Financing a car used to be a pretty straightforward decision. You could either pay upfront in cash, spread the cost using the dealer’s hire purchase arrangement or pop it on a credit card or personal loan. Nowadays, though, there’s much more choice and freedom, with many car dealers and manufacturers offering a range of flexible options for financing your new car purchase.

Take Fiat, for example, who offer not only the conventional hire purchase arrangement, but also a range of innovative new financial deals for you to choose from when buying a new car. If you choose to opt for a new Fiat model, such as the Grande Punto or even any of their van models, such as the Fiorino Combi, you can choose from options including the i-Deal arrangement.

i-Deal allows you to put down a deposit at the outset, offsetting a proportion of the car’s value until the end of the finance agreement. This amount them becomes a guaranteed minimum value for your car at the end of the finance period. You are able to set your annual mileage, which will affect the car’s value at the end of the arrangement, either paying a pence-per-mile surcharge if you go over, or having additional equity left in your car at the end of the finance arrangement should you fall under your estimated annual mileage. You can then either part-exchange your Fiat, return the car or keep it by paying the outstanding amount.

Similarly, the personal contract hire arrangement that Fiat offer allows you to pay a monthly rental payment based on an agreed period and mileage, and simply return the car at the end of the period with nothing more to pay and none of the risks of ownership. For those who want to do away with monthly payments, Fiat even offer an APP (Advance Payment Plan) option which allows you to pay a single up-front payment followed by three options at the end of the period: either part-exchange, return or keep the car.

The financial market has changed hugely in the past few years, and the motoring industry has too. The new flexibility afforded to motorists looks like it will be hugely beneficial in allowing more and more motorists to afford a new car as opposed to being locked into the never ending cycle of buying used cars which might only last a few years and have a lot of repair and maintenance costs associated with them. With conventional finance arrangements such as credit cards and personal loans still available to motorists, and often at very impressively low interest rates at the moment, the choice has never been greater and it’s never been easier to get your hands on a new car without having to break the bank.

Categories: General