Agility finance

[skyeceltic]

Looking for some info please.
I bought a clk350 a year ago from Mercedes dealer in Skipton . (Car is first class) I bought it on an agility 3 year deal.Our circumstances have changed and my mrs wants an m class.
Question is - can we exchange vehicles with mercedes ( trade up or down )and re do agility deal
can we sell privately and pay finance balance off
can we hand vehicle back ?
as we have just moved house , agility paperwork is in a box somewhere.I will be contacting mercedes finance tommorow but thought you guys and gals could offer a bit of advice.
Thanks in advance.

 

[st4]

It can be tricky to get out of and you may well have to pay the baloon. Check the T&C's.

Always a type of agreement worth avoiding.

 

[skyeceltic]

Thanks, will check with MB finance tommorow.

 

[Xtractorfan]

If you ring the finance company they have to send you a copy of the original finance form you signed... also they willl be able to tell you the ins and outs of the deal... Most finance companies will try and accomodate you especially if you are upgrading.. It is always best to speak to the area rep as he/she will be up to speed on the package you have..
One thing you could do is check out the value of your own car at the moment ..ie how much a dealer will allow on it...the value of your CLK will be the deciding factor...

 

[skyeceltic]

many thanks for the info.

 

[David Nock]

I think you'll find the Agility can be terminated anywhere in it's 3 years. The balloon will change though.
So I think you will be able to do what you want except I personally wouldn't try to sell privately unless everyone (including MB Finance) was aware and agreed what I was doing.

Let us know what happens as my Agility is due up in a year.

For me it seems to have been a very good scheme which has enabled me to retain a reserve of capital and run a new car quite cheaply UNTIL the dreaded ballon time comes.......I really am thinking of ways to deal with this already, a year early.

 

[Xtractorfan]

If the car is on finance you cannot sell it privately, unless the finance company agrees, Most refinancing deals are done through the dealers, this is ok as the dealer pays off the existing finace and works the overspill or negavite equity into the next deal.. This keeps the finance company covered...

 

[skyeceltic]

thank you for your email.
Your options with this agreement are as follows: You are able to take this
vehicle to a dealership and part exchange. The settlement figure on this
vehicle £xxxx until the 21-2-11. You may also sell this vehicle on to
third party. You would also need to clear this same settlement figure. You
would also be able to pay a handback figure which is 95% of the remaining
rentals this figure would be £xxx. Please feel free to email us with
any other inquiries.

This is the reply I got this morning.Anyone looking for a 56 plate clk350 with factory fitted AMG kit

 

[hawk20]

It can be tricky to get out of and you may well have to pay the baloon. Check the T&C's.

Always a type of agreement worth avoiding.

I completely disagree with this. There is nothing tricky about 'getting out of it'. And you do not have to pay the 'balloon'. It is a very good source of finance for those who need it and the MB interest rates are remarkably low compared with those that most offer. It is also very helpful to many to be able to have a guaranteed residual value and ease of selling the car at the end of the 3 years.

And yes you can sell the car before the end of the agreement. I have done it after only a year and it worked well. Go to an MB delaer and ask for a part ex price on your current car. Ask for a settlement figure on the Agility agreement (dealer can get it for you or phone MB Finance). The settlement figure is fair and the method of calculating it is controlled by law. You may find that the part ex figure will pay off the settlement figure, or there might be a small surplus, or there might be a shortfall. The dealer will pay off the Agility agreement for you using the part ex figure (plus any shortfall from you).

Equally, you could sell the car privately and pay off the agreement yourself.

Before selling a car I think it is always worth going to the Glass's Guide website and getting a full valuation (a measly £3) which you can print off and show to your dealer. Helps with haggling and helps you to be wise before the event.

 

[Rory]

The settlement figure on this
vehicle £xxxx until the 21-2-11. You may also sell this vehicle on to
third party. You would also need to clear this same settlement figure. You
would also be able to pay a handback figure which is 95% of the remaining
rentals this figure would be £xxx.

Do the settlement and 95% figures seem reasonable compared to the car's value?

 

[skyeceltic]

Do the settlement and 95% figures seem reasonable compared to the car's value?

Yes Rory , very reasonable indeed.MB finance were very helpful indeed and explained all the options.
As Hawk20 says above , the agility agreement is great if its what your looking for.We both drive company cars so the CLK is an added toy if you like.

 

[Rory]

Yes Rory , very reasonable indeed.MB finance were very helpful indeed and explained all the options.

That's good. It's the handback figure that catches most people out - some people have been led to believe that they can hand back the car halfway through the agreement but they're dismayed to find that they still have to make pretty well all of the remaining monthly payments.

 

[Geezer]

Yep, I have an outstanding payment balance of £7700 and they want £7300

 

[Xtractorfan]

With a Hire Purchase agreement you can hand the vehicle back once half of the agreement figure has been paid..... and there is no penalty or no more to pay..
With the agility agreement you have to pay off the full amount ... You cannot sell the car until you have paid the outstanding amount.... And really who would buy it as it is subject to a finance deal...

 

[gizze]

God there is some crap being spouted on here.


Agility is simply a regulated hire purchase agreement with a large final payment which helps keep the monthly figure down, the final payment is based around the cars estimated value, and is usually pretty conservative, the reason it is pretty conservative is because Mercedes finance guarantee they will give you at least this amount for the car back.

You can settle the account in full at any time, you simply call the finance company up and ask them for a settlement figure, they will give you that figure over the phone and it will include the next 2 weeks interest and be valid until that date too.

You can sell the car privately and the normal thing to do is get the buyer to pay the finance company direct, with any difference being paid to yourself or the buyer depending on whether the car is worth more or less than the settlement figure.
This is actually a very, very good way to sell a car privately, as a buyer I would much rather pay a finance company £30,000 than I would some complete stranger, as I know Mercedes Finance, Lombard, Black Horse, BMW Finance or whomever it may be with will not be in on any scam. You also know that the car is not ringed, a cat D etc. etc. as no finance house will fund such a vehicle.


I always use this type of agreement and I have never seen the an agreement to the end of the term, out of the last 20 cars I have sold 18 of them privately and the buyers have been fine about there being finance on it, once they have stopped and thought about it properly.

 

[gizze]

Regarding handing the car back, you can on a regulated agreement.

However, most people have a balloon, so say you buy a car for £3200 and you put £2000 down, you then finance £30,000 over 3 years and pay the final payment of £13,000 on the 36th month.

You can hand the keys back when you have paid half of the invoice price, in this case half of £32000, so £16k.

However, you only get to owing £16k at 31 month into your 36 month agreement, and usually at that point your car is probably worth more than you owe on it, so it is better to do things by the book and not have it on your credit history.*

The only time this is really worth doing is when the world collapses, like 2 years ago, I know people who had cars worth £25k and they owed £40k on them, so it was worth handing the keys back and walking away, but the residuals are so much lower now after they all got burnt badly, that it will probably never be worth doing anymore.



*They can not log a default on your credit history, but it will be logged that you walked away from the agreement, and this is frowned upon by lenders, so although it should not effect your chances of credit or rates in the future, it unfortunately does.

 

[Xtractorfan]

God there is some crap being spouted on here.


Agility is simply a regulated hire purchase agreement with a large final payment which helps keep the monthly figure down, the final payment is based around the cars estimated value, and is usually pretty conservative, the reason it is pretty conservative is because Mercedes finance guarantee they will give you at least this amount for the car back.

You can settle the account in full at any time, you simply call the finance company up and ask them for a settlement figure, they will give you that figure over the phone and it will include the next 2 weeks interest and be valid until that date too.

You can sell the car privately and the normal thing to do is get the buyer to pay the finance company direct, with any difference being paid to yourself or the buyer depending on whether the car is worth more or less than the settlement figure.
This is actually a very, very good way to sell a car privately, as a buyer I would much rather pay a finance company £30,000 than I would some complete stranger, as I know Mercedes Finance, Lombard, Black Horse, BMW Finance or whomever it may be with will not be in on any scam. You also know that the car is not ringed, a cat D etc. etc. as no finance house will fund such a vehicle.


I always use this type of agreement and I have never seen the an agreement to the end of the term, out of the last 20 cars I have sold 18 of them privately and the buyers have been fine about there being finance on it, once they have stopped and thought about it properly.

So how many buyers out there do you know who can afford to pay off the outstanding finance on a car...And how many finance companies do you know who will release ownership of the car until it has been settled.....
As you say lots of crap being spouted :Oops:

 

[gizze]

So how many buyers out there do you know who can afford to pay off the outstanding finance on a car...And how many finance companies do you know who will release ownership of the car until it has been settled.....
As you say lots of crap being spouted :Oops:

If you're buying a car of course you can afford to pay off the finance, most buyers will be using finance and will have the finance sorted, if I buy a car on finance and I am using Lombard to fund it, they will pay the outstanding balance to the existing lender and then the difference to the seller.

If the finance owing is more than the purchase price I have to pay Lombard the difference, I get the seller to pay them this over the phone using a switch card on the day of the transaction.


It is all quite simple.

 

[gizze]

We do this with our company cars all the time, we use Carlyle Finance, Mercedes Finance, Lombard, Black Horse and Alphera (BMW) and none of these have a problem with this and all of them advise the above.
We tend to sell 3-4 vehicles a year and have done for the last 14 years now, I wouldn't bother typing out all the above if it were not true, I just wanted to help the OP out with some facts.

 

[gizze]

And how many finance companies do you know who will release ownership of the car until it has been settled.....
As you say lots of crap being spouted :Oops:

Once the finance house has received funds, they will release their interest in the vehicle there and then and will be happy to fax this over to you, the new owner can have a copy stating all interest has been relinquished with the car when they leave with it.


Buying a car is all about trust, I have only ever been caught out once.
It was not a private sale, it was from a dealer, the sold me a car with uncleared finance on it. They put finance on the car the day I was picking it up!!
I managed to get the finance house to remove the interest in the car and I don't know what happened to the trader as he disappeared shortly after.

But what is to stop you taking finance out on a car you sold me the day or even week after I had bought it from you??



One little tip for anyone ever found in the position where a car you own turns out to have finance outstanding on it.

The finance company will do everything they can to try and get you to admit you know about finance.
The usual trick is to say something along the lines of "All we need from you is to say you asked the seller if there was finance on the car and he told you there was none, we can then persue the original agreement holder for the funds.'
At that point you are liable for monies owing.

You need to say "I never even considered finance, it was never even mentioned."

As long as you say it was never even a thought they can not come after you or your car.