How do people afford to PCP brand new cars?!

[JusWunderin]

DH recently mentioned looking into us getting the car I’ve had my eye on for many eyes now. But we’ve looked at prices for financing one and my good god alive it’s not what I expected!

I’m struggling to imagine someone having £400 a month to comfortable pay for a car, we had a budget of about £200 a month.. which I thought would get me something pretty nice!😂

My heart is a little sore, I’ve never really had anything ‘proper nice’ we don’t buy anything designer, branded/luxury. We live modestly, both work full time in what we thought were good jobs on relatively good money for where we live. this car was the one thing I just thought would be my little bit of luxury in life.. but it turns out it’s quite far out from ‘a little bit’ of luxury 😂 it’s big luxury and now I’m pretty gutted as I can’t imagine us ever having that sort of money to fork out every month for a car 😅

If you lease/brought a brand new car recently.. how? What job do you do? How much do you earn (if you don’t mind me asking)? I need to know where I’m going wrong 😂

This. Seems the media have done a really good job of convincing people that everyone is skint.

Absolutely not the case.

This is absolute horse shit as long as people are sensible

Lots of people aren't sensible though or we wouldn't have so many personal bankruptcies and Debt Relief Orders. That's before you start looking at how many of these cars are repossessed.

Some people are idiots.

That doesn’t mean it isn’t the right option for others.

Things don’t need banned because some people are thick and reckless.

I don’t know anyone who’s had anything repossessed.

Our last 2 cars were PCP. First a second hand 19 plate which we got £4,000 for at part exchange towards our 23 plate car we got new pre reg with a hefty discount as we used the same dealership as our first car. Me and DH share the cost, both work have lowish outgoings, no MOT for 3 years by which time we’ll be trading in again, warranty for entire time we have it. I work in community nursing so like a nice car with the security of warranty should anything go wrong. I used to HP but always changed my cars after 3 years anyway it works for us, we also both pay into pensions etc

I’m struggling to imagine someone having £400 a month to comfortable pay for a car

How on earth are you struggling to imagine that?! You must understand people earn different amounts?! Imagine if I said "I just can't imagine someone not being able to afford a car"...it's not my experience but I know it happens....

Exactly. Things can’t be banned simply because the vast minority can’t be responsible. I also don’t know anyone who has had a car repossessed.

I pay £239 a month on my car PCP. Not sure why you need to spend £400 🤷‍♀️

Why do I use PCP? I like having a brand new car, I find it easier to deal with garages and cars when I do it this way, I can afford it, I like not worrying about repairs and breakdowns.

It depends on the car you want and when you took out the finance. When I ordered my new car in 2022, the payments was coming out at around £350 a month but by the time it arrived a year later, the interest rates had gone up and the payments are closer to £450 a month.

You also don’t need to justify it. My car is £450 a month. My car. My money. End of story.

This. Plenty of people out there are paying £1.5k-£2k per month for their cars.

This. I don't need to justify my car payment to anyone. My car, my money, my decision and I'm very pleased with it.

What I've tried to do on this thread is explain that PCP is not necessarily a far more expensive way of having a car, it's just a different way of financing it.

There's a reason car warranties are usually 3-5 years. Statistically as a car gets older it's more likely to need things replacing, and more expensive things than tyres and brake pads even if it is well looked after. A colleague of mine of has recently been quoted upwards of £3k to try and resolve a problem with a 6 year old car's computer system.

And congratulations with the Citreon, my Dad had a Citroën a few years back that spent more time on the ramp in the garage than on their drive.

There's plenty of people on here talking about sending their kids to schools that cost 20k a year, asking advice on holidays with a budget of 10k for a family for fortnight. I'm more surprised anyone is surprised that plenty of people can and do spend £400 on a car payment.

Im not judging anyone for spending whatever amount they like on a car, if they’ve got the disposable income.. then good for them.

and I struggle to imagine someone having £400 spare a month to spend on a car alone as I thought we were in a semi-comfortable position in our lives but it’s made me feel very poor that obviously there are a lot of people out there who’s disposable incomes are way more than ours than I thought. I did think in this day and age that the majority of people are living on the breadline and having such a high disposable income would be a bit more rare. I think perhaps it’s also because we don’t live in a high income part of the country.

I agree, if you’ve got the money do as you please.

@taxguru can you share the make of the cars your getting please. Good advice about haggling

£400 a month to buy your car eventually is one of thing but this seems like 400 to hire the car and not own it but be stuck in their spider Web of charges

My post I quoted with reference to the FM I quoted - I think they hare confused re T&C's

I buy mine outright …about a 3 yr old car…..keep them around 10 years…..had the last one 12 years

I did think in this day and age that the majority of people are living on the breadline and having such a high disposable income would be a bit more rare

But why would you think that? Doctors, lawyers, bankers, senior managers...there are lots of people, even in less affluent areas, who will have a good disposable income.

Lol at the idea that "most" people are living on the breadline. Yes, some people are finding things tough, but I was in the pub to see a band last night and it was rammed, I'm going to a sold out theatre tonight, I've done a creative class today costing £100, which sold out almost as soon as bookings opened, tomorrow 50,000 (?) people will run London and thousands more will go up to spectate, none of which comes cheaply.

There's plenty of money about and we need those who have it to spend it, to get it back into the economy.

Plenty of others too, such as train/tube drivers, tradesmen running their own businesses, financial advisers, senior nurses, all on approximately twice the national average.

For a decade or two, we've had a narrative of concentrating on national minimum wage and unskilled jobs, meanwhile, wages for people with professionals/skills/trades have shot up.

The "majority" of people are living on the breadline???🤔

Some people are living on the breadline, some people are extremely wealthy but I would suggest the "majority" are somewhere in the middle with varying amounts of disposable income.

@JusWunderin
I dont see why you think people would struggle to find £400 a month.

I am on average wage, I live near Cambridge, I drink, I smoke, I go to gigs, drive 1k miles a week, I buy unnecessary stuff occasionally and don't even ask about Sky and still manage to save £400 a month.

I think you have to remember that a lot of these lovely brand spanking new cars are actually obtained via salary sacrifice schemes through employers, or they get paid car allowance which then finances the lease. Oh, and DLA higher rate mobility financed.