Rich people = same car

[nonickno]

To wonder why all the loaded people at my kids’ school drive the same car - Range Rover/ Land Rover? Surely there are more choices to spend money on?? They are like sheep!

BTW I would love a Range Rover. I want black, DD wants a white one.

Well here's a thought. I have a director level role in a public sector organisation. I am perfectly happy to drive to work in my aged SMax. It will need replacing within 12 months. After 20 years in MPVs (I loved my early Citroen Picasso) I also need something highish due to back problems nowadays rather than getting ankle biters in and out easily, not because I want to be king of the road. DH has a stupid, wanky car and getting in and out does my back and hips no favours and I wouldn't want to do it every day - sports cars really are for the agility and beauty of youth but require an experienced hand to sensibly manage them, a fat wallet to maintain them and a secure garage to keep them safe.

What I would never, ever do is swan into work in an offenshow car. It is inappropriate. I do, however, have to get to work and am likely to buy a three/four year old Juke, Mokka, Ford B class to do it (in reality not the hybrid mini Countryman mentioned above) All meh cars but fairly cheap to own and run. I also still need a big reliable car for France, uni collections, etc, so am genuinely torn about what to do - the sensible thing would be for DH to have a nice, big car for practical purposes.

Waiting for verdicts on good hybrids like the CRV and Volvo.

£1500 a month on finance, wow I am stunned at that figure.

(I didn't realise how expensive they were)

Well played MN, well played 👏

The Range Rover isnt a rich thing, like a previous poster said rich people drive all sorts of different cars.
Range Rover is a status, look at me kind of thing. I have seen it with some one I know, they have all the flash cars nice clothes etc but the business the run keeps going bust and then starts again in a new name. I have seen them bring them to the garage we have and they cant afford to fill the tank let alone repair them.
I call them the all skirt and no knickers brigade, scratch below the surface and financially they are just average joe bods trying to look richer than they actually are.

It's a status symbol. Basically shouting out that you have sixty grand to spend on a car. Bloody hundreds of them where I live. Mostly driven by mummies on the school run, either on their phones or talking over their shoulders to their children in the back seat.

Without sounding like a complete arse we are wealthy and own a Range Rover. It ticks a lot of boxes for us with children and dogs and living rurally. On the flip side my husband drives a clapped out old Honda because he can't bare to part with it.

@bebeboeuf is right. That’s why cars like Porsche and Bentley are so popular. Low depreciation. Some models actually increase in value when you first buy them.

I’m rather glad we’ve got a ‘crappy’ Ford Focus now. I presume it’s a very good burglar deterrent.

Wouldn’t have thought so, the poor lads from the estate nick them for joyriding.

Also I’m not sure if anyone has mentioned this but you can get a fridge in the arm rest thing in between the seats at the front. Very handy in the summer heat (on one of those odd years you actually get that in Britain).

I drive a Discovery 4 and my DH drives a defender. (We own them outright if that makes a difference.) I do not see them as flashy cars, I think the big Audi, BMW, Jag’s are way flashier. We live in a rural area on a small holding and drive roads which are prone to flooding, my car makes me feel safe. It is also really comfortable to be in and a dream to drive compared to my old CRV. My DH also drives a top of the line Toyota truck for work and it is dreadful in comparison.

We have one, it's a bit old and battered but not quite collectable (old Defenders round here get parts stolen off them). We use it for work, for towing that kind of thing. Not because it's posh and with leather seats, it just happened that was one we could afford.

It makes me laugh how people judge you by the car you drive, I have a Landrover and a Smart car 😊 My husband works for Aston Martin so i’m lucky to drive round in one of them on the odd occasion but he brings all sorts home. People treat me so differently by the car I drive, one chap at work will only talk to me when i’m driving a Jaguar, how weird is that, i’m still the same person 😊

We have a sports car, a family car and I have a small city car. Moronic drivers do treat you completely differently depending on which car you drive!

Some people see their car as the most important status symbol. If that's the only thing they have for them, why not. Each to their own, but no one can deny it's a simple fact.
I buy the car for what I need, I could't care less what they make me look like.

The rich people I know drive pretty old Audi estates or a Volvo.

Dh used to have a P38 Rangie...could get shedloads into the boot, great for off roading, towing and collecting logs. It was safe and nice to drive, which as he was commuting between Brussels and Cornwall, was important. It was an LPG conversion and the car cost us just under £10k. We ran it for about a decade. I still miss the boot space.

@EarlGreyOfTwinings yes in the Smart car they are always cutting me up 😊 when i’m driving my Landrover I get so much more respect, I still drive the same

P38 Rangie...could get shedloads into the boot

I don’t know this model, but when we looked at cars big enough for the wheelchair, we were struck by how small a Range Rover’s boot was.

I drive one, as do quite a few people around my way. I'm in the country, up a mountain - the road to my house is more like a dirt track and 4 wheel drive comes in useful in bad weather.

It is a status symbol for my DH I suppose because he's really into cars. I must say I really like it too. It's big (so handy for double buggy and baby crap) I feel safe driving it and it's fast. It's not worth the insane cost in my opinion - you'd expect it to make your dinner at those prices - but it's the only extravagance my DH ever indulges in so I wouldn't begrudge him!

Moronic drivers do treat you completely differently depending on which car you drive!

Yes I can definitely vouch for that. People rush to get out of your way when you drive a Range Rover it's daft! What's dafter is the odd knob with a chip on their shoulder who do the opposite.

Here the car of choice for the properly loaded is an old Volvo or battered Range Rover (older the better). The people driving the new flash cars are leasing them and trying to be "posh". Same goes with clothes, new money are in designer gym gear and full make up for the 8am nursery drop, others look like they have just crawled out of bed and are wearing M&S jeans

I have to agree w pp, if you have to finance a car, you are not rich, even if paying 1,500 a month....as if someone is wealthy, they could just pay cash for a car! But then again, its all relative. There are many who could not afford to finance a car, so they consider people who can rich. I consider someone who is able to buy a car in cash, plus have a lot of money left in the bank rich :) But also, I have to say, just because you have a car or don't have a car doesn't mean anything. We could afford to buy a car in cash and have money leftover, and yet we have not owned a car for over 15 years....we walk everywhere. Sometimes we wonder if we should get a car, but then drop the subject and nothing further.

I really really didn't want to like the LR disco sport, I thought it would be too big. We looked at loads of different cars from Nissans & Skodas to Jag estates & mercs and it was the best to drive and fit the family and bikes in/on, head and shoulders above the rest and the garage were fab too.
Loved the Skoda estate too but it was just too long when you parked it.
Ours is caked in dirt though and has been offroad. It's had a few computer issues but LR came out and fixed it on the drive so it wasn't really a hassle.

Land Rover advert on my page at the moment. It looks quite nice. I drive a Go Kart made from a box.