The cost of small cars is no longer small!

motorguy

James2k wrote: »

Well at least it was possible to have a civilised discussion about it

Indeed.

Ganga

If so many people are running cars on PCP deals and handing them back,there must be a lot of second hand low milage/age cars for sale.

motorguy

Ganga wrote: »

If so many people are running cars on PCP deals and handing them back,there must be a lot of second hand low milage/age cars for sale.

There are. Yes.

NBLondon

motorguy wrote: »

I think cars are white goods to the bulk of people - monthly payment and don't have to worry about it during that time.

This ^^^ I don't know if it's the bulk of all people but in some age/society groups it probably is. They see it the same way as a phone contract - "I pay £X a month for this and get an upgrade on a regular basis..." And I agree that if it works for them - fine. But there is an overlap with those who do see their car as a status symbol and some of those people are getting into finance deals they can't really afford or taking a very big hit if something changes and they can't make the payments as easily.

Moneysavers :money: do the research first and work out what's the best deal for them. Which might sometimes be buying a handed-back nearly new ex PCP car.

motorguy

NBLondon wrote: »

This ^^^ I don't know if it's the bulk of all people but in some age/society groups it probably is. They see it the same way as a phone contract - "I pay £X a month for this and get an upgrade on a regular basis..." And I agree that if it works for them - fine. But there is an overlap with those who do see their car as a status symbol and some of those people are getting into finance deals they can't really afford or taking a very big hit if something changes and they can't make the payments as easily.

Moneysavers :money: do the research first and work out what's the best deal for them. Which might sometimes be buying a handed-back nearly new ex PCP car.

Agreed

Very foolish of that small minority if they cant afford it but view their cars as an "achievement".

James2k

motorguy wrote: »

Agreed

Very foolish of that small minority if they cant afford it but view their cars as an "achievement".

again, not sure its that much of a minority! (except where you live it seems):D

to extend the mobile phone analogy, how many people want the latest iPhone X over the last whatever one it was. i guarantee its not because of any features it has

motorguy

James2k wrote: »

again, not sure its that much of a minority! (except where you live it seems):D

to extend the mobile phone analogy, how many people want the latest iPhone X over the last whatever one it was. i guarantee its not because of any features it has

Depends on what you mean by "cant afford" though - the usual meaning on here is they get themselves in a mess and then are on the debt board bleating about it.

So in that sense its a relatively small number.

Not up to you or I to judge if they "cant afford" it as they should instead be spending their money on other things

And genuinely - whilst i dont live in a particularly affluent area - i dont see a big amount of shiny new euro boxes about our village. Theres some cottages down the road and from memory theres an Insignia (above 5 years old) and a couple of 3-4 year old fiestas about. Cant think what else. Thats probably the nearest houses. Even in our family circle theres only a couple of people have cars on PCP, and they can well afford the payments.

In fact even in work here i'm fairly certain that theres not a load of new cars on PCP, though people rarely bring up cars.

motorguy

James2k wrote: »

to extend the mobile phone analogy, how many people want the latest iPhone X over the last whatever one it was. i guarantee its not because of any features it has

And most people will be happy to wait until the end of their current contract term rather than change immediately to the newest model.

If they're budgetting £X a month for a phone and can swap in to another contract for a similar £X a month next time, its their prerogative to do so.

James2k

motorguy wrote: »

And most people will be happy to wait until the end of their current contract term rather than change immediately to the newest model.

If they're budgetting £X a month for a phone and can swap in to another contract for a similar £X a month next time, its their prerogative to do so.

Ok, if you say so. They don't upgrade their fully functioning phones to the newest ones because of features, because most of the time, there aren't any new features. Not after a 2 year contract.

And of course its their prerogative, but that's not the subject of the discussion.

motorguy

James2k wrote: »

Ok, if you say so. They don't upgrade their fully functioning phones to the newest ones because of features, because most of the time, there aren't any new features. Not after a 2 year contract.

And of course its their prerogative, but that's not the subject of the discussion.

The subject of the discussion was the price of small cars, however we have meandered away from that.

The point i was making was, that some people seem to want to judge what others do, and spin it in a negative way, whereas (a) the reality might be someone different, and (b) its not really up to us to judge what others do - though some of us seem inclined to for whatever reason

They change their phones - like cars - because -

• they're getting something thats brand new for similar monthly payments
• its got a manufacturers warranty so no risk of a (relatively) big bill for a failure
• its wear and tear free
• keeping what they have will probably work out similar cost anyway