PCP Contracts, Discounts and Salesmen [HELP]

[Simonz]

^Steps 2- 4 should only need doing once if you got all the embedded iron out, unless brake dust is causing further iron (from your discs) to get onto your bodywork. The tinge of these micro dots of orange (rust) on your oaintwork is only really noticeable on a white car.

Thanks, I've got white silver so always on the lookout for tar spots / marks...

[SRGTD]

The important thing when applying any form of protection product to paintwork - whether it’s a sealant, wax or ceramic coating - is the paintwork needs to be fully decontaminated to maximise the durability / longevity of the protection product. Paintwork that’s free of contaminants means maximises the durability of the protection product you’re applying, as it provides a good key for the protection product to bond to.

I give my car ‘the full works’ - usually every 18-24 months, which includes a full decontamination, machine polish and a couple of coats of my preferred wax or sealant. It does get decontaminated and waxed / sealed more often than this though - usually waxed or sealed a couple of times a year and decontaminated once or twice a year - but not the machine polishing. I last gave it the full works in October last year and the sealant I applied then is still holding up well - I’ve not reapplied it or added any other protection products since. Admittedly, I’ve used my car less this year than I would normally because of lockdown, and it’s garaged when not used so it’s not exposed to the elements, but I’ve been impressed with the durability of the product.

I was always a fan of Autoglym resin polish to add a protective coating.

Autoglym Super Resin Polish is a lightly abrasive polish that contains fillers to mask swirling. It is a mild sealant but doesn’t have great durability, so won’t provide long lasting protection. IMO it probably needs re-applying every couple of months to top up it’s limited protection properties - and to continue hiding swirl marks if your car’s paintwork has swirls. However, as I suffer from car OCD , I prefer to remove swirl marks by machine polishing rather than using a product containing fillers to hide them.

Using a ‘safe’ wash method is also key to keeping paintwork as swirl free as possible. Some swirling is inevitable over time, even with a safe wash method. However, careful washing will help to minimise them. The first two posts in this thread over on Detailing World give a good overview on safe washing techniques;

https://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/ ... php?t=4637

Suppose step 2 only applies to new cars, but also include step 4 for older cars as well?

Step 2 doesn’t just apply to new cars. A car will pick up airborne contaminants on an ongoing basis. As has been said, it’s noticeable on white cars but it’s also possible to feel it when it’s present on darker coloured cars. Use one of those thin plastic sandwich bags and put your hand in it as if you’re putting on a glove and run your hand over your car’s paintwork. If it ‘drags’ and / or if you can feel imperfections, then you’ve got embedded contaminants.

You can remove embedded contaminants by using an iron fallout product, tar and glue removal product or by using a clay bar. I’d always recommend using the safest method first - iron fallout and tar/glue removal products - and only use a clay bar on really heavy contamination, as it’s possible to inflict marring on the paintwork off you don’t use sufficient lubrication when claying a car.

[Simonz]

The important thing when applying any form of protection product to paintwork - whether it’s a sealant, wax or ceramic coating - is the paintwork needs to be fully decontaminated to maximise the durability / longevity of the protection product. Paintwork that’s free of contaminants means maximises the durability of the protection product you’re applying, as it provides a good key for the protection product to bond to.

I give my car ‘the full works’ - usually every 18-24 months, which includes a full decontamination, machine polish and a couple of coats of my preferred wax or sealant. It does get decontaminated and waxed / sealed more often than this though - usually waxed or sealed a couple of times a year and decontaminated once or twice a year - but not the machine polishing. I last gave it the full works in October last year and the sealant I applied then is still holding up well - I’ve not reapplied it or added any other protection products since. Admittedly, I’ve used my car less this year than I would normally because of lockdown, and it’s garaged when not used so it’s not exposed to the elements, but I’ve been impressed with the durability of the product.

I was always a fan of Autoglym resin polish to add a protective coating.

Autoglym Super Resin Polish is a lightly abrasive polish that contains fillers to mask swirling. It is a mild sealant but doesn’t have great durability, so won’t provide long lasting protection. IMO it probably needs re-applying every couple of months to top up it’s limited protection properties - and to continue hiding swirl marks if your car’s paintwork has swirls. However, as I suffer from car OCD , I prefer to remove swirl marks by machine polishing rather than using a product containing fillers to hide them.

Using a ‘safe’ wash method is also key to keeping paintwork as swirl free as possible. Some swirling is inevitable over time, even with a safe wash method. However, careful washing will help to minimise them. The first two posts in this thread over on Detailing World give a good overview on safe washing techniques;

https://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/ ... php?t=4637

Suppose step 2 only applies to new cars, but also include step 4 for older cars as well?

Step 2 doesn’t just apply to new cars. A car will pick up airborne contaminants on an ongoing basis. As has been said, it’s noticeable on white cars but it’s also possible to feel it when it’s present on darker coloured cars. Use one of those thin plastic sandwich bags and put your hand in it as if you’re putting on a glove and run your hand over your car’s paintwork. If it ‘drags’ and / or if you can feel imperfections, then you’ve got embedded contaminants.

You can remove embedded contaminants by using an iron fallout product, tar and glue removal product or by using a clay bar. I’d always recommend using the safest method first - iron fallout and tar/glue removal products - and only use a clay bar on really heavy contamination, as it’s possible to inflict marring on the paintwork off you don’t use sufficient lubrication when claying a car.

Thanks for all the suggestions and further advice SRGTD - I'm keeping a note of all the info on the more advanced detailing and the safe wash methods. As you suggest some of the more high street products e.g. Autoglym are fine as a quick fix but if used too much or irregularly risk causing more problems.
I'm wary of using clay or a machine polisher - always worry about over doing it or wearing through the lacquer or damaging the paintwork? Agree re swirl marks they are a nuisance but on my white silver it seems to hide them really well the metallic flakes seem to disguise it, once had a dark metallic blue and it was awful for showing up swirl marks when the sun shined on a panel.

[monkeyhanger]

Machine polishing is easy with even pressure (if your polisher is weighty enough, you don't need to apply any pressure), you've got to do it sparingly (like maybe once every 6 months / 1 year) and stop as soon as the correct finish is achieved.

There was someone on the old Scirocco forum (Evil der boy) who used to machine polish his black Scirocco every weekend to get rid of swirls and polished his clear lacquer layer off.

I'm touching in a few paint chips on my A4 at the moment and the very fine grain of the metallic "Manhattan Grey" seems to be a bugger for showing hologram effect light diffraction. It'll get a machine polish on the bonnet once the chips are sorted out (lacquer levelled flat) and I won't get the machine polisher out again until next year.

[pie1910]

Hello, I hope this is an appropriate post for the topic (apology's in advance if it isn't).

I ordered my Polo Match at the beginning of August and it is currently at stage 6. The PCP offer I was given was 3.5% over 4 years at £232 a month (including GAP and Service Plan) with a £1000 deposit and the VWFS £1500. My current PCP deal on the car I have at the moment is an interest rate of over 7% and I feel so foolish that I agreed to such a high rate, I had no issues with my credit rating and now feel conned. Anyway, I have been recently consolidating any credit card debt I have and have closed two 0 balance credit cards in the last couple of weeks. Today I have received a notification from Credit Karma to say my rating has now dropped to Fair from Good and due to canceling the cards, the total credit card limit is now lower and is now making my score to look worse. I don't believe VW has done the finance check on me yet (nothing is showing on Credit Karma for them) and I'm now fretting that I'm not going to be eligible for the car anymore. The consolidated debt doesn't appear to have been removed off of my credit score and the balance amount hasn't been changed even though it is at £0.

Sorry if I'm ranting slightly, I'm trying to be as clear as possible but mainly wanting to know how much of a knock-on effect my now 'fair' credit score is going to have and when do VW do the finance check? Surely they wouldn't order a car without the person who is buying it be suitable to actually have the car?

[Ima]

I wouldn’t worry about it at this stage. Unlike a personal loan the finance is attached to the car so lending likely more amenable to happen from VW on the basis that they can repossess cars where finance payments defaulted. Outside chance they may offer higher APR and in very worst case want a guarantor but I suspect you will be fine. Every finance company has their own lending criteria anyway. In reality there is no fair/good rating in the way you see form the credit agency. Each credit agency has a different score which doesn’t always reflect the individual companies lending decisions.

[Andy Beats]

Hello, I hope this is an appropriate post for the topic (apology's in advance if it isn't).

I ordered my Polo Match at the beginning of August and it is currently at stage 6. The PCP offer I was given was 3.5% over 4 years at £232 a month (including GAP and Service Plan) with a £1000 deposit and the VWFS £1500. My current PCP deal on the car I have at the moment is an interest rate of over 7% and I feel so foolish that I agreed to such a high rate, I had no issues with my credit rating and now feel conned. Anyway, I have been recently consolidating any credit card debt I have and have closed two 0 balance credit cards in the last couple of weeks. Today I have received a notification from Credit Karma to say my rating has now dropped to Fair from Good and due to canceling the cards, the total credit card limit is now lower and is now making my score to look worse. I don't believe VW has done the finance check on me yet (nothing is showing on Credit Karma for them) and I'm now fretting that I'm not going to be eligible for the car anymore. The consolidated debt doesn't appear to have been removed off of my credit score and the balance amount hasn't been changed even though it is at £0.

Sorry if I'm ranting slightly, I'm trying to be as clear as possible but mainly wanting to know how much of a knock-on effect my now 'fair' credit score is going to have and when do VW do the finance check? Surely they wouldn't order a car without the person who is buying it be suitable to actually have the car?

Consolidating card debt can make things worse, it depends on how much debt you have versus how much credit balance you have on the new card.
Here's a scenario:

Pre-consolidation position.
£2000 debt on a card with a limit of £6000
£2000 debt on another card with a limit of £6000
So you have £4000 debt on cards with a limit of £12000
To a credit company, this is a comfy position as you're only using 33% of the credit available to you.

Post consolidation position
You've transferred £4000 to one card with a limit of £6000
To a credit company this is not a comfy scenario, as you're using 75% of the credit available to you.

[monkeyhanger]

I wouldn’t worry about it at this stage. Unlike a personal loan the finance is attached to the car so lending likely more amenable to happen from VW on the basis that they can repossess cars where finance payments defaulted. Outside chance they may offer higher APR and in very worst case want a guarantor but I suspect you will be fine. Every finance company has their own lending criteria anyway. In reality there is no fair/good rating in the way you see form the credit agency. Each credit agency has a different score which doesn’t always reflect the individual companies lending decisions.

This^^^

Car finance is among the easiest to obtain approval for because the car is there as collateral and it's not yours until it's paid off in full with a final balloon payment.

You'll possibly have a slightly higher APR% than the stated "example" or "typical" rate on the VW website as a worst case. When I used to PCP, I commonly got about 0.4% below typical rate advertised due to having a great credit rating - so having a great one didn't provide much benefit!

I can't see how you could be offered a named rate on a PCP contract if VWFS hadn't credit checked you. If you have a contract rather than a summary example then you'll get that APR rate.

[LittleP14]

I have just had experience of dealing with a dealership online to order a Polo.

My current car I owe £14.5k. It’s very low mileage and a little over 2 years old however most dealerships were offering around £14.5k for it leaving me with no equity.

I just wanted a basic Polo Match 1.0 95 TSi with metallic paint as I wanted to cut my month costs down.

This is my deal;

£15250 for my current car (giving me £750 equity)
£500 cash deposit
48 months pcp 8k miles a year
£206 a month.

I literally haven’t been able to get anywhere near this from other dealerships..... so godknows how they have managed to get it this low. A few other dealerships told me to snap their hand off.

I assume this is a very good deal?

[monkeyhanger]

I have just had experience of dealing with a dealership online to order a Polo.

My current car I owe £14.5k. It’s very low mileage and a little over 2 years old however most dealerships were offering around £14.5k for it leaving me with no equity.

I just wanted a basic Polo Match 1.0 95 TSi with metallic paint as I wanted to cut my month costs down.

This is my deal;

£15250 for my current car (giving me £750 equity)
£500 cash deposit
48 months pcp 8k miles a year
£206 a month.

I literally haven’t been able to get anywhere near this from other dealerships..... so godknows how they have managed to get it this low. A few other dealerships told me to snap their hand off.

I assume this is a very good deal?

Not knowing what your current car is, i'veno gauge on whether you're getting a good part ex price or not.

You are only stating your new car costs in terms of PCP monthlies, without knowing the purchase price, i'd have to work out what level of discount you're getting.

On Drive the deal, they are quoting a £3300 discount inclusive of £1500 VW deposit contribution, the discount is equivalent of putting an £1800 deposit down against standard VW finance, which is coming in at £226 a month x 47 months. Your £500 is about £10.50 a month over the term, but your PCP payment is £20 a month less than the drivethedeal terms. However, your £750 equity in the old car is worth about £15 a month.

Basically you're almost matching broker discount by being within £250, assuming your car comes with no extras, not even metallic paint. If you are getting metallic paint or any options in that, the saving is even better.

I doubt you'll beat that price. Why the change? What's the current car and what's it costing you a month?

If you're looking to save loads on fuel, don't bank on getting 55mpg everywhere unless you do 20+ mile journeys to work on the motorway. Around the doors that 95ps Polo has to be worked hard to get moving as it has long gearing. Take a test drive and make sure its for you before you commit.

[LittleP14]

It’s a Mercedes A Class A180 Sport 68 plate.

Yes the Polo has Metallic paint and the price of the vehicle looks to be £16988 ,less £15250 for my car plus £14573 settlement figure, less £500 cash deposit, less £1500 VW contribution.

I think list is £18545 so a good £1557 off list, plus the £1.5k VW contribution so just over £3k discount on list, plus a good p/e on my Mercedes too.

Reason for changing is that I wanted a lower monthly cost on my car ( I already have a VW Tiguan R -Line 20 plate) so my car costs were fairly high monthly, and I’m moving home and spending more on a mortgage, so I’m just balancing the finances. My insurance will be £15 a month less too.

Fuel wise I’m not too bothered about as my mileage is minimal!

[monkeyhanger]

It’s a Mercedes A Class A180 Sport 68 plate.

Yes the Polo has Metallic paint and the price of the vehicle looks to be £16988 ,less £15250 for my car plus £14573 settlement figure, less £500 cash deposit, less £1500 VW contribution.

I think list is £18545 so a good £1557 off list, plus the £1.5k VW contribution so just over £3k discount on list, plus a good p/e on my Mercedes too.

Reason for changing is that I wanted a lower monthly cost on my car ( I already have a VW Tiguan R -Line 20 plate) so my car costs were fairly high monthly, and I’m moving home and spending more on a mortgage, so I’m just balancing the finances. My insurance will be £15 a month less too.

Fuel wise I’m not too bothered about as my mileage is minimal!

With metallic paint included, you've got a broker beating deal there.

[LittleP14]

Yea that’s what I thought as most dealerships wouldn’t come close, some were only giving me £13500 for my part exchange!

Looking forward to getting it next week - I really enjoy the Tiguan and Iv test driven the new Golf previously - I hope the drive is similar!

[Simonz]

Sounds like a good deal.

The Match is a nice model, picked up one last October. The 95ps engine is fine, keep an eye on oil consumption for first 1000 miles, it should loosen up as you near 3000 miles. I find the Eco tyre pressures make quite a difference to improved economy figures. As others suggest it's at it's best on a steady motorway run you can easily get 50mpg plus. Town driving and cold starts wrecks the economy as with any car.

Old thread revival! Ah Mr Tom Oates - he was all over here like a rash last August with some very helpful advice provided by veteran members re PCP and GTI deals. Wonder where he is now? The young ones never stay long.

[SRGTD]

Old thread revival! Ah Mr Tom Oates - he was all over here like a rash last August with some very helpful advice provided by veteran members re PCP and GTI deals. Wonder where he is now? The young ones never stay long.

Yes, he was very active on the forum up to the point that he took delivery of his car. It’s a shame those forum members with lots of initial enthusiasm don’t hang around and continue to share their ownership experiences with other forum members.