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Innovative car financing

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Tim Marlow's thinks he's cracked depreciation

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15 June 2012

Tim Marlow thinks he's cracked depreciation

Blog: RALPH MORTON

Can you beat car depreciation?

Intriguing thought.

Depreciation is that sinking feeling as the new car you drive out of the showroom suddenly plummets in value the moment it hits the road.

But it’s something that Tim Marlow, boss of Bridford Finance, thinks he’s cracked. The finance he is offering is more flexible than simple HP or standard lease purchase.

Essentially you pay a deposit, fix a residual value for the end of the finance term on the car (the final ‘balloon’), then get on with lower rate monthly car finance payments.

  • 4.9%, and you can get out if the car’s value looks worse than predicted

It’s very much like Personal Contract Purchase (PCP) – but for businesses.

“We structure the finance,” Tim explains to me. “The balloon at the back end is based on the predicted value based on CAP values.” (CAP values are standard values used by the fleet industry and car leasing firms to work out the future values of company cars they put out on contract hire.)

“But we go conservative on that valuation,” continues Tim, “so we only take 85% of the CAP value, because that minimises the risk. So we then pay the finance down in line with depreciation.

“But the key thing is, you get flexibility – the opportunity to opt out of the agreement if the car’s value looks like it’s worse than predicted.

The Bridford scheme could save £100 a month on Range Rover Sport finance

“We can do 4.9% APR for businesses, compared to the main dealer rate of 6.9%,” reckons Tim. “For a Ranger Rover Sport TDV6 we financed recently, we were £100 a month cheaper than a dealer.”

This is all good news for small businesses and SME companies looking at company car finance. It’s another opportunity to consider alternative finance methods.

Tim, who cut his finance teeth with Lombard on asset finance, says his company is hoping to expand further into the business car market, particularly for the self-employed and SME company directors.

“The cheapest way to fund a car is cash!” jokes Tim. “But failing that, it’s us!”

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Matt Morton

Matt Morton

Matt Morton is an automotive content writer for Business Car Manager

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