AIBU to wonder how on earth do people afford new cars ?

I would never spend £1000s on a holiday - a week in Spain for our family costs the same as a year of payments on my car lease.
DH thinks leasing a car is money down the drain - he owns his car outright (he will keep them for 10 years or so).
It’s about priorities.

How can you say the PIP scheme is being exploited?
Are your very wealthy parents exploiting any tax loopholes?

Some people are happy to pay monthly for a new car on finance, then just hand the car back in a couple of years and get another new one. It’s a really common thing to do.

yep... my neice does not have a pot to piss in, her council house is disgusting, their garden is like a battlefield of dog shit and weeds... but she has a lovely brand new car outside the house!

OP I pay about £150 a month for mine and got a service package included. It’s not a huge SUV, just a normal car.

Not cheap but certainly cheaper than buying - with the added bonus that you don’t have to worry about selling the car at the end, you simply hand it back and start over. I now lease and do prefer it to buying as I like my cars newer.

And just to add that with leasing you also need a large lump sum to start with.

We bought an almost new car recently (we paid for it outright though) but if we lived in a council house here we’d be able to afford another 2 brand new cars on finance easily!

@CarsAreExpensive Does your employer have a salary sacrifice ev scheme - my employer has just bought it in and if you are hitting that £100k tax issue the savings are massive! They include tax, insurance, tyres, breakdown etc as well.

True, but leasing is not cheap either for a large car or SUV. We looked at leasing as don't want to own a car and for a family car the prices starts at c. £400 p/m and up... not cheat at all, so the question is an intriguing one ..

Used to work with a woman who;s partner refused to downgrade his car and therefore the payments, so they could afford to buy a house. He said that he would rather live in a shit house than drive a shit car.

They split up eventually and the house/car issue was the main reason (although she stayed far longer than I personally thought she should as he was a total dickhead in other ways too!). So it wouldnt surprise me if other people think like that.

I live in Cornwall, traditionally one of the poorest regions of the country.

When we first moved her 27 years ago everyone drove old cars, vans and pickups. Suddenly we noticed that the number of new cars being driven had suddenly increased massively, and they were expensive brands too Like Mercedes.

I assumed it is down to the availability of cheap credit (it might not feel cheap but some of remember interest rates of 15%).

We always buy second hand, the only new car we've had was a company car.

I've seen this too. For a while I had to visit the part of my city which is at the bottom of the tables on all poverty measures, highest crime, high number of benefits claimants, most houses are council housing etc. I was surprised how many large new cars there were. I came to the conclusion that lots were bought from criminal proceeds eg drug dealing, lots of cash in hand undeclared work while on benefits, bought on lease, people not caring about debt, people who would never be able to have a nice house so don't bother about that and spend their money on a nice car instead, lots of young men for whom a flash car is important and gives some status amongst their group( as compared to better demographic areas where job/career gives status).
I live in a part of the city where incomes are generally high and houses are quite large and well-cared for, of course there are plenty of new cars but plenty of older cars around too. I buy a one or 2 year old Japanese car outright, then keep it till it starts to cost more in maintenance, my last one was a honda civic that lasted 15 years only needing tyres and brake pads/discs.

I am annoyed that the PIP scheme is exploited so that there isn’t MORE money for those that actually truly need help because of their disabilities.

Im also annoyed that decent people are going to lose something they rely on.

You can spin it as much as you like but my issue isn’t with the money given to disabled people. I have issues with those that could clearly work but don’t. Maybe if the false claimants were dealt with we could find disability services properly

What gives absolutely no incentive to work?

I wonder this too.
I'm required to use my car for work and get 45p a mile for work related appointments and it doesn't stretch far. I have a 2015 Tiguan I need a 4x4 as live rurally. I make 19K and work 5/6 days a week.
Husband has to commute to work about 45minutes each way, has to have another car for that (a 2013 car) and about 49K. Mortgage is increasing to 1K a month next month. Tax band G for a small house in my area. It's not a big house (no driveway no garage no front garden 3 beds small back garden and tiny kitchen) all houses in the village are high tax band. No idea why.
Cars are the Bain of my life. I'd love a new car that's not constantly in the garage but just can't afford it. Now with LEZ zones it's a bloody nightmare.

Some people really do rely on that money or are you so far up your own behind you don’t know that. It has been removed from the wrong group of people. It gives absolutely no incentive to work.

About twenty or so years ago the local Vauxhall dealer was doing an offer on pre registered cars.

At the time we were having money pit issues with various elderly cars and as I pointed out to the woman who is now my ex wife we could use the loan my employers offered to buy a new car with a warranty and fix our motoring costs or be stuck with the unknowns of the car we currently had.

Needless to say Ms Back Seat Driver turned it over the following winter and didnt understand why she got no sympathy from me but thats another story.

So I can understand that given the option of a new car with warranty etc thats the option some people choose.

The downside is large number of young men buying high performance cars.

@CarsAreExpensive I used to live in a similar area to the one you describe. Lots of multigenerational housing, "poor" on the surface. But a lot of the young people in that area would live at home until they were married and often beyond. Parents would pay all the bills. So the money they earned was all their own, they bought really nice cars and designer clothes. Fair play tbh!

Flashy motability vehicles usually come with a large down payment that has to be made before you take the vehicle on, it's not just a case of you can have whatever you like in return for handing over £75 a week.

Company cars
Personal leases
Finance agreement

In my cul de sac, 6 houses have 8 cars less than 3 years old between them. All company cars.