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.

No it's pathetic that they change the colour of their door and planting scheme to match the car!

@ViciousCurrentBun do you have an Aga too?

If you think it’s bullshit that cars get cheaper as they come towards the end of their lifespan I’m not really not sure what to tell you.

We should just have more bandings for vehicle excise duty (road tax), to charge even more for the heavier/larger cars, but we can't do that because we're trying to encourage electric car usage (which seem to generally be heavier/larger) which are actually cheaper in terms of road tax. It's something that we'll end up changing once more people have been persuaded to buy electric vehicles - probably road tax will rise quite steeply on them when they become the norm.

I do think rubbish adverts work well on certain people, adverts these days tell you nothing about the car’s capabilities.

People buying SUVs with the usual excuses. I need boot space: you need an estate. Mobility issues: get a b max with accessible doors. Lots of kids: get an MPV.

We’ve paid off our old work horse estate and will drive it till it dies. People definitely go for looks over purpose.

Car 1: Bought in 2008 for £1000 - lasted until 2017, Super reliable
Car 2 (same make) bought in 2017 for £500, lasted until 2025, also super reliable
Car 3: bought in 2025 for £880. Still perfect, very few issues.

I've kept records/spreadsheets of all our cars, including every service/repair, MOT costs, etc. Our 18 year old Citroen has cost us less than £100 per month over our ownership, including depreciating it's original purchase price. That's with servicing to manufacturer's service schedule, including timing belts replaced to schedule, RAC/AA cover (never needed). Obviously doesn't include fuel. We're quids in buying that new and just keeping it, compared with constant replacing on lease/HP/PCP etc. We had it serviced as the Citroen main dealership for the first decade or so, and since then we've used a local independent garage in our village.

They just dont make estates like the used to though. I LOVED my old ford focus estate. Wanted another second hand estate when it died but just couldnt find it for a good price. Scarcity >>>> market pricing.

Even the volvo estate - the rear window has become coupé style FFS. That is not the point of an estate car 🤦🏼‍♀️😵‍💫

Bring back the boxy rear ends!!

Wow what a valuable scientific study. Thanks for taking the time to share that insightful information.

Ours is a focus estate over ten years old and it’s great. I’m also concerned because estates nowadays are curvy which annoys me as it’s taking away from boot space which is the point of estates. I love a proper old school Volvo estate and station wagon car. Function over aesthetics.

We were looking for a "proper" estate car as DH used to have one and found it really useful for his hobby. The only one we could find was the Skoda Octavia.

I drive cheap cars that I buy carefully. I haven't had a car break down in the last 28 years.

@Badbadbunny I’m sure, I have had excellent cars too, but cars are a bit of a lottery (more so the newer they get I am finding, and all the proprietary stuff) some cars even with excellent maintenance just cost a lot and are unpredictable.

The older and more financially secure I get, the more I am happy to pay over the odds for something more likely reliable for peace of mind. Don’t have time for that shit and all that! Spent my 20s crossing fingers hoping cars pass MOTs, broken down cars in December etc, na, done my time.

Oh yeah that’s the cam belt isn’t? My brother-in-law mentioned that. He said it was one of the most important things when buying a secondhand car. I only bought the car at the beginning of August. He did come with me when I bought it and checked the cam belt but it is something I will keep an eye on. Thanks for the reminder!

Omg anyone who last bought a car before Brexit+covid needs to accept that they don't know what they're talking about on this subject. There is no longer any such thing as a modest reliable runaround for £5k or less. Your choices are : pay £10k and budget £500 to get through each MOT; pay £25k outright; use lease or credit. A lot of people go for the third because all the other options mean finding a lot more at the start plus with the first option there's no guarantee - because it's out of warranty - that it won't break down and cost you yet more in out of pocket expenses including the now eye watering sums that car hire places charge these days.

Goodness me, how dare I! Just baffled that it is a FACT that 'anything under 4K' is apparently dreadful and awful and full of appalling issues, so pointing out as, oh! others have done on this thread, that sometimes this fact is...er..not a fact. A reply, I think it's called

Yeah find someone who can do it for you, the problem we had is it went and though it didn’t kill the car we were basically stuck with only Ford being able to fix it…which doubled the cost!

How did he check it, exactly?

Why are you making shit up? I made the original comment and @Badbadbunny was responding to that. There was no mention of a disability car - these people just replace their car very frequently. I often chat to them when out for a walk and they are perfectly pleasant, just a tad OTT about everything matching.

Don't forget the great worldwide chip shortage. That caused absolute mayhem with prices. I think actually more than brexit and covid

No it's not just looks - for me it's the front and rear heated seats, the heated steering wheel, the auto connect to emergency services if in an accident, the ability to start it from inside the house on freezing mornings, the all round sensors, the cameras, the comfort, the electric reclining seats, the sound system, the panoramic sunroof, the auto boot and that's before I start on the technical aspects. 🤷‍♀️

This is half the problem isn’t, some of the repairs in our car have required propriety tools to get to (which then restricts choice of garage and thus cost) and I’m pretty sure the belt one was one where getting to it was half the job.

Cars are half computers these days not something your Uncle John can fix on a Saturday, capitalism means the industry designs the car so you have to go to a dealer for half the stuff. I do wonder how many people with these amazing well maintained cars running for all these miles will fare when they get to the newer cars of the day. It’s no different to all the other appliances in our lives, industry wants us to spend money, there is little incentive for car dealers to build excellent quality, the more we need to pay for repairs the more we line their pockets or we buy again sooner, win win.

All I care about is reliability. As a result I have probably driven and owned more Hondas than any other brand.

I currently drive an HRV hybrid and it is a pleasure to drive.

We only change cars when they start to cost £££ to run. My Ford Kuga was 11 years old when I got rid of it and the Honda Civic was 9 years old.

Before I start on the technical abilities.

My last but one car (a Ford Focus) was 21 when I finally traded it in! It was still going strong, but because I regularly drive to a dd 60 miles away, on 3 motorways inc. the M25, I was starting to freak out about it suddenly dying on me on the hideous and invariably manic 6 lane section of the M25.

The dealer didn’t scrap it, though - dh had a good old nose on the DVLA site and found that it had been sold on!

Next buy was a 2 year old Honda Jazz with just 5000 miles on the clock.