PaulCa

Yep. Which is why I'm after paying for it on 0% interest personal finance rather than stealer PCP deals. If you have the money to buy cash, sure, if you don't PCP offers a way to only pay finance on part of the total price, while keeping the value after 3 years un-interested.

I'm going to go with "bollocks". You are looking at an increase from 5% to 10% ethanol. That is not suddenly going to turn your petrol into paint stripper. Also, what do you think "Panel wipes" are? Yep, they are 99% pure ethanol (actually Isopropanol). If you have paint dissolved by alcohol you should have bought a modern bike and not a Harley! (kiddin).

Just to annoy you lot a bit. I filled the car with 40 litres a few days ago. No queues, no hassle. Northern Ireland takes fuel deliveries from ports and has a relatively large cache, it also has relatively small distances to filling stations. So the main areas have no restrictions and no queues. We did have an issue a few years back due to the NI protocol and fuel supplies stopped for a while, prices started to rise as stocks ran down, but it was sorted in a month or so and it all went back to normal. There is always the option to drive 40 miles to the border and buy fuel from the Republic of Ireland in Euros if the shit hits the fans.

When compared to HP it has advantages. Instead of financing the total cost of the bike/car, you are only financing the depreciation. So at the end of the term you "should" be able to return the bike/car and walk away. You have paid for the depreciation )with front loaded stacked interest!) with the monthly. With HP you are financing the whole total cost, so you pay interest on more principle. The downside with both is you don't own the car until the agreement is settled, but as mentioned this has pros and cons.

A few notes with PCP. You can settle the premium for the depreciation in advance with the finance company and save interest. If you have PCP for £4000 depreciation paying £100 a month, but phone them and pay £1000 off the premium, you MUST state that is what you want and NOT a payment reserve. Then your interest will fall and your future payments will fall. You can pay the whole PCP finance in one go, but there may be early settlement charges. These should be reasonable though. Like £100. A few people I know did this with the GT86. Took it on PCP, then pre-paid half the PCP over the phone and dropped their total cost of credit significantly. It's similar to paying off a chunk of your mortgage to reduce interest. Also most PCP finance companies will convert your final payment to a loan with a 5 minute phone call, usually resulting in the same interest rate and the same month payments. If you can through a bit of money cash during this, it obviously reduces the payments or time. I bought my car outright at the end of the PCP and increased the payments slightly to settle in 3 years. It's interesting, because when I went to the "My Toyota" page, it now shows a "date of ownership" as June 2020, as opposed to 2017 when I bought it. This is simply because until the PCP ends, you don't own it, the finance company do. So date of true ownership started when I took the final payment as a loan. One thing you get with PCP over cash is that you don't own it yet. This is a bit of a sadener, but consider that the finance company own the car. So if the dealership is not adhering to their service deal and is underservicing the car, you can let the finance company know and they will have a word with the dealer as it could lower the value of the asset they are tracking against your finance. Just keep that in your back pocket. This breaks you free from the dealership's sales pitch around the PCP settlement date. They will NOT tell you this option. EDIT: Clarifier. I am NOT aware if the loan on the final payment is secured against the car or not. I believe it is. Thus legally you MUST declare the finance when selling and the finance must be settled as part of that sale. If you doing it privately, you MUST speak with the finance company personally. Usually this amounts to the seller handing you the phone to confirm there will be no obligations regarding this finance transfered with the car.

Cash is always king, however, there are parts of the normal deals which are provided as part of the finance deal. Such as the servicing and extended warranty + sweateners. If you buy cash, they come off the table. It comes down to asking, does the cost of credit cover the cost of those extras? Surprise, surprise, the answer is no, they don't. The advantage of PCP deals is they are hassle free. It's literally like a full lease bike for 3 years. Dealership pays for everything a but fuel, tyres, brakes and damage. So you pay your monthly payment and everything else is included for the 3 year lease. The disadvantage is that PCP deals are still fairly high interest. Loans are also fairly high interest. The 0% purchase credit cards are a currently working offer. It can't be denied they are delibrately preying on people's wants versus needs, versus affordability. People who can't afford the thing they are buying will flock to 0% cards and end up with it maxed out and no hope then the interest kicks in. My bank's premium card they gave me has a 5k limit, but it has 14% APR on it. Compared to a 0% card with 21% APR. You see what they are really doing. I however am not in a need for debt and not buying beyond my means. It's just a cashflow / reserves /spreading the cost the cheapest way thing.

I believe you start paying interest on the balance from that point on + the late payment fees of course. I will manage the payments carefully. DD for the minimum from a specific account topped up from my current account. So I even have a reserve of payments. I also have the reluctant position of settling up cash. I just don't want to buy the bike cash outright as it lessens my ISA saving reserves more than I would like. If I loose my job for some reason and end up permenantly unemployed I have a plan for reducing my monthly outlay over 6 months, which would involve selling the bike and the car, but I need the cash reserves to buy time for that.

If you are in a comfortable and unrushed place with flexibility as to how you pay/finance a vehicle. The best way to deal with them is present them with what you want. Reject what they offer in return. Walk away. Stand your ground and as long as your wants are not ridiculous they will come down much further towards you then you expect. The down side of me right now, is... I want the bike, NOW! I want to get some decent miles on it, before I have to garage it for winter. If I have to wait till mod november, that ain't happening. As soon as they salt the roads it's not longer a daily driver.

Still an asides. The car dealer phoned me to come in a discuss trade in options at the end of my PCP. There was GFV + 4k in the car. Their deal was shite. I walked away. They phoned me again with a barely better deal and I said, no. They then said, "Oh, but you PCP ends this month, you have to choose." I replied, "No, I don't. I already refinanced the final payment. I own the car outright. I have time. Your deal is rubbish. I want 10% off list or I will continue waiting." Long story short, but I walked away 3 times, until suspiciously towards the end of the sales quarter, they gave me the full 10% off list and the only sweetener I gave into for them was taknig their overpriced gap insurance. I got £2800 discount on the list price. Compared with £1000 + all the extra tat they push which is usually twice the going rate.

Exactly the same position for me. 8k is the first 'real' service you can't do yourself in a garage and even though the valves are easy on the NC, the headbearings etc. Might not be. Honda do list the difficulty, particularly around specialist tools and safety. Until 8000 miles the most complicated thing is checking the tyres and brakes which they mark as a high safety issue.... duh! An an aside. I bought my first brand new car from Toyota. They gave me "3 years free servicing". Of course when I came back less than 3 years later for my third service they started with the T&C and excuses. "Oh that plan only includes 2 filter and oil basic services", You'll have to pay for the 3rd. So... I phoned Toyota UK and explained what the dealer had told me. Every car in the show room still had the "3 YEARS FREE SERVICING" sticker across the window. 30 mins later I was called by the dealer. They said the car has actually been due an intermediate service at year 2 and only recieved a minor. They wanted to book the car in to do a major service to correct this on year 3 to maintain the warranty. Free of charge. They hate me now.

I think I will lose the Honda intro offer going "cash". It mentions something similar on the website about that package being funded by the finance. But, it's 3 services. That's basically nothing more than oil/filter/inspect and the major service that a dealer would be best doing for warranty is 8k miles. As long as I keep reciepts showing genuine honda parts used in the service, I should be okay on warranty? Just called the credit card folks and confirmed my use case is compatible and it is 0% for 2years. If I am late on payments, that ends that month and interest at 20%APR starts to get added. No back dating and if I immediately settle the balance at that point there would be no charges.

The plot thickens. Phoned the only other Honda dealer in range and they actually have 2 in stock. Black or Red. Previous dealer was October, possibly November with trucker shortages. Let's see what they can do on a price, this time.

Hmm. That sounds like what could happen if you did purchase it on PCP and then try to buy the bike outright with a credit card to close the deal completely. Not sure how long ago this was, but there were changes around 2010 meaning that lenders cannot charge you to exit early... within reasonable admin fees, if you settle the permium balance, they cannot issue you with any "penalty" contract clauses and over charge you. I'm sure there are loop holes though that finance companies will have all their little hooked fingers in. I know my mortgage has a fee for advanced settlement, within the 3yr agreement, but it was reasonable IIRC.

I think it's a little more complex as it's a BIG company like Honda. I would believe the factory to kerb profit is around 100%. As to how much goes to Honda, the distributors and the dealers we can't really know. I highly doubt the dealership is only taking 2% though.

Sorry, I am going off Total cost of credit. Total deal cost was around £8.4k sale, much nearer to £10 after credit costs. They even have the gall to charge you a £10 purchase fee if you want to keep the bike. They can f**k right off and I told them as much. Don't charge me to buy from you, if you must, hide it somewhere so I don't see it.

I "think" it was £750 or £850 Total cost of credit. Much more than £0. It also allows me to be just as much of a prick as the dealer was to me, regarding deals. Not only do they make a lot of commission the finance, but I am now in a position to deal with the lesser dealers with the pitch, "Cash price, today, on the road?" and probably get better offers than I got from Honda main stealer. "We don't make any money on these bikes. Maybe £400 tops. So we can only give you £100 off the list.", I even responded on the day with, oh come on, that's BS. Retail markup is ALWAYS, AT LEAST 50%, usually more likely 100%. But he knew I wanted the bike, so he had the upper hand. Going on the 0% self finance, removes that upper hand.... except maybe on the delivery date - as I specced it.

It has occurred to me as my new bike on order is less than £10k, £8k actually. PCP might not be the best way to finance it. Honda want something like 4.9% which results in £850 cost of credit or something over 3 years with a 2.5k deposit! A £3k deposit however, the rest could just go on a 0% credit card 2 year intro offer. Then I basically have the same options as PCP. As long as I stay in positive equity I can sell it and walk away, I can trade it in, settle the card and so it again. The only risk that isn't covered here is the guaranteed future value from PCP. However I have heard some horror stories about what actually happens when your car is not worth the GFV at the dealers. They start deducting for minor scratches, wheel scuffs, every little nick in the book to bring the offer price back down to the actual value. So you can and probably will having to settle the negative equity anyway. Granted a few people have successfully threated legal action and walked away without paying. I don't see the value of an NC750X 2021 dropping massively in 2 years. Besides it's an £8k bike not a £30k car! If it all falls down on top of me and fees and interest come thick and fast, I have got the cash reserves to just buy myself out if I needed to. Anyone done this? I mean not just for bikes/cars, but for large purchases.

Use red petrol can. Park the bike round the corner. Approach the most friendly looking person at an unleaded pump, hand him cash and fill the gerry can on his bill. Done.

I came here to search for a question like this and it was the one at the top anyway, thanks! I have been using a 2 piece RevIt! textile suit for a few years. As expected it held up fine for a winter or two but started to leak. The trousers would not hold out to the Monday morning seat puddle any more and sitting in the office looking like you wet yourself aint cool. The jacket leaks where there are folds, valleys and wind traps, like my elbows and chest/shoulders. Not unexpected in my experience. It's fine having a one suit does it all thing. It's got abrasion protection, minimal armour in the right places, waterproof membrane and even a thermal layer! Woohoo. But... a full jacket n trousers with sensible armour is getting close to £500 a time. For 2 years use? An alternative would be to go to Gortex gear, which might last 5 or 6 winters, but costs £2000 a set. Ouch! I've been off 2 wheels for 2 years and getting back on them, I need a recheck of my gear. Something I notice is that in the last 3, 4, 5 years a LOT more "urban" style "undercover" biker gear available. Jeans that are kevlar lined, with CE/Knox armor. Light mesh jackets to save your ass without cooking it. Waterproof over layers.... cheap (relatively speaking) waterproof over layers. I figure it possible to use biker jeans, lighter jackets and add other layers for what the conditions call for. The waterproof outer might get scuffed and leak after a year, maybe 2, but it's £50, not £500. They are probably really good waterproofs but unbreathable, but as you can take them off/open them up to cool down, unless you are riding 6 hours a day in rain, it's going to be fine. I expect buying all the different layers separately for summer+winter might add up to more than a Gortex do-it-all suit. But I think it would be more flexible and have a lower overall "running" cost. What do you think?