to ask how you afford your posh car?

[SteveHarringtonsChestHair]

My DS (22) is becoming increasingly frustrated by the disparity between the life he aspires to and the one he thinks is possible!

As a car enthusiast on a good wage, he is constantly surprised by the number of brand new premium brand cars (BMW, Mercedes, Volvo etc) that he sees on the roads, which he feels he has no hope of ever affording.

He’s asked my to ask you all, if you drive a premium brand car, paying presumably £400-500 a month to buy or lease, what type of job do you and (if it’s not too rude to ask, what sort of salary are you on?) And if your spouse also drives a similar car, what do they do/earn?!

I know there are lots of factors here including whether you’re paying a bit mortgage, is it a company car etc? But just a snapshot of who is driving these expensive new cars might help him put it all in perspective. TIA

btw I earn NMW and drive a 10 year old car so I’m no help here!

My car is company car (company that OH and I own, I have a separate job, we'd end up seperated if we worked full time together), I got my EV on an awesome deal at the end of the registration, and I am now looking at triple the cost to renew my contract. There are lots of deals on leases in Feb, and June /July, so have a look out for them.

Agreed, and your perspective respected.

The closest city to me has the largest audi garage in the UK it's all oil and gas workers either onshore engineers or offshore workers. The vast majority are on finance though and when the oil downturn hit a lot of people found themselves in difficult situations.

Far better to save up and afford a reasonable second hand car!

Household income is £90k.

DH has a £70k EV as a company car. He gets taxed but it's a tiny amount because it's an EV.

Also have a naice VW that we pay £500 a month for, on finance. However when that is paid off we'll keep it and run it to the ground like we did with our old car.

We have one expensive car and one more average brand. I can tell you that the more expensive brand has been an absolute pain in the arse for service cost and experience, had quite a few safety recalls etc. my ‘non desirable’ one in contrast has been really reliable and the garage go out of their way to make my life easier when it comes to servicing. It has really opened my eyes to the power of branding but also importance of understanding ongoing costs, reliability etc rather than relying on the brand. I would need to be convinced to get a upper range car again.

My husband and I both drive luxury cars that we bought outright with cash new. Household salary is high. When we were 22, I had a clapped out Puegeot 205 and DH had a Renault that you had to push backwards if you wanted to reverse. My Peugeot ended up being abandoned in Germany when we attempted to drive it across Europe. RIP Peugeot!

When I was his age, I wanted to be wealthy enough to live off the income from my assets, so I wouldn't waste money that could be invested on a new ordinary car, let alone a posh one. I drove a car that got the job done.

Now I have that money, I no longer need to work, and consequently hardly ever need to drive anywhere. So there's no point spending a lot of money on a car that's only going to sit in my garage and depreciate.

So my advice would be that a posh car never makes sense.

(Although another reason not to waste money on one is that I might want to buy a boat. If you think cars are a waste of money, wait until you find out what boats cost. However much money a person has to waste, there will be a boat that will use it up. Seriously, google world's most expensive yacht, you can spend up to 5 billion dollars, apparently.)

We have a RR hybrid and a Taycan. Both leased, as DH thinks owning cars is a hassle. Income is really high.

At 22, I drove an ancient Micra. Owning a banger at that age is a rite of passage, unless you have parents helping out.

One very new Volvo and one 10 year old one that we’ve had since new that is used for transporting dogs.

Bought outright for cash from annual bonuses.

Dh company director.and lawyer. Me minimum wage admin job.

A cheap car depreciates by about 1k a year, a middle of the road one by maybe 2k a year and something flash by 4K or 5k or much more a year. Whichever you choose you’re burning money, but I guess it just depends how much you like cars/how long you spend sitting inside it every day. I earn a very high salary but drive a midrange vehicle, as I dont drive much and it’s just about getting from A to B comfortably, not wowing the neighbours.

When we were 22 we had one very old and rusty Renault Clio between us.

Mercedes Sports C Class - 2015.

Used some savings to pay half, and a loan for the remaining half. Not the flashiest car, but a lot nicer than my 2006 Renault Megane that I had for several years.

I'm on a modest income, so not rich by any stretch. But fortunate to have a decent amount in savings and equity in an investment portfolio.

Seems to me things in life are easier when you have a 'team', surely. By which I mean, you & partner sharing. As a team. Me & DP have a new car, although he put a bit more than me towards it. We are self-employed worked hard to get where we are.

At your Son's age I lived with my parents and drove nice cars Golf/BMW etc although not brand new. I had a good job and paid my way at home too. My parents didnt begrudge me having nice cars at all. Shows how times have changed, with elders on thread now thinking young people should aspire to shitty cars only and just shut up.

When youngest DC passes driving test we'll get her a car, wont be new but won't be old/dodgy rust bucket thats for sure

Partner drives high spec RR Evoque, bought 1 year old recently, about £500pm. Earns about £85k in IT recruitment.

I pay similar for a sporty mid-life crisis, but earn a lot more. Also IT, but managing director level. I've always loved cars, and would be driving something very flash if I didn't prioritise retiring in my late 50s.

No, his dream cars are usually 1980s classics. It’s more that he’s trying to piece together a life, and seeing the ceiling salary on his job, even with the potential for two incomes if he moves in with his GF and still not seeing how they can afford the life other people have.

I think there’s an element of “comparison is the thief of joy” here and try to encourage him to see how many good things he has in his life, but when he can’t imagine being able to have a house car and family due to rising costs it’s a bit sad and I guess we both wanted to know what sort of salary affords you that. I know things will change over the years, interest rate fluctuations, housing market crashes etc so there will be opportunities that he can’t even imagine yet. But for now it seems that 6 figure salaries, generous car allowances, and then sadly inheritance or some other unfortunate circumstances seem to be the way. I keep telling him he’ll be ok once I die, but even then divided by all the DCs that won’t go far!

I might be in a Range Rover 22 plate or a Jaguar or a Porsche
It's not mine I just work in the industry. Actually own a VW polo which is reliable and cheap and parked round the back

Well the clue here is in the title of the thread! “AIBU to ask how you afford your posh car?”

Posh cars cost a lot of money. There’s no way around that (other than possibly buying an old secondhand one, but people who want a posh car usually want a new one so it doesn’t work for many).

So it should be no surprise that most of the answers are variations of “I’m loaded” (with a smattering of “I can’t really afford it but do it anyway”).

If it helps, the car I had at 22 was my most fun yet. It had character, which is a nice way of saying the doors froze shut when it got cold, but I really enjoyed driving it. I worked for a luxury car manufacturer (think the same one as @Solmum1964 s DH) so got to drive a lot of nice cars and after a while they get a bit nice but dull. I have a sensible family car now and miss the banger!

Put a lump sum down then monthly. X

@SteveHarringtonsChestHair

I can afford to buy pretty much any car I want. The journey to this point was hard work, lots of boring bits and being very careful regarding the choices made along the way.

Im now divorced and support 3 children on my own. I’m sure lots of people look at me and think ‘how does she afford 3 sets of school fees, a nice car, home and all those medical bills?’ The reality is I learned when I was 27, slow and steady wins the race. It’s really boring but the only acceptable debt is a mortgage. He isn’t doing anything wrong. It feels wrong because most young people his age are being irresponsible and spending way too much on a flash car they can’t afford. They then question why they are 40 and can’t afford to buy a home. If he is at home, has he considered working a 2nd job?

I've been wondering this recently. I don't really notice cars, but I've started noticing that every time I go out I see at least 3 Teslas. They're everywhere! Parked at swimming, school drop-off, supermarket, park run. I point them out; "ANOTHER BLOODY TESLA!!" We live in a very ordinary area. Kids at local state primary. DH and I both went to university and work fulltime at decent jobs. We could never afford a Tesla in this lifetime. I think twice about buying fancy fruit teabags instead of own brand. I do spend time wondering how on earth we got things so wrong financially when apparently every other bugger in the neighbourhood has 40k to spend on a car.

Why is he getting frustrated about this at the age of 22? Not many people will have a flash car at that age. It is something he can work towards.

My car is quite a nice car but not a flash car, an Audi Q3 bought new and paid in cash. We were both on just over £100k at the time although I am not anymore but I would never have paid £400-500 a month for a car.

You should get him to read “Rich dad poor dad” (although he probably won’t!) - it’s all about how you build wealth rather than waste it on depreciating items.
However, I’m probably the wrong person to speak to as we earn a good wage (around $500k) but I drive a Toyota because it’s reliable and fuel efficient 😄
Fancy cars don’t interest me really, ironically my dad used to race cars and has owned a selection of Ferraris over his life (bought cash)

A lot of people I know who drive flashy cars are soldiers, they live in block and have total living expenses of about £100 - 200 a month. The rest of their salary is disposable whilst they are young and single!

When I was growing up everyone who owned a nice car either had a company car or was insanely wealthy. The greatest bit of marketing in recent history has been rebranding debt as credit. I bought my fancy car, top
of the range but not a fancy badge, with cash in my thirties, but it was a few years old not new. Arguably my dad fell into the wealthy category for a while (six figure salary starting with a 4) and he’s never bought a new car or a fancy car despite always coveting one.