I'm buying NOW! Best Deal for a Cupra

[SEATFRCUPRAMN]

Hello everyone. Before i start i would like to thank everyone for making this forum what it is...bloody amazing!!

OK...now down to business. Today i test drove a MK2 leon Cupra and all i have to say is WOW...that car blew my socks off!!! I want to one this week. The dealer is trying to sell me a brand new one...for around £19k but it would be pretty foolish buying a new car nowadays. SO i'm going for a 2007 cupra with less than 20k miles. How much should i realistically be paying?? And with regard to finance - i want to do Hire Purchase and the dealers are doing about 5.5% as their base rate. What be the cheapest way to go about this?


Thank you all so much


SEATFRCUPRAMAN

 

[bronquito]

Good choice...
BTW, some friend of mine told me SEAT is no longer making the Leon Cupra ... Probably is because of the restyling (first the FR, now Cupra), or maybe for the global crisis... As far as I know, SEAT lost money comparing 2007 with 2008... Does anybody know about this rumor?

 

[holty]

Good choice.I'm jealous!
Heres a wee link which might help or might not
http://www.parkers.co.uk/cars/used-prices/Valuation.aspx?deriv=36263&plate=84

 

[CupraLee K1]

BTW, some friend of mine told me SEAT is no longer making the Leon Cupra ... ?

I thought they only stopped making the Leon Cupra K1 ?

 

[Al]

There are a few of these about now for sale second hand and they are indeed great cars.

I was thinking about selling my 07 20k mile Cupra in the near future and would expect to get £11-£12k for it.

 

[phil3012]

If you are comparing car finance rates never use the flat rate, always APR for like for like loans.

I've known dealers before to say it is whatever flat rate but when you push them for the APR it is like 30%. Some dealers are reluctant to give the APR but under finanical regulation I believe they are oligied to quote this.

Price for a 2007 20K Cupra. I would pay no more than about £12.5K, looking on the internet my old one has just sold last week and that's taken since October.

I'd read the K1 has been stopped but not the Cupra. The K1 was always supposed to be a limited run anyway.

I saw 3 Cupras/K1s on the road in Saturday, so SEAT would be daft to stop a very popular car.

 

[Neel-Cupra]

Great car mate! had mine since january where i took advantage of the new year as this is the quietest period for dealers, bought my 57 plate mk2 leon cupra for £13.5K! it had only 6k miles on it

 

[CupraSport]

Would not expect to pay more than 13k for it. I got a flat rate also but it was 1% lower than you have been offered equated to about 7% apr which as the same as the banks. I worked it out using the amount payable per month etc.. Night of not been the best way though. Though the credit market has changed a lot since then

 

[phil3012]

I actually looked at finance deals yesterday and the cheapest APR on a bank loan was 8.2% IIRC.

I know that Audi finance is about 9.9% APR though.

One tip... Always got for a bank loan over and above HP. Car finance has hidden charges which won't be included in the flat rate quoted. Saw one yesterday on a car £200 admin charge to take out the loan, £199 to own the car after it is paid off. I have financed cars a number of ways over the years and unless the deal is really good bank loans win all the time.

Best way is to get a spreadsheet and work out the total amount of charges, interest, admins feed etc.

Also bear in mind different types of finance load the interest payments differently and have other penalities to exit early.

Oh and with a bank loan remember that unless it's secured on the car, you own the car. HP the finance company owns the car. With HP you can't sell the car until the finance is cleared and also if you plan on doing any mods this can be an issue.

 

[SeanCorky]

I got my FR TDI on the 0% finance offer which i was lucky with.

I tried for a few bank loans and to get the money i needed for a 12 month old FR and i would have ended up paying back (with the interest) the same amount as buying a new one on 0% finance!

 

[Gary@Cookies]

I actually looked at finance deals yesterday and the cheapest APR on a bank loan was 8.2% IIRC.

I know that Audi finance is about 9.9% APR though.

One tip... Always got for a bank loan over and above HP. Car finance has hidden charges which won't be included in the flat rate quoted. Saw one yesterday on a car £200 admin charge to take out the loan, £199 to own the car after it is paid off. I have financed cars a number of ways over the years and unless the deal is really good bank loans win all the time.

Best way is to get a spreadsheet and work out the total amount of charges, interest, admins feed etc.

Also bear in mind different types of finance load the interest payments differently and have other penalities to exit early.

Oh and with a bank loan remember that unless it's secured on the car, you own the car. HP the finance company owns the car. With HP you can't sell the car until the finance is cleared and also if you plan on doing any mods this can be an issue.

Very very bad advice!!!!

In this volatile economy what about the 1974 consumer credit act and the halves and thirds rule, it can be an absolute Godsend to people who are in neg eq or who have lost their jobs, also many of the banks only offer the lower rates if you are an A1+ credit score and have savings in the bank or take out their extortionate payment protection insurance and then they add interest onto the cost of that.

Also, check out the admin and right to purchase fees for sure but always always work on the base rate that way you can see exactly what you're paying in interest, for example;
£10,000 borrowed at 4% flat rate over 4 years is 4x4%=16% therefore you pay in interest £1,600, the APR on that rate could fluctuate by over 1.5% depending on term of loan.

Also remember that the settlement formula based on the "rule of 78" which again is part of the 1974 consumer credit act means you don't get penalties for settling early, you get a reduction in what you had originally agreed to pay the finance company.

BTW, we've always believed the sign over our door says car dealer not bank, many of the so called discount dealers think the other way round are only interested in finance income, with that in mind I can tell you the best rate we're currently offering is 3.99% flat.

 

[phil3012]

Not wanting to get into an arguement but some of what Gary is saying isn't right.

I normally have a lot of time for his advice.

It is a dealer slanted version of the truth towards their finance.

Didn't they change the rules recently regarding payment protetcion insurance? I have and know many people who have got the best rate from banks without any payment protection insurance. I also believe now they aren't allowed to sell it at the point of sale.

APR must only be used for comparing like for like loans, the whole reason it was introduced was for that purpose and to protect people from getting ripped off by quotes that only include the base rate.

I would like to know what was bad advice that I gave.

 

[phil3012]

Interesting article to back up why you should use APR and not flat rate.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/flat-rate-loan-danger

The number of dealerships I've been in and have been quoted a flat rate, only to find out the actual APR is almost 30% and this is from reputable francaised dealers.

Ended up saving that person a fortune in monthly payments and term of the loan by going elsewhere.

Don't get me wrong there are some not bad dealer finance deals out there and for some people they are the best way to purchase a car, but not for everyone and certainly from my experience haven't been the best option.

 

[eddiel34]

I always arrange a bank loan in principle, then give the dealer the option to better it. My last two cars, 180Cupra pre registered and now my K1 brand new have both been financed with bank loans because the dealership refused or couldn't match the offer.

 

[phil3012]

I always arrange a bank loan in principle, then give the dealer the option to better it. My last two cars, 180Cupra pre registered and now my K1 brand new have both been financed with bank loans because the dealership refused or couldn't match the offer.

I used to do similar.

It is sometimes worth taking out their finance though just got get an incentives on offer.

I got £1000 off an Astra SRi by taking out their finance. But I only took the minimum amount £1500 on their deal at 12% APR and got the rest on a bank loan at 7% APR.

Audi were keen for me to take out their finance and said they would give me more for my part ex if I did. Think they must get comission and were going to pass some of this onto me in the part ex value. Wasn't interested though.

 

[leonfr170]

Aren't Seat in dire trouble right now? i am sure i read somewhere that although VW bailed them out as Porsche now are the majority owners of the VW group they have said they have no interest in saving Seat?
"October 2007 SEAT bailed out by the parent company VAG after a narrow vote. The alternative was closure. SEAT was given 2 years to become as profitable as Skoda or the plug will be pulled. Also, the German Government has given green light for a take-over of VW, and as Porsche has 34% stake a bid now is in the offing, but Porsche has stated that it would close SEAT."
was copied from another forum but the source was not shown so can't say for sure its true or not
either way, drive a HARD negotiation with the dealer as they need your business more than you need a car -i'm sure there are lots of Seat dealers around looking to sell off their most expensive stock items!

 

[eddiel34]

Thought I'd also mention that when I bought my 180Cupra I negotiated two deals. One with a trade in and one with a straight cash deal. It worked out that I would break even if I sold my wifes Clio for £400. I sold it for £1000 privately so was £600 up.

I was too lazy to do it this time when upgrading the cupra, but felt I got a good deal at the time. Because of the 12wk waiting time for the K1 the first dealer phoned me back to tell me he couldn't honour the deal he had set as my own car was devalueing at £250/month.

The second dealer, to whom I shall never return to, bettered the firsts deal and took the hit for the car devalueing. Those twelve weeks were the hardest my 180 ever had.

 

[Gary@Cookies]

What I'm saying is that you have lots more consumer protection with HP, nobody has mentioned the halves and thirds in their replies, is that because of lack of knowledge of it?

To give an example of how the 1974 consumer credit act can work for you, how about one of our customers (one of my salesmen's brother) who takes out 5 year finance on all his car purchases, uses it for 2 1/2 years, which for him is 75,000 miles, then phones up the finance company and politely asks them to come and pick it up as he doesn't want it any longer, no further payments are made, no firm change cycle as with PCP or PCH and he starts again with another car.

My reply wasn't biased to dealers as I quoted the lowest base rate which earns us no commission, always ask for base rate as it doesn't fluctuate according to term etc as APR does but yes, always ask for details of admin charges and if they're built into the payments or payable at start and end of term.

 

[P0LKR]

I am pretty friendly with a salesman at one of my local garages and tbh he says the same thing about the perks of HP. There are pros and cons for both. I suppose it comes down to whatever suits your circumstances.

 

[Donnyboy]

Does finance not also look better on your credit record. I was led to believe it does.

If they look at it they can see you have a car against the finance. If they look at a 15k loan, you could have just spend the money on booze, drugs and woman....then wasted the rest.