New or nearly new? Thoughts after a turbulent week

Well it’s been a rollercoaster ride this week, with many motor dealers, including some old established names going belly-up. More personnel are being made redundant and factories are dramatically cutting back on production. But perhaps most shocking of all! was the news that General Motors is to ask the US government for help after reporting a multibillion dollar loss and admitting they will only be able to pay their bills until June of next year without assistance.
It will be interesting to see if any help is forthcoming< as the consequences of the collapse of arguably the world’s biggest car builder would be catastrophic, not only to jobs across the world but also the very core of the global automotive industry. However if the UK government is anything to go by the silence will be deafening. On a more positive note interest rates are at an historic low and even though the banks have had to be cajoled, threatened and dragged kicking and screaming to pass these cuts on to millions of their customers, it is nevertheless a positive move and should at least help a lot of people with their loans and mortgages. In terms of the effect on buying cars, if customers feel more confident and can really start to see some more positive signs of recovery (whatever that turns out to be) then they should start to take advantage of not only the much cheaper used cars but also some massively subsidised deals on brand new cars as well. When you visit a car dealer and you are open minded about a new or used car purchase take note of this; although on the face of it the savings you could make by buying a nearly new used car will be unbelievable, if you are intending to consider a monthly payment then to a certain extent the price of the car becomes a little irrelevant. For example with most manufactures just playing a damage limitation game and annual forecasts unlikely to be met, they will be forced to heavily subsidise their finance packages. In a lot of cases they will offer deals with small or no deposits and with 0% finance over longer periods in order to attempt to unload new stock which presumably by now will be gathering in fields around Europe. The comparison then becomes worth considering as obviously manufacturers will only generally back up new car finance offers meaning used car deals have to stand against usual financial rates. So to sum up, even if a nearly new used car is thousands cheaper on the sticker price, it’s not necessarily cheaper monthly or in the long run! The ironic thing about the trade now is that we are advising people not about potential rip-offs or dodgy deals but weighing up all the great deals that are out there to be had. Believe it or not compared to only 1 year ago there is no poor deal. Have fun!

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