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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

cars that don't match houses

248 replies

iremembericod · 03/08/2016 14:16

I live in a surburban semi, pretty average.

Next door neighbours have a brand new Range Rover and a year old BMW Big massive thing.

I feel it's a bit much for this road. We are more of a Vauxhall Astra / VW Golf type of road.

AIBU?

OP posts:
limitedperiodonly · 03/08/2016 18:14

What do people think of private number plates?

WanderingTrolley1 · 03/08/2016 18:17

Average cars on my street, but massive houses.

VelvetSpoon · 03/08/2016 18:22

I grew up in a council house. We had the best car in the road, but it was,a company car. Without it, we wouldn't have had a car at all. That said lots of neighbours worked for a v large local car manufacturer, so also drove new/ nearly new cars as employees could buy them at a massive discount.

I have the best house on my street, but the worst car (£500 tiny little 1 litre thing) because I've only recently passed my test.

limitedperiodonly · 03/08/2016 18:26

Did you live in Dagenham VelvetSpoon?

MuffyTheUmpireSlayer · 03/08/2016 18:27

I guess lots of people have the extra £200, £400/month to spend on a finance car but not the extra £600 it would cost to live in a nicer area?

Togaparties · 03/08/2016 18:39

DH has a decent car but will be buying his dream Jag XF in a couple of years

Your DH's dream car is a family saloon? Different strokes for different folks I guess!

BuggersMuddle · 03/08/2016 18:45

We have the biggest house on the street and my car is newish but small & cheap, DP's is approaching banger status. Prior to this, I had a very old car, but now have a longer commute so wanted something newer and more comfortable.

Our neighbour in the much smaller modern houses with the tiny garages all have enormous flash cars that they park like twats because they can't get them in said garages

Ironically we've had comments (especially when I had / replaced the banger) that suggested that we were over-stretched / must be struggling to afford the mortgage. Nope. I just couldn't be arsed spending money to replace a car I rarely drove, so it could sit outside the house making me look better off.

blitheringbuzzards1234 · 03/08/2016 18:54

I must say limitedperiodonly I'm not very keen on personal number plates as I think that it's a colossal waste of money. What I really dislike is pink cars with eyelashes over the headlights, but each to their own.

milliemolliemou · 03/08/2016 18:57

Not concerned about houses/cars but detest the squeaky clean 4x4s which have never seen a field/mud/farm lane - driven by LWL who don't seem to know how to reverse down narrow lanes or thank those who do - if they wanted space for the kids a people carrier would do or a Volvo .... and perhaps then they'd be able to manage parking in a single space. Rant over. [expires in small Citroen]

GiddyOnZackHunt · 03/08/2016 19:01

We live in a naice cul de sac populated with Volkswagen Audi Group cars. Apart from the lodger over the road with a white van. NDN may combust soon Grin

angelos02 · 03/08/2016 19:04

OP I bet you think you're middle class, have come from a poor background, done ok for yourself & are obsessed with what people think? Just a bit of basic armchair psychology there
there.

angelos02 · 03/08/2016 19:06

I have no idea what type of cars my neighbours have. I've never noticed.

Welshmaenad · 03/08/2016 19:13

My car is probably worth 1/3 of the value of my house. I'm not a drug dealer Hmm

It's a Motability car and I picked the new one up on the weekend...

dylsmimi · 03/08/2016 19:15

A house near my MIL must win the thread - they have painted the outside of their house a bright sunshine yellow, have yellow flowers in the windows and a matching yellow car outside!
I have never seen the people come out but assume they also wear yellow - it makes us smile when we drive past and the dc always know they are 'nearly there'!

MotherOfGlob · 03/08/2016 19:17

Next door, house worth about £140k, car worth £70k.

Wakes us up every morning at 6.45am with the ridiculous exhausts.

angelos02 · 03/08/2016 19:20

Our main car is probably worth about a hundredth of wor house.

MrsMook · 03/08/2016 20:10

In our previous house, a new young family moved into the street with a 4x4 and convertible car. Understandably, the convertible went around the time of the second baby. The 4x4 went around the time the street was woken up at 5am on a Saturday morning by an irate man demanding the return of his savings which had been the deposit for home improvements that never happened. There was an old banger for a few months, then the car went upmarket again.

We learned the cycle that when the company van (each time with a different name) turned up on the drive, that it was worth looking the business up on companies house to see its state of liquidation. There was a cycle of decent car/ banger. The transition from private school uniform to local state school was only made once. They moved away in the end.

He was either inept or crooked with his home improvement businesses.

Original poster
iremembericod · 03/08/2016 20:48

The "you must be jealous" toll is rising steadily

OP posts:
BettyOBarley · 03/08/2016 20:49

I live on a new estate that is full of Audi's, BMW's etc.

I've got a 10 year old Micra... Grin

limitedperiodonly · 03/08/2016 21:15

I don't have a car. I don't need one. I own a house in central London.

YourNewspaperIsShit · 03/08/2016 21:33

We're those people Grin Road of council houses... The kind that look like council houses. Everyone's got an old rover, a corsa, those with families maybe have a Ford focus (there's not many houses I just peeked out to pick a few). We've got a brand new Qashqai in bronze and it stands out like a sore thumb Blush No-one's any richer than anyone else it's just we've chose to get a bigger car for the kids (and I'm paranoid about car crashes) rather than doing up the house interior like others are doing.

OhThatThingAgain · 03/08/2016 21:38

My car is a five year old Clio (bought second hand), I live on a road full of new BMWs, Mercedes and even a couple of Ferraris. My house is worth six figures, my car cost 6k. My car does not match my house.

My car is paid for, I do less than 1k miles a year (I live next to the tube station). It matches my needs.

I reckon most of my neighbours cars are leased and they are also mortgaged to the hilt.

My less senior colleague at work has just ordered a new Q7 on finance for 75k. WTAF? It's less than he earns. I have a feeling that some people think their cars impress others? I got over that when I was a teenager.

Actually the classic car collector at number 23 impresses me, he has an e type jag and and an MGB GT. They are beautiful and I stop for a chat about them while he cares for them

Flumplet · 03/08/2016 21:58

We've got a big shiny bmw 7 series sat outside of a cheap 2 bed semi in a rough area. It's because we got stuck in our house in negative equity when the property market crashed in 2007 - also dh is a bit of a petrol head and wanted a 7 series. It's a good, solid, safe, reliable family car. But does stand out a bit around here.

MummyBex1985 · 03/08/2016 21:58

We live on a street full of luxury or brand new cars. Two car drives, all lovely.

New neighbours then bought a house for a knockdown price and brought four cars with them, all over ten years old, parked outside our houses. Frankly, it looks shit.

HandsomeGroomGiveHerRoom · 03/08/2016 22:06

I'd rather have IKEA (or indeed Gumtree) in a relatively inexpensive house and a car I enjoy driving, than a dull car I'm 'meh' about and expensive carpets.

Cars generally depreciate, houses don't. But a) if you can't afford to buy it really doesn't matter greatly how much you 'invest' in the house you live in, b) the potential return on the investment made in things like new kitchens is often over estimated even if you do own, c) the difference in pleasure to be had between driving a frivolous ££££ car and a crap one is far greater (imo) than that between sitting on a ££££ sofa and a cheap one.

Horses for courses, innit.