How can anyone afford a car?

[PoisedGoldBiscuit]

So we've leased cars for the last 14 years or so. Have paid a non-refundable deposit of between £500 (for a regular hatchback) to around £900 for a SUV. I pay just under £300 p/m now for a Qashqai that includes maintenance (so services, MOTs, most repairs not covered by the warranty or caused by accidental damage). I also don't need to pay car tax.

I'm conscious of the fact that this is a debt that I'll essentially never pay off as I'm not gaining any equity in the car and just hand it back. I've looked at other options and they seem so far out of reach.

• buying cars second hand, friends who have done this seem to regularly spend £££ on maintenance issues, even for cars that are only a few years old.
• buying cars new but with a warranty, the monthly payments are huge and the car seems to drop so much in value that it's not worth the payments.

-taking out a PCP/ other scheme where you can hand the car back or pay a balloon payment, again, these seem to have huge monthly payments. Dealerships have never been able to get anywhere near the lease payments (and then have a huge balloon payment).

Am I missing something?

This.

I have always bought older, cheaper cars.
Very rarely had issues with them. As and when they need a repair that isn't worth doing, then sell on and buy another one.

I've never, ever spent anywhere near £3600 (or even that less tax) on maintaining older cars in any one year, let alone repeating year after year.

I paid £10k cash for my car. My husband (not a mechanic) will do most of the mechanic work that it needs, as and when. I personally don't like monthly financial commitments, so would rather not have a monthly payment that I'm tied into, so will never get a lease car.

I'm in the "buy second hand till it falls apart" camp but I wonder if that is such a good idea now that second hand cars are so expensive. Seems to me you're getting the worst of both worlds, if you're having to find at least £7k up front for a decade old car that's going to start costing you £££ in service and maintenance within a few years.

Our old car died after 23 years. We bought it secondhand having saved up £5k for a couple of years. This car we bought secondhand but had remortgaged and used some equity which means we are paying it back at 3% so only added £70 a month.

I am in the very fortunate position of being able to afford to run my small economical 9 year old car. But I cannot understand how those who can’t afford a car can afford bus fares. I recently, whilst the car was in for a service, caught the bus into the nearest town, and a scant 15 minutes journey cost me £2.60, one way. At that rate, how can anyone afford not to drive?

I lease I have zero interest in owning a car. A 3 year lease means you avoid MOT and only service it once. To me it’s a no brainer

Always replacing for another new car after 3 years is the most expensive way of owning a car. It’s just paying out for vanity and bragging rights.

Best to buy new or nearly new and keep for a decade or so.

The average age of cars on the road today is 10 years and plenty of well maintained carefully driven ones get to 20 years. It’s simply untrue to think that anything over a few years old is unreliable and expensive to repair.

We got our 62 plate Mazda around 6 years ago second-hand for about £6k. We fully paid it off a couple of years ago and the only costs we’ve had other than the basic MOT cost has been for a new battery, new tyres, brake discs and wiper blades which isn’t bad at all considering its age and how long we’ve had it.

The Corsa we had before that was a total money pit though, the driver who drove into it and wrote it off while it was parked on the street did us a favour in the long run. DH had had it since near-new and it was a problem from its first MOT, the Mazda has been a delight in comparison.

My cars 10 years old and cost 9000 which I had in savings but at least I'm not in debt or paying several hundred a month.

I've always bought old bangers in the past and have connections in the auto trade for cheap repairs due to family, best bargain was a £2000 Toyoto Auris bought in 2019 which lasted 5 years .

My car is 12 years old and I bought it for £6k 8 years ago. This year was a particularly expensive one for maintenance as it needed a lot replacing at the same time, but the total cost was £1200. That’s a third of what you’re spending a year, and normally it’s half that or less.

Though second hand cars are ridiculously expensive now. I’d planned to replace mine by now, but I’m holding off as long as I can!

We have a 10 year old mini. It’s cost a bit last year but has ben fairly reliable. I would never get finance/lease.

This is a joke surely? You can pick up a car for a few hundred quid. You mean a car that suits your image? That’s more accurate.

We buy (3 year loan) a 1-2 year old car, with 10-20k miles on the clock. So far we are on our second Skoda Octavia - the first we sold on at 190k miles after 8 years and it did another 30k before it dropped off the MOT-radar. The current one is now at 190k after 10 years and we have agreed we will replace it (3 year loan to own outright at the end of it) next year when it will be at 220k miles.

In terms of running costs it does get serviced when it asks for it (every 6m) but by and large it just needs new tyres and brakes, at appropriate intervals. Last year I think it had £1k on random things - a mudflap came loose or something, and this was highly unusual to spend so much on it.

If we had been leasing the current one we would have been paying £400 pcm for 10years - about £50k total, for a car that cost £15k initially, and there's absolutely no way we've spent £35k on consumables and repairs in that time! Cars for us both are purely functional transportation devices. We ended up with the Octavia because of its size, load capacity and mpg stats, fairly boring but it's still happily running at 190k miles now.

But - if you like cars, or if you want to have the latest model on your drive, then yes, you will end up with a leased one and that's where you have huge ongoing loan commitments without ever owning one outright (and then not having to make those loan payments).

My dad has one and really likes it. I’m looking at a pro ceed and they’re not horrendous prices
I work for a dealership so can get a car for 6 months then change it, but it’s about £250pm and I CBA with the hassle of keep swapping it

I bought a second-hand car in 2016, it was two years old then. So 11 years old now. It is now starting to drive a bit funny and I am looking to replace it in the near future (ideally next month). But I have never, ever had any issues with it at all. I have had it serviced annually but there have never been any unexpected maintenance bills. I’m well aware that due to the age of it now it will be basically worthless when I sell it on (although still very low mileage). So I struggle to understand how it’s actually that unaffordable for people to own a car.

Also the area where I live, running a car isn’t really optional anyway. Public transport is almost non-existent. I could just manage to get to work (in twice the amount of time as what driving takes) but any kind of leisure activities or socialising would be unmanageable. And it’s very expensive.

Anyway I’ve never seriously looked into leasing because I’d imagine that that is the most expensive option?

This!
be very choosy with second hand choices. I don’t think you can go wrong with an older Honda personally.

Agree - challenging times to own a car & with the ‘move’ to electric vehicles I don’t know how people will manage .

A lot are bought using company car allowances.

Mine is paid that way and my employer states I need to have a car that is less than 4 years old at all times to qualify.

As a result I get a new car every 3 or 4 years not for vanity reasons but to ensure I don’t have to pay for it out of my own pocket.

Buy used approved - never had any problems and cost a lot less.

Another VW fan here - I saved up and bought a campervan with the sole intention of keeping it until it dies. I did my research, bought a model than seemingly goes on for years and some stil get converted into a camper at 100k miles. Learned my lesson years ago after losing about £10k on a brand new 6yr old Qashqui. The depreciation was insane. Never again.

I have a Nissan Note ,not the most cool car on the block but it has never broken down ,odd tyre replacement,brake pads etc . It’s recently hit 100,000 on the clock and still going strong! 2007 plate,we paid about 3000 in 2018.

Always bought 1 previous owner from new low milage 2nd hand cars- we have a 2021 plate at the mo that had 8K miles on it! Also bought ex demonstrator with 200 miles on it way under new price once. Current car would be £39 k to buy new and was £19k to us. Last vehicle was written off but got £7.8 K for that then took 10k loan and used some of our own money to top up- loan will be paid off in 2.5 yrs ish and expect it to have at least 5/6 years with little spending other than MOT etc have the balance of the warranty and service plan the original owner took out too for the next 12 months so service etc pre paid for this year.

I have a 2012 Mazda that I bought in 2018 and aim to drive for ten years. I reckon it’ll cost me - including the purchase price - about £1k a year.

My husband drives an old Skoda which cost less to buy and to run. Between us, we probably spend half of what you do.

Of course, we could be hit with a large quote for work for one of them, in which case we’d flog it for parts. It’d still be better value than new or leased cars, especially as we’ve done it this way for many many years.

Agreed. I bought a 20-year-old, exceptionally low mileage Suzuki a couple of years ago for £850.

Haven’t had to spend anything on it, other than a £40 MOT.

An AA repairman once recommended the very uncool Nissan Micro as a car that very rarely has issues.

Same goes for Toyota Yarises.