[Kiddy1]

Afternoon,

I am in a predicament where financially it seems to make sense to sell my car... to me anyway.

I have never financed a car in my life, so please excuse the ignorance.

I have a reasonably spec’d 15’plate 30d with 35k miles on and I expect that it’s worth £20kish.

There is about £7k left on the loan that I took out to help buy the car, which would leave me with around £13k equity - this is the same amount that I put down when buying the car.

My thinking is that; if I sell the car and clear my loan, I am left with the same amount that I invested into the purcashe of the car, albeit without the monthly loan repayments. If I wait much longer then the car will be worth less and the equity will be following.

Am I talking bollocks or does this make sense (real sense, not making excuses for a new car &#128556

Thanks.

[Jimbob335DX]

That's if you can realise your estimated sale price. What its worth and how much you get are two different things.

Your still going to need a vehicle, so whats the new car? Same payments? same financial outlay? Monthly etc etc. The only thing changing is a new car, which is always nice. Seems to good to be true? What can go wrong?

Is there an early settlement clause on the loan?

You earn a little more since you bought the car? Hell, buy the new car, your worth it!!!

[goodbyalfa]

All of the above.
I'd also suggest that you might actually find that your 15 plate is worth nearer £15-17k in reality, which means top whack you have only ~£10k in equity..
Pump this into a some new metal on the drive. You know it makes sense. The 10 minutes worth of endorphins buzz alone is worth it. Then you get to live with your decision for the next 4 years....

To quote George Best. "I spent 90% of my money on fast cars and fast women. The rest, I wasted..."

[SkyJawa]

As mentioned, 20k for a 15 plate 30d is unlikely.

[ByTheSea]

My local BMW dealer has a 2015 330D with 24K on for £19K. So expect to sell yours for less than that.

[InquisitiveA]

If all your assumptions are correct then the cost of owning your current car (excluding running costs) has been the cost of your loan repayments during the period of the loan. That doesn't automatically mean you've enjoyed a good or bad deal, but that's the fact.

Assuming you need a car, what's right moving forward depends on what you would buy, how you would pay for it, how much it would cost to buy and to run, how much you'd enjoy it, all the usual stuff. If buying another car means increasing your monthly costs or getting a worse car for the same cost then changing is financially a bad deal.

Hope that helps,

Forum Spoilsport!

[Jeff123]

Originally Posted by goodbyalfa

All of the above.
I'd also suggest that you might actually find that your 15 plate is worth nearer £15-17k in reality, which means top whack you have only ~£10k in equity..
Pump this into a some new metal on the drive. You know it makes sense. The 10 minutes worth of endorphins buzz alone is worth it. Then you get to live with your decision for the next 4 years....

To quote George Best. "I spent 90% of my money on fast cars and fast women. The rest, I wasted..."

He spent most of his money on fast cars, women and booze. The rest he just squandered. Great quote.

[lethbridge]

In general terms every time you buy a car (a highly depreciating asset), the more frequently you do it, and the newer the car you buy the more you will lose. Yes you could pay off the loan & sell the car privately for perhaps £17k (I sold my top spec 2015 335d GT privately for £15,400 in August - though it had 72k miles on it) and be left with some cash but the moment you stick that cash in another car you will lose it - unless you plan on buying a £1000 run-about. The most sensible option is to keep the current car and consider sticking an extended warranty on it to protect against high repair bills. Any other option is not financially the best thing to do - not saying you shouldn't do it - we all do - just don't try to justify it financially!!

If you can bag something on 0% you can generate some cash for the short term from your sale as you wouldn't put any deposit down... But... it will still be costing you in big depreciation on a new car which will broadly equate to your monthlies (I should know I dropped probably £20k when I drove my latest off of the forecourt) and you'll have nothing to show for it at the end of the PCP... Now if your loan APR is high then that is a consideration and you should look to improve it but you could probably solve that by paying it off with a cheap bank loan rather than a new car on 0%...

[teaston]

Originally Posted by Kiddy1

Afternoon,

I am in a predicament where financially it seems to make sense to sell my car... to me anyway.

I have never financed a car in my life, so please excuse the ignorance.

I have a reasonably spec’d 15’plate 30d with 35k miles on and I expect that it’s worth £20kish.

There is about £7k left on the loan that I took out to help buy the car, which would leave me with around £13k equity - this is the same amount that I put down when buying the car.

My thinking is that; if I sell the car and clear my loan, I am left with the same amount that I invested into the purcashe of the car, albeit without the monthly loan repayments. If I wait much longer then the car will be worth less and the equity will be following.

Am I talking bollocks or does this make sense (real sense, not making excuses for a new car &#128556

Thanks.

You say you've never financed a car, but you also say you took out a loan to buy your current car!? :

[Kiddy1]

Oh wow, I didn’t realise that they’d depreciated quite so dramatically! That makes my decision a bit easier then, looks like I will be holding on to it for a while longer. My monthly income isn’t great, so anything ‘new’ would be too much outlay I suspect.

I’ve done a lot of window shopping but tbh, it’s all stuff I could never afford a compromise seems would be a Merc GLC but even they are £35k+ for anything half decent.

I’ll be rich one day.

@teaston I mean never financed in the sense of HP or PCP, I should have been clearer..

[MashinBenzin]

You've weathered the worst of the depreciation, so relax and enjoy a lovely car for the next couple of years, knowing that it's losing value relatively slowly. It's only just run-in

[ZeroFx]

You are not keeping the car long enough to get any benefit.

Your car would not lose as much value as a newer one but if you were to buy right again you could mitigate some of that.

Depends why you are changing.

[ossi1]

Originally Posted by Kiddy1

My monthly income isn’t great, so anything ‘new’ would be too much outlay I suspect.

If you're monthly income isn't great what the hell is the matter with a 15 plate BMW pray tell ?

Seriously, pay it off and then approach the situation with a clear head knowing that you actually own the car, its an asset.

Go out, pamper it, fall back in love with it and accept it for what it is.. a bloody nice, low mileage car that I doubt most of the population could afford.

[ByTheSea]

Originally Posted by ossi1

If you're monthly income isn't great what the hell is the matter with a 15 plate BMW pray tell...

I kept a new-buy BMW 3-Series for 12 years and would have kept it longer if it had not been starting to rust (it was built in South Africa where clearly they don't galvanize). Then made the mistake of two new BMWs in a row, kept for 3 years each. Now satisfied that lust. Latest car 2 year-old AUC and loving it. Might keep it, but might be tempted by the G20.

[ukblade]

You could always do what I did.
Go and test drive a few cars you think you'd like, then realise that to drive away something as nice as yours will cost you way more per month.
Fine if you can afford it, if not, it helps you fall back in love with the car you have.

[H2B]

Pull up your sleeves and give your car a stunning detail and claying. Then seal it down with some wax and enjoy the new car look.

It doesn't make any financial sense buying a new car. As others have mentioned you have already weathered the worst of the depreciation and truth be told you'll always lose value on the car, even without factoring in cost of money over the past few years (your 13k in equity was worth more than that 3 years ago).

Enjoy a cracking beauty of a car and let it age until the twilight of its extended warranty. Then sell it as fast as you can before you ever have to bear the full brunt of BMW repairs and parts costs when things start to break..