I‘ve done some Googling, checked the MSE car buying advice and looked at Honda’s own websites.
(The car we’re interested in is the CR V AWD petrol hybrid, new in 2021),
PCP is definitely out. If we chose not to keep the car after 3 years we would need to find around £10,000 deposit for a new car. If we chose to buy it after 3 years we would need to make a final payment of £18,000. Any mileage over 1,000 per year incurs an extra charge of £0.11 per mile. We can easily cover that in a month, let alone a year! I think this option only really works if you’re buying a smaller, less costly, car and doing mainly local journeys.
HP would cost us around £1,000 extra, but it does include 5 years complementary servicing.
Honda offer a 5-year service plan for new cars which costs £650, so unless I’ve done my sums wrong it looks as though my best option is cash upfront, with a service plan.
This has been an interesting exercise, there’s so much to consider!