One hundred pounds. What will that get you these days? A tank of diesel for your large SUV, most (but not all) of a one-way anytime train fare from London to Cardiff or, if the papers are to be believed, the fine for outstaying your welcome in a McDonald’s car park.
Or were you prepared to pay as much on a weekly basis and stump up a deposit of varying size, £100 is all you need to park a fine new car outside your house, ideally suited to whatever your heart desires or head requires your daily driver to be. Think about that: think how easy it is to blow that amount on a Saturday night once you’ve had a few drinks, dinner and a taxi home. And you won’t even wake up with a hangover.
Read more: PCP (Personal contract purchase) explained: how to get it right
The truth is, the way we buy cars has been changing for some time now. Today, fewer and fewer people subscribe to the old model of walking in to a showroom and buying a car outright with either their own or the bank’s money. Instead, they choose to pay a deposit and a weekly sum and then, after a fixed period of time, give the car back and choose another. These personal contract purchases (PCPs) are popular because the sums involved are low relative to a hire purchase agreement, because you’re not buying the car bit by bit. They’re also flexible, so at the end of the deal you have the choice of returning the car, trading it in or buying it outright for a pre-agreed price.
But what to get? This guide to just some of the cars that can be yours for £100 per week will give you an idea or two. Bear in mind, though, that these are just some of literally thousands of deals. For instance, almost all those offering PCPs will provide a sliding scale balancing the initial deposit against repayments. So if you’re cash rich but income poor, you might fancy paying a lot up front to minimise the repayments and, naturally, it works the other way too.
FUN CARS
Deposit: £5000
Monthly payment: £385.11
Deposit: £1500
Monthly payments: £329
Deposit: £3500
Monthly payments: £385
Rarely will a PCP appear to be better value than when offering this much fun for such a small weekly outlay. To our way of thinking, the Ford Focus RS is the most entertaining hatchback on sale, with the vastly improved Renault Clio RS 220 Trophy not as far behind as the difference in their deposits suggests. As for the Subaru BRZ, it could have as easily been a Toyota GT86, two of the most indulgent, purest-handling cars any amount of money can buy, let alone £100 per week.
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Absurd examples
Within the leasing industry the upfront payment is usually given as a multiple of the monthly payments - so 3 + 33 means 3 months up front followed by 33 regular monthly payments.
When the first example given is on a 13 + ??? payment profile that tells you all you need to know about the "insight" to be gleaned from this report.
Since when was the bus
Leasing a car can work...
*she hates it.