Thankfully, you don’t need to justify your car to anybody. If someone makes assumptions about you based on your car, it’s not your fault.

I don’t mix in circles with a lot of wealthy people, but the few people who I know who have nice cars (even, dare I say it, 4×4’s) are nice people who don’t think too much about what they drive.

If I was totally minted, I would not be driving round an a SMax diesel.

I’ve just done a comfy 4 hour journey in air conditioned, cruise controlled, leather coated comfort in my 11yo car. . I felt quite smug as I went past others realising I don’t need to pay 100’s a month to do so. 31mpg average and 231bhp at the rear wheels what’s not to like?

I’m starting to believe ill never bother paying much for a replacement if I had to – these days all those toys ^^ in a bike friendly 2nd hand wagon needn’t cost much.

Buy a new car with a service contract and you know you’ll have nothing to buy except tyres for up to five years with no arguing about how much of the bill for a new particle filter/turbo/GRC valve/injection pump/management box/ABS box you pay or the manufacturer pays. There a no big services looming on the horizon and you know you’ve got all of the life of the vehicle.

You know you’ll have no unexpected costs because you already pay a huge chunk of expected costs – invariably far more than anybody ever pays for fixing expensive bits on an older car.

If you look at the average life of a car in years (8years and three months in France)

On what do you base such a short lifespan? I got rid of my last car at 13 years old, and it still had life left in it (to be honest the air-con worked better than in my current one).

molgrips – Member
I’ll keep my Passat until either it dies or I make tons of money. It’s pretty comfortable, to be honest, and I like it.

Are you me?

Eight years and three months comes from French government statistics. The kms figure comes from me noting the kms on car speedos when getting the latest silly little bit of plastic/rubber to fail from the breakers.

When drove my 21-year-old Peugeot 605 to the breakers at 260 000kms it didn’t feel much different to when it was new. The plastic and rubber things had reached an age where I was going to spend a lot of time and money working on it to keep it going for not much longer, so it went. Steering rack gaiters cost a few pence and a day of grovelling under the car to replace. A fuel pipe doesn’t cost much but removing the fuel tank to get at it is messy and time consuming. Worn injectors meant fuel consumption was getting worse even if it was getting faster. Etc.

Most people don’t have the time or skills to DIY and their cars get past the economic cost of repair stage long before 21 years. It went when I was no longer sure we could get in and drive to the Alps and back without one of those critical plastic/rubber bits cracking leaking or falling off.

Anyhow, when you buy a second-hand car I suggest working out its price compared to new and comparing the resulting fraction with it’s age divided by 9 and the kms it’s done by the distance that model usually lasts. If the price is a small fraction of the original cost and the proportion of the cars potential life high then buy second-hand. If not, buying new is a better bet.

Very much a case of knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing then?

31mpg average and 231bhp at the rear wheels what’s not to like?

31mpg, that’s what’s not to like!

So how do you define “value” motoring then, thisisnotaspoon? “Reliably and safely getting you, yours and your junk where you want to go in a comfortable, relaxed manner that means you’re fit to do what you want to do when you get there at low price” is mine.

Edukator – Member

Anyhow, when you buy a second-hand car I suggest working out its price compared to new and comparing the resulting fraction with it’s age divided by 9 and the kms it’s done by the distance that model usually lasts. If the price is a small fraction of the original cost and the proportion of the cars potential life high then buy second-hand. If not, buying new is a better bet.

One wonders why you haven’t made millions in the auto industry with a formulea like that.

Have not read all he posts, but has anyone mentioned saving up and paying for what you can afford?

I have only owned 2 cars, both of which were bought with cash and not credit. First one cheaper than the second, but simply a matter of applying available cash at the time to search criteria. If I had less cash I would either live without or buy a cheaper car.

Have not read all he posts, but has anyone mentioned saving up and paying for what you can afford?

whats the big deal with saving up v’s paying into a finance purchase that will add up to the equivalent amount over the lifetime of the car, it’s all just spending money at the end of the day…

I’m with Molgrips here. I buy nice cars since I really like driving. Simple really.

I thought that it was comprehensively proved in a previous thread that Molgrips doesn’t like driving . . . . or overtaking ???

Why someone would want to waste 40k plus on a car is beyond me – particularly on some sort of useless tasteless SUV (chav chariot) that’s not even any good offroad (e.g. Audi Q3/5/7, BMW X6, X1/3/5, etc).

The lives of these people really must be devoid of any sort of interest yet full of inflated self importance.

Private plates added to these things just add to the ‘I’m a absolute c**t’ factor. Point proved the other day by seeing a white Audi Q5 being driven badly, with personalised number plate who’se numbers and letters had been badly moved to read i think something like ‘Sexy Mel’. Guess who was driving – yes a wrinkled lady in her late 50’s. Not my idea of sexy that’s for sure.

By the way the average scrappage age for a car in the UK is currently 14 years.

whats the big deal with saving up v’s paying into a finance purchase that will add up to the equivalent amount over the lifetime of the car, it’s all just spending money at the end of the day…

Huge difference between saving up, vs. paying for a car on finance!

Huge difference between saving up, vs. paying for a car on finance!

not really…

whats the big deal with saving up v’s paying into a finance purchase that will add up to the equivalent amount over the lifetime of the car, it’s all just spending money at the end of the day…

On alot of finance options you do not own the car.
On some with start and final payments the final payment is the value of the car
You are paying for the first year 30% depreciation of the screen price
If you lose your job, then you might not be able to afford the car payments

rs…. have you noticed the current recession we are in at the moment. You know, the financial crisis thing. Would you care to guess why it happened. I’ll give you a clue: It has to do with the difference between saving up to buy things & borrowing money.

If I want to buy a car and i’m starting from zero, then I can save say $200/month, buy a car in a few years for X amount or I can buy a car now for $200/month finance, you can argue the technicalities but at the end of the day if you want a car you need to spend the money. Does it really matter if some people do it one way or the other.

We had a pension company visit us to discuss managing our company pension. They turned up in a BMW 7 series. We turned them down on the basis that if that was their company car, they were taking too much commission.

.

I can’t actually remember ever taking any of my kids to school in a car, doesn’t sound very nice for the parent or child. 🙁

I can’t actually remember ever taking any of my kids to school in a car, what a horrible life for them and the driver.

Yeah, it’s a bit shit, but it was either that or a shit school.

If I want to buy a car and i’m starting from zero, then I can save say $200/month, buy a car in a few years for X amount or I can buy a car now for $200/month finance, you can argue the technicalities but at the end of the day if you want a car you need to spend the money. Does it really matter if some people do it one way or the other.

except you’re not ‘buying’ a car are you, and if your cicumstances change and you can’t afford the repayments then you’re left with no car, no physical object to sell to recoup some cash, and possibly a negative impact on your credit rating as well.

at least if you own it you can stop using it to save some cash, or sell it etc, or you could end up like people I know, one of which couldn’t afford to insure or fuel his car after a change of circumstances so had to take his shiny new car off the road, but was still paying for it every month, and the other who got banned for 18 months after being a complete tw*t and had to do the same thing because selling it wouldn’t have got enough money to cover the amount still owing.

Excellent, Footflaps.

Save up £x/month for y months to buy a car costing xy. Buy a car costing xy on finance over y months and pay zx where z equals say…. 1.1 Borrowing money is not free, interest accounts for (z-1)x extra cost for the vehicle. So the choice is wait or pay extra (or psu the same for a cheaper vehicle)

Eight years and three months comes from French government statistics. The kms figure comes from me noting the kms on car speedos when getting the latest silly little bit of plastic/rubber to fail from the breakers.

Stats for mean age of a car being scrapped? Including those involved in crashes? I suspect median might be a more useful figure to assess value/cost over the lifespan of a car, assuming you have fully comp insurance. Meanwhile most cars tend to get scrapped due to age rather than mileage (if not involved in a crash) – including your old car by the sounds of things – so I doubt your mileage figures are indicative of what a younger car would fail at.

Anyhow, when you buy a second-hand car I suggest working out its price compared to new and comparing the resulting fraction with it’s age divided by 9 and the kms it’s done by the distance that model usually lasts. If the price is a small fraction of the original cost and the proportion of the cars potential life high then buy second-hand. If not, buying new is a better bet.

Thanks for the tip. Given even the lowest depreciating cars lose 50% of their value in 3 years and 30,000 miles it’s a no brainer even using your dodgy lifespan figures isn’t it? I wonder why you don’t follow your own advice. The one I just bought cost me ~20% of the new price at 4 years and 120k miles – what do you reckon?

I can’t actually remember ever taking any of my kids to school in a car, doesn’t sound very nice for the parent or child.

Classic STW one-upmanship…

Lots of people have to work.
Lots of people have to work in places that are not their child’s school.
Lots of people have to drop their children off at the school while they are in the process of travelling to work.

Give over…

You’ve got 60% of the age life for 20% = good buy, Aracer. 30k a year implies long distances and not much cold running = OK, but some distance related bills will start to appear. I doubt they’ll be much compared to the new cost over the next 50 000 miles so you’ll still have paid less. It would be nice if the type of vehicle I use depreciated that fast in France. Even a C6 doesn’t depreciate that fast here.

Lots of people have to work.
Lots of people have to work in places that are not their child’s school.
Lots of people have to drop their children off at the school while they are in the process of travelling to work.

They have no choice in we’re they work, live or take their kids to school or how they get between those places?
You give over making excuses for fatties who can’t get out of their cars.

I think the real thing is to not be bothered how big or expensive your neighbour’s car or house is. What you have is ok. To be alive is ok. Value judgements are dificult. I choose to live where I am for the stunning countryside, the hill and mountainous atmosphere, to be close to my parents and sister and friends. A better job and more money would be a bonus environment. I don’t NEED a car to do this stuff

They have no choice in we’re they work, live or take their kids to school or how they get between those places?

Well, in a way people have a choice…but this is the similar naive statement raised regarding ‘wild animals in captivity’ in the book ‘life of Pi’ – yes, animals and humans have a degree of freedom in their choices, but were not 100% free to roam the planes/streets doing whatever we wish, are we?!
I can’t waltz up to a house in an area I can’t afford, and simply state “jog on, I’m living here…”. My wife can’t speak to the head of her speciality school of training and say “I’m not transferring to this hospital next year, cos I don’t want to use my car, move me here” (she can try, but is limited by real factors). I could swap my son from school to school year after year, moving home year after year, just to avoid having to use the car to drop him at school/childcare – but for him which would be more damaging to his development??

I can see you raise a nice point, and in an ideal world people could stick to it, but we clearly live in a more complicated situation than that. This comment is on a similar vain to “why are African people walking 8 miles to a well – move closer to the well dammit….!”

(Oh, neither me or my wife have so much of an ounce of fat on us either…)

DrP

I think the real thing is to not be bothered how big or expensive your neighbour’s car or house is. What you have is ok. To be alive is ok. Value judgements are dificult. I choose to live where I am for the stunning countryside, the hill and mountainous atmosphere, to be close to my parents and sister and friends. A better job and more money would be a bonus environment. I don’t NEED a car to do this stuff

Nails it

We had a pension company visit us to discuss managing our company pension. They turned up in a BMW 7 series. We turned them down on the basis that if that was their company car, they were taking too much commission.

That’s really stupid.

Why someone would want to waste 40k plus on a car is beyond me – particularly on some sort of useless tasteless SUV (chav chariot) that’s not even any good offroad (e.g. Audi Q3/5/7, BMW X6, X1/3/5, etc).

The lives of these people really must be devoid of any sort of interest yet full of inflated self importance.

A friend of mine owns an Audi Q5. It’s quite an unpleasant car, with surprisingly little space, and cost a fortune. He has zero interest in cars or driving, and takes the train to work most days. I think it’s more a case of money + lack of interest than self importance.

DrP- There will always be exceptions whether real or constructed for the purpose of argument.

The point I am making is taking your kids to school by car should not be seen as the norm, it isnt. Not just for me but for the vast majority of parents who have been taking kids to school with me other the last 3 kids and 15 years.

Not really one up manship either by the normal measures, cars, houses,jobs etc as I have probably comprimised on them all by putting a bit more emphasis on life balance..

Even in your example, your wife has a choice in her career path, it may have been clear cut I wouldnt argue one way or another on the net, but its still a choice.

Good to here your trim btw :), sure you dont need reminding that too is becoming the exception.

The point I am making is taking your kids to school by car should not be seen as the norm

I agree that this is a desirable state of affairs, but circumstances differ between people;
What if you need to use a car for work?
What if you work 6 or 7 miles away from your child’s school?
Both school and work start at 9 am…
What if your hours are such that you finish work 15 or so minutes before school closes?
What if you have more than one child, and need to get them both to different schools?

Public transport, walking, cycling are all the best option for individual transportation, but add in transporting children, add in tight time schedules, add in the demands of working hours and it becomes a little less achievable.

re: taking the kids to school – some people do take it to the extreme though. A family live just up the road from us and it must be 5 minutes walk absolute tops to their school.

The route isn’t dangerous – out their house and turn left and walk down a small road and not very busy, cross 1 minor road, turn left at the end and they are at school.

Quite often see them being packed in to their Imprezza for a lift there…

Regarding nice cars etc – when I am in a position to afford something I consider nice I will get one. I do 15-20k miles a year and want something that I enjoy…

Cheers

Danny B

We had a pension company visit us to discuss managing our company pension. They turned up in a BMW 7 series. We turned them down on the basis that if that was their company car, they were taking too much commission.

I hope you don’t have any serious responsibility at your firm – that’s ridiculous!

Perhaps it was their personal car, purchased with some inheritance money? Or maybe they have downsized their house, and had a fair chunk of cash left over?

Perhaps their 3-series company car was having a service, and the garage offered them the 7-series for the day?

(The list goes on….)

Perhaps they also make their clients shitloads of money in the pension funds and the 7 Series is a fraction of a percent in terms of that generated income.

We had a pension company visit us to discuss managing our company pension. They turned up in a BMW 7 series. We turned them down on the basis that if that was their company car, they were taking too much commission.

Conversely I wouldn’t feel that giving money to a chap who turns up in a shed of a motor was a particularly safe decision.

We had a pension company visit us to discuss managing our company pension. They turned up in a BMW 7 series. We turned them down on the basis that if that was their company car, they were taking too much commission

Asking how much commission he takes might have been a more astute approach?