MotoNovo Finance has questioned a report from Confused.com, which recently said the average point-of-sale finance deal in the used space cost £1,860 more than online options.
Considering the 2.3m used cars bought last year, Confused.com said the overall additional cost to UK consumers was £1.4bn annually.
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By GlobalDataThe comparison site sent mystery shoppers to 100 used car dealerships and found the average representative APR rate offered to customers was 9.4%. It claimed that, by shopping around using the Confused.com car finance comparison service, the best comparable representative rate available was 3.2%. On a car valued at £10,000, this difference in APR equated to £620 each year (£940 vs £320) or £1,860 over three years of repayments.
However MotoNovo has suggested the claim is potentially misleading and highly selective. It said the claim was based upon the ‘low APR example’ of a three tier Representative APR table on their website. The other tiers being ‘moderate’ and ‘high’. The moderate interest rate on a £10,000 loan over 48 months has a typical APR of 12.1%, the lender said.
Karl Werner, MotoNovo’s Moto Division chief executive offer, said: “The Confused.com campaign may position itself as championing the consumer, but the reality, based upon the median APR banding available for customers will be very different. It seems disingenuous for Confused.com to criticise the motor industry for what it feels are high finance APRs when the typical customer, based on Confused.com’s online calculator, will often be charged a higher rate with them and not benefit from the higher level of consumer protection available on secured dealer finance.”
“I am happy to welcome competition, but what seems like a ‘fake news’ story is not in the interest of the consumer. The facts are that secured dealer finance; offers a higher level of consumer protection; provides acceptance rates that are commonly far higher than unsecured loans and does offer competitive rates.
“Dealers need to be competitive and based upon the median picture from Confused.com’s article and website, they can be confident that the average 9.4% APR available on used car certainly delivers this.”
Responding the MotoNovo, Confused.com released a statement saying: “Confused.com stands by the results of its mystery shopping exercise into car finance. The exercise mimicked the typical journey a customer might make to find the best representative rate you would be offered if you were to walk into any dealership. These figures were then compared to the cheapest exact APR rate you could find on Confused.com.
“The fact that the service uses exact APR is key to the offering – it removes doubts about the rate you would pay from the word go, which will mean people are making a fully informed decision rather than seeing headline representative rates that could end up far higher in reality. We aren’t suggesting that consumers should never take out finance from dealerships, but the potential difference in repayments illustrates the value of shopping around. If finance companies and dealerships really do have the interests of consumers at heart, they will agree that the launch of a comparison service can only be a good thing for the market.”
