Finding the best car finance deals is far more difficult than it should be

At our recent Auto Express New Car Awards event, I bent the ear of a couple of car-brand bosses about how hard it is to compare finance deals. The huge variety of up-front payments, mileage limits and lengths of contract can really disguise how good or bad the deal is in terms of overall cost. 

That’s great for customers, because you can tailor a deal to your circumstances, be it via a big deposit and small monthly payments, or nothing in advance and higher monthlies. And that’s just leasing. If you’re looking at a PCP, then throw in final balloon-payment percentages as well to make it even more flexible. 

All of this means you can tweak a deal to your heart’s content, but it makes it bloomin’ hard to compare one with another when you’ve got a shortlist of cars. It leads to a deal with an appealing headline figure catching your eye, only to have almost instant deflation when you see the offer’s small print, and you don’t want to put your life savings down as a deposit.  

At the moment buyers have to tread very carefully: that attention-grabbing figure almost certainly isn’t as good as it looks, and before you start hunting for the best deal on your shiny new wheels, you have to be very clear on how much cash you have available to put in up-front and what you’re willing and/or able to pay per month, as well as your average annual mileage. 

So I’m starting a campaign for a standard starting point, so everyone can see, with minimal effort, exactly what one car costs against another. Maybe a lease figure over four years at 10,000 miles a year with three months of payments up-front. I know that’s not going to tie in with a lot of drivers’ actual usage, but it’s a start. Then by all means tailor the deal to your budget and circumstances, but at least give us a level playing field to begin with.

Now, I’m aware this isn’t totally realistic, and the whole thing is more complicated than I’m deliberately making out, but you see my point. Making things easier for buyers should be the priority, so can we please have a neat way of at least pulling together a shortlist of cars within budget? 

The number of car companies – both established brands and the newer arrivals – models and powertrains already makes it an overwhelming choice for some. Add over-complicated headline finance rates and it’s all just too much. The campaign for plain-English finance rates starts here!

Did you know you can sell your car through Auto Express? We’ll help you get a great price and find a great deal on a new car, too.