Taken for a ride by car finance

It’s official. I’m a grown up. I have a baby on the way and my husband and I have just ordered a new family car.

We checked it had the Isofix car seat fitting system, selected the window blind option for the rear seats and made sure that our travel system (which seems to be the new name for a pram) fitted comfortably in the boot.

The make and model we’ve gone for is a bit of a step-up from the 11-year old Ford Focus we’ve been tearing about in for the past six years, so rather than wipe out our entire cash reserves we decided to go for a finance deal.

‘It’s never been cheaper to buy a new car on finance,’ said the dealer, and he’s pretty much spot on. A combination of generous deposit contributions, falling interest rates and increasing competition among dealers means there are some great deals to be had.