I pay cash ,never more than a grand .I hate spending money on cars as they are just a tool to convey you.Current car cost 400 quid 3 years ago.My cars are also usually full of bikes and or outdoor kit so there is no point having anything decent to get messy inside with chain marks and mud

Bikes and kids don’t half wreck a car!

Add dogs into the mix…
My two did more damage to a mercedes E300 in one month than they did to my Forester in ten years!

The answer is none of the above.

Most people finance cars, I like to keep the term short and get some free motoring after its paid. So a find a car you like in budget, usually for me that’ll be one thats a fee yeas old but from a dealer and in as new condition.

Pay for it with either a Tesco loan or finance from the dealer over no more than a three year term. Drive the car for five years, then sell it or give it to someone.

Start again.

Which is fine if you like spending a couple of hundred quid or more on a car a month .I prefer to drive crap cars and drink beer on weekends away !

Buy it with money, cant be doing with debt or renting a car.

1) Decide roughly what requirements are
2) Research a shortlist on the web
3) Go visit dealers to see them in the flesh
4) Test drive
5) Pay in cash

This – although it probably says more about the STW demographic than anything else

I often toy with getting a nicer, newer car..but…I like the way it drives, I like teh fact it’s sort of ‘tipped’ passed the ‘I REALLY really care about this car’ phase, so we look after it, but I’m not precious…
Bikes and kids don’t half wreck a car!

Exactly. I’ve got a 7 year old Octavia Vrs that Ive had for 4 years and has done 140,000. I was starting to “wobble” about driving around in a car with that much mileage but on our recent trip to france my girlfriend managed to reverse it into the gate of the place we were staying at. It would be about £800 to repair , but the damage is purely to the plastic bumper, has no effect on the safety or roadworthiness of the car, so why bother.

I think I’ll just keep it, keep it well maintained mechanically and see if gets me to 200,000.

the cost to change would be £300ish per month to rent a comparable new car at the mileage we do which pays for a lot of maintenance.

i set out to buy the one with the good service history and low owners.

i usually end up buying the one with little/no service history because mechanically for the money it drives and sounds better.

people believe a full dealer service history on a 7-8-9 year old car means you can charge a premium for a wrecker.

However i dont give a shit about dents or even cuts and tears on the interior… .but if i turn up to view a dirty car i walk away.

I avoid old low miles cars as well – time kills cars more than miles + people seem to think that a 10 year old car with 30000 miles is worth not much less than a 3 year old car with 30000 miles …..

but yeah cheap and with cash.

the only thing that will change that is if i need to have a car for my work and work are paying for me to have a car for my work …..

Ill be damned if im paying a dealer to keep my financed/leased/rented car in good nick to stay within teh terms …. when i can do it my self at a more convenient time for about 1/8th the price……and while im under there i can check out the rest of the car and evaluate what i needs – what its likely to need soon ….

I wait till an older relative is thinking of buying a new car and dive in with £200 more than the part exchange offer they have had.

Never paid more than 2k for a car in 20 years. Hate debt and would rather have a nicer older car than a boring new one. And if I’m going to have a boring car I’d rather just have a boring old one that doesn’t cost me a fortune. Leaves me more money for bikes…

Almost all of them have only had minor niggles, and I’ve never had to pay £100s on repairs.

Have thought about buying new cars, and can can see the appeal of not having any worry about mechanical failures, MOTs, etc. But I kinda like the old school mindset of motoring, where you’re involved in the whole package, and it’s not just a consumable object. I like to get my hands dirty now and again, and it saves a shit load of money. Last car I just sold, cost me about £100 a year.

Usually, buy 3yr old for cash and keep it until I think it’s about to die then sell it for a few £100. Last replacement, I bought a new one at 22% discount and decide that was worth it compared to 3yr old, given that I’m keeping it; I save some maintenance and MoT costs, I get a newer and more fuel efficient model (£20 pa tax), I know it’s been maintained and not thrashed and I could choose my extras. And all the hassle of replacing roof rack, boot liner, etc isn’t due for an extra 3 years.

I can’t remember. It’s been 11 years since I bought my Honda.

Credit, lots of it.

If I had to buy again I might go for the 4-5k bracket. Any money you may spend on repairs will be less than you will fork out for a newer motor.

I spend up to £1,500 on something in good condition and low mileage. Buy them when you see them. Had a £900 Skoda Felicity with 27,000 miles on it. Sold it when I saw a Peugeot 406 on a dealers forecourt for £650. Low mileage, one owner car in mint condition. Knocked him down to £600 😀

I loved that car, smooth, comfortable and spacious. Mrs Z wrote it off twice. Once I paid the difference in the repair bill and the insurance payout. The 2nd time I didn’t.

Then got a Citroen C5 which she also wrote off. She reckons it was cos they were red! Now have a £1,500 Xsara in blue. 12 years old and 50,000 miles when we bought it. We’ve had it 2 years so I expect a prang any time soon.

Get them serviced on schedule and you shouldn’t go far wrong. Get a huge bill and scrap them and buy another. Not always one around when you need them, but it saves tying up thousands in a depreciating asset. Especially as Mrs Z tends to treat them as disposable.

I’ve often wondered if she might look after them more if she bought them. Life’s to short to suggest it to her though 😛

I personally run a lease vehicle through work. My mileage per year is 25k so it’s actually cheaper and less stress to do that. I could buy with my car allowance but the service and support make a lease a no brainier.

We have a run around too that the wife drives and that was bought from a dealership as an ex demonstrator with 600miles on it. That was bought cash. This car does 400 miles a month!

A lot depends on what it is used for.

I also ge a car allowance. It covered the loan, insurance and tyres when I had the loan; now it’s been paid off for yeqrs I am quids in. Car is still more or less the same as when I got it inside.

Car is still more or less the same as when I got it inside.

Inside what?

Bought cash, but kind of picky over what we get.
The wifes car is generally the fun one and tends to depreciate slowly, although the previous increased in value.
My car is the practical one, although not that sensible in a hope of cheap motoring, it caught my eye and was cheap. It can only be devalued by not having a MoT certificate.

My current car fit my criteria of-

1- less than £2500
2- big estate
3- good history

The seller was genuine, and accepted my low ball offer.

If it appreciates buy it, if it’s depreciates lease it…

Said Getty (a billionaire)

I grew up poor, but was taught practical stuff, repairs, engineering etc.

I bought most of my cars under £500, in fact the last three didn’t add up to that much together. If they become uneconomical to repair I sell as much of them as I can before scrapping them.

I did 15K miles in my last Golf which, apart from normal servicing parts, mot and tax, cost me £300 over that mileage. It’s sat waiting for some love as I’m running a Jag I bought, repaired and moted for under £400, it would sell this week for £2k.

It’s a PITA way of doing things but I like it.

I cant see the point in saving for years to have the cash to buy a car out right. Not sure how people manage this? ie where do you get your lump of cash from?

Eh…? My last car cost £2300, a not insurmountable figure…

11 years old, drives great, spent a few hundred on it over the last 2 years.. Still drives great. Is clean and tidy inside and out, no rust. Looks pretty much like a newer car…

I don’t see the need to get into debt. Just shop smart. And buy at the shallow end of the depreciation curve. Maintenance costs are an order of magnitude smaller than depreciation losses.

So how do you get to work etc without having a car in the first place? Or do you start with a £200 car and slowly work up?

My next car costs £40k to buy, it would take me 10 years to save up for it at the amount it is going to cost me per month, and then of course in 10 years time that £40k Ive saved wouldn’t buy me the same amount of car.

Yeah kind of, actually my first car they started out asking for £100 but we negotiated and settled on £50 if they kept the car stereo. It is all about being frugal when you start earning money so you don’t have debt and are not losing money to interest payments. When you don’t have loan payments/credit card interest coming out of your paycheck it is surprisingly easy to save money.

Buying anything on loan/interest you end up paying out far more in total than if you bought it up front, even if you find a deal where you get a 0% finance for the car, that same car can be bought cheaper for up front cash.

I think you need to be some kind of maniac to consider buying a £40k car on finance/lease, but thanks though, because it is supporting the UK market of cheap 2nd hand performance cars which I have enjoyed 😛

Is it really “debt” if you are buying an asset…? As long as the value of the car is dropping at the same rate or slower than the balance on the loan, I am not sure I see why people get so worked up about financing cars.

Yes there is a cost of interest, but it also leaves capital free to do other things, so thats what you really need to assess.

How do you lot that say you don’t do debt afford to buy a house?

Is it really “debt” if you are buying an asset…?

You might maintain positive equity but it is still a debt

Yes there is a cost of interest, but it also leaves capital free to do other things, so thats what you really need to assess.

True, but history has shown me that I am not a good enough investor to reliably get a better return on a wedge of cash than a typical loan rate. You may have better skills/luck if so then fair play to you.

This does remind me of when a colleague asked me what I thought of him buying a luxury Audi for £25k on finance. I told him I thought he was a maniac and if he was insistent on spending that much money he should at least get a Nissan GTR, Porsche 996 or something that has a decent chance of appreciating. Since that conversation he tried to sell the Audi but can’t get a good price because most people in the market for a £20k Audi need finance so don’t buy private and the GTR’s have roughly doubled in value. I wish I bought a GTR when they were cheap, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take and I admit I am too conservative and don’t take enough shots 😡

How do you lot that say you don’t do debt afford to buy a house?

People can usually buy a car that meets their basic needs, even ones with a warranty, for a couple of thousand – but people choose to get a much more expensive car on finance just for status/pride/enjoyment.
Property is different because people often cannot realistically buy one meeting their basic needs without a mortgage.
Usually the alternative to a mortgage is renting which is just throwing the money away. A mortgage, as long as it isn’t an interest only repayment one, you are at least accruing some capital for every payment that you make.
Houses don’t wear out and depreciate like cars do.

People can usually buy a car that meets their basic needs, even ones with a warranty, for a couple of thousand – but people choose to get a much more expensive car on finance just for status/pride/enjoyment.

Without those people the 2nd hand market which everyone is banging on about would collapse very quickly

Property is different because people often cannot realistically buy one meeting their basic needs without a mortgage.

Nah thats just aspiration and fiddling the markets on a grand scale. Houses have been forced up to make them unaffordable.

Usually the alternative to a mortgage is renting which is just throwing the money away.

Recent studies have shows that so long as you can spend the difference wisely a rental property can be an even investment to buying, many factors but things like stamp duty and moving fee’s along with remortgage etc and repairs can tip the scales.

A mortgage, as long as it isn’t an interest only repayment one, you are at least accruing some capital for every payment that you make.
Houses don’t wear out and depreciate like cars do.

No but they do wear out, there is a large amount of housing that was built to some shoddy standards, at what point does the remortgage go tits up as the valuation has gone through the floor as it needs a new roof etc. All the appliances need replacing and the heating system is on it’s last legs?

If the asset you have sunk your cash into is worth half what your original loan was for then the amount you paid for something is astronomical. Current trends mean something has to give in markets around the world.

Hmmm, tell that to the people who bought “luxury flats” in certain northern towns in 2008.

I am being slightly facetious, but my point is that seeing all debt as bad is not necessarily helpful. As this thread shows, there’s many ways of doing it. I see motoring as an operating cost rather than a capital cost so have no problem with spreading the up front cost over the time that I’m using the asset as long as I’m not paying silly rates of interest. That buys me reliable, fixed cost, risk free, fuel efficient motoring, which in itself is of value to me.

If the asset you have sunk your cash into is worth half what your original loan was for then the amount you paid for something is astronomical. Current trends mean something has to give in markets around the world.

Well yes it is a good idea to buy a well built house etc and it is one of those things where YMMV I guess.
I did think the outlook was looking a bit risky so in March I sold my house for double what I bought it for 6 years earlier. Something which may or may not turn out to be a wise decision in the long term (London property prices still seem to be going up).

I got a personal loan for 7k paid over 3 year’a for a 3 year old car. It is now 10 years old and I will run it into the ground.

We had a second car bought for 3k sold six years later for 2.7k !

Both cars requied less than £500 a year on servicing and repairs averaged out.

I would never lease a car and now I would never get a loan out for a car.

I view debt repayments on cars as a service. No different to leasing except you are on the hook for repairs, but even then you can put money by to cover that. You’re only a spreadsheet away from being your own lease company. With the bonus that you keep the car at the end. And you arent paying for the lease company’s office. Loans can be had cheaply if your credit rating is good. My car was bought on 4% Apr iirc so the cost of finance isn’t necessarily significant.

Debt isn’t bad in itself. Too much debt or too expensive debt is.

Novated Lease as I work for the gov’t. Car gets “leased” and I pay a figure from my pre-tax salary, and a certain amount every fortnight goes to my petrol card (tax free fuel!) and for my running cost / rego / tyres etc

At the end of the “lease” period there’s a settlement fee and I keep the car, or use the car as trade in towards another car. Also pay less tax through the year as my salary looks smaller than it is. Winner winner.

Winner winner.

Really?

When my colleague worked it out he’d have been over £500pm worse off for a Nissan Qashqai due to BIK. He bought a Superb instead, pays something like £200pm and will end up owning it.

I have come to hate debt too, so avoid loans like the plague. I saved up for my latest car which I bought outright, but then replaced my Wife’s two cars with an XC60 on their 3yr deal. I paid a hefty deposit, so the monthly payments were almost trivial, but liked the idea of a safe trouble free car for her and the family.