Personal Loan Information: auto loan

When you’re looking for a new car, as well as deciding exactly what kind of vehicle you’re after and making sure you get as close to that description as possible, it’s a good idea to check out any new car offers before deciding on a particular make and model.

At the moment, each manufacturer and dealership is offering different incentives to entice people to buy their new car from them rather than the competitor. Honda, for example, offers flexible finance packages, a number of years of complimentary servicing on its CR-Z and Jazz, and with the CR-V it offers an upgrade worth £2,520 for free.

Of course, the offers that come with a new car aren’t ever enough to convince you to change from another brand that you’re particularly attached to, but if you’re non-committal about brand and one offers a better deal than another, the chances are you’d take the better deal.

Another thing to check out is the length of the warranty that a new car comes with. On the Honda hybrid CR-Z, for example, the warranty is for three years, but a current new car offer option is to extend that to four years.

The standard length of warranty is three years in Europe, but the manufacturer which offers the longest warranty is Kia. Kia offers a seven year or 100,000 mile warranty on all its models. Similarly, its parent company Hyundai offers a five year warranty with unlimited mileage and Fiat has a five year warranty on some of its models.

Of course, buying a new car is far more expensive than buying a second hand one. And as soon as you leave the showroom or forecourt, the car depreciates in value considerably, so you have to weigh up the advantages of any new car offers against the extra cost involved.

People looking to replace their car may think that the best option in today’s financially difficult times is to buy second-hand, and there’s a lot to be said for not paying the premium of driving a new car off a showroom’s forecourt. However, it’s worth looking at the different new car offers available as it’s a really good time to strike a bargain – manufacturers are keener than ever to sell new cars and are offering great incentives to draw customers in.

The incentives vary from different flexible finance deals, insurance deals, packages that include servicing and roadside assistance to straightforward cash back temptations. If you’re in the position to buy new, then you should really put some time into researching which car manufacturers are offering the best deals at the moment.

Many of us still won’t be able to afford to buy new, but there is an absolute wealth of second-hand cars available, some of which seem amazingly good value. Advice to bear in mind if you’re going down the second hand route is to choose a reliable make and model of car. Look at sites like Which Car? to narrow down your choices before you start looking through the ‘for sale’ ads.

Before parting with any cash, if you’re buying from a private seller, it’s really important to get the car checked over by a qualified motor engineer. Although this will cost you around £100 to £150, it’s money well spent if you don’t know much about cars yourself. It may also give you some wiggle room on the price you settle on.

You can also buy second-hand from a car dealer, which means you’ll get the security of somewhere to return if there are any problems with the car, and a guarantee for a certain length of time. People concerned about the impact their car has on the environment and want to drive a hybrid should also check out the second-hand car pages. More second-hand hybrids are available now that the technology has been around for more than ten years.