How much did you spend on your car

cyclonebri1

Empty_pockets wrote: »

Gavin,

Agree on some folk cherishing their cars, though i don't see anything wrong with that and have done it myself. My car gets detailed regulaly and serviced probably 4 or 5 times a year. Best parts I can afford. thats still a small fraction of my salary.

Compare that to say someone on average income, say £25K buying a small basic car, say a Vauxhall Corsa you're still looking at £14-15K thats well over 50% of income.

Now more that margin to an Audi A4 or maybe the new Mini and maybe you can see my issue.

Is it really that common for folk to spend so much on a car? I Guess the folk I'm talking about are unlikley to be on MSE!

I think you may get a suprise there, ie, there are some folks on here who feel quite proud of having spent wisely and achieving reasonable financial security whilst only having had average income throughout their working lives.

The 1 key issue is to get in front once, save for the car, buy wisely within your measns in cash then save for the next while you enjoy that 1.
I know I'll get castigated for printing that, and of course I know not everyone can do that, but it should be the goal.
Get interest on your savings (well that used to work) and don't pay interest on car purchase :T

And yes I never had cars under 3 years old, often 10, and always with high mileage but they all worked for me not against me.

Now I'm a little better off my last car was bought high mileage, 22K, at 11 months old for £8k, sold 8 years latter for £1K.

Present car bought with 28k miles at exactly 1 year old for £7800 and now owned for approaching 5 years.

Works for me.

Incidentally the real winner was the family from up the road who bought the 9 year old 2ltr vectra above. They paid £1k ran the car for over 4 years without trouble untill the head gasket went so they decided to scrap rather than repair. I guess they got £100 or so back for scrap.

That's real :money: :T

NBLondon

Oh dear, some of are you going to call me an idiot becuase I bought brand new recently...

Had I paid full list price it would have been about 74% of income.

However since
a) The dealer was desperate to get rid on 11 plates before 1 Sep
b) The sales droid wrote down the price for the model below and the manager didn't spot the mistake
c) The sales droid also failed to notice and charge for the extras until after the contract was signed

the price I'm actually paying is nearer 66%.

And since the manufacturer was also desperate to do a deal on the finance, I've actually put down about 38% of income with 2 years (no payments) and then the rest as final purchase. I have that remaining lump sum sitting locked away in a building society account earning me more interest than I'm paying on the finance deal.

wannabehermit

My last few cars have cost me about £800 (so less than 1% of DHs annual salary) to buy, but I've only had them for a year as either the MOT has been just too much or they've cost me a fortune in the meantime. The last one the fuel pump went which was over £1000 plus the DMF was failing and that was going to be almost £500, so no point whatsoever. We needed a bigger car anyway and were looking at low priced ones but decided they'd be more trouble than they were worth so spent £6000 (£3000 cash), so after interest has been added on over the 3 years it will be just over 50% of DHs salary. Hopefully it will cost us less as I want it paid off well before the 3 years as then it will be an 11 year old car so I want a few years without finance before needing to replace it.

SailorSam

My car is an 05 Fiesta which i bought 4yrs ago for £6k, it costs me very little in the way of repairs but i don't do much mileage and have less than 30k on the clock.

Strider590

Empty_pockets wrote: »

I'm always amazed by the amount of flash cars I see and wonder simply how people afford them.

Anyone can get a flash car if they're willing to sell their soul to the corporations and/or banks.

Most new cars you see are on hire purchase type agreements, relatively few are ever fully paid for in cash.

In the UK cars are the ultimate status symbol and people will do anything to climb up that social class ladder.
Me personally, I see my car as transportation.... If I want something "special", it sure as hell won't be used for work/shopping/commuting.

There's a guy I see every morning, commuting to work in a recession white Aston Martin. If he was really that well off, he'd be saving the Aston for the finer days.... But im betting he's still out doing his commute in the middle of winter, getting his Aston scratched to hell and exposing it's mechanicals to all that nasty road salt.

bclark

The argument that buying things like new Cars isn't very MSE comes up quite often and it really isn't the case. Being a MSE is about living the life you want to live in the most sensible way and saving as much money in doing so as is pratical. I don't believe its about denying yourself as much as possible in the name of saving money. If you like Cars and want a nice one then buy it but try and do it as sensibly as you can.

I have had a number of expensive cars in my time and bought 3 totally brand new. I love Cars and having a good one makes me feel good. I sometimes wish this wasn't the case as I would have saved money but then this is true if I didn't want to live in a nice area or didn't feel the need to make my house bigger etc.

From an MSE point of all 3 of my new cars have been bought over the internet with the last two being pre-reg so that they were totally brand new but I made massive savings over the list price. To me this is MSE as I have done what I wanted to with my life and money but done it in the most money savvy way that I can.

missile

A car is a luxury item. A "flash" car is an indulgence. A new flash car is an extravegance. Unfortunately I am addicted but I only buy cars I can afford to pay for. Finance is expensive.

mikey72

Strider590 wrote: »

There's a guy I see every morning, commuting to work in a recession white Aston Martin. If he was really that well off, he'd be saving the Aston for the finer days.... But im betting he's still out doing his commute in the middle of winter, getting his Aston scratched to hell and exposing it's mechanicals to all that nasty road salt.

If he was really well off, he'd be using the car every day, without being hung up about other people thinking he couldn't afford it, then when it's knackered he'll just buy another.
Whem you can afford it, it's just a car.

Jeff_Bridges_hair

Empty_pockets wrote: »

Gavin,
Is it really that common for folk to spend so much on a car? I Guess the folk I'm talking about are unlikley to be on MSE!

Hey some of us like to money save and get things for free and such like just as the rest of you. I happen to be well paid and was fortunate to actually inherit my house from my grandparents when they died so i have no mortgage to pay or anything like that but I still like to indulge myself when i can. And make sure i save a significant amount of money before i did splurge.

Im probably going to do very few miles in it over the 3 years that i have it and whilst it was never going to be an 'Investment' as someone said above - im not going to use it every day either.

EDIT: Just to add that people are going to spend on things that is relative to their income. Im sure even the most fervent Mse'r on here likes to splash out once in a while on luxuries ..

Nearly_Old

Empty_pockets wrote: »

Gavin,

Agree on some folk cherishing their cars, though i don't see anything wrong with that and have done it myself. My car gets detailed regulaly and serviced probably 4 or 5 times a year. Best parts I can afford. thats still a small fraction of my salary.

Compare that to say someone on average income, say £25K buying a small basic car, say a Vauxhall Corsa you're still looking at £14-15K thats well over 50% of income.

Now more that margin to an Audi A4 or maybe the new Mini and maybe you can see my issue.

Is it really that common for folk to spend so much on a car? I Guess the folk I'm talking about are unlikley to be on MSE!

Some of us do as (in the right conditions) we actually enjoy driving.

Our cars vary from around 60% to less than 0%

I had company cars for over 20 years and my wife ran the family car that she also used for commuting.

Having learned the lessons when I changed jobs 10 years ago I declined the company car and took the car allowance and mileage payment at 40p per mile for business miles. I ran an ex-lease car for 5 years and then looked round to change it and found a 3 year old Citroen C5 automatic diesel with 21k on the clock for £6.5k (the original sales invoice was for £19.5k). The car now has 108k on the clock and in the last 5.5 years has cost circa £24k (purchase, tax, insurance, fuel, servicing, tyres, etc, etc) whilst my car allowance (after tax) and the mileage payments total circa £27.5k so cost wise this is probably the best car I have ever bought.

However my wife does things a bit differently:
She had a Citroen BX purchased new Aug 1989 used for towing a caravan in the summer plus her commuting and finally traded in after 12 years. This was followed by a BMW Z3 that she had from 2001 to 2007.

The Z3 was traded for £6.5k against a 6-month old Z4 with 1600 miles on the clock - an ex-BMW UK car that at £22k was £7.5k below the new OTR price. I can see her keeping this one for a long, long time as she retires next year so mileage won't be an issue.

As I was in credit on the C5 3.5 years ago I treated myself to a 99 2.8 litre Z3 for £6.5k as a pre-retirement present and for use on European trips.

Spending the money is probably not very MSE but getting good deals and looking after the cars really well means that in the long term we feel that we get value for money from them. In fact in some ways we're looking forward to driving the Z3 and Z4 when they're 15, 20, 25 years old as probably you won't be able to buy anything like them by then. In a way we also see it as a reward for 40 years of saving for something before you buy it as in the early years I was generally buying old cars and spending most weekends making sure that they would be OK for Monday.:(