Interesting - I'm actually looking at the PCP in a different way. The payments are about 75%
cheaper than a personal loan too plus you're guaranteed a minimum p/ex price.
I also found out that the car is in essence YOURS, so you can mod all you like (according to Listers VW) - as long as at the end of the term, you return the car to the state it was in when you purchased it.

So, personally that'll be
1. New stereo all in
2. Little breathing mods (filter & exhaust)
All stuff that I can take to the next car, or sell

I can't actually see any disadvantages of PCP.

Dan
In the end, I went for PCP because of lower monthly payments and at the time, wanted to use some of the cash I'd saved for other stuff.
In retrospect, I wouldn't have bothered with PCP.
Go get a personal loan to cover the full amount of the car. It'll be far cheaper than any PCP. Once I've sorted out a few things, I plan on seeing if I can get a loan to pay off the PCP in one go, so I can then start to mod the car.