I have had my bike, which is at least my 7th "keeper" to date for ~7 years now, which is a record, and mainly because of starting a family and taking a paycut to be around more means I use it less and cannot justify a swop out.
With PCP after Deposit and 3 years payments (with Interest) I would of spaffed about £9K, and probably had very little extra value above the GFV, let's say I was lucky enough to have a grand left over, so the 2nd bike would of cost me maybe £8k, and I would now be on bike number 3, or maybe I handed back bike number two - after spending £17k, but at 7 years old it is still worth £5k, maybe a smidge more, but having paid cash I have only lost about £8-9k in that time, leaving me £8-9k better off,m with an extra years use of the bike.
The downside is I reached the big service which would of not happened on PCP (costing £600 ish), I needed a fuel sender and brake switch with the bike out of warranty - close to £200, and I did not have a shiny new bike after 3 years.
And it is now depreciating at well under a grand a year, as opposed to a PCP bike losing £3k a year, but I have an old bike, it might go wrong and is not under warranty - but needs to have some serious problems to start costing £2-3k a year in repairs.
I have had my suspension reworked / serviced and a remap, cost just over a grand, but it really does ride better than the day it was new, it still looks tidy, and depsite two face-lift / upgrade models there is not a lot difference when tested back-to-back, except a load more electronic shit to go wrong!
The calculations for changing every 3 years will be wildly different, and PCP gives you a guarantee you cannot "lose your shirt" if prices plummet, and especially good if they give an incentive package for the PCP, historically I have bought heavily discounted bikes / pre-reg / ex-demo's / last years colours etc when buying new and saved about 15-20% off new price each time, sometimes with some extra's thrown in on top
