How do people afford BMWs?

Never mind poxy 3 series bimmers, can someone explain the huge number of Range Rovers (mainly the “cheaper” sports) on the roads?R

I do know enough people whose earnings are well in the six figure category, and even they claim RRs are too expensive..!

I drive a 1999 318i se touring. It only cost £1000 with 12 months mot and lots of the toys.
Bargain!
My bikes cost more! 🙂

@big dave – read mine and the following post again – increased costs is sometimes a myth.

Basically the BMW parts bin is most better sourced parts than the competition. Yes you pay the premium but yes, they last a lot longer. And the customer service is great. Even at the dealer, becuase of the age of the car I get charged max £199 for a Service (inc parts) and max £450 for all brakes and discs. I did lots of research for tyres, including BlackCircles and the like – couldnt beat the dealers price.

Plus. they have a “lifestyle” cafe, so I get my car serviced on a Saturday, on a while you wait basis, while I sit in the cafe and have a free bacon roll and coffee (or two) while i read the paper.

When I chose my company car a BMW would have been about £20 a month less than my Mondeo but to get the same spec in toys etc would have been about £30 more…and I can easily get my bike in the back of my car.

You will find quite a lot are company cars on basic spec for the status symbol of having a BMW. Also to be fair i dont really like german interiors. VW;s are fairly similar as well interior wise.

I was listening to Radio 4 tonight. Apparently, in the last 430 years social mobility amongst the top 10% of earners has increased at 8 times the rate of any other income group.

The rest of us have had to make do with cheap credit instead.

I recently got a 5 Series company car after many years of believing the (negative) BMW hype.

1) The emissions and therefore tax are about as low as you can go among a vast range of manufacturers.
2) The lease cost is very competitive with all the run of the mill shite due to the residual value of the car.
3) It’s without doubt the most comfortable best handling (at real world pace) car I’ve ever had.

Reasons 1and 2 are why they are so popular if you ask me.

£250 a month really isn’t a lot of money on a car. I run complete bangers, and I recon that all in its £100 a month for tax, insurance, mot, fixing it, and so on. If I ran a 5 year old car it’d be double that, so why not pay the smidge extra for something brand new?

I am about to take delivery of an A6 SLine SE estate 2.0 tdi – it is costing less on a lease than a medium spec Mondeo or Insignia – £270 a month. Look around and some good deals are available.

£250/month isn’t a great deal…

I wouldn’t spend it but a bloke at work recently bought a fully loaded Skoda Yeti – only the 1.2tsi. He is paying £350/ month.

He is the sole bread winner, is on about ‘average wage’, has a young kid & rents a house but deems £350 an acceptable amount to spend on a car!

Just been offered a brand new VW Touran tdi from my old personal lease company for £160/month; (+3?)

I had a SAAB 9-3 Sportwagen for a number of years on personal lease; what I paid didn’t even approach depreciation tbh – do the maths, unless you buy and are happy with a banger, why the heck would you buy a vehicle outright or through other forms of finance?

I am about to take delivery of an A6 SLine SE estate 2.0 tdi

Molgrips approovz of dis chois.

The lease companies can offer cheaper deals on BMW’s at the moment as there getting 3 years worth of free servicing from BMW, so when they sell a company a fully maintained lease package, they can afford to knock a few quid off as there not going to have to pay anything towards the service costs over the typical 3 year term.
Also on the 1 and 3 series BMW are moving away from run flat tyres and so replacement tyre costs are going down.
And BMW assist offer a 3 year breakdown package which keeps costs down again as there not paying so much to the AA / RAC.
Plus some of the BMW’s are tax friendly.
Making it a good deal for BMW, the lease companies and the company car driver.

I had a SAAB 9-3 Sportwagen for a number of years on personal lease; what I paid didn’t even approach depreciation tbh

thing is, it probably comfortably beat the depreciation the lease company took, as they’ll have paid 20-25% under book for 40 of the things..

Timing is key – i had a 911 that i paid 1/5th of its original price for (all receipts were with it and original sales receipt was $224,000), my RS4 was 50% of it’s original price after 18 months now selling for same as I paid generally.

I’ll never buy a new car ever.

Look at the prices of the previous model 5 series, the big petrols are not expensive cars now and still have a lot of life in them.

As others have said, co2 etc make lease beemers very attractive to the “business user”

And they look nicer and less plasticky than mercs.

I’ve, in the past, owned beemers. I’ve had 530d estates, 330d sport estates and an m3 of all my cars they’ve been an absolute pleasure to own and drive. I’ve had many a pleasurable drive around europe in them..

Got a few mates who work in ‘sales’….BMWs are the choice of the aspirational office worker everywhere….usually in grey too.

They are nice cars but there are lots of nice cars out there….its funny when i’ve been to one of these mate’s place of work and see the car park full of them….or Audis a few years ago when they were all the rage….and before that it was the new Mini….you get the idea, a lot of new cars on the road are fleet vehicles and people in that kind of stifling environment are always desperate to follow fashion even when it means they all have the same cars!

For me a good car is one that doesnt break….and BMW havent been anywhere near the top of any reliability lists for some years now….the last list i saw 8/10 of the top manufacturers were from the far east.

They are nice cars but there are lots of nice cars out there….its funny when i’ve been to one of these mate’s place of work and see the car park full of them….or Audis a few years ago when they were all the rage….and before that it was the new Mini….you get the idea, a lot of new cars on the road are fleet vehicles and people in that kind of stifling environment are always desperate to follow fashion even when it means they all have the same cars!

You can’t hide it you know.

Hide what?

Why drive a BMW ? other cars will do the job cheaper.Personally I cant think of anything worse to spend money on than a penis extension ,that and not having any money to buy one

I am about to take delivery of an A6 SLine SE estate 2.0 tdi

And woopee for you

I collected my C200 Merc last week. Very pleasant it is too. Its averaging over 50mpg so far, it is comfortable and my wife and son like it.

Its not that much on the tax (Company car) because the emissions are low and the fuel savings over my previous company car (Vio dualiner) will balance it out.

All i was bothered about was that i could fit my bike in the boot and i can 🙂 Couldnt swallow paying £350 for folding rear seats.

I have driven VW’s, fords and volvo’s over the years and this is by far the nicest car i have driven on a daily basis.

Am i pleased i have a new car on the drive that i like to drive – Yep
Am i bothered if somone else prefers to run used – Nope
WOuld i buy a new car if i had to fork out £30k of my own money – nope

Its just the way things are and you run with it.

5lab – agreed, but until I can buy a car at cost and in bulk its the best way surely? 😉

Never mind BMW’s. they’re not that far out of reach. Should you desire. What amazes me is the number of high end range rovers being driven around by ‘yummy mummy’s who clearly aren’t on the way to work. So hubby has probably got the BMW/merc as a company car. But thats a **** of a lot of money for a second car that’s basically just doing the school run

MF – are you sure it’s an A6 SLine SE? One or the other surely.

thegreatape – Member
MF – are you sure it’s an A6 SLine SE? One or the other surely.

POSTED 3 HOURS AGO # REPORT-POST

SE in this context is Special Edition, which gives met. Paint and some other bits (parking sensors, bigger wheels) for a couple of hundred quid, so it works out better value than a standard s-line.

It’s BMWs not BMW’s fer ****’s sake. GET IT RIGHT.

The plural of car is cars not car’s so why should it be BMW’s?

If you aspire to a lifestyle accessory affordable by only 1% of the world’s population, at least learn to punctuate.

My 328 touring cost me £300 🙂

Cheers, Rich

It’s BMWs not BMW’s fer ****’s sake. GET IT RIGHT.
The plural of car is cars not car’s so why should it be BMW’s?
If you aspire to a lifestyle accessory affordable by only 1% of the world’s population, at least learn to punctuate.

Ooooh get her! Actually, it is perfectly acceptable to use an apostrophe to separate the s to indicate
plurals when the word is an acronym or abbreviation.

mastiles_fanylion – Member
I am about to take delivery of an A6 SLine SE estate 2.0 tdi – it is costing less on a lease than a medium spec Mondeo or Insignia – £270 a month. Look around and some good deals are available.

A mate of mine just got one of them on a similarly excellent deal. I must have a gander down the local Audi garage.

I am about to take delivery of an A6 SLine SE estate 2.0 tdi – it is costing less on a lease than a medium spec Mondeo or Insignia – £270 a month. Look around and some good deals are available

Yup just put in final details for next car and Audis come back cheaper than Fords as the resale value is much better. Should be here in March with some luck.

Why did I order what I have? Well I like my cars I could run around in a second machine but I earn good money so I like to reward myself in various ways and one of those ways is a nice car. It has nothing to do with looking good in front of others it’s just I like cars. Some people spend way more on bikes than I do but that’s what they choose to do.

Don’t own a car, but can someone tell me the answer to a question that has been slightly intruiging me?

How much is a drivers side wing mirror for a Mercedes C-220? Seeing as i punched one off a car after the drver tried to drive over me to get to the lights. (I did try to headbutt him through the window but couldn’t get through.. :oops:)

Just to add my twopeneth worth, my bro in law has spent the last few weeks heavily researching his next personal contract hire car (or whatever it’s called) and had come up with the conclusion you get audis and mercs far cheaper than beemers! His current alfa is £310 a month (ridiculous if you ask me for something he’ll never own) but has found several mercs and audis 50/70 cheaper, mostly on e class and the 6 series audis.

How much is a drivers side wing mirror for a Mercedes C-220

About £150 plus labour and paint, so anywhere from £300 to £500

After over a decade of cars from the VAG group I recently bought a 3 year old 325D Touring as I fancied something a bit different (for me) and a bit bigger.

After I flog my Leon it’ll have cost me about £6k.. and I think I got a lot of car for the money. It’s silky smooth, still does 40+mpg and makes my 500+ mile/week commute a lot more relaxed – money well spent IMO!

Oh, and it’s not black, or grey, or silver… 😛

Its not some thing I worry about because its each to their own etc etc. However when you work it out say a £25k car, which wont get you much BMW these days… on 0% finance thats just under £700 a month over 3 years which to be fair is affordable if you are on a big salary and think cars are worth paying alot of money for!

If you want to get really picky you can look at all the BM’s, Mercs etc etc parked on the drives of houses that are relatively low in value. If its a company car you can then go down the lines of thinking, well surely if they are in a position where they get a nice company car, then they should be able to afford a bigger home? Then again its all each to their own and people can spend their money as they like. I think the majority of the population would think its stupid spending £3k on a mountain bike!

Mastiles thats a good deal, I bet its only a business deal though or I would be selling the wifes car and getting one for her!

You will find quite a lot are company cars on basic spec for the status symbol of having a BMW.

What is the status symbol of having a BMW? You automatically come across as a ****?

Anyone in the SE who wasn’t on the property ladder 10 years ago is f***ed as far as I can see. Me and my missus dream of a 3 bed!

We’ve got a 3 bed semi in the SE. £240,000 it cost. I earn about £25-27,000 (hourly paid so it varies) Mrs PP a bit more.
If we wanted we could afford a BMW too, no bother. But we plough all our spare cash into either savings or the house. Last year we chucked £12,000 (not credit either) at a kitchen, and we’ve just bought a £5000 motorbike, for instance.
The only debt we have is the mortgage, and there’s money in the bank for holidays etc

I suspect that a lot of people are up to their eyeballs in debt to pay for stuff like this. Buying a BMW on a Vauxhall wage. Holidays and Christmas paid for on credit cards….. Keeping up with the Jonses, I think they used to call it…..

I’m more struck by the ammount of cars sat idle on drives, nearly everyone a top end car.
But my take is that they are lease or company. I can see some starter homes down the road, and I wouldn’t be generalizing if I said every car was a Mini or series 1 or 3 BMW and a good few A6’s

I’d say never judge people by their cars. A lot are on credit and I know salesmen that change jobs for the cars ( the ones that think it’s classy to wear cufflinks)

What is the status symbol of having a BMW? You automatically come across as a ****?

Not within certain circles you dont – people obviously like them