Price of cars

[Plantlifeonmars]

What on earth has happened to the price of cars? I know everything has gone up but this is insane. I bought a brand new small car for about £10k in Feb 2020 which I needed for work but it wiped out my savings. The same make is now £18k. It's just a very basic small car (similar to Corsa). A slightly bigger car is £24k. That's a years take home pay. It's a house deposit price. Crazy. Way above inflation. Even second hand cars are crazy prices. How do people afford them anymore? It's worrying me as I currently have no scope to save anything so how will I afford a new/second hand car when I need to replace mine? I need a car for work and have to travel to different places, some of which wouldn't be possible on public transport e.g. I had to travel 70 miles to a meeting last week. It took me 2 hours there and 2 hours back due to traffic. Due to awful public transport in this area it would have taken over 4 hours on public transport (and the same back again) and would have involved a walk, a bus ride, a train, a bus and another walk all for an hour long meeting.

I don't need to replace my car yet but I will need to at some point but how on earth do people do it?

I feel you, as I need to buy one, I was hoping to get one under £5000 but I'm really struggling! My issue is that it has to be a automatic.

Supply issue is one reason

Daft question, but what is affecting supply? Is it still Covid? Brexit? Something else?

There have been issues with semi conductor supply for a couple of years or more, due to the demand on electronics created by the pandemic here

This constraint on the supply of new cars has inflated increased pressure on the used car market, and inflated the cost of used cars.

Thanks. It's scary as so many people are reliant on cars for work and public transport is so poor in lots of areas. Sadly once prices go up they rarely go down.

I was recently offered a part ex price on my car that wasn't far off the price I bought it for 3 years previously. It's crazy!

Prices are rising because of a shortage of microchips which are needed to make them. Several big car manufacturers have slowed production because they can't get the parts.

I would ask do you need to buy a brand new car? Most lose about 25% of their value the second you drive them out of the showroom. I've never bought a brand new car and don't know many people who have.

If you can even get a new one! The waitlists are crazy. I've been told one to two years for a few cars I've looked at

I know. This is why I paid over 2 grand to fix my current car and repair was quite serious and lenghty. Cheaper than buying new one. Ours still costs approx. the same since we bought it 4 years ago.

Yep. I bought a second hand, 10 year old car outright in 2020 for just under £3K. Now a 10 year old car is double the price.

😳 how much longer do you think you'd get out of it? I'm loathe to spend that much on a car when I'd be reselling (eventually) for a fraction of the total cost

DH sold a car for more than the price he bought it for a couple of years earlier.

Approx. 5-6 years. It's very decent car, much better than most of the toys with 22 reg plate. I'm fine with 64 one.

A house deposit price

I wish. Try buying a house now...

£24k would be a decent house deposit where I live. Maybe not if your in some areas of the country I guess.

No I don't need a brand new car. This was my first brand new one and always had second hand before that. Even second hand seem extortionate though.

It's hard for some people to grasp the idea that houses prices differ. She just needed to make a point how much she struggles 😅

It's not difficult to grasp no, it's just that the cost of everything has gone up insanely.

Why are you worrying when your car is barely three years old? You can still get a good 12 years minimum out of it.

Any tips to buying a car atm?

Only way I found is checking autotrader every day and be fast. The odd deal does come up but they get snapped up. I can only afford my car because I get a car allowance from work as opposed to getting a company car.

I also found places like Zopa are really good for getting a loan and you can pay off as much as you like each month, which drops the repayment amount and so I just use it as a short term solution and pay it off as quickly as possible.

It is mad.

I looked earlier to see how much my current car might be to replace with a newer (used) version of the same model at the same age this one was when I bought it.

It'd cost me about 33% or £10k more to buy a similar spec, similar age, same model car today than I paid 4 years ago for my current car.

Looks like it'll have to do a good few more years yet then...

12 years? I need a reliable car for work and don't think a 15 year old car would be reliable. I checked prices as I know I have no savings so wanted to see how long it might take me to save and ended up totally shocked at how much prices had gone up (way above inflation). At this rate it'll be 1001 years before I can affect another car 😂

Prices are crazy. My DC is looking for his first car and said he thought he'd get something for around £1k...he'll be lucky!

What make is it? Some cars still go strong when they're 15 years old, but heck knows. I am thinking more like Land Rovers, not Corsa, and you said it's small car. My car mechanic sells cars that he serviced etc. so you know they are safe buy- do you perhaps have trusted garage as an option? Btw. try not to worry too much. Your car is new ,so you still have at least 5 years to worry what to do next. Your personal circumstances might change and hopefully we won't be in recession anymore.