How do people afford £30k-£60k cars with normal jobs?

sheslookinhot

Tarambor wrote: »

But it is only £100-£175 a month if there is no up front payment. Almost every lease/PCP below £200 a month has an initial rent or deposit of £3000+.

Nonsense I'm afraid. Wife leases an Infiniti, £190 /month, her first payment was £570.

gord115

Quote by martinsurry
"You can pick up a NEW golf R 2.0 DSG for £22k,"


http://www.buyanewcaronline.co.uk/volkswagen/golf/golf-diesel-hatchback/2.0-tdi-rline-5dr-dsg/



Golf r dsg is over £27k not £22k.

I've just bought a golf r and nowhere could you get one for £22k including Vat.

buglawton

Jackmydad wrote: »

Trains are 8 miles here.
So is nearest decent Chinese take away!
Nearest shop is a couple of miles these days.
You need a car of some sort living in these places.

I had to pay more for a house that's walking distance from an excellent rail station. It's nice to be able to choose your mode of transport according to purpose. And didn't have to ferry son to a faraway station on his journeys to uni. The station enabled son and DW to get to work easily before getting driving licenses too. If this expensive house has meant I'm evermore stuck with cheap cars, well somehow I feel I've done rather well.

takman

Alot of people in this thread who buy brand new cars are talking as if only new cars are decent and everything else is a banger. This is obviously not the case and there are plenty of decent and reliable cars which are over 3 years old.

Just because a car is new doesn't mean it is better. I had a brand new Mercedes A-Class a couple of days this week and did about 300 miles in it and it was actually pretty disappointing. The only extra features it had compared to my 10 year old car was auto braking in an emergency and keyless start. The engine was less powerful than mine and felt abit sluggish so it was not as nice to drive and it didn't do particularly well on fuel either (only 54 Mpg on a motorway trip).
A well maintained older car can be almost as good as a similar brand new car in most cases.

Another thing I have noticed is people saying that they are really into cars so they bought something like a brand new Golf R or Civic Type R on finance.
I wouldn't class that as a person being really into cars. People who I know that are really into cars often modify them and enjoy working on them. Or they spend alot of time maintaining them and keeping them in factory condition far above what you would normally do.

Stoke

takman wrote: »

Another thing I have noticed is people saying that they are really into cars so they bought something like a brand new Golf R or Civic Type R on finance.
I wouldn't class that as a person being really into cars. People who I know that are really into cars often modify them and enjoy working on them. Or they spend alot of time maintaining them and keeping them in factory condition far above what you would normally do.

Indeed. I'm a bit of a car fan boy myself and if I had 25 grand I wouldn't be buying a Golf R32. I'd be buying an Escort Cosworth or Lancia Delta Integrale or a Mk1 Golf GTI etc. A classic. I always find those R32, Type R lines a bit daft.

It's like saying:
"I'm a real ale enthusiast",
"oh really, what's you favourite?"
"bombardier"

Ok.

Mercdriver

buglawton wrote: »

I had to pay more for a house that's walking distance from an excellent rail station. It's nice to be able to choose your mode of transport according to purpose. And didn't have to ferry son to a faraway station on his journeys to uni. The station enabled son and DW to get to work easily before getting driving licenses too. If this expensive house has meant I'm evermore stuck with cheap cars, well somehow I feel I've done rather well.

[Regular posters will know what I'm referring to here]

Do you have problems with people parking in your street rather than pay for parking?

Cornucopia

takman wrote: »

Alot of people in this thread who buy brand new cars are talking as if only new cars are decent and everything else is a banger. This is obviously not the case and there are plenty of decent and reliable cars which are over 3 years old.

A couple of posters have already made exactly this point.

It's all part of the irony of desiring a new car that Diesel engines and to a lesser extent Petrol can require thousands of miles of use before being fully run-in and delivering optimum performance and economy.

Just because a car is new doesn't mean it is better. I had a brand new Mercedes A-Class a couple of days this week and did about 300 miles in it and it was actually pretty disappointing. The only extra features it had compared to my 10 year old car was auto braking in an emergency and keyless start. The engine was less powerful than mine and felt abit sluggish so it was not as nice to drive and it didn't do particularly well on fuel either (only 54 Mpg on a motorway trip).
A well maintained older car can be almost as good as a similar brand new car in most cases.

It would be a strange world if every new car was better than every used car - it doesn't work like that. I had a loan car a couple of weeks ago which was a brand new Renault Twingo. It was nice enough and fulfilled a purpose, but I wouldn't want to own one - it was small and cramped, and far from being underpowered, it had a feisty engine which if anything was too powerful for the dynamics of the rest of the car - a bit like driving a rocket-powered rollerskate. I can imagine the average used car being superior without much difficulty.

motorguy

buglawton wrote: »

I had to pay more for a house that's walking distance from an excellent rail station. It's nice to be able to choose your mode of transport according to purpose. And didn't have to ferry son to a faraway station on his journeys to uni. The station enabled son and DW to get to work easily before getting driving licenses too. If this expensive house has meant I'm evermore stuck with cheap cars, well somehow I feel I've done rather well.

Yup, if that works best for your particular family, social and financial constraints then great. Sounds like you're making it work for you which is great.

buglawton

Mercdriver wrote: »

[Regular posters will know what I'm referring to here]

Do you have problems with people parking in your street rather than pay for parking?

No as I'm just far enough away not to get that problem, but it is a problem nearer the station. The real root cause however is weak local and national govt that can't seem to stop the monopoly rail company from charging a gouging £6 per day (more and rising fast all over UK) at the only available car park. The council would rather mess with expensive parking enforcement schemes than look at the real problem. Rail parking land should seen as a community resource and be part of a progressive transport plan to encourage park and ride.

motorguy

takman wrote: »

Alot of people in this thread who buy brand new cars are talking as if only new cars are decent and everything else is a banger. This is obviously not the case and there are plenty of decent and reliable cars which are over 3 years old.

Absolutely right.

takman wrote: »

Just because a car is new doesn't mean it is better. I had a brand new Mercedes A-Class a couple of days this week and did about 300 miles in it and it was actually pretty disappointing. The only extra features it had compared to my 10 year old car was auto braking in an emergency and keyless start. The engine was less powerful than mine and felt abit sluggish so it was not as nice to drive and it didn't do particularly well on fuel either (only 54 Mpg on a motorway trip).

Yes, again i wholly agree. The standard A class is average at best. Theres lots of better used (and new) cars to chose from.

takman wrote: »

A well maintained older car can be almost as good as a similar brand new car in most cases.

Yup, or better in a lot of cases.

takman wrote: »

Another thing I have noticed is people saying that they are really into cars so they bought something like a brand new Golf R or Civic Type R on finance.

Yup, although typically the latest of those particular cars tends to be technically better and dynamically better and there are people who'll just want the latest (and therefore in their mind best) variant. Having said that an R32 would press more buttons for me than a later 2.0 litre R variant. Likewise i'd have (and just had) a Clio 2.0 RS 200 over the later 1.6 turbo ones. Some of the very best hot hatches arent the newest models.

takman wrote: »

I wouldn't class that as a person being really into cars. People who I know that are really into cars often modify them and enjoy working on them. Or they spend alot of time maintaining them and keeping them in factory condition far above what you would normally do.

I'd say me and my wife are really in to our cars (in terms of performance and outright spend, arguably her more than me ) however neither of us have any inclination to work at them. I used to mod cars and have modified cars (the best was a 2.8 litre vr6 engined VW Caddy Van :cool: ) but now we just keep them pretty much standard but look after them to a high standard. They're driven hard, but looked after well.