AIBU to drive a banger?

We had a Mondeo for 18 years i loved that car. It had a personalised plate (husbands not mine) and folk were often surprised at it's age because we looked after it. We've got a Fiesta now that's 7 years old and dh keeps making noises about replacing it because he witters on about putting miles on it. Isn't that the point? I have told him if he can afford repayments then we'll look but I'm not paying until I have to. So far he hasn't done anything about it.

Our main car is 9yo (and back up car is 17yo)

Our local garage has both indoor and outdoor storage for cars overnight (we drop them the evening before for an MOT). The 9yo car is still in the Indoor (high value cars) parking category.

My car is 18 years old, it only has 28k on the clock so I’m hoping to get quite a few more years from it yet. Yes it’s a bit battered around the edges and the roof leaked during the winter but I’ve resealed it and bought a cover. It’s failed two MOT’s in its lifetime, both due to tyres.

My only ‘gadgets’ are an electric convertible roof and electric windows which suits me just fine. Just less things to go wrong in my view.

My friends sometimes complain that’s it’s only a two seater so I can’t do a turn of the driving when we go out, but I buy lunch on those trips which I think evens it out.

I bloody love my little old car - it costs me pennies to run and makes me smile every time I drive him.

We need to stop being people pleaser's, fancy cars have never appealed to me, I just need a practical and reliable car, easy to maintain and cheap to run that's it. You seen the cost of insurance for fancy cars, I struggle to understand how people afford it in this economy, I rather use my hard earned cash elsewhere. You do you OP

As long as your car is well maintained so its not chucking out disgusting fumes then anyone who sneers at a 10 year old car with a bit of wear and tear needs to wind their neck in. It sounds to me like you're the one with sense and they may well be wondering where all their money went a few days after payday.

Right?! I've always run 15+ year old cars and though they were old didn't consider them bangers. They were solid and well kept. To me a banger is rusty and starting to fall apart. Basically the bare minimum to get you from a to b. A nicely kept 10 year old car is not a banger!

I’ve got friends with a car each in pcp granted there nice cars but for the life of me I couldn’t spend £580 a month on 2 cars

I’ve always gone for reliability

I drive a 19 year old Renault. I love it because it’s much bigger than the people carriers you can get now. It’s relatively economical to run or repair and things are simpler to fix! When it eventually becomes not feasible to fix it, I will look for another banger to replace it!

My car is 17yrs old. Someone keyed it the other week and I was furious. But it runs and does its job. So don't you worry about yours!

Friend has a very flashy car through work, it’s effectively a 2 seater as none of her friends are flexible enough anymore as we are old to sit on the back ‘seat’ that’s really a parcel shelf. She looked into buying it off them then realised how much a new set of tyres cost, servicing etc…. When she learned mine was £200 for a full set of tyres while hers was £300 each….she had a rethink.

I have an ancient little VW that I use to transport my two dogs around and drive down the bumpy track to my horse’s yard. It’s constantly grubby and full of nonsense, stuff for every eventuality incase I need another coat/pair of shoes/boots/dog lead/etc. I have no interest in a shiny new car but I do feel like im judged for it sometimes, when everyone around me seems to be driving whopping great 4x4s (with no intention of driving them off road!)

I read the thread title as “aibu to drive to a banger” and was going to suggest The Reflex by Duran Duran 😂

As long as you are happy with it that’s all that matters. Just ignore the comments. I actually can’t believe people comment on your car.They must be really bored. I wouldn’t give a flying shite what someone else drove.
However..my new car is on finance and that is also my choice. I love cars, always have and I enjoy driving nice ones. My Dh and ds21 are also car mad but the older the better with them. Ds has a 1999 Honda civic!

Yanbu OP. Mine's an 8yo Volvo. It's perfectly sound, why would I replace it? I'll get at least another 4 years from it, maybe more.

My last car was a Saab Aero, was 12yo and had 235,000 miles on the clock. I loved it 😊

My cars cost me about £150 a month. Why would I waste an extra £400 a month of something that does the same job? It's a working tool, not an evening dress.

I know 2 very rich people and they both drive bangers because they don’t feel the need to prove themselves by flashing their money around, and also because they don’t want the bother of being worried about it being stolen or dinged in an accident. I live in London so maybe the culture of dressing down is more prevalent here but if you like your banger, tell them to sod off!

There’s a lot on SM nowadays of mechanics advocating having older cars as they are fixable
snd not full of ridiculous levels of software! Mines 10 years old this year, bought from new. I love it and want it to last another 10 years!

When anyone gives you a hard time about your car tell them this. A new car could be £500 a month on finance. Over 10 years that's £60,000. Id rather have that and a ten year old car.
And that's without compound interest!

Id ignore these people personally. I own a 2010 SMAX Titanium sport. No finance, no debt, I enjoy driving it and if a 10 plate is considered a banger to some people I would say I own a nice looking banger! 😊 Plus sometimes when you've had a car so long you feel like you know it's reliability, quirk's etc I know enough people who are driving new cars that are constantly in the garage or some are paying for cars they don't even have any more for one reason or another.

Tell them to pipe down.

Your friends/family sound not very nice, and, frankly, snobs or idiots. The funny thing is that the genuinely upper class people I know tend more to the "old banger" (probably land rover/range rover style) that can take the requisite dogs and drive around the muddy lanes of the estates with overgrown scratchy hedges without a second thought😃

Current car is 11 years old and previous one was a Fiesta that I sold when I got over 250,000 miles . I prefer to own my cars outright and I am really not bothered what other people think

A 10 year old car is not a banger. We have 2 skodas, 10 years old and 20 years old and still going strong. I don't care how old or new a car is, damage is damage and trolley bashes annoy me so much. Our 10 year old car has a tiny scrape on the front bumper and our 20 year old car has a minor scrapes, paintwork is looking tired on it though.

Absolutely no intention of changing either car unless we have to. They are both perfect for each of their uses.

We use that 20 year old as a run around for local runs and the 10 year old for longer runs as it has way more spec

My car is 13yrs old, 98k miles, and no problems. As long as it gets me from A-B, I don’t care.

Our runaround car is 13 years old and is a Citroen C1. Whilst I wouldn't want to do long distances in that car, for our purpose it does the job it needs to do.

It does feel like luxury when I drive our 5 year old car though and I appreciate it more.

I get the same comments about my 16yr old car. I’ve had it since nearly new & know everything about the history of it. It owes me nothing & has been so reliable. We plan to do the same again when this one gives up on us. We’re actually seeing how high we can get the mileage on the original clutch 😂 You don’t get to play these fun games in a new car!

Honestly it doesn’t matter what other people think, if you’re happy with it then that’s your choice. I’d rather have a car that I’ve paid for outright than on finance - I currently finance a car because I didn’t have much choice unless I wanted to use most of my savings up. If things were different I wouldn’t of.