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.

This is where my car came from: an elderly relative who only ever drove to Tesco and back once a week and was meticulous about annual services.

It was gifted to me when I started driving lessons, and I now share it with my mum after hers was stolen, so it does a fair few miles now, but we stick with the annual services and replace things as soon as needed rather than waiting until nothing works, and it's still running great at 25 years old.

I'd love for it to die so I could justify the cost of a newer car with a built-in sat nav and reversing camera, but alas, it refuses to die.

To tell the truth I’m a bit snobbish about people who have such a ‘thing’ about cars. I’m probably influenced by some neighbours from hell - the woman judges people’s worth very largely by what car they drive. If it’s not a flash or expensive one, ‘you’re nothing, you’re nobody’ to quote her own words some time ago.

Sadly she has taught her own dd to feel the same, so that the dd could never date anyone with an ‘ordinary’ car, no matter how nice he was. Her DM would refer to any such man as ‘a piece of shit’. So the dd has dated some truly horrible men, purely because of their flash cars.

Yes, I know she’s an extreme case, but…

A bit like our 18 year old. We kept it, longer than planned, for our son to learn to drive in, and then for a few years, it was his to drive to/from sixth form, then he had it for a year or so at Uni, and then took it across the country when he got his first graduate job in a different city a couple of hundred miles away. But it winged it's way back to us when DS got a job in London and couldn't take his car there, so it's now back with us and is our "spare" car!! I can't bring myself to sell nor scrap it as we bought it new, so it's got sentimental value. Sometimes, I do wish it'd fail it's MOT so we'd have an excuse to sell/scrap, but the little sod keeps passing without even an advisory! I'd happily give/sell it to someone we know who'd get good use out of it, but we don't know anyone. We don't want to sell it privately to a stranger as we don't want the hassle and risk of come back, and we'd only get under £1k for it anyway!

Yep, mine is one of those. I bought it from a dealer who specialises in the make three years ago for 5k with 22k on the clock - it’s a 2008 plate.

It’s now done just under 29k and has only ever failed two MOTs, one due to a faulty tyre and one because the number plate had deteriorated with age and was becoming unreadable.

I have it serviced each year and whilst I mainly use it for pottering around locally, I also do several 300 mile trips annually when I go camping. It’s never let me down and I love the fact there’s no modern technology to go wrong!

.Low mileage does not always correlate with good car.

There is an old guy on my road who only goes out a couple of times a week but each time he goes out he revs the car like crazy when it is cold. Must be some sort of through back to the old days when you had to do that to get the engine started ? That must wear the engine about 10x more than normal driving. Plus cars standing around too long without being used can get water in various systems that corrode them etc. Of course things like shocks, brake wear does tend to correlate with mileage as well as driving style, location. I know someone who has a drive like a 4 wheel drive test track. I wouldn't be buying a 2nd hand car from them because the suspension would be screwed, even if it did have low mileage.

As for inspections, there is no substitute for driving a car many miles to find out what's wrong with it. Experts can spot some things fairly quickly but others are really hard. A bit like house surveying.

I think every time you search on the web you will find horror stories about particular cars. That's almost inevitable given the high ownership numbers. The web never tells you the full story either, like for example someone moaning that the engine is fucked after short mileage, but conveniently forgetting to tell you they never changed the oil all the time they had it. It can be useful to get general impressions, but mostly you only ever get the bad stories out there. Few people go onto a users forum to post how they had a car for 10 years and needed nothing doing.

@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER there’s a couple who live around the corner from me who replace their car on a regular basis. I always know when a new one is due as they’ll get their front door painted to match the car and all the planters out the front will be changed to the new colour. It’s quite amusing.

Sadly I knew friends who had similar "opinions" about a lad and the car they drive. A couple of them have had a succession of unhealthy and/or abusive relationships because they only dated lads who drove "particular" kinds of cars, typically Audi or BMW. One wouldn't even entertain dating a lad who drove a Ford or Vauxhall! (This was back when I was late teens/twenties so a long time ago). It does seem that some girls/women want the attention seeking aspect of being driven around in what they consider to be the "right" kind of car, even if it means the lad is a "wrong 'un". I suppose it's just the same as the girls who always only wanted to date the "bad boys" and never learned from their mistakes!

Pathetic isn't it!

Absolutely ridiculous @Badbadbunny I sometimes wonder if they’ll get to the point where the front door will no longer close because of the layers of paint on it.

The reality is that most people can't afford a new car, many will buy a used new car with a few miles on the clock. Even more will buy a less new used car with over 20k miles on the clock. Most will buy an older second hand car with 30k+ miles on the clock.

Then you have people who rent cars and pretend they own them while paying ridiculously high premiums just to look like the top 1%. These people seem to increase yearly because it is now what wearing the "right" trainers used to be in the 80/90s for their personal social hellscape.

[last year] My 2004 ford focus cut out. For no reason.

I took it to lots of different mechanics (because i was terrified of today's car prices and reallly really just wanted to fix whatever was wrong with my current).... but no one fould find anything the matter with it.

It cut out while driving on the M11 and that was it for me. But sure, it was fine "on paper"....

Sold it at auction for £250. I was honest with my paperwork. Bought For Parts I hope.

@Meetmeattheapt1 IMHO there is a lot of misinformation about cars, and a lot of snobbery. Like many things, some people like the badge, some people like the fact they have a new plate, etc.

The reality is that a car is often the most expensive thing a household buys after a house. It doesn't need to be. A car is a depreciating asset, so second hand cars make way more sense. A new car, while less likely to be unreliable, still can be.

I have bought many cars sub £500 and run them for years. Second hand values are ridiculous at the moment, so what used to be £500 is now nearer £1500, however, I have a Renault Kangoo which has just clocked over 250,000 miles, and is really just about run in for a diesel. Modern diesels have emissions systems that require a bit of extra care, but as long as the oil is changed more regularly than the manufacturer suggests, then all should be good.

20 year old vehicle here. Over 100k miles. Been worth around £2-3k for the last 5 years. Still going strong.

Least reliable car I bought at 1 year old. Had no end of trouble and sold it about 3 years later.

Cars are massively more expensive now than they were nine years ago.

I hope you’ve had the timing belt done, that needs doing at 10 years or 100,000 miles, whichever comes first, ours started to go, broke down, £2000 repair (that was the cost of replacement, it didn’t cost that much just because it got to that stage, thankfully we caught it before it destroyed the car). Got to love a Ford eco boost engine….

You can check by inputting the reg onto the MOT site !

I still check one of my old ones. The injectors blew up on it, and it seemed to be about £1K to get them fixed.

The next owner got about 10,000 miles out of it before it was scrapped (probably from the turbo which seemed to have a load of lubricant leaking from it when I had it).

I’m not sure what point you’re making, second hand cars are fine. Many of them are in good condition and reliable.
A car that costs 4k now will be nothing close to “a few years old”.
If you bought your car for 4k 9 years ago you’re only proving my point.

I can't think of a time in the last 5 years I've heard anything more bullshit than this tbh

Pathetic that someone leases a disability car to suit their needs?

Your title is partly correct - it's usually people who don't have a certain type of car who complain about people spending their money on a luxury car.

Thing is it costs a car to maintain it, let’s not pretend it doesn’t. We have 3 cars ranging from a 10+ year old ecoboost, to a brand new Audi, we religiously service every car, as we have 3 cars our mileage is quite spread, we owned the Focus from near new with full service history. But all that that wear and tears adds up, that bloody focus costs us a fortune in bits and bobs. We’ve spent thousands on the Focus in the last 5 years (falling into the trap of when do you call it a day!)

@HappiestSleeping

I agree. I also think that some people buy the "wrong" kind of cheap cars, i.e. they buy what some consider to be "look at me" cars, and end up buying wrecks that have been run into the ground, hence why there are affordable to those people. Whereas, many people, who just want "a car", will buy the less fashionable old cars, that are less likely to have been owned by "boy racer" types and have less bad driving wear and tear, more likely to have been properly serviced, etc. I think when it comes to "old wrecks" bargain basement cars, people need to look at the solid/reliable but "unpopular" makes and models.

A case in point is the neighbour opposite us. He has a succession of Audis and BWMs, but they're always old (15-20 years old) - first thing he does is put his naff personalised number plate on every new one to hide it's true age. I've looked at the MOT online check a couple of times, and they're not only old, but also very high mileage with several failures/advisories on every MOT. Then they constantly break down - the AA/RAC vans are regular visitors either getting him started or towing it back home. Of course, he doesn't use "proper" garages either - he faffs around himself or gets dodgy looking mates to come to repair them on his drive (never a signwritten van!). He's also written off a couple as he drives like a maniac. I think he sees them as some kind of demented babe magnet, even though he's in his 50's - he acts like a boy racer. Latest is a convertible BMW with some kind of exhaust popping add in - yesterday he was cruising around the village with the top down - in November!

Instead of increasing fuel duty, I'd be happy to see a tax on PCP for larger cars, especially SUVs.

I'd prefer that to other ways of increasing government revenue.

It's a class thing. All the old money/wealthly people I know drive old cars, with a few exceptions. The people I know with flashy or new cars are from much more humble backgrounds, so either 'new money' or no money but have a finance car plan. It's sad but working class people need to prove their wealth with cars and handbags while often still living on a horrible street with not very nice neighbours and their children going to a disadvantaged school.