Why are people snobby about cars?

[Meetmeattheapt1]

If you have an interest in cars and genuinely prefer premium, luxury ones that's absolutely fine, but it's when people assume anything else is a piece of crap.

My car cost under 4k, I didn't have the money for anything else and I only wanted a smaller, older car for my first. Also didn't want years of expensive finance payments.

A friend in the group recently passed their test and was looking for a car, someone asked what their budget was and they said, 5k? The friend scoffed "Ha!" you'll get nothing but bangers for that."

Someone didn't know what car I drove and made a loud joke across the table about 'No way i'd drive that car'.

i've also had people surprised that the car is capable of doing long distances? Don't people realise that not everyone can afford something brand new? I know used car prices have gone up, there probably are cars ready to fall apart but under 5k gets you plenty of reliable and durable cars that do what you need them to.

We drove our last car until it was essentially worthless (written off at £2k after a small bump as not worth repairing by the insurer). It was still driving yes but the air con didn't work, the only music we could play was the radio, the windows made a hell of a noise coming down etc. We were looking at second hand cars around the £15,000 mark because we wanted something with a bit of life left in it still, and we'll drive that one probably until the end of its life too.

I wouldn't say we are snobby but £5k does seem a very low budget to buy a second hand car. I would be expecting it to need a lot of work and ongoing maintenance at that price point.

Basically anything with a wet belt, as well as ecoboosts, the 1.2 puretech from Vauxhall / Peugeot / Citroen are about as dependable as a promise from your cat. The fuckers cost about 1000 to replace (unless they break, in which case the engine is toast) and anyone following the manufacturers' service schedule is likely to rue the day.

I have a 15 year old Mazda axaela, I bought four years ago for about 6k and it hasn't cost me a penny except for new tyres. It has good grunt, fairly efficient and strong safety rating but we have a staff car park and the vast majority of cars are newer and more modern, so part of me does feel a bit embarrassed and a bit jealous, yet in feel like I can't justify the money for an upgrade.

Suzuki Swift. Small, fun to drive, bulletproof reliability and a chain driven petrol engine. Nothing from Stellantis (Vauxhall, Peugeot, Citroen) unless you enjoy meeting the recovery people on the hard shoulder in the pouring rain

They are right. It isnt 2015 anymore. A 10 year old kia with 70k miles is around £9000. You wont get much for 5k.

Its the same with everything else too - clothes, holidays, days out etc. Some people think anything less than what they have is just low /below standard and don't understand people can live differently to them.

We are lucky and DH gets luxury car through work. Whenever someone comments on it I just say I just got lucky. Before that DH drove his civic into the ground!

There are a lot of peoole on thus thread driving ten year old second hand cars that they bought for 20 pence in 2016....

....that are going to get one hell a shock when it eventually comes to replacing them at today's second hand car prices 🫣🙈

Mine wasn't 20p. It was free. I'd like a newer one, but I cannot justify the cost or the waste when mine is working fine. If I have to pay when it eventually needs to be replaced, I can just think of the extra cost as covering the many years I had a free car.

I have just had a look and there are plenty of 3 year old Kias for sale round here for under £10k. That seems completely what I was expecting. If it then lasts me 10 years that's £1000 a year (less whatever I get at the end), plus very low insurance and tax and running costs. Seems completely reasonable to me

Not always true. My car cost bang on £4k back in 2019. It was an 'older car' but belonged to an elderly lady who had only taken it short distances so the mileage was £17k

Its still with me now and I have never had any problems with it. I intend to keep it until I do

My 14 years old mini cooper is still going strong, never failed an mot, and never had to fork out huge costs for repairs, just the usual brakes, tyres etc. I would like a new car as I'm bored of it now but I'm holding off until current car starts to cost me money.

I got an older car when I started driving a few years back. That thing was like a comfortable slipper. Didn’t cost much to look after and couldn’t have cared less. I was given the opportunity to get the up to date version and I took it, but if I hadn’t, I’d still be in the thing now proud as punch with its CD player 😂

My in laws are encouraging me to upgrade again (they are offering to pay 50% or something which is lovely!) but I’m not so sure. They’re always upgrading every three years and i just can’t justify it myself

I can understand people liking the comfort of an expensive car, but I have never thought any level of comfort is worth spending a fortune on a constantly depreciating asset.

My requirements for a car are that it can take me and my belongings reliably from A to B in safety and tolerable comfort, as cheaply as possible. We have had our cheap little car for about 12 years, it's shabby and dented, but I won't be replacing it until it's uneconomical to repair. I don't care what anyone else thinks of it.

We were looking last year and most cars under 9k were in quite a state and we needed reliable for work. Ended up with 11k car and bastard had issues straight way. Luckily within the month warranty.
This could have gotten relatively decent run around car not so long ago.

Eta: iirc the price jumped happen in 2021 because of issue with supplies of new cars and we actually made profit selling our used car in late 2022...

It does. I paid three and a half grand for my 15 plate Ford Focus. It has 70,000 plus miles on the clock. And they put a brand new battery in. I only use it once a week to do the food shop and maybe occasionally twice a week if I need to pop to B&Q so I don’t need anything too flashy and expensive. It’s beautiful too. I love it. And I didn’t have to get into debt for it either. There’s definitely some decent cars around in the £5000 range.

£10k is a lot of money though.

And I stand by my point - that kind of car would have been 4 or 5k back then.

Seems we are in agreement? Unless you think 10k is not a lot of money (I think it is)

Relative to how much many people feel the need to spend on their cars it's very modest. Particularly if then run for a good decade or more before replacing.

Any car's going to be reliable though if you don't actually go anywhere in it.

IME sub 5K gains you entry to the great car lottery.

Yes if you only drive 5 miles a week in it it may be OK. But if you use it like the average vehicle (10K a year) then there is a high probability it will pack up on you requiring something expensive, and not only that, difficult repair.

Actually finding someone to do complex work that you trust close by can be incredibly hard these days.

Our best car was a £900 Picasso. We only sold it because we needed more seats, but we still see it being driven around by a neighbour and it's 19 years old now. I do think older cars were built better.

And probably a good 50% of the 5K cars for sale are being dumped because the current owner thinks there is something horrible about to go wrong with them.

Capitalism
It's become normal to get a car on HP so people are driving round in cars they don't own.
I'm happy in anything as long as it goes.

Mi es reliable and I do over 25k a year

YANBU. The average age of cars on the road today is around 13 years. That is skewed too low because lots of younger cars will have been written off in accidents etc.

We buy cars new or nearly new and keep them till they drop. One of our current ones is 18 years old and still going strong, we have no worries about driving long distances in it or going "fast" on motorways etc. We don't treat it with kid gloves and don't just do short/local journeys. It's never let us down, never broken down, and never needed any money spent on it other than service schedule replacements and wear and tear replacements of spark plugs, battery, tyres, brake pads, etc.

Another "old" car we had managed just short of 200k miles before it gave up.

It's a myth that anything older than a few years is an unreliable money pit. Of course, some are, but that's usually either because of manufacturer fault (bad design or poor quality parts) or bad driving putting more strain than necessary on the suspension, clutch, gearbox, brakes, etc.

Properly researching a car's history (online MOT checks for mileage, prior failures/warnings etc gives a good view of how it's been driven), plus an AA/RAC check prior to purchase to check for tell tale signs of damage/poor repairs, etc., plus a Google search as to known problems with a particular make/model, should give you a good picture as to the "quality" of the car. Also, buying an old one from a reputable, long established garage, rather than "Dodgy Dave" from a lock up on a trading estate helps!

There are usually some low mileage, good quality cars, older cars, from elderly people who've died or gone into a home, or stopped driving for health reasons. Long established, reputable, local garages are a good source for such cars. We have one in our village - he's been running it as long as we've lived here - 29 years, and buys cars for cash rather than getting them through auctions. I walk past his forecourt every day. Always a few immaculate looking old cars with low mileage/one owner, for £5k or thereabouts. I'd not hesitate to buy one if we needed one for some reason, but I'd still have it AA checked, do my own research re MOT history and Google the make and model for known problems, and if he claims "one owner", then I'd want to see the vehicle registration document as evidence!

I don't understand the hatred of French cars. Fair enough with Vauxhall as some family members have had nothing but trouble with them, but for some unfathomable reason, carry on buying them! But we've had a succession of Peugeot (2), Renault (3) and Citroen (3) over the past 35 years and not had a single bit of bother with any of them. We've currently got a Citroen that's 18 years old, and we had a Peugeot that we got to just short of 200k miles. Not a single breakdown with any of them and no unexpected repair/replacement bills either.