AIBU to drive a banger?

[Ruleof72]

I don’t think I’m being unreasonable but I’ve had another comment today about my car and I need a sense check.

I own a 10 year old car outright. It’s a cheap and cheerful Nissan juke and is viewed as a banger by friends/ family/ colleagues. Someone pushed their trolley into the side so it’s scratched and doesn’t look great but mechanically, excellent, I have looked after it.

Quite a few people have made the comment that my car is essentially a banger and they don’t understand why I don’t just buy myself a nice new flashy car. I have no desire to do this, so long as it gets me from
A to B, that’s good enough for me.

YABU - you have the means to drive around in a nice car so ditch the banger!
YANBU - current car is mechanically sound and reliable. You don’t need a Porsche (insert other flashy car brand) on finance!

I drive a 19 year old Renault. I love it because it’s much bigger than the people carriers you can get now. It’s relatively economical to run or repair and things are simpler to fix! When it eventually becomes not feasible to fix it, I will look for another banger to replace it!

I’ve got friends with a car each in pcp granted there nice cars but for the life of me I couldn’t spend £580 a month on 2 cars

I’ve always gone for reliability

Right?! I've always run 15+ year old cars and though they were old didn't consider them bangers. They were solid and well kept. To me a banger is rusty and starting to fall apart. Basically the bare minimum to get you from a to b. A nicely kept 10 year old car is not a banger!

As long as your car is well maintained so its not chucking out disgusting fumes then anyone who sneers at a 10 year old car with a bit of wear and tear needs to wind their neck in. It sounds to me like you're the one with sense and they may well be wondering where all their money went a few days after payday.

We need to stop being people pleaser's, fancy cars have never appealed to me, I just need a practical and reliable car, easy to maintain and cheap to run that's it. You seen the cost of insurance for fancy cars, I struggle to understand how people afford it in this economy, I rather use my hard earned cash elsewhere. You do you OP

My car is 18 years old, it only has 28k on the clock so I’m hoping to get quite a few more years from it yet. Yes it’s a bit battered around the edges and the roof leaked during the winter but I’ve resealed it and bought a cover. It’s failed two MOT’s in its lifetime, both due to tyres.

My only ‘gadgets’ are an electric convertible roof and electric windows which suits me just fine. Just less things to go wrong in my view.

My friends sometimes complain that’s it’s only a two seater so I can’t do a turn of the driving when we go out, but I buy lunch on those trips which I think evens it out.

I bloody love my little old car - it costs me pennies to run and makes me smile every time I drive him.

Our main car is 9yo (and back up car is 17yo)

Our local garage has both indoor and outdoor storage for cars overnight (we drop them the evening before for an MOT). The 9yo car is still in the Indoor (high value cars) parking category.

We had a Mondeo for 18 years i loved that car. It had a personalised plate (husbands not mine) and folk were often surprised at it's age because we looked after it. We've got a Fiesta now that's 7 years old and dh keeps making noises about replacing it because he witters on about putting miles on it. Isn't that the point? I have told him if he can afford repayments then we'll look but I'm not paying until I have to. So far he hasn't done anything about it.

Team Banger all the way.

I would rather drive my 13 year old car, paid for in cash when purchased ten years ago, than drive something flash which is on a Loan PLUS depreciating massively 😅

10 years old is not a banger! My car was 17 years old and not a banger. I was planning to keep it another few years but unfortunately I was in an accident and it got written off. I’m gutted.

A juke is not a banger. My car is 14 years old with a massive scratch down the side that I can’t afford to repair. Who cares about cars? I’ve definitely got better things to spend my (limited!) money on.

I drive a 28 year old Nissan Micra. No electric windows or anything like that. It has an automatic gearbox so if I put my foot down it goes like a rocket. It is battered and scruffy and the interior is covered in German Shepherd hair. No one has ever tried to steal it!

Just to say I have plenty money in the bank (I’m a saver not a spender) but drive an old car. I think new cars on finance often signify less financially astute/ less well off people - it’s not a badge of wealth to drive a fancy car

She’s rough round the edges with the trolley bump to the side, and someone also keyed a section on the back. People have used the word banger and whilst I don’t agree, I can appreciate it isn’t pristine.

My partners car is 20 years old.Wouldnt call it a banger. Its well serviced, just passed not with no work and any issues are repaired and any paintwork etc. Its always repaired so its in amazing condition. Low mileage for age as he wfh, we walk a lot and use public transport a lot to if out and about so he can have a drink and relax about parking etc.

He has no plans to replace it. He bought it outright. He has saved to buy the next one outright when this one goes. He loves his car, very into cars etc.

I think of an old banger as a car that literally makes a noise as you drive it along, black smoke coming out of the exhaust etc etc. your car isn’t one, it’s just an ordinary car with a few scratches. It’s fine.

My car is now 24. Just passed its MOT , needed a new wiper blade, and that was it.
It’s reliable, cheap to run . I’m not interested in buying a new expensive car. DH has just bought a new car with controls that loom more suited to a large aircraft. No thanks.

You carry on driving your car. My car is five years old now and I fully anticipate I’ll still be driving it once it’s ten years old. It’s a fab car!

A Nissan juke is not a banger, trust me I’d give anything for a Nissan juke at this point ! Scratch or no scratch ! My neighbours across from me have 4 cars and just got a shiny new grey BMW, the only time I see them is when he comes out to wash it on a Sunday, special buckets the works,
In fact the whole family watch 😂 It must be on finance as it’s 100k plus to buy.
They park it wedged in the drive so it doesn’t get nicked of a night. It’s almost to precious to drive.

My cars 19 nearly 20, trusty rusty. But very much looks it’s age. You do get judged a lot in the supermarket car park I have to admit, having a serious tatty car gets you hella a lot of attention. But it still works (touchwood) and I’m not sure I’m interested in people who put so much importance on having everything bright shiny and new, just to fit in. Wear those scratches with pride I say, and this point I just style it out. Plus you never have to worry about tight spaces because if it gets scratch, I wouldn’t notice !

My car is 15 years old , dh car is 21 years old .

It would need a full respray and it doesn’t bother me. When someone clangs their door against mine in the car park, I don’t care! It’s just another mark to add to the rest and I don’t think I’d like to change that.

I can see how my laidback attitude to these things is bewildering to friends/ family because they have a car that more typically matches their salary. I’d be annoying if someone keyed my £80k car but for me, I’d be more annoyed with myself when I go to get a brand new one in 2 years again to keep up the image/ new feeling and realise it’s lost half its value.

I have bought a 10 year old car. I consider it shiny and new 😂
My 25 year old previous car was a banger!

I don’t think you know what the definition of an old banger is!

I drive an ancient banger with scuffs on all 4 corners and I love it. I did once buy a brand new car and I spent my whole time worrying it would get dented. When I did scrape a wall with it it cost £400 to get it fixed. With my current car I wouldn’t bother and it won’t affect the value. Not tempted to buy anything flashy or new again.

Cars are depreciating assets, mine will go over 100,000m soon and I’m quite proud that we’ve resisted temptation on that, works fine.