Should I buy GAP protection policy when purchasing a car?

I am thinking about buying a car (yippeee!) and am taking it for a test drive tomorrow.

One of the extra but optional costs is GAP.

Can anyone advise whether i should go ahead with it or not?

The car is 2years old and costs £4000. The GAP is £349.

Thanks!

i would advise carefull consideration on all insurances car dealers try and throw at you.

we bought a car on hire purchase and took out all insurances.

on our GAP insurance we found out that it was only for a yr of the agreement and that we had to have a service every 6 months by them.

in other words a total waste of money!

No, don't buy it, get them to throw it in as part of the deal.

I'd definitely recommend thinking about it - I've been stung before when someone hit my car whilst it was parked in the street, writing it off and leaving me out of pocket when the insurance paid up less than I still had owing on it!

Don't go for the option offered by the dealer though - try this: http://www.click4gap.co.uk/ -when I got my last car their quote was half the price of the dealer's.

Don't buy insurance or sign finance deals from car dealers. They're salesmen, not financial advisors, all they know about finance agreements is how much commission they get from them!

The car dealer has managed to get me a finance agreement of 4.1% which i can't argue with.

However, i shall take the advice above and seek GAP from elsewhere.

Don't get GAP, but make sure you are paying off the loan faster than the car depreciates, then you don't need it.

Don't all shoot me - but I used to be a car salesman.

I am no longer so I will give you an honest view of the product and why it is offered.

Firstly, all salesmen will hard sell it because there is alot of commission involved. I used to receive £50 for every policy I sold. They will also offer you diamond brite or platinum protection (used to be called a body glaze), which I received £30 for every policy sold. So salesmen usually receive more money for selling these products than they actually do for the car. So be a little wary.

The GAP policy itself is not a bad one but as other people have mentioned you need to read the small print. The price they have offered is fairly standard. You could negotiate it into the deal but the salesmen will be reluctant to do this as he/she will not be paid any commission. In a sense all they will be doing is knocking £200 off the price of the car anyway.

I did have one customer who bought a car with Gap and then bought another one 9 months later after smashing it up with the GAP money. so it does have its uses.

Did the salesmen explain the product to you? Essentially what it does is cover the price of the car at the price you bought it even if the value has gone down 12 months later. Eg If you buy a car for £10,000, 12 months later it is usually worth about £7000. So a normal insurance company will only pay out £7000 which will not buy you another £10,000 car. This is most important if you take finance out on the car. Most cars will be in negative equity after a year. So you may owe £8,500 on a car worth £7,000.

HOWEVER, Some of this is totally true BUT some insurance companies do cover the list price of the car for the first 12 months anyway (best to check with your insurer) so this makes the GAP policy redundant. Insurance on finance payments may also be covered (depends what you take out and check again).

Hope this helps

Just make sure that 4.9% is the APR and not the flat rate.Dealers have been known to pull this scam on customers.

Don't get GAP, but make sure you are paying off the loan faster than the car depreciates, then you don't need it.

That would be the ideal solution, but you'd have to pay off the loan phenomenally quickly for a new car!

Headline of that article is: "New car owners lose £497 in depreciation every month"

For a second-hand car it is clearly not going to be as bad, but it's still going to take some doing so it might be worth considering alternatives.

I'd definitely recommend thinking about it - I've been stung before when someone hit my car whilst it was parked in the street, writing it off and leaving me out of pocket when the insurance paid up less than I still had owing on it!

 

Don't go for the option offered by the dealer though - try this: http://www.click4gap.co.uk/ -when I got my last car their quote was half the price of the dealer's.

I agree with this. It saved me a fortune when my car was written off.

That would be the ideal solution, but you'd have to pay off the loan phenomenally quickly for a new car!

 

Headline of that article is: "New car owners lose £497 in depreciation every month"

 

For a second-hand car it is clearly not going to be as bad, but it's still going to take some doing so it might be worth considering alternatives.

The car is 2years old and costs £4000. T

It's not a new car, even if the full thing is bein bought on finance £300 a month (for example) will easily exceed the depreciation of the car.