How are people affording cars?

flibbage0

flibbage0

flibbage0

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Joined
6 Jun 2010
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Genuine question that I can't seem to get my head around, how are people affording cars?

Looking at the price of a new VW Golf or 3 series they're bloomin expensive. I remember back in the day circa 2014-2016 you could get a VW Golf R for under £250 a month as some of you may remember. Those sort of lease deals don't exist anymore yet I'm seeing so much flashy metal out there.

With inflation and wage stagnation and uncertainty in the markets, don't get me started on house prices (might do a separate thread), how are people funding all these cars?
 
robfosters said:
We’re on our way to a society in which you don’t own anything expensive, you merely hire it
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This. The days of admiring someones' car are long behind me, as the vast majority of the cars you see on the roads are leased by finance companies.

It'll all come to a head one day, but let them enjoy the bling for the 'gram while they can.
 
How many genuinely brand new cars do you see? I certainly don’t see many but I have seen a marked increase in 3-5 year old cars compared to how it “felt” a few years ago. Most new car registrations are company cars iirc.
 
DRZ said:
How many genuinely brand new cars do you see? I certainly don’t see many but I have seen a marked increase in 3-5 year old cars compared to how it “felt” a few years ago. Most new car registrations are company cars iirc.
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A large percentage of the brand new cars you see are motability cars. They have over 650,000 customers.
 
robfosters said:
A large percentage of the brand new cars you see are motability cars. They have over 650,000 customers.
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This is interesting I did not know there were that many customers. Speaking of schemes as I work for the NHS all the NHS fleet solutions are pretty much all EV's now and most of them aren't very appealing in terms of price and the vehicle itself.
 
Lot of people doing it on ludicrous PCP deals - but essentially rent a car seems to work for a lot of people.
 
flibbage0 said:
This is interesting I did not know there were that many customers. Speaking of schemes as I work for the NHS all the NHS fleet solutions are pretty much all EV's now and most of them aren't very appealing in terms of price and the vehicle itself.
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They’re the UK’s largest fleet operator by a long way, and their buying power means they get staggering discounts.
 
I’d imagine that leasing is likely the most common non-company car form of financing, followed closely by PCP. Even the old staple of HP is likely rare these days, as it’s all about the monthlies.

I’m happy that we own all our vehicles outright currently.
 
Individual PCP or PCH cars on reasonable monthlies
Salary sacrifice or company cars - EV’s are price well due to the low tax

Also, there are a lot of business sectors doing well, so money isn’t as hard to come by as you might think.
 
SDK^ said:
Individual PCP or PCH cars on reasonable monthlies
Salary sacrifice or company cars - EV’s are price well due to the low tax

Also, there are a lot of business sectors doing well, so money isn’t as hard to come by as you might think.
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The cost of living is going up, but the way the media carries on, you’d think we was all working for tuppence an hour
 
Because people sell their expensive house in one area and move to areas with cheaper house and live off the difference.

Well that is how many of my neighbours have flash cars anyway and they own them outright.
 
Buy assets that appreciate, lease assets that depreciate. It is pretty simple maths tbh.
 
200sols said:
Which makes no sense really, lease or buy you are still paying the depreciation.
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I guess the adage is if you have to make a choice. House deposit/investments over tying cash up in a car that sheds value/goes wrong.
 
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