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?

Brought a 3 yr old car with under 10k on the clock.
Basically my old car ( 10 years old, about to die unless a huge amount of money was spent on it) was written off so insurance paid out. Then I put some of my savings towards it and The Bank
Of Mum & Dad for the rest.

06 Toyota bought for £3k with 110,000m 8 years ago. Now done over 250,000m.

Cash plus money from the insurance when our last car got written off after an accident on the motorway. We have a secondhand Volvo. We will have this car until we run it into the ground. We aren't too bothered with cars we just wanted something safe, reliable and Euro 6 compliant.

Part exchange on my previous 14yo car.
€3,000 from savings and the rest in 36 installments.
About a year later I got a nice cheque for €1,000 from a regional fund, for upgrading my emissions level.

That was 9 years ago. We’ve treated it well and we’re expecting to keep it in the family until it dies. Italian insurance allows family members to share cars for the same premium. That’s why you see little old ladies driving huge 4x4s when somebody else is using the runabout.

Ours was £15000 we paid cash. Wouldn't have one on finance.

Ours is my DDad's old Megane. He was offered £50 scrap value, so we gave him that instead! We couldn't have got one otherwise.

I wouldn't do finance for a car.

We buy older cars and pay cash. We're fortunate enough not to have to save for very long to have a decent budget. Current car was £9k, two months savings. We could afford newer/new for cash or pcp, but we don't really like credit, have no desire for a brand new car and I think pcp is a total swindle.

I bought the car I could afford without finance. I'm really not interested in cars and don't do huge mileage. It's cheap to run and reliable. My last car I kept until it had to be scrapped!

I don't have a particularly nice car. It's 5 years old now. I have to finance every car we get.

I drive a six year old Citroen, I sold my old car (Ten year old polo) having saved up some money and bought the one I have now at an auction for ex mobility cars, I wouldn't want a car I didn't own. If the worst happens and you become ill or lose your job, you don't lose your transportation too because you can't keep up payments. Would I like a nicer car maybe, but the one I have is pretty well equipped, has a huge boot, is comfortable, reliable with low mileage and cheap to run, and for less than £5k. DH has a nine year old Golf. We earn around £75k joint income so we're not hugely strapped for cash, we just have other priorities.

Drive a 15 year old car. No plans to change. Paid outright for it about 5 years ago. I am well paid but don't wish to waste money on a flash car.

My personal opinion is buying a car outright is waste of money. We contract hire both our cars and wouldn't consider anything else. PCP is a total con so please don't be tempted.

@TabbyMumz
Yes, you need to have so long left on your PIP.
Mine is due for renewal in 2022 so I'm ok for now.
If you've got other options for car ownership then weigh up the pros and cons, I don't.
I do get to have a lovely car, currently a special edition Mini Cooper with no worries, so it makes total sense for me.

Most people I know it's on finance or loans.

We brought ours outright with cash which was savings and inheritance money. Second hand but only a few years old (previously DH had a car on finance which he got long before we met)

My old boss was. Rich so used to buy a brand new car with cash every year. he part exchanged his old one ... he didn't understand egg everyone didn't do the same ... he lived in cloud cuckoo land where everyone brought 50k cars 🙄

I bought a Micra sport on ebay for about £1000...it was 4 years old...drove up to Bolton to get it...back to London....it's now 19 years old and drives like new...so reliable...I paid cash as not a huge sum to lay out...not sure what I will do when it falls apart but will keep it for as long as I can.

We saved for it. Toyota, rather than BMW. We paid less for a mazda, once, but it was a lame duck that became useless by 5 years old. Part exes it and it was off the road within a year.

Current Toyota is 61 reg and doing fine.

Also does more than 10,000 miles a year. Toyota is now on 104k.

PCP sounds worse and worse the more I hear about it!
I think buying a cheap car is great for those that have a long run with it but I do find cheap cars obviously have more problems and then can end up being expensive liabilities too... personally I'm not a fan of getting a car on finance, been there and done it and it didn't end well for me as my marriage broke down during and I ended up a single mum and I couldn't afford the payments.
I know finance allows people to not have that initial huge outlay but keeping up with repayments every month, especially for those luxury cars must be an absolute fortune

'Old' cars, haven't had a car younger than 10 years old. For our current car money was borrowed from family, previous car cost less than £500!

I’ve got a 12 year old Ford which has never given me a moments trouble, apart from the usual consumables. When it finally dies, or becomes not cost effective to repair, I’ll look for the best I can get for a couple of grand. I get the mobility element of PIP so could get a mobility car, but I’m really not that bothered about having a new one.

I drive a bmw, not new, it does have a private plate and it was expensive. It's on finance.

DH drives an older bmw estate that's done 273000 miles, we've put half of that on it, it's an amazing workhorse.

We don't smoke, had a really small mortgage and love cars.

We started with small / run down cars and traded up each time. I can never see us owning a brand new car again (my first was) because the depreciation gave me the absolute heave.

Most people I know with nice cars it’s either a company car or company car allowance, on finance or leased.

We didn't have to money to buy a car so borrowed money from my parents and are paying them back £200 a month for 5 years. Interest free as it's my parents!
If we weren't able to do this I guess a bank loan?

We've always previously saved up and paid cash for new or nearly new cars (less than 2yrs old).

Almost 3 years ago though, we got a brand new company car and one for family use via PCP, which although a good deal at the time, we wouldn't do again.

Both contracts run out in the next 6 months. We'll obviously get a new company car, but our family car will be a small, cheap 2nd hand run-around, ideally costing less than £4K.