How do people afford nice cars?

dougguk · 9 Jul 2006 at 00:01

Always wondered this. You go around seeing people in nice cars whilst im in the rust bucket '94 Corsa and I'm thinking "How do people afford to spend 10k+ on a car?"

Im on £22k and pay about 600 out a month for bills and rent and cant seem to save anything!!

What type of wages are people on who own the more expensive cars and how do you go about being able to afford the payments, repairs, servicing, etc?

I'm a biker now as I got fed up with not being able to afford a nice car (and was embarassed driving a corsa!!). Bought a sports bike instead for the speed, etc. But that was only 3k!

Whats ya secret?

[TW]Fox · 9 Jul 2006 at 00:05

I buy cars that look more expensive than they are

benjo · 9 Jul 2006 at 00:06

A friendly bank

dougguk · 9 Jul 2006 at 00:07

[TW]Fox said:
I buy cars that look more expensive than they are

I like your style

cheets64 · 9 Jul 2006 at 00:07

Buy now pay later.

Id love to have a nice £20k Focus ST but the monthly repayments would be sky high, I bet 95% of people with brand new BMWs Merc's etc are on HPI or loans.

Sequoia · 9 Jul 2006 at 00:08

dougguk said:
......

Whats ya secret?

Many, many years (decades) of very hard work, a certain level of ability, achievement at work, a fair bit of risk-taking and not a small amount of damned good luck.

andi · 9 Jul 2006 at 00:08

Don't spend as much on other things. To some people, its more of a priority, so will skimp on other things in order to pay for a car.

Firestar_3x · 9 Jul 2006 at 00:09

Cause loads of ppl still live at home, pay the parents nothing and have loads of money to spend on cars (Most of the time they don't own the car, its on a bank or car loan) so they may seem better off than you but they don't actually own the car at all.

William · 9 Jul 2006 at 00:10

Simple answer is, they can't, they get the things on credit. I think my Dad and Brother both earn a packet and they couldn't afford a new car. Infact my dad bought the first ever brand new car in his life the other week.

It was a Ford Mondeo.

Noxis · 9 Jul 2006 at 00:10

Its all about prioritys, make a nice car your highest priority and yer sorted. After £600 on bills I am guessing you have another £500 or so left? A bank loan over 3 - 4 years would easily see you to a £10k assuming you can pay £3k or so towards it.

As Fox is always quick to point out - around the £10k/11k mark you can get yourself a nice BMW 3-Series 325/330i Sport 51/02/52 plate. As long as you dont mind say 70 - 100k miles on the clock.

Noxis · 9 Jul 2006 at 00:12

cheets64 said:
Buy now pay later.

Id love to have a nice £20k Focus ST but the monthly repayments would be sky high, I bet 95% of people with brand new BMWs Merc's etc are on HPI or loans.

You need to set your sights a little higher - £20k on a Focus :eek:

(I know its a ST... but its still a danged Focus) sheesh... £20k would get a S2000, RX8, Elise, M3... jeez the list goes on. Anyone who spends £20k on any Ford (unless its a Ford GT

) deserves to be shot imo :eek:

Edit: Just to express my total *braappfff* (couldnt think of a word so made one up) at people who say these things, its like being in school and saying "When I grow up I want to be a binman! or work on the checkout at Tesco!".

Having a Focus isnt something you dream about - its something life throws at you that you have to deal with

If your budget is about £3k - £4k then its a excellent car but IMO not worth more than that even new.

[TW]Fox · 9 Jul 2006 at 00:12

Noxis said:
As Fox is always quick to point out - around the £10k/11k mark you can get yourself a nice BMW 3-Series 325/330i Sport 51/02/52 plate. As long as you dont mind say 70 - 100k miles on the clock.

Exactly, and to everyone else it looks exactly the same as the 10k mile 54 plate on the main dealers forecourt for £20k.

As you all know I'm looking to spend about £8-9k on a facelift 5 Series Sport. I know somebody giving serious consideration to buying a low mileage 03 plate 530i Sport - for £18k. And thats not overpriced either, its the going rate.

You can buy an awful lot if you buy smart and it'll look far more expensive than it really is. Only you can see the odometer.

Arc · 9 Jul 2006 at 00:14

You'd be amazed at the wages some people earn. Others make a car a higher priority (e.g. 2nd behind a house) and put a lot of money aside. Finance is easy to get now and 0% interest makes things a lot easier.

Others just save up for long periods of time and then splash the cash.

[TW]Fox said:
I buy cars that look more expensive than they are

Should have gone to specsavers

.

Kazzan · 9 Jul 2006 at 00:17

They earn more money.

I'm in almost exactly the same situation with my income and out-goings and I'm struggling to buy a £5k car. If my outgoings were the same, but I was earning £5k more, (after the taxman has taken lots of it) it would probably leave me with an extra £300+ cash each month which would allow me to turn a £5k car into a £10k one.

The only people I know who have a really nice car and earn about the same as me live with their parents. It would have to be a really nice car for me to consider that

[TW]Fox · 9 Jul 2006 at 00:18

Arc said:
Should have gone to specsavers .

It's a Mondeo but it doesnt look like a 1500 quid car

Deuteronomy · 9 Jul 2006 at 00:19

I`d love to know this too, there seems to be a lot of pressure on people to be seen to have a nice car, like its somekind of visible badge of how well you are doing in life. I recently got a new job this year and the people i work with are great but they are always trying to upstage each other by having the most exotic cars, a look at the carpark will see impretzas and evos and gti`s type R etc, mainly men aged 20-30. I know what salary they are on so must be on loans or HPI etc and do not think twice about it.
I have just learnt to drive in the last 3 months and recently passed and am looking to buy my first car and also feel this pressure to some extent but I was bought up to be careful with money and have zero debts and loans and even some savings, I would not consider borrowing money or hpi or a loan where I pay off over x amount of years, yet a freind of mine has 20k of debts and everything even his computer stuff is bought on BNPL/finance I jsut could not live with that.

[TW]Fox · 9 Jul 2006 at 00:21

Different priorities for different people, dont forget.

At my stage in life I'm just enjoying myself and a nice car is a big part of that. I'll grow up one day.

James_N · 9 Jul 2006 at 00:22

I had a Civic Type R at 21. My job isnt amazing but I dont have hardly any other commitments at all. But in the end, i got sick of the high insurance, high running costs, depriciation, crappy alarm system, crap interior, the inability to use the speed 99% of the time, and the fear it would be stole.

I swapped it for an old volvo estate. Its not pretty, but it attracts no attention, is uber cheap to run, and allows me to save up much more cash for use on other things.

Silent Bob · 9 Jul 2006 at 00:25

I've had my own car for the last 3 years and slowly worked up to having a nice car. My first car a 306 was bought from student loan money and part time job. Then managed to save 3k over the next year to upgrade to a mk3 mondeo. Now a year later saved a further 5k and plus 1k overdraft to afford the celica. So all in all i've saved 11k over the last 3.5 years (£260 per month) which hasn't been that difficult.

Noxis · 9 Jul 2006 at 00:26

Deuteronomy said:
I`d love to know this too, there seems to be a lot of pressure on people to be seen to have a nice car, like its somekind of visible badge of how well you are doing in life. I recently got a new job this year and the people i work with are great but they are always trying to upstage each other by having the most exotic cars, a look at the carpark will see impretzas and evos and gti`s type R etc, mainly men aged 20-30. I know what salary they are on so must be on loans or HPI etc and do not think twice about it.
I have just learnt to drive in the last 3 months and recently passed and am looking to buy my first car and also feel this pressure to some extent but I was bought up to be careful with money and have zero debts and loans and even some savings, I would not consider borrowing money or hpi or a loan where I pay off over x amount of years, yet a freind of mine has 20k of debts and everything even his computer stuff is bought on BNPL/finance I jsut could not live with that.

You gonna be a bit stuck then when you have to get a mortgage

Debt is fine as long its not crazy debt, i'd never buy anything other than a car or a house with a loan unless its 0% and then its just sensible coz you earn interest by keeping your money stashed away.

You just decide what you can afford to throw at a car each month and see how far it takes you. £3k savings + £200 a month will get you a £11k car over 4 years. Yes you end up paying about £12k for the car but you can easily make that back by haggeling or getting extras.

Of course a car isnt an investment its a blackhole for cash. After the 4 years you car is probably going to be worth about 50% of what you just finished paying for it.

All about prioritys.

How do people afford nice cars?

Wise Guy