New car sales

Undercover shoppers ask if it’s too easy to get car finance with shock result

Undercover shoppers ask if it's too easy to get car finance

The young driver walked into the Audi showroom and gazed at the gleaming new cars. They looked a million dollars, but unfortunately the 24-year old driver was unemployed and didn’t expect he’d qualify for a loan to buy a new model. He was wrong.

Within minutes, a salesman says he’s confident that a new Audi A1, worth more than £15,000, could be the young man’s. Spend £215 a month, for 48 months, and he can hit the road. And after a final payment of nearly £7000, the car is his for keeps.

Despite being unemployed, the process of securing a loan to own the car was predicted to be straightforward.

A salesman says not having a job won’t make any difference. He explains: “We drop it down to the finance company, they’ll do a credit check on you. It’s not a case of you not having a job today and having a job tomorrow. We just need to see what the finance company says.”

However, the young man was an undercover reporter for the Daily Mail. He was one of a team that visited 22 dealerships. And the findings were prompted the question: is it too easy to get a car loan?  Continue reading

White cars lose money, green cars are likely to be crashed, study shows

White cars

The Ford Focus was the most popular white car with 14,103 sold last year (Picture © Ford)

White cars were the most popular in 2015. But drivers who choose ice-cool white cars may see red when it comes to selling their motors on. White cars could lose their value quicker than other colours, according to used car experts. And drivers who pick green for their next motor are more likely to have it stolen or written off than if it’s in any other shade.

Of the 2.6m cars sold in the UK throughout 2015, more than a fifth were white. It was the third straight year that this has been the nation’s most popular paint colour, according to trade body the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. The SMMT added that demand for white cars grew by 2.2 per cent in 2015. A decade ago, just one per cent of cars were ordered with the neutral tone. Continue reading