Best cars for £50 per week Affordable dream cars

After a quality car but worried about the cost? You may be surprised how good a catch a modest monthly payment can net you. Dan Prosser brings you the best PCP deals out there for every need and budget

t isn’t a huge amount, £50 per week, but it could buy you a sports-coupé with a 5.0-litre V8. On the other hand, it might only afford a 1.0-litre hatchback. Consider a used car, meanwhile, and a whole world of engine sizes and body styles opens up before you.

It all depends, of course, on how much you’re willing to put down as a deposit and what duration of agreement you sign up to. Over the next few pages, we’ll look at the most tempting personal contract purchase (PCP) deals out there, from the humblest of city cars to luxury saloons, with a few SUVS, sports cars and electric vehicles thrown in for good measure.

Along the way, we’ll include some buying advice to help you find the PCP deal that’s right for you. We’ll also cast an eye over the classifieds to determine whether you could be better off buying a second-hand car.

This being Autocar, the models we recommend throughout this guide are not simply the most affordable cars in their class or the cheapest to run. In their own ways, they are desirable, fun to drive or a pleasure to own. Don’t believe us? Consider

Ithis: £50 per week, or around £200 per month, could be enough to put a Jaguar F-type with a supercharged V6 engine on your driveway (although we’d suggest you consider the size of the deposit you’ll have to pay upfront before you commit).

PCP agreements, which account for around 80% of new cars sales today, tend to work well for people who want to change their car every few years. On a monthly basis, they’re more affordable than hire-purchase arrangements too.

At the end of the deal, your options include handing the car back and walking away with nothing, paying off a final ‘balloon’ payment so that you own the car outright, or signing up to a new PCP.

It’s worth remembering, finally, that the deals we’ve highlighted here, while all genuine PCPS, are only offered as examples. These deals work on sliding scales and, by tweaking the duration of the agreement or the size of the deposit, you’ll be able to set the monthly payments to a level that suits your budget.