What to do - high mileage PCP
 

2 years ago took out a PCP on a Golf R Wagon, best car I've owned, really loving it. Job at the time was office based, 1 day a week in Norwich and airport trips, so the 10,000 mile p/a was totally reasonable.
FFWD a few months and a change of jobs means much higher mileage, so rather than being on 20,000 after two years I'm on 45,000. I'm 12 months shy of the Voluntary Termination point, although I could VT now and pay the balance to the 50% VT threshold.
The service plan cost has also gone up due to the mileage.
While running the car until the VT point or trading in for something of similar value are both viable financially there is a certain attraction to saving a couple of hundred quid per month by buying something outright and running it for a couple of years. I'd been looking at buying a Focus ST outright for example.

I've now learned that this isn't possible quite in the way I thought - having spoken to an Audi dealier and being given the outstanding finance amount and a value for my car, I'd assumed (wrongly) that VW finance would accept the car plus money back and I could walk away. The only way to do this is to pay VW finance what's outstanding by either selling the car or trading in.
The logistics of selling a car and buying one at the same time don't appeal in the slightest (I can't be without a car for more than a day due to job and family), and I could be wrong but a dealer wouldn't want to take an £18k car in part ex for a £12k car. Would they?

Options are
1) Pay the remainder to 50% of car value (to trigger VT option) plus mileage and whatever "damage" they come up with, total cost circa £6,000
2) Run the car for six months, and do same as above, total cost £7,000
3) Run the car for 12 months and have no "VT fee" to pay, only mileage and damage plus the ongoing PCP payments - total cost £8-9000

Interested to hear opinions (not about the principle of PCP, or how daft it was to get a PCP and do more mileage etc :LOL: ) , suggestions etc, or if anyone is considering a Golf R Wagon - higher than average mileage but in excellent condition do let me know.

Can you not pay off the o/s finance & keep the car with a personal loan from Tesco's or whoever?

Depends on the T&Cs and they do vary.

Isn't Gad after 'different' kind of estate wagon?

You forgot to factor-in the cost of renting a replacement.

IOW, if it's any good, you calculate the repayment curve using the sum-of-the-digits method and when the levelling depreciation curve coincide, the car is no longer under water and you can walk away, or keep going. You don't need to drive around in a POS that you have to pay for in the meantime.

Thanks Nick.

The way I'm looking at it is: £20,000 (ish) to settle the VW finaince or trade in the VW and pay the difference + financing a "new" car.
Had a conversation with a dealer today where they give me a decent trade in on the VW, settle *all* the finance on it then give me a used car with several extras (warranty, alloy and tyre cover, paint cover, upholstery cover etc), for "only" £352 per month for 60 months.
Or, approx what I'd pay for the Golf if I took a loan out to pay the finaince. This does not meet my requirements as it's basically a worse car for the same money.

What looks most likely is I don't bother with all their money-making extras, take their trade in and finance the difference and a "new" car from their stock myself which would cost me £270 a month over the same period (if I intended to take 5 years to pay this, which I don't.
This does meet my requirements as it's a worse car, at a lower monthly payment and with no mileage excess to pay at the end.

That could well be your preferred option, as long as it is cheaper and fully-warranted. I think I'd avoid all the dealer add-on snake oil extras.

I still cannot help thinking that you'd have to give the stealer, what, £22K for the GolfeR off the forecourt? If you really like the car (and presuming VAG's reputation for their products exploding as soon as the warranty expires turns out to be fallacious in this case) you might prefer to hang on to the old banger. But of course, that is the gamble. But if it is your own finance, you can fire it off at a time of your own convenience.