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

trailingspouse

I've just bought a 3 year old Jaguar XF - beautiful car, all the bells and whistles. They took my old car as a deposit, and I took out a loan through Santander for the balance (you don't need to take the finance offered by the showroom at 10+% - Santander's loan is at +/- 3%). It's costing me £252 a month over 5 years. There is no penalty for early repayment so as finances allow I will throw a grand or two at it from time to time.

How much do I earn? Never you mind - but to the casual observer I would appear to be either a housewife (ha!!) or to have a little part time job (haha!!). Someone asked me the other day if I'd taken early retirement (hahaha!!). In actual fact I'm a director of a successful company (work mostly from home) and I volunteer twice a week as my way of giving something back to society.

My advice would be to stop comparing yourself to other people - never compare your inside (ie what you know about yourself) to other people's outside (ie what you know about them).

motorguy

martinsurrey wrote: »

this lease will be a 24+12, on very low mileage (like 5k per year).

so he paid around £3k+vat up front and 6k+vat over the lease, meaning £9k+vat in total

You can pick up a NEW golf R 2.0 DSG for £22k,

meaning he is paying 41% of the cars value, for 2 years limited use.

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



working for car companies you get great deals, one of my friend is an accountant for BMW and the string of cars is pretty tasty.

There were deals around on a new Golf R for just over £200 a month on a 6 + 23 deal. Never heard of a 24 + 12 deal???

There were deals back in 2016 that amounted to just over £6,000 for two years, including VAT.

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=86&t=1586605

Also, that link is to a Golf diesel R Line, not a Golf R :eek:

Cheapest Golf R from that site is £26,333.

Try re-doing your sums with the REAL figures and let us know the outcome.

motorguy

wgl2014 wrote: »

Effectively on a lease you are paying the depreciation along with a fee to the lease company. Doesn't mean it's a bad deal and if you want a new car every 3 years is likely to be a good option.

Bear in mind that cars depreciate heavily to start off with and then more slowly as they age. If you don't mind a slightly older car you could buy a 3 or 4 he old model outright for roughly the same cost as leading a new one.

However, you're not paying depreciation as a private buyer would know it, you're paying depreciation on what the leasing company can get on maybe buying 1,000 of them directly from the manufacturer which will work out an awful lot less. Granted theres the leasing companys profit margin in there too, but they generally operate on slim margins so theres potentially money to be saved on the right deal (compared to buying same car outright and reselling over the same timeframe)

Strider590

rudekid48 wrote: »

You really need to get those chips on your shoulders seen to :rotfl:

I always lease cars, have zero interest in owning one, can comfortably afford the payments and see it purely as a mobility expense. This wouldn't suit everyone I know, but I'm no "mug". Some people see owning a car as an asset - I don't, I see it purely as a means to get from A - B. What I lease every 2 years depends on what deals are around at the time and which models I like the look of.

Just because it's not for you does not make you in some way superior or give you the justification to sneer at people that use leasing or PCP. Each to their own.

I'm not sure I understand the logic if it's just "A to B" then why the hell buy into a bi-yearly lease? That's a ridiculously expensive way to get from "A to B". My old car was 12 years old, that got me from "A to B" and before you mention reliability, it never failed an MOT and never let me down aside from it's last day in service. The same pretty much for it's predecessor too.......

buglawton

trailingspouse wrote: »

....I've just bought a 3 year old Jaguar XF - beautiful car...

The cleaner at my last office used to drive a large immaculate Jag to work, yes we did all wonder...

wgl2014

motorguy wrote: »

However, you're not paying depreciation as a private buyer would know it, you're paying depreciation on what the leasing company can get on maybe buying 1,000 of them directly from the manufacturer which will work out an awful lot less. Granted theres the leasing companys profit margin in there too, but they generally operate on slim margins so theres potentially money to be saved on the right deal (compared to buying same car outright and reselling over the same timeframe)

Totally agree, good point.

End of the day all that matters as a private customer is how much it's going to cost Vs other options. Do the sums etc etc.....

worried_jim

buglawton wrote: »

The cleaner at my last office used to drive a large immaculate Jag to work, yes we did all wonder...

I used to work for a Lord, a right scruffy git, walked into a Volvo showroom after getting blanked next door in the Jag showroom and a young lady from the office walked past, smiled and said morning to which he responded "I'll have two of them please" pointing at the V50 estates and made sure that any commission went to her.

Penelopa.Pitstop

VWFS should announce new deals on Monday, usually quite cheap for Golfs and similar cars.

I enjoyed fast limo for fraction of the price thanks to leasing. I would never buy it, it loses too much money. £80K car (RRP) for £400 pcm (6+23)

motorguy

Strider590 wrote: »

I'm not sure I understand the logic if it's just "A to B" then why the hell buy into a bi-yearly lease? That's a ridiculously expensive way to get from "A to B". My old car was 12 years old, that got me from "A to B" and before you mention reliability, it never failed an MOT and never let me down aside from it's last day in service. The same pretty much for it's predecessor too.......

Good for you. :beer:

But not everyone wants to drive a 12 year old car, with the risks and hassle associated with it. I did it for a couple of years there, and there was always "something" niggling wrong with it, or a bill upcoming, or - as was the case of the Volvo T5 - a significant failure looming (twice in four months).

To some people its easier to wrap it up in to a monthly payment, drive it two or three years and rinse and repeat. Theres a lot to be said for it, particularly when you get something half decent for a couple of hundred a month.

motorguy

wgl2014 wrote: »

Totally agree, good point.

End of the day all that matters as a private customer is how much it's going to cost Vs other options. Do the sums etc etc.....

Exactly.

Leasing hasnt worked out best for me (yet) however i can see why for some people it works very well. I dont consider them "fools" or "inept" for that though.

Each to their own circumstances.