It’s normal to put buying a car up there as one of life’s biggest purchases.
Some of you may even have it in the same category as buying a house!
Cars can be expensive, so we often assume that years and years of saving are in order to buy them.
That’s not strictly true, at all.
You can afford your first car without having to save a fortune in the bank.
In most cases, you only need enough for a small deposit, which can be a few thousand pounds at most.
Granted, that’s a lot of money in terms of daily life, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s nowhere near as much as you’d need to, say, buy a house.
Some washing machines and fridges cost more than cars these days!
So without beating around the bush any more, here are some tips on how you can afford your first car without saving a fortune.
How to Afford Your First Car Without Spending a Fortune
Look for finance deals
Car dealers will provide two main options when buying a car: pay upfront or in monthly instalments. The second option is a simple way to get a brand new car without paying all in one go.
Let’s say you want one of the most common cars on the road, a VW Polo.
To buy it new, you’d have to pay around £20,000.
However, if you have a PCP VW finance deal, you could put forward a small deposit and pay around £200 per month instead!
Most of these deals last 48 months, and you can trade the car in or pay another small amount at the end to keep it.
As you can see, finance deals make car ownership far more affordable. Some manufacturers also chuck in a contribution to your deposit, so this drags the monthly payments down even more!
Think about leasing
Instead of getting a finance deal, you could think about car leasing instead.
Car leasing works under a similar principle – you still make monthly payments, only you never own the car.
When the contract is up, you swap the vehicle out for another one.
This is a fabulous idea if you want to drive lots of different cars every few years. You never have to save a tonne of money to buy a car, yet can enjoy so many different makes and models.
Attend a car auction
If you don’t want to deal with monthly payments because they eat into your budget plan, then you should attend car auctions.
Here, cars are put up for sale and people bid on them.
It’s one of the best ways to bag a cheap used vehicle without breaking the bank.
Sure, you could try used car dealers, but auctions are better as the price depends on the bidding. If you’re lucky and nobody else bids on the car, you could snag it for a bargain!
How to Afford Your First Car | Final Thoughts
Realistically, car financing or leasing are the two best ways to afford your first car without saving a fortune.
Save as much as you can, and put that down as a deposit, then rely on monthly payments spread out over multiple years instead of parting ways with loads of cash at once.
We hope this helps!
Until next time,
XOXO
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