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?

I have a brand new i10 which we saved up for (about 8.5k). Took about a year.

I’ve always used savings.
I would panic too much having finance on things. I would hate to be in a position of not being able to make repayments and the car taken away.

I've always had old crappy cars but my current one is one that OP mentioned and is on finance, no balloon payment or anything though, once it's paid it's paid. Wish I'd got a better interest rate in hindsight but it's not the end of the world, I don't regret it and it's lovely to drive. DH has a company car though, we couldn't afford to run 2 cars

My car is ancient now but I paid for it over 4 years on finance, it was 1yr old when I bought it. I wouldn't buy a brand-new car, let someone else run it in.

they finance them, i assume. i personally drive a crap car which is firstly quite liberating (i used to have a nice car but buying a house was more important)), and i'd rather be doing building work on saod house than worrying about a car.

We got a new car through a work scheme where you get an electric car pre tax. Cant remember what its called! DH did it.

My DH leases his cars
He’s literally today just ordered his new car as his other one goes back in April
He will put down 3 month rental so 1200
Lease is 399 a month for 3 years with 10.000miles a year
Car is a new BMW Sport convertible M Spec
His work car is also leased through his business and that’s a Volvo XC60 not sure what that cost
My car is an BMW X1 and I lease that and it cost me £350 a month with 10,000 miles a year
However we can easily afford the cars and although we have both owned cars outright in the past we both much prefer to lease and have no hassle of the cars going wrong breaking down
I did buy a car several years ago for 13000 cash and kept it for 7 years and when i sold it I got £5000 so that was a good buy but in its last year it started to cost me money every few months and it only had under 40k on the clock so I sold it and started leasing.

I brought my car last year. I paid cash but it’s was only £2500, it’s 10 years old but only done 20k miles. I will never spend big money on a car again between us dh and I have had over 40 cars, we’ve been together 30 years. I really regret spending all that money on cars because we could have invested that money in properties all those years ago. Expensive cars are dead money imo. My sister pays £300 per month for a new car which is on pcp so will never be hers. Dh friend has had a new car every 3 years for the last 10 years, he has spent over £50,000 for cars which he will never own.

I would never buy a car on finance!!! Bought my current audi a4 5 years ago for £1600 (2007 plate) it has been passing MOTs every year, looks great, drives great, if I wanted to sell it I would get circa £1200 for it now so it depreciated like £400 in 5 years! I work in a car auction now and see people buying i.e. £30k cars which cost half of that in 2 years time and I think its ridiculous to spend it on a piece of metal anyway. People who buy theirs on finance are at the top of the list of ridiculousness 😁

We have always just bought old cars outright for under two grand, but I assume the fancy motors other people drive are mainly leased or hire purchase.

I bought a small city car on hire purchase - I put a £1000 deposit down that , and am paying £120 a month for 4 years on it.

It had 14k miles on the clock and was less than 2 years old, was still under warranty, and the monthly payment includes servicing and tyre/windscreen cover, so I got a very good deal considering I drive hundreds of miles a week.

When the finance is paid off (not long now) then I'll run it into the ground, however long that takes - not everyone taking out finance is after driving about a flash car they couldn't own (and, more's the point, that's up to them if they do - I couldn't afford the monthly payments on an Audi but if I could...!)

A loan, finance. We are similar. Not poor but not well off. We need two cars. My partner bought his car brand new back when he was a singleton and could afford it. It’s still going strong now though. Looked after, low mileage.

Our first family car mother in law helped us out and paid half of it. So we didn’t need to borrow but when That was time to go we had to take out a loan. We got some back part exchange for our old one. We didn’t buy a brand new car but a newish second hand one with low miles.

A loan is better than finance we found. Finance you will pay back a lot and more risks. We got a loan with the bank, less interest etc. Not ideal
Paying it much each month but we have no choice.

I could have had a new kitchen with the money we borrowed 🤣 but we live in the middle of nowhere with no public transport so need the two cars on the road.

Cash

Cash, we save for what we need.

I paid cash. My car is 2011 but high end so cost £16,000 last year. We took cash from our business.

I have never paid that much before but we usually pay cash from savings/business or get a short term loan for family cars.

My husband has his on finance but it just finished and we took a loan to pay the balloon payment. His payments were £380 and now under £200 on the loan.

Next year we will be replacing our family car with a new/nearly new one on finance. Expect it to be around £500 a month (the other loan will be gone).

We were lucky and got a 0% interest deal over 4 years, no deposit. its not a particularly flash car though !

As a congratulations gift to myself I brought a year old car (8,000 on the clock) eight years ago for 10k in cash. It's still going with only 35,00 on the clock and I still love that car.

I have a 19 plate Suzuki. It's my second Suzuki and I use the PCP scheme.

I had old cars, constantly breaking down and forking out money for repairs. At one point u owed nt parents £1k for repairs to my 51 plate Peugeot.

I don't care if I "own" a car, I need one to work and I'm happy to keep going every month with a new, reliable car every 3 years.

When I'm ready to end the PCP scheme I'll just keep the car and save the outstanding balance at the end of the term.

If someone's driving a car that's too new/nice for them, chances are it's on PCP. I mean sometimes it'll be an inheritance, or help from family or whatever, but usually if it looks to be beyond what you would have expected, it's PCP.

Personally, I save up. £150/month for 6 years is £10,800 which buys a nearly new car that I expect to last me at least 10 years. Some of the of what I save over the other years will go on maintenance, obviously, but the rest is fun money.

We lease an A4 through our business which we can afford comfortably and it is a lovely car. We also have a Yaris that I paid £5,000 for 10 years ago and it is incredibly reliable and cheap to run.

Motability car.
I didn't have a car at all until I became disabled age 32, though got car at 34, I just couldn't afford it.

My dh got me a cheap run around for £450!! I use it for school run and shopping mainly. It's a Japanese make and an absolute tank. Been driving it for seven months now and in all that time not a single thing has gone wrong, starts every time, air con, heated seats, all working...very lucky

Saved and bought with cash. TBF we don't buy expensive cars.

(Mortgage aside) I suffer with finance phobia.

I’ve always bought slightly used cars for cash, once I Got far enough in life to not have to buy the cheapest, worst used car on the market. Just saved up until I could buy it.
Our last 2 cars though, buying new got us interest-free financing, the cost wasn’t that much more than slightly used, and a new car comes with full warranty. So for the first time we bought new cars. We try to buy sort of in the mid-range, so stay away from prestige brands, often buying the equivalent car in the cousin brand. My car is now 14 years old And will need replacing soon. I’ll probably buy new and finance it just because it makes sense to keep that money in my account earning interest.

My parents bought my (cheap but new) car when I passed my test at 21. It's still going strong now 14 years later.

DH took a 5 year loan out for his car, I think for around £8000. It will be paid off in 6 months. It was a much better deal than taking out PCP. Not a flash car by any stretch of the imagination, but now used as the main family car with mine as a backup.