can change early in a PCP again this will be based on the value of the car v outstanding loan left to pay. This can work but not in all cases. PCP's work well for me as I am only financing part of the value of the car and not the whole value. if you time it right and get either a deposit contribution or 0% finance it makes it a lot more afordable.

There are other ways to buy a car so a PCP may / will not suit everyone.

 

I think the salesman has been very honest with you and given you a few options.

It is always easier to spend someone else's money than one's own, I know, but....

could you not just pay the £8700 in September 2017 and keep your car?

 

It will only be three years old, well maintained and with one careful owner.

 

(Unless of course it has suffered some from dragging your second home around,

which of course is why some people view a used car with a tow bar attached with a measure of apprehension)

 

Anyway, as you say, you have been happy with your Yeti for the first two years.

Try and enjoy the third, unless of course I am in the queue behind you and your 5 berth!

Welcome. We've discussed PCP etc. on other threads and have come to the conclusion that generally it fails to live up to the hype. Mainly from the point of view that rarely is the car worth more than the final value and so rarely, as promised, is there equity over and above the final value to go towards the next car.

 

In fact with one car, a Passat estate, when changing early it was actually better financially to hand the car back and start again than to part ex. it!

 

Unless intending to keep the car, others have put forward a strong case for leasing rather than buying. I did stick with PCP for the Yeti as I didn't know if I was going to keep it or not.

 

My suggestion would be if you can, and what I'm going to do, is to pay off the final payment and then decide what to do. Hopefully it's value will be more than the final value/payment.

Is this your first PCP? I think perhaps you may have been seduced by the salesman's hype of the pros and reticence at highlighting the 'cons'. PCPs are a good deal to get you in a new car with low payments, but they do lock you in unless you want to be left with nothing at the end of the term. Also, by the sound of it you paid a very low deposit so have taken the full 'hit' of the new cars depreciation behind the scenes in the finance deal.

On the plus side you had a 0% deal, so providing you negotiated a decent discount on the car in the first place you will have paid no more than anyone buying a new car cash and selling after 2 years.

Yetis actually hold their value far better than most mainstream cars, but the diesel gate scandal has had a slight impact which you are seeing in the current trade in value. The GFV (balloon payment) is intended to be conservative enough to leave you a bit of equity for a new car, but on the positive side, if used values have unexpectedly tumbled, you still have the security of handing back a car worth less than you owe on it.

It may be worth you getting a quote for a personal lease. This won't give you the freedom to trade the car outside the lease period, but will be cheaper.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Welcome. We've discussed PCP etc. on other threads and have come to the conclusion that generally it fails to live up to the hype. Mainly from the point of view that rarely is the car worth more than the final value and so rarely, as promised, is there equity over and above the final value to go towards the next car.

 

 

My suggestion would be if you can, and what I'm going to do, is to pay off the final payment and then decide what to do. Hopefully it's value will be more than the final value/payment.

I think you are making some sweeping statements here.

Also your last para is contradicting your first !

I don't believe that, in 3 years my yeti will be worth less than my GFV, I put down the max deposit I could, I have a new yeti at monthly payments well below what I would otherwise have been able to afford.

In addition I have money borrowed at 0% so the cash I had to go towards the new(er) car is now in an ISA earning 1.4 % ready to pay off the final payment in 3 years.

I may keep, may p/e for yeti replacement or go for a completely different car.

I maintain that, provided you can do the optimum deal, PCP can work.

No sweeping statements, as said, discussed before and my view is supported by other comments on this thread.

 

I've bought a few cars on PCP and at the end of the term have never been offered more than the FV against another car. I've only done another deal because I negotiated a good price/discount on the next car I was buying.

 

What I meant by the last para. (though I can see the contradiction!) is not to hand back and take the part ex. which will likely be no better than the FV but to pay off the final payment and then the car may get a better part ex. when negotiating against the new car.

 

This will be particularly true in my case this time (unlike previous PCP's I've done) because like you I put a good discount down. But don't forget that the FV is looking good for us because we have used a chunk of our own money up front rather than at the end, so not everything in the garden is rosy!

 

Not disputing that PCP does work, as I've said I've used it a number of times, but in pure financial terms e.g. leasing can be a better option.

 

1.4% isn't going to make much difference is it!

Edited 19 April, 201610 yr by VAGCF

Thank you forum members for your replies, each one is interesting and fair comment, i've left it a few days and received 7 replies i'm happy with that for my first post.

 

I will clarify that £2k was put down on each car, this is a low deposit i know in the scheme of things but not a 100% loan(s), the Yeti had three added options to bring it to the price of £20,545 in 2014, metallic paint, full towbar kit and temp spare wheel and yes this is our first PCP.

 

We were led to believe ( fell for the spiel ), that PCP Solutions would be self perpetuating in providing a new car approx every 3yrs (or less), I'm well aware theres no such thing as a free lunch and do expect to add some money to the scheme if we want a better car but we're currently paying £313 for two cars and we were quoted £335 for one meaning a £98p.m increse in payments and £4116 in indebtness due to an increase of 42 x £98 and this is like for like!, I hate shopping and that includes car hunting and my days of fitting starter motors/alternators, clutches and engine swaps at the weekend so i've got a car for work on a Monday are well behind me, i was looking forward to maybe never having to M.O.T a car again and stay faithful to one make of car to my ever nearing retirement and beyond.

Blessed are the meek. etc

 

The Yeti has 17,000 miles on the clock and had we not done an almost 2,000mile road trip in France last year it would be lower, we are inside of our alloted 10,000miles p.a and she is in good condition thanks to my wife who loves her Yeti, indeed the salesman did't even ask to see the car.

When the salesman gave us the figure needed to upgrade to  the same model with the same options it actually included the £1750 deposit contribution and then the £2000 deposit contribution for an Octavia, so apart from the 2.9% APR there might not be a better time to chop and change unless 0% APR returns although i haven't much faith we will get a better return as i am wondering if the emissions scandal has affected its value, i must say i wouldnt be too happy buying a car with a recall hanging over it and a manufacturer that seems to be dragging their heels, apologies i digress.

 

Is Quentin Wilson out there reading our posts or does anyone know a way of contacting him.

 

What does grate is that a colleague of mine has a  62 plate Vauxhall Mokka from new which i know he did't put any deposit down as his  previous car was written off due to flood water and after that he just got a scrapyard fee.

He did get a £1000 discount for quoting our employers name and providing proof, however he got summonsed back to his dealer a fortnight ago and he can go for top of the range again brand new and have a lower loan payment.

 

Armed with this info in my head i was naive enough on Sunday 17th to think i might have  a deal off Skoda similar, i mentioned this to the salesman and in a polite way quoting a war story he told me i should go and do the same if thats what you want and come back and prove it to him as he didnt think that was the case, my old mate ain't no liar.

 

I'm not intending/advocating by quoting the above that this is what us Skoda owners should go and do, we are happy with our Yeti she has become one of the family, i like the build quality and i will say my Citigo never does less than 55mpg and sometimes i cant remember when i filled her up last, a great little car.

 

I take on board that just paying the £8,700 at the end of the loan in Sept '17 is an option which we may go down but then i've got to see what it's value on P/Ex is with Skoda or just hand it back and walk away.

 

Another thing i'm contemplating is finding another Skoda dealer to see if there is anything that can be done but at this moment in time i intend to make the most of the 0%, by Sept 2017 some "equity" might come our way and i'm a firm believer that you vote with your feet

I will enquire to see if the Citigo has any of this so called equity and maybe start a fresh post.

Edited 21 April, 201610 yr by NorthantsMan

Vauxhall might do you a great deal if you go in without a Skoda and just start leasing a car there.

They are a very big provider of vehicles in the UK and their sales / lease / HP /Mobility vehicles can be cheap.

Loads of Mokka get shifted new out of Vauxhall Dealerships due to the deals Vauxhall Dealerships can do.

 

If Skoda deals do not work out financially now just hold off, the VWG sales are dropping and discounts are a necessity that they will 

be introducing very soon.

Currently the VW Group have borrowing issues so they are not in the situation to Rent out vehicles as cheaply as they were.

Subprime lending as they were.

PCP is a car manufacturer tactic designed to sell more cars and it is working. Hence the sustained increase in car sales, the over supply of second hand vehicles and decline in used car values.

When the era of cheap finance and mortgages comes to an abrupt end, we will be back in 2008.

Happy days!

I'd have to spend sometime looking at your figures to fully understand your situation, but I must admit when I saw your figure of £335 I was surprised. Were you going to put a deposit down again for the new car?

 

I'm only paying about £140 a month (3 years) on a £23k. car but I did (from memory) put down about £4500 and stated 5k. miles/annum. FV I think is about £5500. My car should be worth more than this but that's only because I put down a larger deposit which you tend to forget about/dismiss to some extent when only thinking about the monthly payments and FV. Ultimately, the total cost of the car is going to be about the same (though will vary if interest rates are much above 0%) whether you put down a large deposit or not - you are merely moving what money you are putting into the deal from the start to the finish. You are just deluding yourself with a bigger deposit that your car is going to be worth more at the end, i.e. if you get more than the FV!

 

I'm doing more than 5k./annum but as I'm going to purchase it doesn't matter and I will then decide what to do, keep or part ex.

 

Changing mid-term is usually expensive (I did it with changing from an A6 to the TT) and you are usually in a weaker position because you tend to be happy with just getting enough to pay off the outstanding.

 

I'm only paying about £140 a month (3 years) on a £23k. car but I did (from memory) put down about £4500 and stated 5k. miles/annum. FV I think is about £5500. My car should be worth more than this but that's only because I put down a larger deposit which you tend to forget about/dismiss to some extent when only thinking about the monthly payments and FV. Ultimately, the total cost of the car is going to be about the same (though will vary if interest rates are much above 0%) whether you put down a large deposit or not - you are merely moving what money you are putting into the deal from the start to the finish. You are just deluding yourself with a bigger deposit that your car is going to be worth more at the end, i.e. if you get more than the FV.

Am I missing something here ?

By my calcs you will owe roughly £13500 from the £23k at the end of the 3 yrs yet the GFV is only £5500 which would not be anyway sufficient to settle the outstanding amount !

As per some of the replies above, £335 per month is an awful lot. I put down a £400 deposit for my Yeti and the payments are only £195 pm x 42. Granted it's a 1.2 and not a 2 litre diesel, but still... try another Skoda dealer?

WhatCar website suggests that typical contract hire rates for the Yeti are between £208 - £326

 

http://www.whatcar.com/skoda/yeti/estate/review/

 

Jim

Am I missing something here ?

By my calcs you will owe roughly £13500 from the £23k at the end of the 3 yrs yet the GFV is only £5500 which would not be anyway sufficient to settle the outstanding amount !

  If I've learned nothing else, it's that you shouldn't reply from work, relying on memory for figures!

 

I know the £140 a month is correct but I shall have to dig out the paperwork now as regards the others!