Simpsons Skoda had a special offer last month, you could get one for (standard VRS TDI, with only with a spare wheel as an extra) with £2250 down and £159/month 10,000 miles/year on PCH on a 24 month term.

 

Seems good, with no tax to pay, new car so everything under warranty, no MOT to think about and you get to drive a brand new car

There is VAT on the deposit

sorry, all including VAT, by tax I was referring to road tax

The problem with a 24 month deal is that the £2250 down is equivalent to almost an extra £100/month. Factoring in an extra £500 for my mileage this deal quoted at £159 is nearer to £270 a month to me, and would cost almost £6.5k over 2 years.

 

I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with PCP or PCH, if you really want a new car and like to swap it every couple of years then this is probably miles better than stumping up the cash for one up front, but if you're happy to keep a car for a lot longer then I'd always buy nearly new (up to 1 yr is OK for me), or make sure you get a heavy discount (£17.5k for my car new would have been fine, but I'd never have paid list price for it).

 

I used to pick up cars for as little as possible (always <£500), run them 'til the broke then scrap 'em and start the whole thing again. Coming from that history I consider my 9-12 month old purchases to be pretty well new anyway! I had hoped as I got older and more financially secure that I might be able to treat myself to a brand new car by now, but my children seem to have a large claim on my cash flow these days. Maybe when I'm old and retired...