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?

We buy old cars and get rid when they need an expensive repair.

I'm lucky in that DP is very knowledgable about cars and knows what problems to look out for (and has taught me, too!). We've had 2 old Audi A4s that cost just over £1,000 each. The first one served us well for 5byears, and only never needed new brakes (which all cars do every few years) a battery (£36) and a light bulb (60p). Eventually, the driveshaft went and we decided it wasn't worth spending £350 on.

When we needed a second car, he found a Peugeot 106 for £425, we had that for 4 years and it never needed a penny spent on it.

I've now got an old (2001?) Audi A4 Avant sport. It was £1,200, the most I've ever spent on a car and this one's a keeper. We've had some work done on the suspension, which was about £200, and I've had it, it think, for 4 years now.

The great thing about old cars is that they don't have all the complicated electrics that cost shedloads to fix. We avoid diesels for the same reason, they're expensive when they go wrong.

Current car cost £400!!! Over 2 years ago. Low mileage. It's not ideal but all I could afford at the time. Gets me where I need to go. It's a 2005 model.

Unless really desperate for a car (ie breakdown and required for work), we’d prefer to save for a second hand. However I guess if you use it frequently and want to avoid hassle and cost of fixes, then the situation is a bit different.

The great thing about old cars is that they don't have all the complicated electrics that cost shedloads to fix.

Exactly. My mechanic is of the same mindset too.
My old renault is simple, easy and cheap to repair. New cars have many more intergral systems, complete engine "units", so rather than replacing a simple part, a whole system has to be torn out and replaced instead, also including more complex electrical control and monitoring systems.

Older cars are easier and cheaper to fix.

We part exchanged our old car for a new Skoda - the new one had been used for test drives so was a couple of grand cheaper than normal. Along with the part exchange this brought it down to a reasonable price (obviously Skodas aren't too expensive anyway). My DH had a few thousand to buy it outright.

Most people I know have a loan or a PCP thing on their newish cars, or an older car.

We bought ours cash (second or third hand) ten years ago. It's 14 years old now, but under 100k miles on the clock, and only just started to need things tweaking (which DH can do).

I used to have a car loan for a new fiesta
Next will be another second hand car, paid by part ex and cash.

It is getting less easy to fix your own car now though, there's a lot more sensors and the necessity to plug into a computer to diagnose and fix. But we were trade for a long time so still have contacts.

We've bought our last 3 cars on finance as I'd got sick of buying cheap cars that went wrong all the time.

I got a job that needed a reliable vehicle and it was getting really stressful worrying about my car.

First one we bought a 6 month old car and intended to keep it for 3 years but actually kept it for 8.
Then when it started costing us money we traded it in and bought a 2 year old car and I liked it but a few things happened that put me off it so I only kept that just over a year and traded it in this summer.

Now third and most expensive car on HP. It's in no way a fancy car but it's much bigger and higher up which I really needed.

I plan to keep this 3 years then will probably get rid. I don't want a car that's out of warranty again.

I'd like a hybrid or electric car next. I'll possibly lease/do PCP especially if electric as there have been battery issues so I'd rather not own it. I might be able to use a work scheme depending where I am then.

I'm not a petrol head at all but I do enjoy my cars. I spend a lot of time a day driving around for work so this time, comfort and having sat nav and a good entertainment system was important.

We've got quite a good income but not enough to save for a newish car. Saving at the rate of our current finance, it would have taken years. In that time we could have continued shelling out loads of money for an unreliable car, had to hire cars etc

I know there's a lot of judgment on here about car finance and yes, it is a debt and it is expensive but absolutely worth it for that piece of mind for us.

Among my close friends I think I'm fairly unusual as most aren't really fussed about what they're driving and just need to get from A to B. The ones with jobs that depend on a vehicle tend to be the ones either finance/PCP.

DH has a company car and mine is on PCP, (share it with my teenage DS when he is home from uni), I know that is an expensive way of buying a car but as a PP says it is peace of mind, we could have used savings, but made the choice not to.

I mourn the days when I had a fab company car (Golf) with fully paid petrol even for private mileage - over 25 years ago, cant imagine any company doing that now.

Bank loan for mine.

I can't ever imagine affording a decent car without finance. We've only had a car for just over a year, since my DH has been driving. It's old and crap and we paid £2000 which we'd saved up.

My Dad has decent cars, but he buys outright and part-exchanges. He can do that for decent cars now because he's been doing it for so long, if that makes sense.

I had no idea it was so high...uk.motor1.com/news/353737/91-percent-cars-financed-year/

We buy ours brand new (no finance) and change after a few years. The frothers would be horrified at how much we spend so I won’t post it here.

@Iusedtobeskinny you can't tease us like that ;) I'd be interested to know how much and if you find it worth it in the long run? What about the depreciation in value? How long on average do you keep a brand new car for?

I saved up, it was only about 8k so not the most expensive car in the world but was 16k new 2 years before so I think its worth it buying second hand.

I could never do pcp, I find it such a waste of money.

I lease, I get a company car allowance instead of company car (BIC is insane until I can get an electric that suits my needs). I need a comfy car as I do a lot of miles for work. I drive a large premium estate as my lease almost every time (think Merc E class/Audi A5/Volvo V90) changing ever 18 months - 2 years. Total cost of ownership is ~£750pcm (lease, fuel, insurance etc) by the time I've got car allowance + mileage claims I break even/make a profit. If I was doing fewer businesses miles I'd get a less premium car, comfort is worth it for the miles I do.

I siphon off money from freelance jobs and buy them outright, but then we run older cars these days. I've got a Saab 9-5 estate which is coming up to 15 years old and a Nissan Murano which is 11. The Saab was about £1,500 and the Nissan just under £4k. Bought them both by bank transfer.

We used to have a pair of new Audis on PCP but we were both in salaried jobs then (self-employed now) and DH's car payment was covered by his company anyway. My Audi (A5 Cabriolet) was about £430 a month I think.

It's never bothered me going back to older cars. They're both 'nice' cars, just not the latest thing any more. The Saab in particular is brilliant and if you didn't know you'd never guess it was 15 years old. It's big, comfortable, luxurious and reliable.

My thing though is preventative maintenance. I put £150 into an account every month which covers maintenance as well as servicing, MOT, tyres and whatnot.

We have always had second hand decent-ish cars but this year we have splashed out and have decided to lease a car as we wanted an electric one - £300 a month.

We save and buy second hand.

When we were young that meant old bangers for a couple of hundred, then once we had a bit in savings we bought a three year old escort for £5K that we had for ten years. Since then we've had two Focuses, also bought at three years old, the last one we had for ten years and have had the current one for just over four.

We try to buy ex-motobility cars as they've been properly serviced and often come with really low mileage. Our last Focus had 11,000 on the clock when we bought it, the present one just 8,000, so practically brand new but at a fraction of the cost.

As soon as we buy a car we start saving for the nest, aiming to put by £500 a year at a minimum.

We have two cars on PCP - a Merc and an Audi Q5.

We pay £1k per month (but I'm a high earner so it's affordable for us).

That being said we won't be doing it again. We're tied in for 4 years and are half way through.

When the Merc comes to the end of 4 years it only has a £5-6k payment to own it outright as I chose to make higher payments for high mileage. We will pay that and then own it outright.

The Audi I'm not sure about at the moment - we'd like to have an electric version so we might swap for one of those on PCP because it's unlikely there will be any second hand at that time.

We won't have two PCPs again - even though it's affordable for us I don't like being tied in to that amount and want us to build our savings up instead.

If something goes wrong (long term illness, unemployment) you can't just give the car back.

Also I'm hoping to get a permanent role (rather than self employed) soon which would come with a company car. We don't need one until our PCP is up so would take a cash payment in lieu of car to save the balloon payment.

Then potentially in 2 yrs I could sell the Merc and put the money in savings and have a company car.

Just in case anyone on here doesn’t know -

If you take out a PCP and find that you don’t want to keep it for the full term, don’t panic

You have the right to hand back the car once you have paid 50% of the payments so for most people that means if you have a 4 year term you can hand it back half way at 2 years without any penalty

So anyone regretting an expensive PCP, do this and then get a loan for a different car instead

Unless your PCP deal is a 0% finance offer if will be the the most expensive type of finance you take

Some are 9%apr or higher which is daylight robbery when you can get personal loans for 3% and under.

The other thing to remember with a PCP is that you are financing the full value of the car, not just the amount you repay over those 3 or 4 years. You are also paying yearly interest on that balloon payment sitting there

So if you wait until you have paid it, want to pay the balloon payment to keep the car but need a loan to pay the balloon, you are effectively paying the interest on that part twice!!!

For an example a £15k car on personal loan at an APR of 3.3% and a deposit of £3k would cost a total in interest of £610 over 3 years.

That same car and same deposit over a 3 year PCP would cost £2700 in interest over 3 years and even more if you then borrowed to pay for the balloon at the end

Most people seem to take out 4 year PCP’s which is even worse financial sense as you pay even more interest but it doesn’t reduce your monthly payment by much at all

Mine was bought for me by best friend. It's quite old now — had it a long time — but very sexy

we always paid in cash for a cheap car (ranging £500-2000) Then DH started getting a company car so obviously got brand new car then changed it 3 years later. We then took out a bank loan to buy his 2nd company car when its 3 year lease was up as my car was on its last legs.

We save and pay cash for something non-flashy but reliable that’s a few years old with low mileage, and then we drive it until it dies. Cars depreciate the most in their first few years of life, so they get cheaper (in terms of annual depreciation) the longer you own them, which offsets the cost of extra repairs they need as they get older. It is the cheapest way to own and run a car. Flashy luxury cars are terrible value for money (if you’re looking simply at cost of ownership relative to the job they perform, namely getting you from point A to point B) both in terms of initial outlay and also cost of repairs when they need maintenance and/or start to break down. A Toyota or Honda is much cheaper to repair and maintain than, say, an Audi or BMW.

@ChocolateCoins19 "I still. Have that car.. Its now 14 yrs old. Touch wood the only repairs have been 2 tyres*

Have you really only changed two tyres in 14 years?
If so, that is incredibly low mileage (and a lot of sitting round) and the tyres are unlikely to be in great condition. Guidance is to at least inspect annually after five years, and replace them after 10 years or so, as the rubber will have degraded and started to perish.