How much do you purchase your family car

[gavinc0328]

Just wonder how much you purchased for your family car, in terms of your annual salary.

I bought my first one on 10% of my (and my family as well) annual income, and already regarded it as a huge expense. I often see people driving luxury cars on the road and am so curious how much they can afford them.

Lease, PCP, hp surely you are aware of these things?

Most people's cars will be worth well above 10% of their annual income because £2-3k doesn't buy much of a car unfortunately, so people spend more. Plus people keep their cars for several years so expressing them as a percentage as an annual salary doesn''t make much sense.

My car (not a luxury at all, a 2 YO city car) cost just over 20% of my annual salary, but I hope to keep it for 10-15 years so should work out cost effective.

The people driving luxury cars will either earn a lot, have them as a company cars or will be paying for them on PCP or similar.

In extreme circumstances I've had a car that was around 80% of my annual salary because I didn't earn a huge amount and I had a company car that I only had to pay £100 pm for all private use by was worth around £15-20k.

We usually spend 7-9k so less than 10%

Yes I bought my car in full cash. I am still feeling reluctant to finance my daily expense except the house mortgage. Just to avoid being dragged into a long term debt and I guess I am always paranoid on my financial situation.

Recently, especially after government announcement on electric vehicles, I spot much more electric cars on the road, while brand new ones, e.g. tesla / kia, cost around £40k. Just wonder how come so many households can afford changing their cars.

Actually I just assume my car (2016 petrol) lifespan just lasts for at most 5 years. I only averaged out the expense by 3-5 years.

We bought ours out of savings so we didn't really think about as a percentage of annual income as it was there to be spent. DHs was £18k and mine was £9k, income was around £60k but we have no mortgage.

I don’t spend much on cars at all. My current one would have cost 1.5% of my gross annual income.

My car cost £4500, (8 years ago). It was a big percent of household income but i had saved up for it over a few years so i didnt really think of in relation to our income.

My car cost £4500 and my salary at the time was £18000 so 25%. My Mum gave me £1000 towards it though

Many company’s are offering a salary sacrifice benefit (pre-tax offer) to loan an electric car - this works out very cost efficient and is the only way many folks can afford to drive a brand new elec car!

They don’t buy them. The cars are either company cars or they are leased or rented using PCPs. These are financial products which enable car ‘buyers’ to put down a deposit then pay a few hundred pounds a month which pays for the car’s depreciation over the period of the arrangement, usually three years. At the end of the three years the car is handed back or any surplus equity is used as a deposit on another car and the cycle continues. It’s an expensive way to afford to put a shiny new car on your drive to impress the neighbours.

We’ve each got cars, mine was about half my annual salary when I bought it but looking for it to last 10+ years so only looking for it to cost about 5% of my salary per year

We just bought a brand new electric Audi for 47k cash you until this car we leased cars for about £275 per month.

Mine was about 10% of our household income. We paid cash, and I’ve had it for 3.5 years so far - but it’s 16 years old and still going strong. I’ll probably own it until he dies, and cry when the time comes. I get way too attached to my car.

Our family car was probably 20% of income when we bought it, we chose something unfashionable but relatively new we could buy outright.

Most people who drive new cars have them via PCPs unless they are pretty wealthy.
Used luxury cars can be affordable to buy, but expensive to run due to high running costs.
If you are on a family budget, you buy a used car that does what you want it to, and run it for years.

Bought my last car in cash - 12k. That was 8 years ago (it was 2 years old at the time).

Won't be buying another for a few years, even though I could.

Leased car here £300 a month - couldn’t afford to buy

My last car was a pre reg, cost just under 7k. At the time this was 20% of my annual income. It is now 10 years old and I still have it. Probably replace it either this year or next, will be looking at approx 20k for next car which is nearly my annual income pre tax. Will be bought with savings.

I’ve just bought a new car, a little corsa.
It was £14999. I was going to buy one a couple of years old but they were less than 2k cheaper so went for a new one.
The dealer told me they are really busy at the moment and have been all through the lockdowns.
2nd hand cars are really expensive at the moment.

Before I thought I could own a car for 5+ years but now it seems to me it's more complicated than I imagined. If I owned a diesel car a few years ago I would have to change a petrol one now. My lifespan of my patrol car relies on the upcoming government policies on electric cars and how friendly they will be towards the petrol cars. Probably I may need to change a electric car in a few years.

Yes I know it's hostile to environment if it's friendly towards the petrol cars, but, personally and pragmatically, I hope these days do not come near, at least coming 1-2 years.

Do you live in a place with ULEZ or visit a place with ULEZ as you will might need an electric car and can't have diesel

We bought 2 x 2nd hand hybrids. We normally spend £9-12k, and then upgrade every couple of years and have to add another £2k+ each time.

To buy outright it cost around 50% of net salary that year. But we have had for 8 years so far which makes it around 6% of annual salary so far, and the car probably has at least another 5 years in it.

Bought my smart car for £400 from a friend of a friend. Been going well since 2017. No major problems just wear and tear, tyres, wiper blades etc. So less than a week's wages.