Buy for cash or lease/PCP Skoda Enyaq IV60

kbfern

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I am getting bitten by the bug to buy an electric car possibly a new Enyaq IV60 probably a loft spec with minimum options so around £34k, my dilemma is how to finance it and what the car is likely to be worth in 3-5 years.

I am 69 and wife is 65 currently we will have no personal car to px and drive around 6-7k miles a year. Looking at leasing there seems to be deals around where we could pay around £300-400 per month for 48 months with advance rentals of £3k and no option to buy.

If we were to choose a standard loan to buy outright we would be looking at borrowing £30k paying back over 4 yrs would cost £700 per month and interest cost of about £3.5k

We have the cash available which earns virtually nothing in interest so could afford to buy outright and have reduced savings but would have no payments for the vehicle each month which could replenish our savings.

I think the buy outright for cash seems the best option, what do you think?

Also what is the Enyaq likely to be worth after say 3 years (around 50% of purchase price maybe?) with less than 20k miles on the clock as by then we may choose to px for a new vehicle which by then could be cheaper/better than todays models.

Thanks for any advice.
 
Not car related, but generally:
Interest paid on any kind of finance is just about always higher than income received on savings. If that's the case for you then, yes, without doubt, "borrowing" from yourself (at savings rates in effect) is cheaper than borrowing elsewhere at finance rates. It depends, of course on how your savings are held; investment products like Unit Trusts can (but are never guaranteed to) produce good growth.

Only if there is a finance deal that betters your savings income (which at today's normal savings rates would likely have to be zero) and/or if there is an incentive offered on finance (such as, cashback, discount) that betters your savings income would it be wise.

All as long as you have the discipline to repay your savings back to yourself. Or don't care.

As to future car value - hard to judge, and past performance isn't a good indicator of future performance - but my first EV was bought new for cash in Nov17 for £24850 and main dealer PX two years/18.5k later was £20180.
 
Also what is the Enyaq likely to be worth after say 3 years (around 50% of purchase price maybe?) with less than 20k miles on the clock as by then we may choose to px for a new vehicle which by then could be cheaper/better than todays models.

If the car does everything you need now, why would you need to change it?

EVs on the whole are holding their price, range is slowly getting better, but certainly not cheaper. The latest version of 4.5 year old Tesla has about 70 mile more real world range, but costs a staggering £30K more!! But as it happens I have zero incentive/need to change as the range works well for our needs so what/why is the incentive to pay more ££££ to swap it for a car with range that I don't use/need?

What ever worries are you have about buying any EV now, just remember for EV sold today another 95 people are buying combustion cars which are guaranteed to loss more money as we approach 20230.
 
@gangzoom "If the car does everything you need now, why would you need to change it?"

Agreed about changing, I was really saying more if our needs changed rather than anything else. More than likely we would keep the car for quite a few more years or till my/our age/illness prevented or curtailed our driving ability.
 
We financed our recent 20 plate car on a loan for 5 years with Tesco loans, 22k and about 400 a month, seemed to be one of the cheapest around for APR and way less than any HP and didn't want to do PCP.
We know now at 5yrs old it will be ours and paid off at least.
 
If you buy the Enyaq on PCP I think it's 4.9% which is not particulalry cheap, however you do with most manufacturers get a deposite contribution. Trick is if you want to pay cash, get PCP, get the discount and day 1 pay it off in full. I think the deposite contribution is only £750 on the Enyaq, but that contribution is in addition to any discount the dealer may give.

All that aside if we're not sure of future value then Lease or PCP can be the best way to ensure it will not cost you more than £XXX. With a lease it's not yours so zero risk and with a PCP there's a guaranteed end value the car will retain. With a lease however it's not veyr flexibl if things change, so very hard to terminate early if you need to and at the end of the term you must hand it back. With a PCP you have flexibility as well as a guaranteed end price.

If you pay cash, loan or pcp and pay it off day1, then you take the risk of any price drops. However the Enyaq is not a first generation EV, it is built on a dedicated EV platform, has good range and efficiency and fast charging. I imagine since there are very few good 2nd hand EV cars on the market and there is very little to go wrong or servicing costs with an EV, I envisage resale values should hold strong..

Early EVs that had batteries without thermal managament (such as Leafs and Zoes) may have limited 2nd hand value as the batteries slowly die, but I think all dedicated EV platforms with well sorted battery management should be good.
 
Not car related, but generally:
Interest paid on any kind of finance is just about always higher than income received on savings. If that's the case for you then, yes, without doubt, "borrowing" from yourself (at savings rates in effect) is cheaper than borrowing elsewhere at finance rates. It depends, of course on how your savings are held; investment products like Unit Trusts can (but are never guaranteed to) produce good growth.

Only if there is a finance deal that betters your savings income (which at today's normal savings rates would likely have to be zero) and/or if there is an incentive offered on finance (such as, cashback, discount) that betters your savings income would it be wise.

All as long as you have the discipline to repay your savings back to yourself. Or don't care.
Totally agree with this and is exactly how I "finance" any large scale purchase.

Admittedly my definition of large scale differs considerably compared to @kbfern and I don't have the levels of savings to "borrow" the sums for a car! But the principle outlined above is the same.

To maintain "replacement discipline" as I tern it. I set up a monthly standing order for a set amount (ie "borrow" £1200, then "repay" it at 12x £100).

Edit: Adopting this principle has allowed us to fund many a home improvement, holidays, special treats for the kids (2 & 5yrs), AV purchase and the like - That would of otherwise been out of reach 👍🏼😊
 
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I was really saying more if our needs changed rather than anything else. More than likely we would keep the car for quite a few more years or till my/our age/illness prevented or curtailed our driving ability.

I use to sign off on a health check for a 85 year old chaps racing license!!
 

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