Never a better time to buy a car?

Cars in the current crises are hitting all time lows, with new, nearly new and used vehicles available to up to half of the price a year ago.

Struck by the lack of credit to new customers and the lack of funds for cash purchases, dealers are desperate to move stock. I was quoted 18.9% for a new car loan recently, which is pretty outrageous (from www.peugeot.co.uk) – the worse bit was I had to spy on the salesman’s fingers on the calculator to get the APR – he kept up with some spiel of “don’t worry about the APR, think of the monthly cost”

Prices may be bottoming out, with the car manufacturers not responding by dropping prices, rather increasing them in reaction to the decline of the Pound against the Euro; Ford and Vauxhall report the are increasing list prices by around 5%.

Also, car dealers are reporting used car prices have risen by £300 from December compared with prices dropping like a stone in the months leading up to Christmas.

Some remarkable deals are around, such as Broadspeed offering two-for-one deals one cars to tempt buyers. Vauxhall are also hoping to tempt buyers with giving you back 5% of your 0% APR finance loan for three years

Rich Headland, editor of Which Car? has said recently:

If you have the cash and your job is safe, there are some stonking bargains out there – particularly for new cars. We recently found Fiat Pandas being sold for new for less than one year old models at dealers.

Smaller cars seem to be holding their prices better than big cars, with people still smarting from high fuel prices in the summer. Car Tax changes also mean you could be paying £350 for your yearly car tax for a big car, to no car tax at all with a modern fuel efficient car.

Lets not forget the new VAT price as well, a 2.5% drop in what you pay which will be taken away in a few months time.

What UK citizens get for their taxes per week

Carrying on with our series on where does your money go, lets use those figures from the post – How Much Money The Average UK Family pays in tax

That post concluded, after income tax and all the other tax such as VAT the average family pays £201.34 in tax. Bear in mind this is last years figures, now we own half the banks our public debt is a lot higher – we’ll cover that next.

But how much has been spent already? From the Guardian money wall-chart we can get a rough idea.

Of our money given in tax in 2007/2008:

• 18% to the Dept of Health
• 10.3% to Education
• 23.3% to work and pensions
• 21.3% for benefits
• 5% for debt interest – this is obviously going to be a lot higher in 2008/2009
• 6% to the Ministry of Defence
• 3% for transport policy
• 5% for Scotland
• 2.5% for Wales
• 1% for Northern Ireland
• 3.6% for Universities
• 3% for Tax Credits
• 1% to decommissioning Nuclear Waste
• 0.5% for Iraq/Afganistan Wars
• 1% to Policing

Using these figures, an average family earning £32,799 a year contributes, each week:

• £36 to the NHS
• £21 for our schools
• £47 for the OAP’s
• £43 for those on benefits
• £10 on the public debt interest
• £12 for the Army, Navy and Airforce
• £6 for the roads and rail
• £10 for Scotland
• £5 for Wales
• £2 for Northern Ireland
• £7.25 for Universities
• £6 for tax credits
• £2 storing nuclear waste
• £1 the Iraq/Afghanistan wars
• £2 for the police

Credit Crunch Explained

All these news stories are confusing, but these videos give a good job of explaining it for us mortal folk who are not merchant bankers.

Gives a nice brief overview

SEXY Property History Lesson

Yes, its the internet, it can exist.

The BBC are always good for introductory info…beware propaganda though

BBC NEWS | Business | Credit crunch explained

Bird and Fortune are always good for a laugh….

Sky news reports Darling telling us not to borrow so much money, you naughty boys.

De Ja Vu? MP Darling defends stating the UK Economy is going into recession

Aug 30th – 2008 Darling recently had a piece in the Guardian where he told us:

UK Chancellor Alistar Darling

“the economic downturn would be “profound and long-lasting”,
“…has insisted it is his duty to be straight with the
public, after telling a newspaper the UK faces its worst economic
crisis in 60 years.”
“…that voters were “pissed off” with Labour’s handling of the
economy, a key issue at the next election, and said it was “absolutely
imperative” that ministers communicated their intentions better.”

Basically, we’re fucked and going to have a recession.

And now the PR exercise starts trying to educate the masses that it is not Labours fault.
Watch the BBC interview where Darling repeats, 4 times, parrot fashion, the mantra’s the PR men have told him to say. To every question asked him his answer is:

• I’m being honest
• Every other country in the World
• Unique Circumstances
• Credit Crunch
• Rising Oil and Food Prices
• We helped Northern Rock
• Tax Rebate next month
• Helping People getting back into work
• Fundamental of Economy Sound

“Who’s going to win Eurovision this year?” “Honestly, every other country in the world has rising oil and food prices, I remember when we helped northern rock I was going to give a tax rebate next month…blah blah blah…I think they should bring back Cliff Richard.”

I do notice that not having a TV makes you more aware of the repetitious Squealer type announcements. Lets break it down a bit:

• I’m being honest – Why do I get jittery when a politician starts with that?
• every other country in the world - Asia seems to be unaffected thus far
• Credit Crunch – buzzword for people at the moment – basically free credit to everyone will eventually bite you on the arse
• Rising Fuel and Oil Prices - didn’t Mr Murdoch say it was morally correct to invade Iraq for a “$20 a barrel oil”?
• We Helped Northern Rock – Nationalising a bank under intense pressure after failing to find it a buyer, placing £1.3 billion more in national debt.
• Tax Rebate next month – What tax rebate? The one where companies can claim back VAT they shouldn’t of paid in the first place because they overpaid?
  Or the rebate to make up for the blunder of not noticing abolition of the 10p tax rate would put the lower paid workers out of pocket?