cars that don't match houses

[iremembericod]

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?

I'm amazed that anyone thinks it's their business!! Some people (not me) are really into cars and are willing to pay a lot of money for them.... That's about as mysterious as this gets.

On a slightly different note but I still find it amusing after years. I live in a street that joins another but it can be difficult to tell if you aren't local and/or in a hurry. The amount of delivery people we've had call us and say that they are outside our house at number x "with the Aston Martin outside". Er, no! Sadly not. It's the one with the Ford.

I live in Northern Ireland- one of the least wealthy bits of the UK. The place is coming down with nice cars as far as I can see- a lot of people here are really into them. You see lots of BMWs/Audis, plenty of souped up boy racer cars, some nice vintage ones too. All kept immaculately inside, outside and under the bonnet. Makes me feel a bit ashamed of my grubby ageing Golf full of crisp packets which has had busted ram struts in the boot for...awhile.

*I do find it funny when you drive down a rough council estate Road and see bmws, Mercs and more parked up.

I'd much rather spend my money on soemthing which can go up in value and be left to the kids which is why we have a lovely house and two
Fords!*

A lot of council estate homes are owned these days (have you seen the thread?) And often these areas aren't actually rough, people just assume they are because either they once were or they see people in hoodies and hold on to their handbags immediately.

Oops, bold writing fail!

Some cars can be considered long term good investments. Don't depreciate so much in value and last longer with less work done.

We live in a (rented) townhouse in a naice area. Our car is bright blue, nearly 10 years old and has a scuffed and dented wing where someone drove into it in a car park. It's only cosmetic damage so haven't bothered getting it fixed yet. It's by far the oldest and scruffiest car on our little row - immediate few neighbours have a 1yo yellow wannabe 4x4 thing, an Audi and a neat tidy newish little silver hatchback.

Luckily we have a detached garage so we can hide our non-matching embarrassing car away round the corner and not have to lower the tone.

YY Muffy, I live on a council estate (well HA actually) and about half the properties at least are owned (you can tell because the HA properties all got new roofs, windows and fencing a couple of years ago) and its on the edge of a village on the outskirts of a city and is really quiet and lovely.

Most neighbours are fine too and I don't think crime is particularly high - our house insurance is quite low and no-one has ever touched the cars, even when I had a company car that was a bright blue Octavia VRS so very flash looking.

Most of my colleagues live in the favoured naice areas of the city near work and several of them have been burgled, some more than once.

We don't have any DCs and I'd rather spend my money enjoying life rather than sinking it all into property tbh.

no-one has ever touched the cars, even when I had a company car that was a bright blue Octavia VRS so very flash looking.

That's because they thought YOU were the drug dealer.

DH has a very nice new car. I have a shitty old car. Not sure what that says about us as a couple

Also, most people who live in HA properties aren't 'rough' just normal low income families looking for a secure place to live.

Lots of stealth boasting about large houses in naice areas and snobbery about perceived inferior choices on this thread.

I had a 20 year old Volvo (with a dent in each panel) and my husband was embarrassed when Google 'street view' came out and there it was there on our drive.

I found his snobbery hilarious, it wound him up that his colleagues were all looking up (showing off) their houses at work and my old banger was sitting proudly in front of ours shaming him.

I would have kept it forever but the dog took a massive sloppy shit on the back seat and I couldn't get rid of the stench. God I miss that car, it was my perfect match.

A lot of council estate homes are owned these days (have you seen the thread?) And often these areas aren't actually rough, people just assume they are because either they once were or they see people in hoodies and hold on to their handbags immediately
Lots of law abiding professional citizens in my estate. Lots of nurses and teachers etc happy to live next to the few remaining council tenants who are disabled/retired unemployed. It's a nice place.

Barbara if that's a reference to my post, I can assure you I was taking the piss out of myself/taking the OP at face value about mismatching cars and houses (because our car is far and away the oldest/tattiest on our street) with my reference to living in a "naice area".

However where I live now is far and away the nicest place I've lived in my 40-odd years, I feel very lucky to no longer be living in some of the places I've lived previously, but I'm also very aware that I couldn't afford to buy somewhere like this in a month of Sundays and it would only take one job loss for me to be living somewhere completely different.

Same here Lois! I love my rough, grubby looking council estate. Those of us who have lived here a while know each other and there's always lots of community activities going on.

Thanks upthetree and also hearts. I think you're awesome too. How is Canada? Same place where you left it?

I used have a 1988 Peugeot 205 GTi 1.9 - bought brand new from the days when cars mattered to me. I used to play a cassette of Hall and Oates as loud as it would go and pretend I was the Rich Girl.

It looked okay when I brought it here but time and my casual approach to parking took its toll. It had algae growing on the rear bumper by the time it had to go which was about 10 years ago. It was always a faithful little car that I loved in my youth and I was sad.

I haven't replaced it and certainly don't miss the parking permit cost and other costs of full time car ownership.

These days I have an Oyster card and hire cars when I need them. Usually they're identikit Ford/Vauxhall four door hatchbacks - I don't have the same interest in cars any more. But I don't think it's weird for people to like nice cars. Being at the wheel of a fantastic car is joyous. I've been lucky enough to drive a Bentley Azure convertible and an AC Cobra.

I've hired a Lotus Elise, a BMW Z3, a Porsche Boxster (I couldn't justify the cost of anything better) and a top of the range Audi TT. When I finished having fun in them, I gave them back.

As long as people aren't asking you to subsidise their personal finances, I don't see why it matters.

Maybe the really interesting thread question would be: what is the percentage value of your car to your house?

My car is worth 0.42% of my house. No, I don't live in a mansion, I just have a VERY cheap old VW that I love.

Round here is two sets of naice houses, all built at the same time and in the same style. Ours all have relatively knackered cars in front of them. The other houses are all fancy range rovers.

They've got a fancy electronic gate. We've got a five bar field gate type thing we never shut.

we are all much more relaxed than they are

There must be some sort of anthropological discovery round here, just waiting to be written up

Oh Lottie I'm so sorry. I didn't realise the difference it's actually 7 figures. London prices, silly me, I guess I should learn to do a better stealth boast.

Or maybe we should work out our actual values so we can do car/house*100 and work out the percentage value versus house price?

Could we all do that and have a list of car shame vs grandiosity? It could be interesting to see?

My dads house isn't worth 6 figures by the way. I doubt many of my northern relatives are living in houses worth over 100k. In fact according to some on this thread they must be 'rough'.

Off topic but there's room for a swimming pool in the back garden of my ex council house, how odd would that look? Pity its in freezing cold Scotland.

How dare they have better cars than everybody else! r

Live and let live?

We have one of the biggest houses and our two cars have a combined age of 40 years - they run beautifully, look stylish, and are now a bit different because they don't have the same old aerodynamic shape of everything else on the road. Personal taste, what you spend your money on.

We spent all our money (seriously ALL our money) on our house 18 months ago. It is in a lovely area but we are having to save slowly to do it up inside and have got two scruffy cars on the driveway because we just need reliable cars that work and aren't bothered about what they look like (they have two scruffy children in then most of the time too so are ditched inside). The rest of our street are all comfortable retired couples with newish cars on the driveways. As none of them work they also have plenty of time to lovingly clean and polish the cars every weekend so they sparkle. Ours get a quick go through the car wash on the way home from work about once every couple of months. Meh.

The rest of the houses all have beautifully manicured gardens too and ours is not great - I try to weed it when I can, but it never looks as nice as the others. I suspect we are bringing the area down....

This is my house and this is my car. I hate ostentatious cars and prefer to use something that I don't mind getting damaged around town.