To ask what car you drive and if any payment?

[Carsearch]

I’ll start:

BMW X1 2022
Year left on PCP, paying £350 a month

Need inspiration for what to do next, tempted to buy a used outright!

I saved up for my first car, which was a few years old, and continued saving monthly so that a couple of years later I could px it to get a newer model, rinse and repeat a couple more times, buying newer each time, and I could afford new, just by getting newer each time. I’ve been doing that 45 years now. Not paid a penny in interest or lease charges. By keeping a new car for many years, I build up several years of monthly savings, plus interest, which gives me enough to buy the next new one outright.

Yes, it meant I had to walk, cycle or use buses for that first period of saving, but that was a small sacrifice at the time. It’s just basically getting ahead of the game and using savings/interest, instead of relying on debt from the start and incurring charges.

My son has just done the same, saved first and now on the ladder with a car a few years old but still saving towards the next one, as he saw how it worked for us,

Buying new/nearly new and keeping for the long term is a cheaper way of car ownership than constantly changing every 3 years on lease and incurring charges/interest and depreciation on a car you never own.

When we were working we used our work share save scheme money for big things like cars, you didn't pay CGT on share sales until after about £10k profit then, Now we are retired we have savings in cash ISAs to use for big purchases and also some of the shares left. Our income has always been fairly average.

2025 VW 7seat Tiguan bought outright new mine
2024 BMW bought outright second-hand dh work car
Don't owe anyone anything if we can't afford we don't get :)

Our Old Ford Focus (2009) is approaching 200,000 on the clock and probably won’t last another year but we love it. Heated windscreen and big boot.

I drive a Hyundai I20 for work and it’s quite nippy - £10k bought outright via savings - 18k on the clock. They’re meant to be very reliable.

No, there aren't a lot of Subarus in the UK. DP loves Subarus and has owned a couple but they were hard to find second hand. A new Forester Hybrid would be his dream car, but it would be a lot more than the typical £10k that we normally pay for a used car.

They also seem expensive for what you get and use a lot of fuel, which is really expensive in the UK (CBA to price in units you could relate to but I think it is something like 3 or 4 times more than in the US).

To answer the OPs question, I currently have a 7 YO Skoda Citigo that I've had for 5 years. I now want to change it for an electric Renault 5 and being a good Mumsnetter, I will buy a nearly new one outright and keep it for a long time.

I was planning to keep the Citigo until it was old and worthless hoping for a good trade in deal for an electric car but the Renault 5 has turned my head and they seem decent value and fun looking compared with other electric cars.

However I have a tendency to overthink big purchases so am now stuck on deciding which model to get, booking test drives, working out how to get rid of my current car without throwing away thousands of pounds, sorting out a charging point, insurance quotes and everything else too boring to deal with.

Try to keep it going as long as possible we had a 2007 focus and it was so much better than any newer cars we've had. That car was solid.

2024 M240i, on a pcp, pay £180 a month as put down big deposit. Will see if she's worth more than the balloon and then either stick or twist.
Wanted my last petrol car to be special. And she is.

Skoda Scala, 2021, £105 pm.
Used to have an elderly Octavia estate owned outright which was a dream and got written off by a lorry. Replaced it with a second hand Kia Ceed (on finance, no choice ) trying to be sensible which died after a year. Then scraped £1200 together and bought an old Vauxhall Meriva as a stopgap. Incredibly comfy but gutless and kept going expensively wrong.
Eventually bit the bullet and financed the Skoda and I love it. Hoping to pay it off when my claim from the lorry is eventually settled.

DH has a 23 year old Skoda Fabia which we intended to replace first before the lorry killed my car. Still going for now but will have to finance the next one which will be a nearly new Skoda or VW.

When you don't have the money for a reliable car, finance is the only option to avoid endless unexpected costs. I'd prefer to avoid it but here we are.

From my experience working in the industry, it’s a scam. You pay extortionate amounts in interest, it’s front loaded so the first year or so is mostly interest and then if you want to early settle you’ll pay a lot more than you should (because of the interest). Also, because you don’t own the car you can’t get it fixed anywhere, you need to go to supplying dealership and often the finance company won’t play ball with repairs or replacements. It’s a massive headache for a lot of people and I see it all day. I’d rather not get myself into that mess 🤣

15 year old Mazda 2. 70,000 on the clock and has sailed through every MOT. Touch wood has never broken down. Serviced annually.
DP also has a Mazda over 10 years old and has sailed through all MOTs, broken down once and we have just paid £350 to have the particulate filter cleaned.
Both bought at three years old. Value now is hardly anything but extremely pleased with both cars.

Nosey question.
I assume innocently asked.
Am amazed people have actually answered.

I bought a used 2yr old lower end- luxury brand outright, but took out a 15k loan from my bank to make up the shortfall. Much better interest rate than the garage could offer and I’m not the type to want to upgrade or change cars all the time.
We pay back £350pcm

Have you actually read the threads about cars? They usually go the same as this one has with a vast mix of how people get their cars.

Almost everyone has not said they own expensive cars outright and they never do. Sure some people do; and some people buy cheap outright, some people take dealer finance, some people get a bank loan, some people lease through motability, some people have generous family etc etc.

There is no majority claiming to own expensive cars outright.

2025 Audi A3, £400pcm (top spec). It’s a very small proportion of monthly take home, we could easily pay in full, even new if we wanted, but I’d rather have cash in savings and pay monthly. Our other 2 cars are older and paid in full (DH/son’s).

I like the reliability and gadgets of new cars. I don’t really understand why people get so irate at car finance, it’s always served me pretty well.

I pick up my new Renault 5 next month (hopefully because it’s been ordered for an age!)! Very excited! No finance as bought outright!

2023 mini hatchback. 13k miles on the clock, bought it last week for £10k. I love her

Got 2015 Corsa £100 a month in 2018 finance over 5 years paid it off in 3.
Only had 24,000 on the clock, now 42,000 . Never let me down. 11 yrs old and still going strong 💪. I will keep it until it dies .

I’m so jealous! I absolutely loved my MX-5, they really are more fun to drive than any other car at any price. Parting with him broke my heart when I had to get a 4 seater car. I would buy another today if I had somewhere to keep a second car.

Honda Jazz, was 2 years old when bought during Covid, only 5k miles on the clock. Paid cash.

I’ve never bought a brand new car. Always 1 or 2 years old.

Skoda Octavia 13 years old, low mileage, bought outright ten years ago. It's going strong (I still miss my old Fabia though) and it's going to have to see me out because I won't be able to replace it on a pension.

It's more likely to be the government that see it off, it's a diesel.

local rapid transport…a train but not the intercity sort…very modern, reasonably cheap.. reliable as long as no one has stolen the overhead cables!!

2020 Golf TDI, bought it outright last year. I really like it, it’s comfy, fantastic on fuel and has just enough bells and whistles, but nothing ridiculous, which would just be more things to go wrong imo

25 reg Audi A3, bought outright with trade in at the beginning of this year. We’ve never owned a car on finance.

2022 Tesla bought outright before we knew Elon was a wanker. It’s the best car I’ve ever driven and I love the bones of it, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to bring myself to buy another - especially as the EV market has reached tipping point thanks to fuel costs and demand for solar etc., and there’s so much more choice now than a few years ago.

2025 hyundai Kona EV. Company car so I pay company car tax but it’s next to nothing. DH has a 10 plate focus that we bought outright 8 years ago. He just uses it for work (railway) so it’s a shed but he’ll run it into the ground and then buy something else outright. He doesn’t like to have car finance and is happy driving older cars. We use mine as the family car.