Can't afford that BMW? FinanceAcar launches car finance comparison engine
Aiming to answer the question “what is the lowest monthly price I need to pay to drive the car that I want?”, at launch the site compares finance options from top UK lenders for 6,000 vehicles and offers more than 1,000,000 different prices.
This, says the company, fills an estimated £11.5 billion gap left by traditional comparison websites in the UK such as Moneysupermarket.com that only compare car finance prices based on car loans. That’s because a car loan is the preferred option of just 1 in 5 car buyers, therefore a lot of consumers aren’t being catered for. By comparing options side by side, they’ll also be in a much better position to negotiate better finance where previously the dealerships held all the cards.
Co-founder Nadim Saad gives the following example: “A BMW 1 series can be financed on a car lease for as little as £220/month and after 3-4 years you can have a stress free new upgrade much the same way as your mobile handset. The traditional alternative is to pay £600/month to buy the car and keep it.”
The market is huge too. According to the Finance and Leasing Association and Keynote, at least 80% of all car shoppers use car finance for the average 2 million new vehicles acquired each year in the UK (market of circa £19 billion/year).
A Seedcamp London winner, FinanceAcar is founded by Mark Peatey who launched ITV.com back in 2000 (he left in 2005) and Saad who launched a finance comparison site in Latin America during the dot com boom.