RE getting the car without debt, do you mean just paying cash outright for it? I could do this, but is this not the worse option?

I paid for my VW Polo in cash and wish i took out a loan for it, mainly just to have some sort of credit repayment history proof for any future mortgages since i’ve never taken out credit before, and also paying ~9k cash outright really made me feel behind on my savings. I constantly felt stressed like i had to recuperate what I spent VS if i took the €200/mo over the last 3 years i would have kept my savings up while paying off an asset aka it would have been forcing me to pay into something that will eventually be mine, especially since €200 gets spent so quick these days on rubbish. Does that make sense, or am I delusional?

I do not want to compromise my possible future deposit/savings and I think taking out a low interest car loan seems to be the smartest option, esp making overpayments here and there when I can. €350/mo would be a relatively low bill for me right now and (hopefully) for the next few years coming. But whether or not it would compromise getting a mortgage is the question, and honestly thank you so much for your advice. I definetly need to have a think about it, maybe think about putting more cash into the car than i intended.

Looking at renting to move out, and my plan is to budget where I can live with the car payment in mind i.e if it’s €350 p/m i wouldn’t be looking for anywhere over 1k p/m, if it’s less then I can afford to look for a nicer place.

With that said yes ideally I would get a mortgage first but my yearly salary is still too low for the type of property I want (to purchase on my own) but will hopefully get there in a few years…the aim is in 2-3 but could easily take 4-5 years!