[stephen3rd]

Hi folks,

I have just registered after lurking for a while to gather info for my latest purchase. Thanks for the info!!

This post may look familiar but i have moved it to the UK forum after some advice from AlanQS.

Out going car is a Sydney Blue 120d SE with Sports Seats, Pro Nav and Bluetooth and has been fantastic.

Incoming is a 320d Edition MSport in Titanium Silver.

The new Edition models are a great deal especially on the 3 as it includes metallic paint, leather, business navigation, bluetooth and the 18 inch rims from the 320si all for £1000.

I wanted to upgrade the Nav to Pro, add USB interface and the Auto headlights and wipers and the exact spec was already built and waiting at the distribution centre. The one extra i didnt spec is heated seats which cant be removed.

For those of you interested in the finance side, i went to one dealer and got what was claimed to be their best deal.

I then headed to another dealer and told them which car in the BMW system i wanted and asked for there best deal. I was upfront with them right from the start and said that i wanted to compare them against another dealer.

The car had a list price of £30305

The first dealer offered 8% discount and reduced the APR on the PCP (BMW Select) from 9.5% to 5.15% which i thought was a great deal. The final payment was set at £13219 as we put in 6000 miles per year (Mileage only comes into play if you run the term on the deal which i wont do)

Second dealer gave a better part exchange for my 1 (by a couple of hundred £'s) 10% discount and an APR of 4.8%

I know that tomorrow is the last day of the quarter but i didnt need to haggle for the second dealers offer which beat the first dealer by almost £40 per month!!

On that note i gave the salesman my £100 deposit and i should get the car within 2 weeks.

I traded in my 318i MSport to get my 1 because it was slow and had no spec, but now with the improved 2 litre diesel and the toys i am used to almost being thrown in for free it seemed too good to pass up.

On an unrelated note the dealer had an M3 Saloon in the showroom, what a car it looks stunning!! The salesman wasnt having it when i asked if i could move my new finance deal to it....

Thanks again.

Stephen

[F31-340i]

Seems like a good deal. Did the 10% off include any finance discount (it used to be an additional £1000 if you took BMW finance on top of any other discount offered)?

Pre Dec 07, your car (noting the 18" wheels would have been different) would have listed around £33k. Hence if you got it for £27k, the actual discount you got was around 18.5% compared to that list - this is therefore actually a better discount than was ever available in the old pre Dec 07 "big discount" days.

So it seems the BMW "no more big discounts" clampdown has not lasted that long!!

[mjh93sa]

Congratulations

At least you don't have too long to wait now.

[quattrogmbh]

sounds like a very nice car.

Are you sure the 4.8% is an Apr and not a flat rate? 4.8% APR would be heavily dealer subsidised but congrats on the deal.

[stephen3rd]

Thanks for the posts.

quattrogmbh, i think you may be right, after getting home and playing with the figures it looks like the 4.8% is a flat rate.

In any case it is only costing me £50 a month more than my 1 series.

///ajd, the 10% was taken off the cost of the car before finance was mentioned.

Roll on the middle of the month.

S

[CD]

only £100 deposit , mine wanted £1000 from me, wonder why that was ( maybe i looked a bit dodgy )

welcome to the forum mate , nice choice on car, i too went from a 120d to my e92. The one series was a stunning little car, very fun to drive and i was a little hesitant to let go to be honest ... the e92 is a better car still im glad to say

looking forward to the pictures in 2 weeks

Chris

[gIzzE]

Yeah that is definitely a flat rate, with that you must stay in the agreement for the full length of the term, don't whatever you do try and swap cars early or you will have to pay a massive penalty.

10% apr is about as good as you are going to get from a dealer these days, I was looking back through my deals from 2 years ago when clearing my office and had deals at .75% above base rate, lending is more like 5% above base rate at the moment.

[dxb335d]

Welcome Stephen, post up pics when the motor is in your possession!


Carlos

[stephen3rd]

Thanks for the warm welcome.

Pics will be up ASAP....

The decision to move away from the 1 series was mainly that it has been out of warranty for 6 months now and i am terrified that it would bite me on the bum with a big repair bill.

S

[quattrogmbh]

Originally Posted by gIzzE

Yeah that is definitely a flat rate, with that you must stay in the agreement for the full length of the term, don't whatever you do try and swap cars early or you will have to pay a massive penalty.

10% apr is about as good as you are going to get from a dealer these days, I was looking back through my deals from 2 years ago when clearing my office and had deals at .75% above base rate, lending is more like 5% above base rate at the moment.

I feel happy with my 8.75% APR with BMWFS then :-)

Gizze, what is the penalty you refer to? I'm not aware of any penalty for early settlement of a regulated agreement, Are you referring to this as an un-regulated agreement? Haven't done the figures so don't know if the borrowing is over £25K.

[pete_d]

Originally Posted by gIzzE

10% apr is about as good as you are going to get from a dealer these days, I was looking back through my deals from 2 years ago when clearing my office and had deals at .75% above base rate, lending is more like 5% above base rate at the moment.

I have just bought a nearly new 335d M Sport Touring on BMW finance at 6.9% APR, for a 3 year lease purchase with balloon. No guarantee on the balloon, unlike a PCP's guaranteed future value, but since it's now a regulated agreement under the FSA, you can default and walk away at any point after you've repaid 50% of the total amount. In practice (and depending what sort of deposit you put in) that means that you could hand the car back a month before the final payment is due, if it turned out to be worth less than you still owe the finance company.

Worth bearing in mind, especially as the early repayment penalties on a lease purchase aren't as draconian as for a PCP. I'm sure it wouldn't do your credit rating any favours, mind!

Pete

[gIzzE]

Originally Posted by quattrogmbh

I feel happy with my 8.75% APR with BMWFS then :-)

Gizze, what is the penalty you refer to? I'm not aware of any penalty for early settlement of a regulated agreement, Are you referring to this as an un-regulated agreement? Haven't done the figures so don't know if the borrowing is over £25K.

A flat rate, by its very nature, is the interest rate agreed paid on the amount borrowed, however it is always flat. So say you agreed 5% flat (which is an apr equivilent of around 10%) on a loan of £30k, you pay 5% of the £30k each year, every year.
So you pay £1500 interest divied by 12 months, even in year 3 when you have paid most off, you are still paying the interest at the flat rate of 5% on the initial £30k.

The only way you can do this is to work out that the interest over say 3 years, which on £30k is £4500 and add it to the amount borrowed. So your £30k borrowed suddenly becomes £34500.
Now if you see the end of the agreement out that is fine, but say you want to get out after 12 months, if you leave a final value of £15k that works out at £540 a month, after 12 months you have paid off £6400 meaning your settlement figure is around £28400, trade in value is about £22k and private sale maybe £25k.


So you have to find £6400 to trade it in or £3400 to sell it privately.

This would give an apr equivalent of around 19.5%!!


Compare this with Petes type of funding, balanced lease payments scheme, borrowing the same £30k at 8% apr means that after 12 months paying the same amount each month, he will owe £25100, so could sell privately and walk away from the car.

With his agreement you are paying off capitol each month and then they charge you interest on the amount of loan remaining, a much better way of doing it.


To be fair, as long as you are the sort of person that stays in your car for the whole term it doesn't really matter, just I know alot of guys who take it over 3 or 4 years knowing they are going to only keep it for 12, 18 or 24 months, and in this case it is financial suicide.

[gIzzE]

I should have added, some dealers also charge you a penalty of 2 months interest if you want to settle early, so you get hit again, the figures above are not considering that, if they do it is even worse.

[quattrogmbh]

I've always had PCP's and I never go full term. It seems as though theres a better method of funding out there.. I've always been open with them that I don't intend to go full term before changing. Wonder why the dealer has never mentioned it ;-)

[gIzzE]

I wonder!!??

Dealers tend to make more money on the finance than they do the car these days, and if someone ends a PCP deal early they really are in luck.

Worth speaking to this guy....

http://www.bespoke-auto.co.uk/bespoke-automotives-terms

His name is Gareth and he can sort the finance out for you, and it will be not only a better rate but a better package for your situation, he makes sure the package is right for you and not the dealer.
He gets a flat fee from the finance house, doesn't matter if it is a PCP, Lease, contract hire etc. etc.

He can also source cars and get a dealer to take yours too. Well worth calling him.