Imperial Cars has introduced a new finance offer allowing customers to defer paying for their new vehicle for up to three months.

The ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ service was introduced to help people who may be struggling during the coronavirus pandemic, or those who aren’t in a position to start finance payments immediately.

It means that customers can buy the car they want today and have complete peace of mind knowing that they’ll pay nothing for the first three months.

The initiative mirrors the new car finance offers that have been rolled out by the likes of Ford, Volkswagen and Renault in recent weeks.

For those who take up the offer, the deferred three months will just be added at the end of the Santander 24-, 36- and 48-month agreements, and won’t change the monthly amount owed.

This means finance plans will be for 27 months, 39 months or 51 months, respectively.

“We are constantly finding new ways to offer peace of mind to our customers and to make it easier for them to buy a car,” said Neil Smith, operations director at Imperial Cars.

“We hope our new Buy Now, Pay Later service will help to take the pressure off some of our customers’ shoulders during some incredibly difficult times at the moment.”

The three-month deferred payment initiative is one of a series of new services offered by the car supermarket. The business has already introduced contactless collection/delivery service and has now reopened its 17 sales sites and 13 service centres.