To ask how you afforded your car?

[letsgogogo]

Me and my partner aren't rich by any standard but we do ok. I wouldn't say we are poor.
Even so we can't afford to buy a new car or a decent second hand car. However, I see so many people driving around in new range rovers and Audi's, BMW and various other really expensive cars and I just wonder how can people afford them? AIBU to think that most of these cars were attained through finance? Or if you have a nice car that you didn't need credit for, how did you manage it?

Lots of people have cars on finance - it's a huge outlay in one go. We bought a good second hand one with some money my FIL left us when he died but couldn't afford a new one even with that.
My sister has one on one of those lend-leese things schemes.

I part exchanged my old car and paid the rest in cash. Isn't that what most people do?

Its mostly finance and credit. I know someone whos entire wage (less £500) goes out every month because of rent/car credit/latest phone etc. I think it isnt worth it, but I guess we have a different outlook.

I needed a new car, dipped into my savings and bought a second hand VW Golf for £3.5k. It isnt flashy, but then I dont particularly value cars. It gets me from A-B safely and passes its MOT each year. What more could you ask for?!

Previous car was 13 years old and got written off in an accident so we'd had plenty of time to save the money needed for a brand new one.

We have a nice car which DH got with a promotion through work. No way could we have afforded it otherwise nor would we have tried to e.g. on finance.

Apart from us (occasionally) I don’t know anyone who has bought a car in cash. We’ve done a mixture of pcp (for nearly new extremely expensive cars) that way we can ditch the car when the warranty runs out but the monthly payments are cheaper than hiring of leasing a similar (but cheaper) car. Porsche and Bentley are the best models for this method. We’ve also bought cheaper cars in cash every now and then because we had the money sitting around anyway and for one reason or another didn’t want to get tied into a contract at the time.

I got an £8000 loan for mine. It was 18 months old with 3000 miles on the clock and all additional features.

I took the loan out over 5 years (I knew I wouldn't get a new car in that time) and pay about £135 a month

The cars value brand new was £18k. I got an amazing bargain.

I drive an old Volvo that cost me about £6000. I part exchanged my old car, had some savings, and my parents very kindly it up a bit as it was more than I’d planned to spend, but it was the one I found and we still had to drive 3 hours to pick it up.

Yes, I think a lot of people spend foolishly on cars they can’t really afford on finance. Dh and I now both have good salaries (household income of just over £100,000) and I still wouldn’t finance a new car, even though we could afford it.

We always saved up and bought outright. It meant we drove some real clunkers for a while. Eventually we had enough cash that wasn't about to be burned off on mortgage/ home improvements/ day to day living to enable us to buy a 5yr old vehicle.

My first car, I saved up bought a small car, good deal for cash and then kept that car for 14yrs (bomb proof Yaris) then sold it for £1k.
Second car I have now is a lease car through work scheme - I was less happy about this route as I don't 'own it' but thanks to tax break & a good deal because it's a plug in hybrid it works out an affordable way to do it. So I have monthly payments but they also include servicing, tires, breakdown, insurance etc which has been a godsend this last year as the car electrics went haywire and it wasn't my problem.
We bought our other family car for cash by borrowing a bit more against our mortgage as the rates are much better than car finance.

Part exchange old car with affordable finance on top. Few years later pay it off and again. Each time the exchange/deposit is bigger and so therefore is the car. That's how we did it

A large percentage of flashy cars are on PCP which is a lot "cheaper" than buying the car. I put the "" because in the long run its poor value for money, but a lot of people don't care about that. It's now became a regular outgoing for most people, an outgoing for life.

We saved up for a second hand car, was only 2 years and 20,000 miles old, 9k. I would never get one on finance. We buy ours outright. It's not a BMW though, I dont see cars as status symbols, I just want them to get me places and not fall apart

We never ever buy a new car. We save and spend out on an under 3 year old one and keep it till such time it's unlikely to pass the next MOT without major expense. If you buy an ex demonstrator or a newish car with low mileage, you won't lose as much on depreciation.

I will confess DH was a mechanic so what we buy is sound and he does fix any issues prior to MOT and it is presented for test looking like it came out of a car showroom (we are known at the MOT place for our immaculate cars). All our cars live to a long age, oldest is a 1998 car, looks like new though people keep asking to buy it, it has only done 90K miles in that time too.

Finance.

I’ve had two cars on pcp. Both times not brand new but very low mileage hardly used with some nice extras. I then put the balloon payment on an interest free credit card and carry on paying monthly payments until paid off. I then used that car as part ex deposit on my current car which we needed to swap for a bigger car as we are stating a family. Again pcp on a good deal low mileage but not brand new. I will again put the balloon payment on interest free credit card when the time comes. For me my car is a necessity. Its not flash by any means but it has all the things I like. I see it as paying a bill as its something I can’t do without. Everyone’s circumstances are different though.

DH is a mechanic and we pay £2000 ish for a VW as that’s his specialty (or Seat, Skoda as they are same cars)

I’d never do finance and plus, the car doesn’t really belong to you. I’d hate that

My husband's car was £250. He was happy if it lasted 9 months until the next MOT. If not, he'd scrap it. It's lasted 4 years so far and passed every year....

Mine was £2k and felt like a fortune. Great condition. It's also lasted me years.

£2k is the absolute max we'd ever spend. And I doubt I'd spend that again!
I'd NEVER get one on credit/PCP etc

We have a newish BMW which was bought through money we got from an inheritance. It’s the first ‘nice’ car we’ve had in 20 years though.

My car was a year and half old when we bought it. We used my husbands bonus for it. I would never buy a car on credit again.
(Previous car was ancient...V reg and cost £1000)

I have a company car, my partner has a company van, for the family car we got a loan but it's nothing fancy.

My Mum gave me the money for mine. I fully intend on giving it back to her though and am making plans to. My car before that was a gift from a customer and before that I paid in cash but always drove old bangers.

I pay monthly for mine - £182. I'll own the car outright at the end of the interest free payment plan

We have had a few new cars - wait for interest free credit and use current car for deposit, or when we've bought nearly new (9 months old ish) we've had finance, but they have never been BMWs or Audis - god forbid - but more Ford Focus kind of cars.