To wonder why people finance cars they can’t afford?

[MonkeyTrap]

Just that really. I saved hard to buy my car, to replace a car over ten years old with 150k miles on the clock. Nothing flash, just reliable and 18 months old. Which was luxury to me.

But it seems so many people finance their cars and ironically, those that can’t afford it drive out a sleek brand new one and those that want to pay outright rein it in.

Think the option to finance everything, sofas, holidays, cars, home improvements is just pushing up the prices where people seem focused on the monthly and not overall price.

You know the old saying, if it appreciates, buy it, if it depreciated, rent it.

Better to have a mortgage on a house and rent a car than rent a house and buy a car.

It's all the same really, you saved up every month and spent it all in one go, others spend it every month.
We've bought cars for cash for years, it is more economical than leasing or finance. However when you come to sell or part ex it depreciated to barely anything.
We've decided to lease this year. I love it, yes it's more expensive but the car is far better than what we had and we give it back without hassle in 2yrs.

The posts re living in a rural area, my village was so rural it didn’t have a bus. That’s had no bearing on me not wanting to finance a car.

I mean own your own choices, fine, but that seems a stretched way of trying to justify yourself.

I got my car on finance (hire purchase rather than lease). Its only 3% apr and worked out at about £170 a month which is nothing on my salary and better than having to wait a couple years saving up the £8k. I decided I want new or nearly new cars after having a £2k 8 year old crappy first car I bought outright and spent possibly double that fixing. My current car is around three years old, still in a warranty and has had no problems at all. It's now almost paid off and I plan on part exchanging it for a newer car in a year or two. All in the hope that I dont have to pay hundreds of pounds on a car I hate ever again!

We lease. It works out better for us for a few reasons:

1. Husband does a lot of miles for work and the (generous) mileage rate he gets more than covers the cost of the lease and fuel, as it’s a very fuel efficient model. Next time, we’ll upgrade to a hybrid, which will cost even less to run.
2. If it breaks, as part of the care agreement they fix it and give us a courtesy car, which means no repairs to think of and if something goes wrong, he’ll have a car he can use for work, no quibbles, no stress)
3. The guy who owns the servicing garage lives in the next village to us, so he just drops off a courtesy vehicle and picks up the car one evening and returns it a few night’s later.

Mostly it’s just the convenience of it all. But the mileage allowance DH gets does make a difference, and the fact he needs to travel so much makes the convenience something that’s worth doing for us.

I've never understood this either, most people I know seem to buy the most expensive car that they could ever possibly afford. Is it really a status symbol?? Quite honestly I judge people who prioritise a fancy car when a cheaper one would be perfectly serviceable.

No one has really addressed the question of how expensive it is to run, especially fuel a petrol or diesel car opposed to an electric car.

You don't pay tax or congestion charges with electric cars either. Yes, to get the best ranges (several hundred miles) you will need a fairly new car. Thus leasing becomes a really viable, economical option. As I said the savings on fuel, tax and congestion charges more than pay for it.

Quite honestly I judge people who prioritise a fancy car when a cheaper one would be perfectly serviceable.

And?

Hold on to your hats, Janet at No.57 is judging you right now.

Quite honestly I judge people who prioritise a fancy car when a cheaper one would be perfectly serviceable

I have a large fancy and very expensive 4x4. I bought it. I like it. You can judge me all you wish for not driving a small cheap car.

My money. My choice.

@MonkeyTrap
Why do to care?
My DH has really old car, I have a new “luxury” car all paid for I really don’t care about other people’s choices🤷🏽‍♀️

Bluntness, we lease but it's electric. I won't judge you if you promise you will at least look at the hybrid plug in Rangerover or it might be Landrover when your lease is up. 30 mile electric range with petrol/diesel engine. Or a fully electric vehicle of the right type. Teslas are nice (and very swanky). Huge range.

For the record, DH has luxury company car and i think it’s a waste of money because it’s extortionate on tax. I appreciate cars aren’t my thing whereas they’re more important to some people.

The electric vehicles are a great tax dodge as the tax is lower and absolutely nobody I know drives them on the battery!

I don't generally judge but do defensively feel more judgemental when people judge us for leasing / having an electric vehicle.

Monkey what do you think we drive our all electric vehicle on, thin air? You pay tax on hybrids now.

nobody I know drives them on the battery!

We did when we had our PHEV. It had a thirty mile range. So only used petrol for longer journeys. Electricity is far cheaper!

Quite honestly I judge people who prioritise a fancy car when a cheaper one would be perfectly serviceable

Do you judge someone who buys a house with 4 bedrooms when they could manage with 3? Do you disapprove of everyone who shops at Waitrose rather than Aldi? I mean, why buy a nice bottle of wine when lambrini will get you just as pissed? I’m assuming your whole wardrobe is primark, as it’s all perfectly serviceable. 1* apartments for your holiday rather than ever splashing out on something a bit more upmarket, yes? Have you bought the very cheapest car that you could possibly find? Or did you choose something that you actually liked?

I find this attitude totally bizarre. Thankfully most people don’t have it otherwise the world would be a pretty boring place.

Yes if an expensive car is prioritised over someone feeding their children then there’s probably some judgement to be made but otherwise let people spend their money how they like!

@silverystream

Monkey what do you think we drive our all electric vehicle on, thin air? grinYou pay tax on hybrids now.

Sorry. I mean hybrids.

I know you pay tax but there’s incentives for hybrid cars, so the tax you pay on the list price (I’m talking income tax) is significantly less than a diesel/petrol of equivalent value.

You pay less tax though because you can quite legitimately drive a PHEV mainly on electric. And that means less emissions.

I have leased in the past, but we buy now. We get 18 month old cars on a bank loan and normally they die at about 250k miles. I really like my current car, hope it makes 300k miles.

I have a lease car at the moment. It's a car I love and wanted to drive, but we already own our dream cars so no point buying it coz I'll just have to sell it. We can afford it, it's less hassle than buying and selling.

Silvery, I don't have a lease. I own my car. But when I eventually trade it in, yes, you're right, I may well look for something like you suggest.

@thecatsthecats possibly we've been unlucky, possibly you've been lucky.

We DO save and I'm a bit that you seem to be implying that people who lease don't. However, our savings are currently earmarked for and going on other things (my maternity leave, renovations on our new house). It's priorities again - when we are in a less stressful (with baby) and spendy period of our lives, we may well buy outright.

And genuinely good for those who can learn to tinker successfully! Thinking that everyone should just do the same is wildly impractical though - I personally have no natural ability or interest in machinery, am utterly crap with my hands, have a small baby and a million and one things on my 'projects' list above learning to do something badly and probably unsafely that a specialist is better off doing for me.