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?

Bank loan for £5000
£1000 trade in
Saved £1000

Bought our first car for £3k with a small inheritance. While we drove that we saved money every month to put towards our next car. Bought our next car for £8k with the money we saved during the previous 6 years.

Depending on how often you need a car, you could always join a car sharing club? About £4 per hour/£30 a day if you only really need it now and again. Otherwise, my last car was just a hunk of junk that cost me around £900 and lasted me a good while.

Tabbymumz
Yes, we got PIP and mobility awarded for the first time, this year as switched from dla, we forwent the mobility payment for the car ( it covers insurance, Rd tax, servicing and rac ) as our family car had just died and we couldn't afford to replace it. We will be reviewed in 3 yrs ( to check my son is still autistic 😫), if we loose the payment, we loose the car, if we are awarded again we get to change the car.

Used to always pay cash. This time I wanted a nicer car..I guess everyone else seems to have one! I traded in my 12 yo micra and took a private loan to pay over 3 years on a 2.5 yo car.

We got a personal loan and got a much better deal than through dealership finance. 4 years around £179 month and we’ll own the car outright and sell it for at least half of what we paid for it.

Both of our old cars have conked out recently. My car was 12 years old and I'd spent £2000 repairing it over the last year. It was only worth £1000. We've ended up getting a low rate personal loan over 5 years to buy two 2/3 year old cars. I was sick of taking mine to the garage to be given £600-700 bills each time.

Saved once I knew I was going to need one and bought outright. If you don’t need it to be flashy or all the mod cons you can get sine very good bargains brand new.

I hate finance and avoid it with the exception of the mortgage.

I'm lucky in that I couldn't give two hoots what car I have.
We used to have a touring caravan and our car struggled to tow it. So we purchased a swish 4x4. Beautiful, but dear god the running costs, tyres, insurance, servicing etc. We sold the caravan and by sheer luck our car was written off when a lorry lost its load (crushed). it was parked up at the time.
The insurance paid out more than we would have got selling. Neither of us could decide what to buy. So, we bought a £700 33k miles car off ebay blind. Had it delivered on a car transporter. It's just passed its test again today (sheer coincidence) no advisories...fab little car!

It's since occurred to me that virtually all cars stand still for best part of 23hrs a day!. Their depreciation, running costs make them very expensive.
Friends of ours treated themselves to a RR Sport around the same time as we bought our "bargain" They paid £26k for a used model, today its worth less than £10, costs them an absolute fortune to run and maintain.

Each to their own, But it really doesn't appeal to me. Trying to give others the impression you are better or loaded, when in fact you're probably up to your eyeballs in debt.

No Ta

Ours was £12,000 and not a flashy make (a Kia) but we only managed to pay that much in one go thanks to an inheritance. I don't like monthly payments for things if I can at all avoid them, they feel a bit like a millstone round my neck (I get that it's just a mental thing as often the overall cost is the same).

Sadly mine is a motability car. It was fortuitous I suppose that my 22yr old seat Alhambra (that I loved and bought second hand for 12k with an interest free loan from DH work) finally died about a month before I was awarded PIP.

If I didn't have the motability I would have to finance a car but I would get a bank loan rather than car finance as it's better value for money.

Parents gave me a loan which I then paid off with some inheritance. Nothing fancy, a 2014 Fiesta and then bought my Dad's old 4×4 off him a couple of years ago, also not fancy, 2010, but fancy for us and perfect for our needs, we will be keeping them until they kark it

Of course most are finance did you think Bev the hairdresser down the road in the 2 bed semi is suddenly raking in £250k a year...??

Get a loan for £3k and get a decent second hand car of about 8yrs old with 30-60k on the clock. If you can find a dealer that takes ex motability cars in as stock you will get an absolute bargain! And they're all fully serviced and generally well maintained and cared for.

I paid upfront for mine, it was a year old and I’d saved for it. £20k so not Range Rover material.

We buy new but inexpensive Subarus, pay cash, then drive them until the wheels fall off, trade them in for a bit (which is mostly a discount on the new car) then do the same again. It's by far the cheapest way in the long run. We just did this with a 2009 Forester with 140k miles on it.

Personally I save, I have £15k saved so far since the last time I bought one 10 years ago, I have done other savings and plan to buy a car in the summer once I've got a new job

I bought my car with cash.

An old small renault- cost me £800 bought 4 years ago, it is 14 years old, still only hs 40,000 miles on the clock - I love it.

We've got a 2nd hand but fairly new nissan micra.
Old car got written off and we got £1500 from the insurance, FIL kindly gave us £1000, and the last £2000 was most of our savings.
We prefered the idea of paying in one chunk rather than having an extra outgoing each month.

I bought a decent second hand car for £1500.

Only people I know with new cars do the think where you pay monthly then every get years you get a new car, can't remember what that's called!

A friend who's paid off their mortgage chose to spend what they paid on their mortgage on a new car (monthly) instead of getting a bigger house (that they don't need anyway!)

All the ‘young uns’ I work with have expensive cars less than 3 years old. FINANCE.

We got a loan. Never get much for the old car when we get a new one as we run them until they're only worth scrap value. Never bought new, only ever had second hand. We only borrow what we can afford to pay back as well and avoid any finance by those selling the cars.

I part exchanged my previous car and put the remaining money to it so bought it outright. I drive an X5 but wouldn't have bought it unless I could afford it.

We save each month via a salary sacrifice scheme and every six years we replace one of our cars, our budget being whatever we have saved. Nothing flashy or brand new though - but hate being in debt.

Most are finance.

I do laugh when all the young (under 21) folk at work complain they are skint but have top range cars.

I'm like well how much is your car a month and they say how much their insurance, finance and petrol is . I only pay my petrol every month as I saved up when I lived at home and bought a pretty decent 2nd hand car .

It only cost £400 so quite easily! DH is a whizz mechanic so rescued it from scrap yard and put a new engine in 😀