Spending a lot on cars

[ClawsandEffect]

I don't get it. I know cars aren't my thing. To me they are transport. A-B safely and on time.

I do get wanting a reliable car. So not a banger. Safe for the children definitely.

But I am just mystified at why anyone would drop 50K on a car. I understand if you're very wealthy. Because it doesn't make a dent in your finances.

But the parents I see at the school drop off in super expensive / flashy cars when I know their living situation and income bracket (jobs). Why would anyone want to either dump a small fortune into something that depreciates so quicky OR saddle themselves to a small mortgage for a piece of kit that is just going to rust and decay.

Is it just me?

Rich people like this are the worst. They inherited everything but feel they have the right to look down their noses at those who actually have to work for a living.

Cars are things that just do not interest me. I’ll never buy an expensive car.

But I’m sure people who do might look at things I buy and think “I’d never spend my money on that”

My work offer a salary sacrifice to lease a brand new car. As a higher tax rate payer it saves me a lot , plus everything is covered. Service, maintenance, tires, mot , and insurance so if anything goes wrong i know im covered.

You are my hero! From another Porsche obsessed track junkie

Rubbish. Do you actually know any multi millionaires??

I worked for 2. Neither bothered with cars that were anything special. One in particular had a very beat up, old, estate car.

I do agree @Crochetandtea. Some of their attitudes were horrible. But I was completely with them on the lack of expenditure front.

Of course, I’m not suggesting that it doesn’t. I was just stating we don’t value it as an asset as we would our house for example. The main benefit for us is the predictable payments, and the stress/risk reduction.

Years ago we bought a second hand vehicle for about £12k. In the first year it cost us £5k in a massive repair issue that we couldn’t claim back from the retailer as it was sold as seen despite being from a dealer. It was also off the road for 2 months in that time. We were also paying interest on the loan we took out to buy it, as we didn’t have the £12k outright. By the time we came to sell it, I worked out it would have only cost us marginally more to have had a new leased car over that time, but without all the stress and inconvenience it had given us. That was the deciding factor for us!

Obviously not everyone gets so unlucky and some used cars run forever, but it’s personal choice, and not everyone is doing it purely for vanity reasons, or to keep up with the Jones’s.

That said, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the ‘new’ factor. Not because it looks fancy, just because it’s nice to sit in a car that’s perfect and clean. Bonus!

This is how I feel about it. I don’t care that the value depreciates, my car is not an investment, I invest my money in my house, pension and savings. I spend the rest on things I enjoy; holidays, good food, and a car I enjoy driving. I pay for my car what I am happy to pay monthly, I do not care what I have to show at the end of the term. Like you I like the predictability of the monthly payments on a newer car, I know I pay for that predictability. I can afford it and am comfortable with that.

Status, impulse buying, because finance looks attractive & salespeople are good at selling. Sometimes it's just because they want a nice car. It's all about priorities & comfort with debt.

I'm currently after a car upgrade from my 17 year old car. I looked at two cars yesterday. One perfect for what I need, a reasonable price, but older & well, dull. Another flash, two years old & with all the bells & whistles, but would wipe all our savings. I admit I was tempted. My practical side always wins out, as my need for financial stability & hate of debt is very strong. Whereas, a mum acquaintance has just bought a very expensive car & admitted they now have two on finance & owe a bomb. She's happy, loves the car. Almost recoiled when I mentioned how old my car is! We're just different.

My previous Toyota didn’t have electric windows in the back. My son’s friend used to comment on it quite frequently in a ‘ this is a crap car ‘ way - my son knew what he was insinuating.
Anyway he said something one to many times and my son replied, Yes my parents prefer to spend money on things which make them money not cost them money. Proud parent moment.
Same parent in their expensive Audi was complaining about affording food one month into Covid. I know which one I’d rather be.

More people should plan for the future. The government are quite happy for poor people to spend everything they have and then some. They need them to keep the economy going while they hoard their millions. When people wise up to this it gives them financial freedom. Much more valuable than any expensive car on their driveway.

But you can afford it..
The op refers to those who buy the new cars while scraping by. You’re not who they’re talking about.

No she doesn’t, read her post again, she mentions nothing about scraping by.

Ok she didn’t mention it but I thought it was implied when she mentioned their income bracket/ jobs. TBH I don’t care what people do with their money. If they don’t buy new cars then I can’t buy them second hand. Also if they don’t spend their disposable income on cars etc the economy suffers ? I guess I would prefer to see people becoming more financially secure as I know what it’s like to worry about money constantly.

£250 for gas and electric, large 4 bedroom modern house (4 adults live there, 2 are retired, 2 WFH) and an electric car, not too bad.

That reminds me of this classic sketch:

I don’t think it’s implied at all because all she does is make judgment on people spending a “small fortune”
and “saddling themselves with debt the size of a small for mortgage” for the purposes of something she doesn’t choose to value. My car is on finance, as is a lot of people’s, but I’m not financially irresponsible. I have a fantastic pension, property, savings, I have good insurance and made the risk based decision to take the debt on in consideration of our context. I think a lot of people are like this. Some just choose to believe people who finance cars are financially irresponsible and shallow, it’s an ignorant view and not the case for everyone.

I don’t think you sound judgey at all. I’ve often thought the same myself, for me it’s the depreciation in value that I couldn’t handle unless I was really wealthy. Some people really enjoy cars so I understand they get pleasure from them and a hobby costs money etc. Also, we know some people don’t have masses of money but when they’re driving around no one else knows they don’t so maybe it makes them feel good, like having a designer handbag? I’m with you, I thinks it’s a bit mad to lose money that quickly unless you have plenty.

Setting aside the way in which the car itself impacts upon the rest of us (more of an issue with a Range Rover than a Porsche), it's the moaning about the cost of everything I can't stand. Driving a gas-guzzler and whinging about the cost of fuel, complaining about the cost of insuring a Range Rover (yeah, loads get nicked), and even complaining about how difficult it is to get on the housing ladder while shelling out considerable sums every month on lease/PCP payments.

I've got colleagues on £20k more than me moaning about costs. I'm more financially secure than a lot of them because I'm more sensible.

It's a weirdly British thing, all this judgement mixed with a good dollop of jealousy about what cars people choose to spend their money on. DH has a very pricey Merc AMG and it get lots of compliments from people of all ages here (France) and why not, it's a very nice car. In England it'd likely get keyed.

Most cars depreciate in value, ironically the more expensive cars can retain their value better. But I don’t know why people talk about cars as assets like houses etc, people spend £5,000 on a holiday and won’t make money from it, but it’s the enjoyment you take from it, why is a car different to that? I don’t expect my car to appreciate anymore than I do my clothes, holidays, etc. I invest in other ways for that purpose.

What about people who spend £50k on holidays, kitchens, art, jewellery, clothes....? Do they attract your ire or is it just cars?

I really don't understand why people are so judgmental about cars 😂.

Also - have to point out that these days 50k won't buy you a luxury car.

Everyone is different and have different motivations for spending their money.

We have just the one car and its ten years old. Nothing owed on it and gets us from A to B. However we have money in savings, I'm trying to build my pension and when things break we have the money sat there to fix it. If DH loses his job (he earns 6x what I do) then there's enough to pay the mortgage for six months whilst we decide what to do. We also save to do renovations on our house so have no outstanding finance except the mortgage. For us we feel in a decent financial position in our late 30's/early 40's which suits us better than a car on PCP for example.

We have a merc on pcp but we own our 5 bed detached property, do we still fall into the 'pretty sad' bracket ? 😂

Own outright ? Congratulations!

And 5 bedrooms doesn’t mean very much tbh. It’s square footage we need to know. 2000sq ft - meh! 5000 or over - more impressive.
I hope you pat yourself on the back daily.