The purpose of this page is one comparison done properly: a £28,000 car on PCP, costed as totals over the term rather than monthly payments, with all three exit routes shown. The quoted monthly is designed to be the least informative number in the deal.
PCP (personal contract purchase) splits the car's price into a deposit, monthly payments, and a large optional final "balloon" payment. The monthly looks small because the balloon is not being repaid, but interest runs on it for the whole term.
| Exit route at year 3 | Total paid | What Sam owns | Versus £28,000 cash |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pay the balloon and keep the car | £30,640 (£3,000 + £13,140 + £14,500) | The car | £2,640 more |
| Hand the car back | £16,140 (£3,000 + £13,140) | Nothing | £16,140 for three years' use, plus any mileage and damage charges |
| Trade in against the next car | £16,140 so far | Any value above the £14,500 balloon becomes the next deposit; below it, nothing | Depends entirely on the used-car market at year 3 |
Three exits, three different real costs, one quoted monthly. The £2,640 premium on the buy route is the cost of financing, concentrated in interest on the balloon that was never being repaid. Whether that premium is worth it depends on what the £25,000 not spent up front could do elsewhere over the three years, on how predictable the mileage is, and on whether owning a five-year-old car at year 3 is a feature or a burden for the household. The arithmetic is the decision; the monthly payment is the marketing.
Information and guidance only. Not personal advice, and not advice on any credit product. Figures are illustrative; real quotes differ. PCP is a regulated consumer-credit product; a real decision should compare quoted APRs and terms directly. Published 7 August 2026 · arithmetic machine-checked; figures last verified 7 August 2026.
Sonuswealth is pre-launch. The Decision Engine records comparisons like this one with your own numbers, so the assumptions are still there when the deal is not.