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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask how much you pay monthly for your car?

123 replies

Mysteriousgirl2 · 14/12/2023 19:20

I’ve got an EV (basic, not flashy)

I pay £325 a month.

Is that a lot?

I’m on a PCP deal, with a payment at the end (£9000)

I can, and probably will hand it back in April and do have savings (£12,000) ish

Should I buy something outright?

One consideration is that we do have solar so the electricity is out of the sky (mostly - less so in Winter)

I do about 120 miles/ week

Please could anyone tell me what they pay a month and whether they enjoy their car. I would like to save money.

OP posts:
TastesLikeStrawberriesOnASummerEvening · 14/12/2023 23:37

Motability car,so I use the mobility element of my PIP for a car, I paid an extra £800 for an upgraded model.

RM2013 · 15/12/2023 00:06

Had a variety of cars over the years from cheap runarounds (paid for in cash) to cars with a bank loan and then owned outright. I’ve leased my last couple of cars as it’s suited me to change my car every 2/3 years with minimal maintenance costs. DH has a van which he owns outright so my car is essentially used as a family car. I pay .£270’a month but I did get a really good desl
on it. Not sure what I will do
when it’s due for renewal as don’t really want to pay more a month than im
paying now but s lot of the prices seem to have increased. I don’t have savings enough to buy a decent car outright so who knows but it’s not due to be renewed for s couple
of years yet

HP89 · 15/12/2023 01:20

£120pm for a BMW 4 series M sport.
I took out the minimum finance possible which I think was £4000. Paid the rest with part exchange (about £9k) and £7k cash.
After a few months I looked at paying it off early but it would only save me about £15! That lump of money is better off in a high interest savings account than paying off the finance in full. I don’t think finance is as terrible an option as people make it out to be. I plan to drive it into the ground I love it so much.

Had a fiat before this and it was constantly in for work and they just don’t hold their value.

I have a colleague who pays £550 to lease a ‘23 golf and that seems ludicrous to me, even with tyres and insurance.

Catsmere · 15/12/2023 02:25

Nothing except about $100AU for petrol. I pay my rego and insurance annually and the car itself was secondhand and I paid for it outright.

ElPulguilla · 15/12/2023 04:36

Sorry, but why are all these people who’ve never even had a HP or PCP agreement posting to say as much? It’s really not what OP is asking!

OP I’ve never been able to save enough money to buy a car outright so have always had mine on finance. I’ve paid between £110 and £250 per month, probably wouldn’t ever pay more. It’s completely personal though and depends what you want from your car.

Cosyblankets · 15/12/2023 04:45

ElPulguilla · 15/12/2023 04:36

Sorry, but why are all these people who’ve never even had a HP or PCP agreement posting to say as much? It’s really not what OP is asking!

OP I’ve never been able to save enough money to buy a car outright so have always had mine on finance. I’ve paid between £110 and £250 per month, probably wouldn’t ever pay more. It’s completely personal though and depends what you want from your car.

OP asks if they should buy outright.
It's right there in the first post
So that's why people are responding with their experiences of buying outright.
They must be able to afford it or they wouldn't have asked.

DreamTheme · 15/12/2023 04:58

Totally up to you OP. We have one car that we own and one that we pay monthly for. Servicing and maintenance is included, nice not to think about any of that and then easily change it for a new one at the end of the 3 years before having to think about MOTs. We did buy our last one as the price was lower than what it was worth. We sold it for thousands more than we paid for it 2 weeks later and then got another new one on pay monthly. It suits us, money isn’t an issue. It depends on your circumstances.

Sunflowergirl1 · 15/12/2023 05:31

Kazzyhoward · 14/12/2023 20:01

I've never had a loan, HP nor lease for a car. Always buy outright. Saved up from my wages from first job and bought first car (Austin Allegro!! for £750 in the mid 80s). Continued saving and upgraded 2/3 years later to a car costing £3.5k then again 2/3 years later to one costing £8k and bought new outright ever since.

It was good in the early days to have "equity" in a car so that you've something with value to part exchange against the next one, along with savings to buy outright again. Since those early days of second hand cars, We've had 4 brand new cars and keep them until they drop - first "died" at 195k miles, the next 3 were lower mileage as I gave up my "big commute" job - they've all easily lasted 10-15 years.

The two we have at the moment were both bought new, one is 15 years old, the other is 10 years old, both still going strong and we expect them to last another few years yet. Costing us nothing except annual service, MOT and the occasional "repair/replacement" such as tyres, brake pads, battery, spark plugs, etc which is far cheaper than paying £200-£300 per month for a car!

The average age of cars on the road these days is 13 years, and unless a car is hammered, written off in an accident, or badly driven, life expectation of 20 years isn't unrealistic.

Leasing etc is a mug's game - it's only the cheapest way to have a new car if you're always wanting to keep up with the Jones' by having a new/nearly new car all the time. It's far cheaper to "own" your own car by buying outright or getting cheap loan/HP and keeping it for longer rather than unnecessarily changing it every three years!

We have always bought cars. In the last 20 years or so they were new, but a combination of needing specific cars and also as we were never in a rush to buy, getting exceptionally good deals when a dealership needed to up their sales (quarter end is great). The last one I bought and now just sold the salesman totally assumed it would be on PCP and was aghast when I said no. Said 96% of all private cars are now bought on PCP! So what I said

Anyway, I have now done a complete turn. Have leased. Reason why is I could do salary sacrifice through work and went electric. I'm paying £400 a month and this is a high end luxury car I would never have paid to buy. However, what made the difference:

It is electric and I've moved to an intelligent tariff. Currently when I'm plugging in it is charging on reduced rate straight away which means the whole house is in cheap electricity for the duration. So a Saturday is a charging day and do all washing, drying etc. essentially this is working out that the electricity for my mileage has worked out virtually free overall as my net bill hasn't changed.

All servicing costs and insurance are included.
I've no depreciation to fund. I took this into account as part of my cost benefit analysis.

So taking all the above into account, it was cheaper for me to sell my 6 year old car, and lease. I have a brand new luxury car.

A note of caution. Salary sacrifice needs to be carefully assessed against personal circumstances as it reduces your pay for an agreed period. It can affect your pension contribtions and other benefits like maternity pay etc, so you need to consider.

Sundlowergirl1 · 15/12/2023 05:33

Oh and another reason for leasing is that electric cars are horrendously expensive to repair so if buying second hand you need a long extended warranty. So,thing I wouldn't have bought but would consider

HeraSyndulla · 15/12/2023 06:07

Bought my Mini on bank loan 10 years ago. It’s done over 100k miles but still going strong and great fun to drive. No plans to change it. My husband is an aviation engineer so fixing my Mini isn’t much of a stretch for him.

Mollyplop999 · 15/12/2023 06:13

I haven't paid a loan for years. Unfortunately I have to hsve a 4x4 because of towing ponies. I have a Mitsubishi Shogun that has done 209,000 miles and has just past it's mot. Yes it's had work done and is about to have a new clutch, but it's 20 years old.The technology on newer cars scares me.

MintJulia · 15/12/2023 06:17

I bought my car - a small diesel - for £12k cash plus trade in. I'll keep it for 8 years so that's £125 a month.

I do about 175 miles a week costing £21 in fuel. I pay £190 car tax.

Total is £225 a month

SilverGlitterBaubles · 15/12/2023 06:29

Paid £5k 4 years ago for a small second hand low mileage car, mostly do short journeys around town, easy to park and very cheap to run. The same car and mileage is currently selling for about £6k so at the very least it has held its value. People buying brand new cars on PCP to do the school run and keep up with the Joneses are incredibly foolish.

roundcork · 15/12/2023 06:32

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at the request of the user.

Dacadactyl · 15/12/2023 06:34

I think 325 a month is a LOT for something you won't own outright at the end!

A car is to get me from to A to B, end of story. Whether I "enjoy" my car or not is neither here nor there.

I'd either save up for a car I could buy outright or take out a bank loan (with better interest rate than finance deals) to buy one outright. Then at least once the cars paid up its yours!

Edited to add...aside from petrol costs my car costs pretty much nothing on a monthly basis (altho I do put 50 quid a month away in order to pay my insurance in a lump sum once a year)

margotrose · 15/12/2023 06:35

Nothing. I bought it outright three and a half years ago for 4k.

Just pay insurance (£30 a month) and tax (£30 a year), and put a bit aside each month for MOT's, tyres etc. I spend about £45 a month on fuel and it's never failed an MOT since I bought it. Tyres are about £60 each.

Personally I think leasing a car is utterly mad.

ACynicalDad · 15/12/2023 06:42

We paid £7k 7 years ago. We now pay about £300 once a year to service/Mot a similar amount to insure and about £40 a month on petrol, I’d do all I can to avoid finance, it just seems such a waste. This will go until it drops or starts costing a fortune to repair. It’s 10 years old now and it’s only worth a grand or two less now.

margotrose · 15/12/2023 06:46

Sorry, but why are all these people who’ve never even had a HP or PCP agreement posting to say as much? It’s really not what OP is asking!

Um, it's exactly what she's asking - it's right there in her post Grin

Heatherbell1978 · 15/12/2023 06:53

I don't quite understand the PCP element of it (do you have to pay the £9k?) but we've always had lease cars. No payment st end though. Now we have an EV through my work - works out as £420 when you take tax benefit into account (paid before tax). That includes insurance, servicing etc. it's reasonably flashy in that it's brand new. Have it for another 2 years.

WonderingWanda · 15/12/2023 07:02

That's a lot of money and a huge final payment. If I were you I'd spend maybe half my savings and buy something second hand. I wasted thousands on a car loan years ago, paid it all off and then the head gasket went spectacularly. The car was then worthless by this point due to mileage and needing a new engine. Learnt my lesson. Now buy outright and save a monthly payment toward the next car.

Perhapsanorhertimewouldbebetter · 15/12/2023 07:04

Our car was purchased outright (as was previous one) so we only have to pay out for insurance, fuel and MOT/service/repairs fund. If we had to pay the car off then it would be a fair bit more.

Papillon23 · 15/12/2023 07:08

I bought a now 12 year old car 7 years ago for £5,300. I see no reason why it won't carry on fairly happily for another 5 at least, hopefully another 7.

I drive about 5k miles a year, so just under 100 miles a week. It costs about 13p a mile in petrol, so about £50 a month.

Insurance about £350 a year.
Tax about £120 a year.
Tyres I had 4 new this year, £220 total but haven't had them for 4 years.
Service is very reasonable. I think I average about £400 per year total including tyres on maintenance.

I budget £100 a month including tax and insurance.

And obviously do have to save up to buy a new car when this eventually dies a death!

SpringingJoy · 15/12/2023 07:15

I'm very much of the Dave Ramsey school of thought when it comes to cars.

I have had them on finance before, many years ago before dh and I got our shit together. Now I look back aghast at the amount we spent tbh.

We buy second hand, outright. Our current car was 5 years old and we'll run it until it needs scrapping.

autumn1610 · 15/12/2023 07:16

Have a VW golf was 3years old when I got it on pcp and pay £156 a month PCP. If I could have brought outright I would have done but my old car was dangerous in the end so had to buy quickly

Mummyme87 · 15/12/2023 07:20

@Ilovemyshed it’s not a £60k car. The ones we are looking at are £35-40k (2-4yr old) with a £14k deposit from the sale of our current car (plus some left over to pay off the loan we got for the final payment of our VW).