Has Anyone Taken Out The Toyota Finance

January 28, 2004

just wondered if there were any tie ins with the standard hp type loan toyota finace are offering with the cash incentive on their new cars.

in particular charges if it is paid off early.

thanks

matthew

January 28, 2004

I had Toyota Finance on my last car (Punto), but I'd bought that 2nd hand from the dealers.

The only real downside to the finance for me was when I traded the Punto in they wanted the remainder of the loan paid off up front. This only occured because I'd traded it in at a Toyota Garage, if I'd taken it elsewhere then Toyota would have never found out about it.

It's something to consider though. As I understand it, through Finance Toyota will officially own the car until the last payment is made, with a regular bank loan you only owe the money and are free to do what you like with your car. I'm sure if I'm wrong somebody else will correct me on this.

What sort of deal can you get via Finance? Considering how low some of the loans out there are, it may be hard for Toyota to beat them. Of course, the dealer will probably want to sweeten the deal if you take finance as they will most likely get a commission from the finance deal as well as the sale of the car.

January 29, 2004

i got £1k off and a rate of about 5.9% apr inc setup fees (£10k over 3yrs for under £300). but i took alot of beating them down to get to it. they sarted at 12.8%

January 29, 2004

There are no tie ins as such, when you do settle the loan off early you get a rebate of interest, so you dont have to pay the 'total amount payable' on the finance document. The amount of rebate you get is calculated using what they call the rules of 78's. I have a copy of the matrix used for this if anyone wants one.

All car finance companies have to do this in accordance with the consumer credit act, whereas banks/building societies dont actually have to give you this rebate although most do.

Even though I am a business manager for a car dealer & my job is to sell finance etc I would have to say that if your credit rating is good then 99% of the time you would get a better deal if you shopped around, Cahoot, Egg etc. Cahoot offer 5.9% APR which is LOW!

The benefits you get from a car loan is that it is a secured loan so if you cant pay they wont come round & strip your house of all its valuables but just take the car instead, also many people dont know that once you pay half the 'total amount payable' you are entitled to just hand the car back to the finance company without any repercussions! So you dont have to worry about still owing £5k on a car thats worth £3k, just hand it back & start again.

January 29, 2004

I find it pays to take quotes in with you from companies like N.Rock, Cahoot etc.

You can then give then the ultimatum to beat it.

I have recently done this with my wife's car & with my brothers. In both cases they came down from 12.6% to 9.0% to matching N.Rock ( 6.0% )! If i'd have pushed it, I would have probably got it for less! Possibly as low as 4%. I know Ford Credit are doing 3.9% at the moment.

Don't forget! It's a buyers market.

:thumbsup: