car purchase price 5% of income. as it’s a ‘classic’ it’s nearly 5% a year to keep running, but I am doing 18k a year in it (yes it’s an old diesel merc).

Well after yesterday’s drive I’m becoming a bit disillusioned. 250bhp doesn’t work through front wheels only!!

Will try one more 5 year old Beemer then I’m giving up and will get another year out of my 11 yr old 320d before going round this buoy again!!!!!

I have no quarrel with people choosing to spending lots of money on cars. I do feel a bit sorry for people who are locked into working jobs they hate to buy shit they don’t need. You can save an awful lot of money by making do with an older car, it adds up to a lot of holidays, bikes, and years of early retirement…

Put it this way, my friends new VW has spent more time in the garage last year sorting various warranty issues than my 13yr old car which went just twice.

Ah the extrapolate on incident to help sure up my position….

Nope, several more examples where that came from, recalls, warranty issues, etc. A new car is no guarantee of trouble free motoring.

If you’re buying a 3 year old car often all this sort of stuff will have been sorted.

We bought a brand new German car which cost a fair bit. It was the one and only time in my life I’ll buy a brand new car.

However that was 12 years ago, we’re still running the car and to be honest I can see us still having it when it’s 20 years old. Still a lovely car to drive and overall has worked out pretty cheap.

I am delighted to say though that I’m now in full compliance with Rule 25.

Why would I reveal that? Reminds me of the poor STWer who was mauled by revealing he was on 50k and another slagged him off then revealed later on in the thread that he did as little work as possible as did his partner.

I don’t understand why you’d do any more than ‘as little work as possible’? Anything else is just wasted effort.

I’ve only owned one car bought for £7k with a loan when I was earning £28k (first proper job)

It’s still running 13 years later….it doesn’t lock or have a stereo after some nice chap decided to punch the lock through with a screw driver about 5 years ago. Paint work is bad and it sometimes leaks in heavy rain. But it works. It’s MOT is next week and I’m thinking it might not make it. Every time I fill it with petrol I think I’ve doubled the value of it.

I do feel a little self conscious driving into the work car park, as one of the more senior bods, I park my shed amongst the shiny audis and mercs.

My justification if asked why I drive it (I do get asked…) is I spend the money on bikes which make me far more happy…my bikes are probably worth about 50 times my car!

I work in design/branding. Apologises if this came over as willy swinging in anyway, I’m very humble in real life and often look at what I have and think how did I get here from colouring stuff in.

Haha, no I wasn’t having a go! Was just curious why your employer looked down a list of cars and thought “yes, this one will be great for our staff, not very practical and very very fast, it’s perfect for work purposes!” 🙂

Our list of cars is predictably dull (A6, 5 series, E class, a few japanese offerings), all with the most efficient engines available, no option to get something like a 535 for example. But, depending on what car class you’re in, the cash alternative ranges from £600 per month to £1,750 a month….so no one bothers taking the company car!

Given some of the finance deals available, there are some very, very nice cars in the car park that people have picked up as an alternative to the company cars. For example, you can pick up your 435d on lease for about £500 a month, so even those on quite a low car category could run one for the same cost as taking a company 520d.

I bought a cheap 2003 E39 530i fsh 80k miles in mint owned by a retired guy.

Cost me £2500 2 years ago and I also paid £600 and installed my own LPG system as its a thirsty brute.

Car is full leather with toys and costs me 75p per litre to fill with lpg (60 litres).
I keep half filled with petrol should I not find an lpg garage.

Better to drive and faster than my company ’14 Mondeo and my ’10 A4.

Bit slippery on cold backroads unless you use winters and parts are not cheap.

I’ll keep it till it dies.

Never really understood the car thing. Why spend x% of income on a depreciating means of transport but object to investing in you own health and education. Odd priorities IME.

But then I hardly drive. Last car 1995 plate and still only 56k on the clock!

I gather a lot of cars are bought on credit with monthly payments, whilst at the same time personal debt is increasing and hardly anyone’s paying enough into their pension – flash car now, starvation and penury at 65 – yay 😯

Buy second hand for cash if you can, something which is as reliable and comfortable as you need – buying a depreciating asset on debt as about as stupid a financial decision as you can make.

A 3 year old second-hand Ford Focus is as fast as a willy-waving status-mobile in a traffic jam, after all!

Over the years have done all the ways
Financed new and used – around 20-30% of income
Saved few £100 a month of spare income aroun 10-20% of income
But last car was needed in an emergency as I killed the last one and that £800 of spare income after a good month at work around 30% of that months income

I would say save or buy cheap cars as finance on new or used is never worth it

Our pick up, bought out right is about 10% of our (wife’s and mine) net salary.

I’m always astounded by my brother-in-law. He and his wife always have nice cars and pretty good jobs. He’ll buy a beautiful car (2 years old or so), keep it for a couple of years and sell it on losing barely any money. A8, 530i etc. It’s the people at the top of the food chain I can’t comprehend. Buy a new A8, sell it two years late for a fraction of what you paid!

I gather a lot of cars are bought on credit with monthly payments, whilst at the same time personal debt is increasing and hardly anyone’s paying enough into their pension – flash car now, starvation and penury at 65 – yay
‘

Well that’s the rub they aren’t being bought…. Someone had the bright idea of rather than lower costs to sell them just figuredout a way to get them to be ‘affordable’ ..