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 ?.

I dunno, you can get new audi from about 250 a month.

The fact that you don't buy more expensive cars doesn't mean others don't. People spend on different things. So the sums add up, you just keep going around in circles with the wide eyed "but I don't understaaand" still because you personally don't spend on this particular item so "i don't understand why others do" 🤷🏻

Someone spends 150 quid a month on a gym, I wouldn't spend more than 25, still don't go around "innocently" doing "but hoooow" head tilt.

@Rosscameasdoody

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 ?

For exactly the same reason that anyone buys a luxury car when they could get from A to B in a Ford Focus! People spend their money on what's important to them. Someone with a mobility car may just like to drive a luxury car and use their motability benefit to pay towards it.

I don't like the idea of paying a company interest or rent for something that I could own outright

Agree there will be some element of that, but given that this is a thread about luxury cars, the two posts here seem to imply that motability cars account for a lot of luxury cars on the road - just pointing out that they don’t. I’ve volunteered with disability charities since PIP was introduced in 2013. The mobility component is a lot harder to claim now and IME most recipients of the higher rate that qualifies them for motability are only interested in a car that suits their disability and gets them reliably from A to B. The majority of disabled people don’t have a lot of money for a high advance deposit, and most of the higher end cars and SUV’s on motability are chosen because they lend themselves more easily to the more complicated adaptations and wheelchair access needed in order to drive them - for which grants are available for the eye watering advance payments. But Kudos to you for your response because many similar threads only have to mention motability cars and there’s a pile on about ‘free cars’ and ‘taxpayers expense’, etc, so it’s good to see a balanced view for a change.

They will be either credited up to high heaven or could even be a disability whip. I live on a fairly poor council estate and the amount of brand new 22 plate cars I've seen park up and knowing most of the people on the estate I know for a fact someone who doesn't work could never afford an expensive new car so will be on DLA High rate mobility where they give u a car and all u have to do is pat for the petrol dwp pay insurance and tax etc

I know someone who has now had three Range Rovers. They've lost about £30,000 on each one due to devaluation, plus the monthly cost of running them. They aren't wealthy!

Personally I don't understand why you would do that. It doesn't make financial sense. I'd much sooner spend that money on property.

However, I'm not into cars. I just want something that looks half decent that will get me from A to B safely (although I'd treat myself to a classic car if money was no object)!

Each to their own though, as we spend a lot on holidays, which are over in a couple of weeks!

And there it is !! DLA doesn’t exist any more except for children under 16. It’s PIP now, a lot harder to claim, and the higher rate mobility component is only awarded to those with the most severe disabilities. DWP are absolutely nothing to do with motability. It’s a charity and they work with the car industry to source vehicles at a reduced rate, and at the end of the lease either the dealers sell them on as used cars or they are auctioned off. The DWP don’t pay insurance or car tax. Disabled people are exempt from car tax and insurance is included in the leasing costs direct from motability. And PIP is nothing to do with the ability to work. It’s designed to help with the extra cost of living with a disability and to help the most severely disabled people stay mobile. And once again, the thread focuses on luxury cars, and my previous post addressed this.

Forgot to say, my apologies - didn’t intend to derail the thread.

PCP and leasing deals have made these cars a lot more affordable (on a per-month payment basis) than they would have been in say the 80s/90s. At the same time, more "basic" (non-luxury) brands are much more expensive in real terms than they were back then - people think why get a Ford when I can have an Audi for a not much bigger monthly payment.

If you never intend to own the car outright then you don't care what the sticker price is, only that it costs you £X hundred a month and after 3/4/5 years you hand it back and get another one.

My husband gets a brand new company car every four years, he currently has a 50k mercedes. There is absolutely no way we could afford it ourselves. I have an 18 year old banger in contrast!

Exactly this, "credit" has changed wrt car ownership. We use PCP more as car rental ... to get a decent nearly new car, with bells and whistles... then trade up for another. We never own the car outright, but that won't matter until we get to retirement.

If we bought a car we'd have to put up with a much lesser or older one.

Low interest rates have made leasing more popular, but that is changing now that we have higher interest rates. The good deals people got a few years ago won't be replicated in the future when costs of borrowings are higher, and even more-so when the current "bubble" in used car prices ends.

Dla high rate mobility is soooo hard to get, they have really toughened the criteria even epilepsy,limb discrepency etc dosent qualify for it.

we are looking for a new car, tourneo new ones are 60k second hand about 5 years old is 30ish k. What would be better pcp for a new or take a loan for older version and pay it off over 5 years?

You can but you would have to.pay a deposit running into the thousands .

We pcp also, just traded in our current car with £2,500 part exchange given to us by garage with contribution etc towards a brand new car. I used to HP but never kept a car past the 3 years, this is working better for us

Well when I leased my bmw it was £50 a month cheaper than the ford equivilent... basically because your paying the depreciation and bmw and Mercedes hold their value more.

Slightly off topic but DH wants to get an Audi but I have heard they are quite "common" now?? Lots of the other parents at the school gates seem to have Audis so they don't seem as posh / exclusive as they once did.

Audi is not seen as a very posh/exclusive brand in the US. That may be in part due to relatively poor reliability.

repairpal.com/reliability/audi

A friend traded hers in after the third time it had to be towed to the dealership under warranty. I think she replaced it with a Subaru.

Rolls/Bentley/Ferrari would be posh/exclusive.

Audis are a VW/Skoda in a posh frock - they share loads of mechanical parts between the VAG brands so all you are paying extra for is a badge and some marketing.

If you want exclusive - Ford sold way fewer Mondeos (before they axed it) than BMW sold 3 series. Audi, BMW, Mercedes etc are pretty much ubiquitous, not something anyone would get for exclusiviity.

it’s pretty much the same with all of them

Bentley bentayga shares parts with the Volkswagen Touareg.
ferrari shares with fiat
rolls shares with bmw

mercedes shares with Renault, the vans share with fiat.

new Volkswagen caddy is Volkswagen in the front ford connect in the rear.

VAG are just a bit more obvious about it than others.

Yes. But you have to be able to put down thousands of pounds as a deposit on a car that will be handed back in three years. Most disabled people don’t care about status symbol cars - they only care about something they can easily access to drive and that will be reliable enough to get them from A to B comfortably and safely. The first thing to say is that being unemployed has nothing to do with getting a disability - Motability - car. You have to be severely disabled and in receipt of the higher rate mobility component of PIP - very difficult to claim successfully. Motability don’t offer cars for sale - they are lease only. If you are seeing high end cars in your area and think they are motability cars, you have to consider one thing. If you require complicated adaptations in order to be able to drive a car if you’re disabled, or if you require wheelchair access, then high end vehicles are likely to be more suitable to these adaptations than the basic ones - even if you require an automatic transmission, they fall into the higher end category on motability. There is a fund provided by motability to finance these adaptations for people who need them, and that may be what you’re seeing.

Or sorry to.point have a child who receive the highest rate in mobility for DLA,we have a mobility car as my son get,s
HRM under the severe mental impairment component

They’ll be leasing. I used to lease a brand new Mercedes cla was around £400pm. I currently own a 5 year old Range Rover outright but will be selling this soon to lease something brand new again. For me it’s easier to have a car fully maintained and is a good option but only if you won’t miss the £££ every month

Yes - also paid for child DLA for a child under 16 and will be reassessed when they reach that age and transition to PIP.