I am genuinely curious so here are a couple of questions…

1. Who has actually bought a new car outright and what was the cost?

ie: no lease cars, no finance, no bank loans etc, just flat out walked into a dealer and spent £X on a *new* car. (no credit cards either unless you paid it off the next month 🙂 )

and for sake of argument lets limit it to in the last 10 years.

2. Do you still own that car now? how old is it now and when do you plan on replacing it?

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please lets keep the posturing, egos and such to a minimum, I’m just curious and would like to get a feel for numbers to see if it fits my expectations.

I worked in a Toyota Main dealers about 15 years ago, selling cars, we’d sell 30-40 new cars retail per month (Not including Business Lease deals) I can only remember selling 3 to outright Cash buyers in the year or so that I was there…..

One was our Demonstrator MR2 to a bloke that had got a redundancy payout.

The Other 2 were fully specced Land Cruisers to Pikies !!
They Came in with £40K in cash in carrier bags !!

New Car is the 2nd largest purchase for most people after their house

Never.

My FIL has, several times. He’s retired and has an apparently healthy supply of cash (baby boomer…).

Cars have been changed reasonably often, but at least one car in the family (they have two) becomes a workhorse and does heavy mileage.

However, given that he is retired (and therefore on a fixed income), he prefers to use interest free finance to improve his cashflow.

Nope. Never have, never will. I prefer my cars to be older and have a few miles under their belts so that any bugs have been worked out.

My wife bought her mini new, but with a bank loan. My dad bought a new car with cash when he got his retirement lump sum. That was a toyota auris.

I’ve bought used with cash, but next time it will be on 0% credit card so I can raise interest on the capital whilst the car payments attract no interest.

Well, I bought my last 3 new motorbikes ‘cash’, at between £7-8.5k, all new but on deals. And sold them after 2 years and only a couple of k’s loss on each.

Car wise I buy s/h myself, still cash, but my wife’s car was bought new for cash. A run-out Freelander, listed at £24k, we paid £19.5k – and the new model was nearer £30k.

Still have it, got 85k on it now at 5 years old and expect to keep it another 5 years, unless something changes/improves financially.

Bought a new Golf 2 years ago on the scrappage scheme cause it had £4500 off the list price. Still have it and will drive it until it dies!

Brought a SEAT Leon Ecomotive a year ago to the day for £14850. Plan on keeping it until it dies or until it becomes too expensive to run (when we make the switch to sail powered cars)

Have bought four new cars. £100 deposit and then paid the balance on collection. It’s a nice position to be in but the RRP of a new car is not to be taken seriously.

Last one was a Focus in 2009. IIRC it was £7700. Pxed it last year for a Mondeo.

Have only once bought a used motorcycle in 30 years of riding motorbikes. Innumerable Hondas, a Kawasaki a couple of Harleys, a Buell, a Ducati and two Yamahas

Never bought a new car, but all have been cash purchases cars generally 3-4 years old.

I view them like bikes something to be enjoyed so i save up buy ones that take my fancy.

My dad buys a new car every 2-3 years. He buys them all outright. He’s had a few Fords, a Citroen, and recently a Nissan. He’s fairly astute, and I don’t think he ever pays full list price

Myself I’ve only bought a new motorbike outright. I lost about £800 in just over a year when I sold it.

Yes, got 1/3rd off the retail price and traded in previous car so total cost was less then half. 6 years old, still going ok if dented (by buses, whose drivers don’t ever stop). Less than £10k.

I’ve bought used with cash, but next time it will be on 0% credit card so I can raise interest on the capital whilst the car payments attract no interest.

Maybe better to negotiate a cash discount with the dealer with interest rates so low at present, you should be able to get 3% discount easy as thats roughly what it will cost them to process card, but 5% is not un-acheivable and I don’t think you likely to get that on short term deposit.

my dad has (for as long as I’ve been alive) brought cars without credit :

1984 volvo 340 ~£4000
1993 volvo 440 (after the previous one got written off) ~£10000
2004 volvo v40 (after the previous one got written off) ~£13000

see a pattern emerging?

My folks have never had credit for anything apart from a mortgauge.

I’ve never spent more than a grand on a car in 9 years of motoring. always bought in cash

I have only ever paid cash for my cars. First 2 were brand new, following 3 have been 3-4 year olds from main dealers.
I acknowledge I am lucky and odd in that respect, but I hate owing money especially on something that depreciates.

I bought a brand shiney new Volvo V70 T5 about 10 years ago (was probably 11). Cost me about £25k, kept it for 8 years and sold it for £3500 🙁
Bought an ex-demo XC90 9 years ago which cost £37k (had to pay a premium to by-pass the 18 month waiting list). Still have the car and have no intention of selling it as there’s nowt out there that would do a better job for us.

That was during a purple patch for my business and can’t see it happening again anytime soon 🙁

Bought my honda accord tourer new, was going to pay cash but the offer of 3 years interest free credit was too good to resist. Just make the payments from the lump sum. I think it cost around £20k with a trade in.

Bought the car in 2005 and still got it.

I buy my cars 2-3yrs old. Cash (well direct debit these days). I always negotiate the price before talking about the fianance options (but hint that I might take the finanace), otherwise some dealers are much less interested in you as a buyer. Also I refuse the GAP insurance, paint guard, etc..etc… all high mark ups for dealers. Fixed servicing can be good though. Honda Happiness for our Accrod £240 for 3 yrs!

I can only assume anyone who buys a NEW car personally has either a LOT of spare cash to bin pointlessly or is really really image conscious. I can’t think of a single sensible reason for a normal person wanting to waste massive amounts of cash on depreciation like that, even less so if bought on finance.

Honda Happiness for our Accrod £240 for 3 yrs!

You didn’t negotiate hard enough, mine was free.

either a LOT of spare cash to bin pointlessly or is really really image conscious

Honda accord tourer so definately not an image thing, I wanted a new car because I was going to keep it ‘forever’, I wanted it specced for me, I’m not bothered what anyone else thinks of that.

My father in law. He’s minted and he buys two brand new cars with cash every 3 years for him and the mother in law.

You didn’t negotiate hard enough, mine was free

No I just saved £14K off the list price buying a 2yr old car with 15K on the clock.

I can only assume anyone who buys a NEW car personally has either a LOT of spare cash to bin pointlessly or is really really image conscious. I can’t think of a single sensible reason for a normal person wanting to waste massive amounts of cash on depreciation like that, even less so if bought on finance.

cars don’t depreciate *that much* on the amount you spend. they depreciate a lot compared to the list price, but as is evidenced here, very few people pay that.

Most people wouldn’t touch second hand trousers, yet they depreciate more than a car would

No I just saved £14K off the list price buying a 2yr old car with 15K on the clock.

How did you ‘save’ £14k, you bought a two year old used car for what it was worth, so you can’t say you save x amount on new, thats like comparing apples with oranges.

like comparing apples with oranges.

or apples with cider

mmmm. cider…

I can only assume anyone who buys a NEW car personally has either a LOT of spare cash to bin pointlessly or is really really image conscious

Up until a few years ago, things were different. If you were in the market for a nearly new car, the only option was a low mileage ex-company/hire/demo car which had been mercilessly abused and covered in cosmetic defects, and yet the price was not a lot less than a spangly new one. Mainstream affordable used cars were on their third or later careless owner and invariably very well used.

In this situation I felt better about stumping up some more cash and getting a new car.

Things have changed now and cars are more of an appliance, like washing machines. Much more choice and the internet makes it easy to find them

Bought an ex-demo XC90 9 years ago which cost £37k

you paid £37k, in one go, without credit, for a Volvo?

you paid £37k, in one go, without credit, for a Volvo?

he paid £62k over 2 years for 2 of them

😮

i spend more money on my bike than a car,at least i get more enjoyment out of a bike

I bought a New Renault Espace in about 2006 for cash (about £20k). I went in to buy a second hand one and they offered such a good deal on a new one that it seemed rude not to. Still have it now.

Picked up a VW scirocco in April – reduced from 33k to 26k so did a bank transfer for the full funds from the savings account.
in 2009 I picked up a Honda S2000 for 8.75k in cash – still have both

Honda accord tourer so definately not an image thing, I wanted a new car because I was going to keep it ‘forever’, I wanted it specced for me, I’m not bothered what anyone else thinks of that.

If you’re genuinely going to keep it forever then that’s pretty impressive, but I suspect you’ll not. Either way, you still have to accept that it’s worth a fraction of its original price almost immediately and if you ever choose to change you’re likely to lose out bigtime. The numbers just don’t add up unless you really do run it into the ground and are happy to throw vast amounts of money at it to keep it alive in the mean time (assuming you can’t do your own work etc).

The sums for even a basic runabout machine brand spanking new turn out to be around £1K a year assuming a 10 year life, and you’d have to not be bored to tears of having the same car year in year out.

I just don’t get it I suppose, I’d rather buy 2nd, 5th, 8th hand for a bargain than new, and I LOVE cars lol.

Father in law got a 25% discount plus a load of extras free with a Merc E class, 2 years ago paying cash.
Wanted a specific interior and other bits (practical not fandago gubbins which was an oddish mix) so was unlikely to find it at a year or two old, so bought new, his first Brand new car ever all before beginning a year or two old ones.

I won’t ever be buying a brand new car as it’s a waste of money.

I can only assume anyone who buys a NEW car personally has either a LOT of spare cash to bin pointlessly or is really really image conscious. I can’t think of a single sensible reason for a normal person wanting to waste massive amounts of cash on depreciation like that, even less so if bought on finance.

Unless you’ve been in the position of been able to afford it, you can’t really make that call.

to be fair he did say:

I can’t think of a single sensible reason

so if you disagree you should be able to provide some sensible reasoning?

My dad is from Hong Kong and apparently there it is common to buy a car from new and then think about trading it in when it’s about 3 years old…

The last 5 cars he’s bought have been from new (some with part exchange). I’m not going to list them as I can assure you you’d all judge his complete lack of sense and taste 🙂

If you’re genuinely going to keep it forever then that’s pretty impressive, but I suspect you’ll not. Either way, you still have to accept that it’s worth a fraction of its original price almost immediately and if you ever choose to change you’re likely to lose out bigtime.

I suspect I’ll keep it a long, long time. It’s only done 80k and still feels and looks like new. I don’t have an isue with accepting thats its worth a fraction of its original price. That’s what happens with anything new.

Perhaps you know me better than I do, but I doubt it.

Do you purchase bikes, clothes, etc all second hand?

Just remembred my dad went through a stage of buying brand new every couple of years 2 Allegros (one a Vandam plus) a Maxi and then a Metro. 😆

Franky he was a tool when he was younger I reckon 😉

My ex-girlfriend’s Dad is a multi-millionaire, he refused to pay for a brand new car on principle. He is a very smart man…unlike me.