How does everyone afford very expensive cars?

[Idratherbewithmycat]

Ok yes I live in an expensive area but I can’t help but notice that everyone seems to drive expensive SUVs. Some families I know have good but normal incomes (like us) and still drive massive cars (not BMW type but bug lovely peugeots or Kia etc). I was just googling prices as we could do with upgrading what we have and OMG, it’s a lot of money!
Do people usually buy their cars on finance or upfront? We only bought a car once, it was a second hand cheap-ish car we paid fully upfront. Don’t see how we would be able to fork out £25K + for a new car!

Not true for everyone. We own both of ours outright.

Yeah same…we trade in our older cars and buy straight up.

Who said I got a £50k car?

I spend £200 a month on my car

Pre tax salary sacrifice here to lease one. Works out much more cost effective than any other option.

Buy used, pay in full, drive it til it dies whilst saving for the next one. So yes, I paid 20k cash. I've never had a car on finance.

Anyone I know with a flashy car leases. It’s an eye watering amount every month - but I suppose we all have different priorities for our money.

I drive the worst car on my street - my neighbour was marveling at my extension and saying the couldn’t bring themselves to spend that much money. I think the same about their two very expensive cars. We are just different😊

Mine is motability. Mumsnet hates that. It’s a VW Troc, I only get to keep it for 3 years then I have to get a new one. I would have to drive a banger otherwise as I can’t get finance.

I buy a new car every three years. I usually buy something pre registered in the month before the reg numbers change. This means that the car I buy is usually heavily discounted (£7k off list price on average with about ten miles on the clock).

I normally get about 55% of the list price on my three year old car, plus a £7k saving means I have to add £11-2k ish to buy a brand new pre registered car. I pay cash.

Not mega expensive, but a £42k ish car for three years of driving at £4k per year capital outlay over three years feels like good value.

I assume they're on the never never.

Same scenario here. I regard cars as a waste of money. A 7 year warranty and an ex demo saving about £8000 on a new price. I found the extra thousands to make it up to the price and bought a car which will last a long time

Leased. Large Peugeot under 400quid pcm. So less over three years than what a car would depreciate for.
you’ll regularly see a particular car popular at a particular year - prob flooding the leasing market and on good deals at that time.

It’s all different priorities.
we have a car we bought second hand for 15k about eight years ago. We’ll run it into the ground then get another one. The thought of spending £300 a month for a leased car- I just don’t get it at all.

Howwver our house is worth a lot and we’ve spent loads on it in a desirable area. We could have gone for a smaller house for save money but we didn’t.

I have a Kia Sportage through motability. I don’t tell anyone (even closest friends / family) that I even claim Pip, yet alone get the highest rates on both elements indefinitely (complex autoimmune issues) so no one has any idea that it’s through that.

One of our cars was leased - we found a good deal and we extended the deal for another few years once it expired and then bought it. The other was part cash part loan. We do a lot of driving so having comfortable reliable cars was a priority.

We save specifically for a 2-3 year old car, drive it for 10 years. Current car is 2021 model and cost £27k in 2024. We paid cash. I’m considering lease for our second car when it dies (it’s 12 years old) but I’m not sure how I feel about that.

Well I have been fortunate enough to be able to buy my cars outright - thanks to savings and inheritance. Even if I hadn't had the money to do this, I would never lease - it's throwing money away - at least if you buy on credit, the car is yours when you have finished payments.

We always buy outright, sometimes new but mostly ex demo and drive them until they are getting a bit glitchy (circa 100k miles).

Salespeople never look very happy when you say you’re paying cash, they want to sell the finance.

We lease.. my last car was bought new and depreciated hugely.

My relative buys outright. Car cost about 70k and they have two. They are very very wealthy.

Lots of people rent houses that they are never going to own and pay a hell of a lot more than some people pay on cars a month, rather than getting a mortgage,

its the same idea as leasing a car.

different strokes for different folks.

Most of those which nice cars who I know, they lease, got a loan or the company pays/some sort of perk with work thing.
I try to remember this as I drive around in my 17 year old car! I’d sooner not have debt or be wasting money, plus don’t have a job that provides car etc

Tbf there is no reason that they would need to know, unless you need one of them to be a named driver.

Massive percentage of cars in UK are on PCP/HP or similar.

Dealers almost regard finance as default.

Also there are incentives for buying on PCP etc like deposit contributions, bundled service plans and extended warranty. Those with cash take finance and clear it after initial payment.

We did that with a secondhand Skoda estate car last year.

13 reg Citroen C1 enters the Mumsnet thread.

Our main car is ex motorbility, we got it at 3 years old and paid for it outright. It's a Seat Ateca which for us is a pretty nice car and we do enjoy driving it.

We are about to get a car that is about £28k but husband getting through his work including insurance and tax for £70 a month. We drive a cheap corsa that is 17 years old the moment and I would never spend that on a car. My mum has a £34k car but it is the mobility portion of my sisters disability benefit.