for treating financed cars as unaffordable?

@cheeseonsofa no I don’t think you sound jealous at all, I think you just have different priorities. I LOVE the tech in my car, honestly my car brings me a lot of joy. I know for others it’s just a means to get A to B and it would seem like daft money for them, but for me it’s affordable and I love it.

What lease car are you getting for £150 pcm?

We have always owned our cars and run them into the ground. I was rrally anti leasing. We have just gone with a leased car.

Second hand car prices have gone up immensely and we would have had to get a loan and pay back as we did with the other cars. I don't have £Xk sitting in my bank account spare. We have never not had to pay out for repairs etc on our cars.

Our lease car costs us £150 a month for 2 years and no initial payment. Our loan repayments would be more than that along with the depreciation of the car. As we come up to the end of the 2 years we will look for something equivalent or buy again.

Yes its a newer model with all the bells and whistles granted ( lots of tech that I find distracting)but we still both drive the same way to work.
Not sure what differences there are that would be worth an extra 22K over 3 years

Perhaps I just don't care that much about cars?
It does the job absolutely fine 🙂

BTW before Im accused of jealousy I could buy the same model for cash 5 times over

I tend to buy a secondhand car and divide the cost by how many years it lasts (and add a bit on for maintenance costs). Then you may get a grand or two back if you sell it before it dies.

I really think, on this basis £100 a month is achievable. Considering leasing is £250 plus a month, I couldn't justify the premium for the new factor.

@cheeseonsofaif your colleague is paying £680 a month on her car it’s going to be worth a lot more than £5.5k, it’s presumably newer? Higher spec? You’re comparing apples and pears, you’ll be having very different driving experiences, that might not matter to you and that’s fine of course, but you’re not paying vastly different sums for the same thing.

I don’t pay anywhere near £680 and I drive a top spec brand new Audi.

At the end of our lease period we hand the car back and get a new one. It may be different as I lease through my work scheme, but I don’t have to pay to make it ‘perfect’, and I don’t pay a deposit. Insurance and maintenance (including servicing) included in the price I pay.

We've always been a family of car buyers. I've got a 68 plate vauxhall corsa that I bought second hand in 2021 for about £10k with 6000 miles on the clock.
We start saving for the next car almost as soon as we drive the new one out of the garage.
We don't have the disposable monthly income to afford a monthly fee, without massively sacrificing other areas of our life - like holidays.

What happens at the end of the lease period (is it two or three years) do you have to pay to make the car perfect again or have you paid an upfront deposit.
Does it include insurance (could be useful for a youngish high risk driver if included).
We used to get clapped out old bangers which prompted me to walk everywhere or go by train but then went upmarket to buy three/four year old cars and keep them until they became old bangers

Just personal preference. It costs more overall to lease but for some people that’s money well spent for the pleasure they get from their car.

I own my car outright , modest model.
Even if your lease car goes wrong you will be the one responsible for getting it fixed,must be the lease co approved garage , usually the dealership.
Yay no costs but if you add up what you spend on leasing its massive compared to repair costs.
My colleague is spending £680 per month on a new lease car over 3 years
680 x 12 x3 = £24, 480

My car 5.5K outright ( bought 2021)

Insurance £220 per year
Service £145 yearly
Road tax £40
No repairs needed
Total over 3 years
= 6715
Her car is a slightly newer model
Add on costs if you go over mileage and any damage, they inspect rigorously BTW

Its insane!

@WhatASmashingBlouseYouHaveOnyou can do pretty much all of that with PCP, barely anyone actually just hands the car back because unless the car is worth less than the balloon payment (never in my experience) that would be daft. Wear and tear, mileage caps etc literally don’t matter if you don’t hand the car back at the end. We usually pay the balloon payment ourselves and sell on ( we have kept one car and ran it into the ground actually due to the balloon payment being so low vs value of the car, Covid bubble) or directly trade in somewhere, the money we make from that is then the deposit for the next car.

Im in the own outright camp.
No mileage limits, no spurious charges for minor straches / wear and tear at the end of the term. Not tied into dealerships for servicing and repairs.
If you own a car outright, if something unexpected happens financially you can sell it or trade it in for something cheaper (possibly!) But with a lease or PCP it's not yours to sell. If you can't keep up on the payments, the car gets taken off you, then you are without a vehicle...just food for thought.
Someone said why own a depreciating asset? Well, why rent one?

No class versus classless…

@CrotchetyQuaverme too 🤣 . to me a classless car would be a Volvo, Toyota Kia or Honda (middle of the range and reliable) or I think Tesla are now becoming classless within the EV market, driven by people from all walks of life (I work at a dealership so find it interesting how the Tesla customer has changed over the last 3-4 years as they have become more affordable and mainstream).

If I wanted a £100k car and had £100k to buy outright I wouldn’t. I’’d invest the £100k, use the profit to pay towards the monthlies and still have a big wedge left after the car was paid off. Effectively doing what the car manufacturer/finance company would do.

Good second hand cars that will last a while are quite expensive now (such as Audi/VW) - so much that it’s not much difference financially between buying a second-hand 3 year old car and just buying a new one on PCP in large part due to car manufacturer deposit contribution (comparing cost and value after final balloon payment versus the secondhand car 4 years later). If it’s only £1k a year more for 4 years new that’s what I’d get - primarily as I could choose the spec more specifically.

The big problem with new cars is they are not built to last anymore. Nobody buying a new car this year will be driving around in it in 20 years time. Those days are gone.

Neither option is unreasonable at all. The important question is - do you want to drive an expensive/fast/beautiful/excellent spec car or not? It's important to me, I love cars. Couldn't care less about the price of my house, kitchens, bathrooms, furniture. Cars are my thing. But if a car is just a reliable means to get from A to B then you would be silly getting an expensive car if it doesn't bring you joy.

I have a EV mini on finance. I have some savings, not loads and and a mortgage.

Highly unlikely to lose my job. I like having a new car every couple of years.

@CrotchetyQuaversorry but I’m laughing at a Land Rover defender being classless.

I lease a car and I’m a nice person 🤷🏻‍♀️

Now that my mortgage is paid off I don't owe money to anyone and I like it that way. If I can't write a cheque for something, I'll manage without it.

I don't understand why people lease cars, all that money spent and nothing to show for it at the end. Must be a status thing I guess?
I've always liked "classless" cars myself, Land Rover defenders for the past 20 plus years which are now going up in value, so it's worth spending money on them, they're generally straightforward to repair with no computers and parts aren't expensive. that suits me, I have a good support crew for them and they're much loved family pets with names, but that's not for everyone.

my late dad always used to say it's not what the car looks like, it's the quality of the person that gets out of it that matters and I think that's a good point.

And that's fine. You can do what you want with your money. I prefer to spend less on cars and more on other activities so I spend accordingly.

I checked this out yesterday and was pleasantly surprised. I can buy a newer second-hand version of my car for £15k (3 years old, 25k on the clock), having bought my original one 12 years ago for £10k.

Me too. DH and I do a lot of travelling for work and have kids at uni so up and down the motorway. We want a newer more reliable car with good safety features and high comfort levels, so we are willing to pay a monthly rental cost for it. It’s just part of our day to day living expenses. Doesn’t make our choice any more valid than anyone else’s. Each to their own 🤷‍♀️