Honda - All Japanese final three what car

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Mon 16 Mar 2009 13:48
All Japanese final three what car - Douglas13

Yet another 'what car' thread I'm afraid, but hopefully this one is more tightly focused.

We need a new car to replace the ageing (and duff) Pug 206, and my much better half now has her sights set on a brand new car. Now I'd normally never consider a brand new vehicle, but there are some good deals it would seem at the moment. Plus yes, I am weak and even I am tickled at the thought of my first brand new car.

Anyway after a hard weekend hitting the dealers we have a short list:

Toyota Yaris 1.33 SR
Mazda2 Tamura
Honda Jazz 1.4 ES

The Jazz is probably our favourite and the most useable, but it's the most expensive to buy. The Mazda is the smaller sporty one, the cheapest and frankly looks lovely in white with graphite allows. The Yaris is the middle ground, being bigger and more sensible than the Mazda 2.

The other half wants to do a PCP deal to get a new one. Now I've always been wary of these, but at the moment Toyota (5.9% APR) and Mazda (6.3%) are doing good deals with frankly silly monthly payments. Honda isn't and it's their poor finance (10.2%) that is making the Jazz the most expensive.

We could actually pay it by cheque and then pay ourselves back monthly. The benefits being no interest, and the fact that the money is earning nothing at the moment in the bank. The disadvantages is that effectively locks away £12k and we'll be looking to move house towards the end of the year.

As you can imagine between the cars and the finance I have 101 things going through my head and I'm trying to juggle so many factors, hence the plea for an objective opinion. So if you have any thoughts on the choice of car or the method of financing then please let me know

Thanks

Douglas

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Mon 16 Mar 2009 23:33
All Japanese final three what car - Avant
If you need the room for people and luggage, go for the Jazz: if you don't, the Yaris 1.3 is very lively and good to drive. My elder daughter is on her third 1.3 Yaris, and we got a very good PCP deal on the current one last year (a TR - we didn't think the SR was worth the extra).

The Yaris is certainly livelier than the old-model Jazz but I haven't tried the new model. My daughter had a test run in a Mazda 2 but it didn't do anything that the Yaris couldn't, and the PX offer on her old Yaris was hopeless.

PCPs work best for cars that hold their value well, so you should be safe with your shortlist.
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Tue 17 Mar 2009 07:09
All Japanese final three what car - L'escargot
With those PCP rates it might be cheaper to raise the money by remortgaging your house!
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Tue 17 Mar 2009 15:28
All Japanese final three what car - Douglas13
Unusually in this climate I've actually just sold a house! Now down in Cambridgeshire with the better half. We've currently got money in the bank, but will need it in about 6 months when we buy a bigger place.

One thing I will note, the dealers are not discounting at all, but they are bidding over the odds in part-exchange. Makes sense I suppose, they can get away with saying they are not discounting new cars

Now narrowed down to two cars: Mazda 2 and Jazz. SWMBO decided the Yaris was too dull and I couldn't put up a convincing defence against that
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