Do you buy your cars outright or on finance/lease?

[Daddypigsglasses]

I’ve always saved up and brought a nearly new car then run it into the ground. It was instilled into me as a child that borrowing money was bad and this is the way my parents always did it.

I need to replace my car soon and it’s become blindingly obvious to me since my kids started school last year and I began noticing the other parent’s cars that we are the only ones (and I mean only ones) driving around in anything like a 12 year old focus.

Do most other people else get cars on finance? Is it the sensible thing to do? I can’t get my head around it. I’ve got around 8k to spend so likely that would get me a 15 plate decent car, which is still going to be older than everyone else’s!

I’m not usually showy but I seem to have serious envy where the other parents are concerned.

Outright. Present car was bought with some of DHs redundancy. Car before was bought outright and only a year old. It died a death at 16 yrs old. We keep cars until they trundle off to the great car park in the sky!

I paid a deposit and then finance on my car. My last one was 20 years old so hopefully this one will last as long!

My lovely car will be 20 in August...but will not pass its MOT

We bought it outright 17 years ago in August

We bought a ‘new’ 3 year old car outright in march this year

Its the most expensive thing we’ve bought Apart from the house, i think i will part exchange it in 10 years time when i buy what will undoubtedly be my last car

It depends on the finance deal you get OP.

Our first car was a brand new Vauxhall Corsa bought outright. Then we part exchanged and got the next car up, and the rest is on finance.

The good thing about it is you can upgrade every couple of years, or continue to pay off the current car. Meaning you potentially always have new car, within warranty etc. You know the history 100% as you've been the only owner. Cars depreciate anyway, so it's great to be able to hand it back after 2 or 3 years, get a good part exchange deal, a brand new car, albeit some of it on finance.

Personally, I'm terrified of buying second hand cars as I've had so many friends and family who have had to spend thousands on repairs because the car was not quite the good deal they thought it was.