I only ever had one car on finance (back in the 1960s) and ever since paid cash (or got a bank loan to fund a cash purchase).

That way it is 100% mine from day one, so free to sell/px or whatever; years ago I could insure TPFT, which was much cheaper than the fully comp which finance companies insisted on.

Edited by Avant on 01/09/2015 at 12:31

When I went self-employed in the mid nineties, I had to buy a car for the first time in almost 10 years.

Can't remember exactly, but I think I had about £5K to spend? Went looking around the secondhand dealers in the south Manchester area selling 405's, Vectra's, Mondeos, etc.' that were all about 3 to 4 years old and could not believe the internal state of ALL the ones I looked at. They looked like the prevoius owners had wrapped all their fingers in grade 80 sandpaper before driving. Steering wheels and trim totally wrecked......... how do people do that in 50,000 miles, (the car I sold today by chance had done 75,000 and was in excellent shape, hardly a scratch)?

Ended-up buying a 2l petrol 405 privately which turned-out to be a great and very reliable comfy car and sold it no problem about a year later for about £1,000 less than I paid for it.

Edited by Avant on 01/09/2015 at 12:31

Bought my car from The Car People in Sheffield and not had a problem with the car or the service we had from them.

Also you said they looked awful but then say the are polished up to look new. Which is it :-)

My i10 was in good condition and cheaper than elsewhere in the area. There was no pressure selling and we didn't even take their finance as we were paying cash and they didn't try to get us to buy on finance.

Edited by Avant on 01/09/2015 at 12:31