How do lots of people afford the brand new luxury cars ?

[Stroganoffo]

Keep seeing 22 plate Mercedes, Audi , BMW and tesla, when I was little these were quite rare as only the wealthy had them. Now it seems everyone has one considering the average wage isn't that high and the cost of one is 50k. I have a good wage and still don't want to fork out lots. How are people affording them. Is it all on credit ? Aren't people worried with everything else going up and the cost of living crisis ?.

No they aren’t designed to last a long time anymore. Peak car longevity is probably late 90’s - 2008ish.

Really, well all Toyota`s are covered under their relax warranty, meaning every year they get a service you get an extra years warranty upto 10 Years / 10,000 miles and 15 years on all their Hybrid/EV batteries.

So your warranty is covered for upto the first 15 years at least. Seems like a decent deal for my initial investment.

*typo 100,000 miles.

We don’t have one but lease options through my place of work are very very reasonable - when our Audi dies we will lease an electric one via that route I expect

Yes. Really. I’ve worked for toyota. Their warranty is the best in the business. Lots of manufacturers have long warranties now, but Toyotas is one of the few worth the paper they’d re written on.
I could write you a long lengthy post about their hybrid technology actually being so good because it was designed in the early 2000’s. As I say, cars now, are not designed to last as long as they were.
Toyota are struggling a bit due to their technology being older, that does bring more of a proven track record. It’s bodywork that will bring an end to the Toyota before the hybrid engine fails.

bmw electric cars are having huge issues at the moment as their batteries are commonly failing just after the warranty period which leaves the owners with a costly bill to replace the batteries (which frequently go on back order / are unavailable) or write off a fairly new car.

Toyota was good as long as I remember. We had few. Still all very fondly remember our Corolla. Already was known as extremely safe car 15 years ago.

It's like with everything though. The more technology you have in something, the more things can go wrong (not aiming at Toyota here). Like tvs and fridges etc.
My GM had candy fridge bought VERY VERY long time ago and it failed only few years ago.

Which BMWs are these? The only BMW EV that's just coming out of warranty now is the i3 (from 2014 onwards) and I've not heard of many issues on i3 forums or the internet in general.

I am motor trade at a garage specialising in electric vehicles. It is the i3. The hybrids have had similar battery issues, with bmw just shrugging their shoulders of the issue.

If this is the case then this is a good reason NOT to buy but to lease.

Which unfortunately feeds into the throw away culture. A limited amount of the battery can be recycled, with some suggestion they can be used as a sort of mass storage. I’m not entirely sure how that works if the batteries themselves aren’t performing well.

the environmental issues are hugely complex. Like wrapping fruit and veg in plastic, yes it’s bad. But it preserves the product so there’s less wastage, which means less resources producing more. So which is worse?

Interesting as the i3 forums are saying different, with BMW honouring their 8 year battery warranties.

But I guess you only see the ones outside of the 8 year warranty as the ones they're honouring will be taken care of by BMW.

Strange how they'd shoot themselves in the foot on future sales, just when they need customers to buy into electric cars.

There's a big market for repurposed batteries as the capacities are so big that a house won't notice a battery that has less than 80% capacity.

Typically only specific cells due but that doesn't render the entire battery useless. They can be repaired by just replacing the faulty cells, so very recyclable.

yes they are like a whole bank of little batteries, so yes you can just replace the dead cell.

don’t get me wrong me and the manufacturers I’ve worked with agree there’s a purpose for electric cars and batteries. But they aren’t they green bullet they are reported to be. It’s a stopgap.

i do agree. It’s very short sighted of them, I’ve helped a few people argue it with their manufacturer. Some have won some haven’t. others have issues but bmw seem to be the worse for shrugging it off. Which is not what you would expect from a premium item.

i know of a few that just got them running enough, fault codes cleared and they ended up we buy any car’d.

Well they're greener than ICE and every manufacturer is changing their entire production infrastructure and supply chains so I'd suggest they're not investing billions on a whim or stopgap solution.

Batteries are here for the foreseeable future and rightly so.

No. The greenest car is the one that already exists.

volkswagen for instance are currently testing a range of small petrol cars yet to be brought into manufacture, so they aren’t all in on batteries. As I say, that’s not what I’ve heard from the manufacturers I deal with, it is perceived a stop gap.

we were all pushed into diesels in the mid 00’s as we were lead to believe it was better for the environment because we cared about nox emissions then. There is a firm belief within manufacturers electric will be similar. It WILL have its place, I’m not saying it won’t, but it isn’t the cure all. Mainly because of the mining issues and the recycling issues. Yes you can replace a cell, but what do you do with that old cell and what do you do to create a new one?

You’ve Ford discontinuing the fiesta because they can’t make it as an affordable small car for the masses. Everyday cars like focus’s and golf’s are creeping up to luxury car costs. It’s certainly going to be an interesting time for the entire car market and car ownership model.

When mortgage rates were so low these deals were very affordable for people on a PCP/lease arrangement and the idea of a new car every 3 years is attractive to some people

Things may be different going forward as people's fixed rate deals start to run out. My car is 11 years old and I have no plans to change it for the foreseeable future.

The usual methods, which are:

• Inheritance. Maybe not directly used to pay for the actual car, but the inheritance might have covered a big deposit on a nice house so that an average salary goes further.
• High salary. I honestly think some people don’t realise how well paid some sectors are.
• Company car.

I don’t know anyone living on beans who owns a luxury car on credit. I know a lot of people who are on very healthy salaries and also have company car allowances.

We always buy our cars outright, privately. We sell after about 3 years, we often get the similar money. We then put a bit more to it and buy again. Covid was good to us and we got more for our cars than we bought them for. Never new, can't afford it, say a 2nd hand 20 plate hybrid.

Up to five years old now because the leases were extended during the pandemic, and there are long delays on renewing leases because vehicles are taking longer from ordering to delivery because of the chip shortage. If you’re leasing a wheelchair accessible vehicle or need complicated adaptations, you will lease for five years, not three.

Afterthought. The title of the thread referred to luxury cars. Why would you assume that this applies to Motability cars ?

Come on, loads are bought, not just on lease or credit.
We had only ever bought our cars and the same goes for our friends.
As for those saying people get into debt with new cars or they are low spec, is it because you are jealous?

www.carwow.co.uk/blog/ev-battery-recycling-what-happens-to-dead-batteries#gref

Maybe this might help.

I've already answered this I'm in the top 10 percent of households for income in the UK according to ONS. I would personally balk paying out so much for a car in one go the most my DH has paid was 30k for a classic car. It's not jealousy as I can afford it if I really wanted roo. The sums don't add up really how so many people have expensive cars compared to average salaries and income. Maybe I'm tight

The thread referred to ‘luxury cars’. There are roughly 60,000 Motability vehicles on the road - hardly a ‘lot’, and the vast majority don’t come into the ‘luxury’ category. Those that do, are usually because the disabled person needs a higher spec to accommodate their disability, or needs wheelchair access. The higher spec vehicles attract a much higher advance payment on the lease, whereas most people opt for the vehicles with little or no advance payment. Unless you needed a higher spec for mobility reasons why would you pay thousands as an advance payment for something you will hand back in three or five years time, depending on the length of the lease ? Just for clarity, not all PIP claimants qualify for a Motability car - they have to be in receipt of the enhanced rate of PIP mobility component, which is awarded for those with the most severe conditions.