What % of household take home do you guys throw at vehicles?

Iamzod

Iamzod

Iamzod

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Apologies if this has been done before however I can't see a topic on it.

What sort of percentage of your income do you guys spend on your cars?

Our income has changed drastically over the past year however we still both roll around in an 11 year old Octavia, i'm into my older cars having an ST220 for a daily toy in the summer months which I have zero intention of ditching however I can't wrap my head around paying monthly for a family vehicle. The Octavia is getting a bit long in the tooth now, although it's reliable it's a bit battered.

What % of take home do you guys throw at vehicles (as a household, not an individual)?
 
for the car itself? none
bought it in cash and budgeted a £350/month depreciation (but due to covid hasn't been anything like that lol currently sitting @ £100/mth)

ved £450/yr
insurance £800/yr
maintenance £400/yr
fuel £80/wk
works out to be 8-9% of take home pay for running costs
 
Not much, although I live in a rural area and a car really is essential.

We buy decent used cars, then just keep them until they basically are falling apart. It helps I am able to service myself and do some limited repairs.
 
About 7% of our joined net income for both of our cars all in except elec/petrol. Prob go to about 10% when I upgrade soon and 18% when wife gives up work for a bit for baby duty. Mostly me as I’m a bit of a car nut. I feel it’s a lot, but we have good earnings overall and low mortgage payments remaining and don’t spend much generally.
 
Rounding up it's about 2.5% for two cars excluding fuel. The cars are owned outright and old (06 and 11), I do almost all the work myself on them and our insurance is cheap.

We need a new car. If it wasn't for a modest house deposit I could buy one outright however choice and costs are just ridiculous right now. We're debt free but housing and cars are just substandard for what people are asking for them in my opinion (8k for a 2012 S-Max in a spec worth having). I've looked at newer higher value cars but I don't wanna YOLO it just yet, so we're stuck renting a terraced shed with 3 kids whist needing to use two cars if we all need to go anywhere together. We could probably consolidate to one car as I work from home and nursery is in walking distance but it doesn't seem worth it given costs are minimal for the very odd occasion I can't be bothered to walk to nursery.

I reckon most people with a similar household income are in <5 year old cars that are perfect for their needs but probably sorted out their living arrangements long before that got silly. I'm really averse to just throwing money at the problem, but there will come a point I can't wait any longer and I know I'm gonna begrudge paying off a big loan for 3-5 years for just a car.
 
Head maths probably 2.5% for fuel, servicing, insurance etc. Both mine & the wife's car were paid for up front
 
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This is for more than one vehicle but in terms of running costs, insurance, tax, etc. probably about 18-19% last few years :s and this year a bit more as I've thrown a few grand at keeping the pickup running (4x4s tend to get expensive as they get older :( ). I could get that down but I like to drive the pickup more than I actually need to use it - if I was just running the Qashqai it would be like 3-4% or so.

Purchasing wise I'm not sure how I'd calculate it most of my recent purchases have been funded from a mix of money originally saved up years ago and in more recent times had inherited money to draw from. Nominally I'd probably save up like 20-30% for say 3 years then buy something.
 
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Iamzod said:
Apologies if this has been done before however I can't see a topic on it.

What sort of percentage of your income do you guys spend on your cars?

Our income has changed drastically over the past year however we still both roll around in an 11 year old Octavia, i'm into my older cars having an ST220 for a daily toy in the summer months which I have zero intention of ditching however I can't wrap my head around paying monthly for a family vehicle. The Octavia is getting a bit long in the tooth now, although it's reliable it's a bit battered.

What % of take home do you guys throw at vehicles (as a household, not an individual)?
Click to expand...
What do you mean by "spend"? Depreciation + maintenance + fuel?
 

What percentage of your wage do put towards motoring?

As the title suggests, what percentage of your wage goes towards your motor? This includes finance, insurance, fuel, TAX and estimated repair costs. Please don't include performance modifications since these are luxury and non essential, I'm looking for a necessary percentage of your wage...
forums.overclockers.co.uk forums.overclockers.co.uk

Honestly don't know any more and I don't think it's that easy to work out for us. I find these sort of comparisons a bit flawed because some people may have paid for their cars upfront and hence don't include any cost of purchase in their %age whereas others on finance agreements might do. Even 'take home' can be a bit misleading, as some people may choose to 'artificially' reduce their takehome by overpaying pension etc.
 
HangTime said:

What percentage of your wage do put towards motoring?

As the title suggests, what percentage of your wage goes towards your motor? This includes finance, insurance, fuel, TAX and estimated repair costs. Please don't include performance modifications since these are luxury and non essential, I'm looking for a necessary percentage of your wage...
forums.overclockers.co.uk forums.overclockers.co.uk

Honestly don't know any more and I don't think it's that easy to work out for us. I find these sort of comparisons a bit flawed because some people may have paid for their cars upfront and hence don't include any cost of purchase in their %age whereas others on finance agreements might do. Even 'take home' can be a bit misleading, as some people may choose to 'artificially' reduce their takehome by overpaying pension etc.
Click to expand...
Agree. In the past I used to try and make similar comparisons to OP but it really doesn't achieve much. If anything just lets you use being a sheeple to maybe justify spending more than you should. Every personal financial situation is unique.
More important questions than how much other people spend:
  • What are your overall financial goals?
  • How are you tracking against them?
  • Based on above how much free cash do you have?
  • How much of that are you happy dedicating to a car vs other priorities?
 
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teenwolf said:
Bout tree fiddy
Click to expand...

Well said, Teenwolf. Couldn't have put it better myself.
I have no idea what that means. I'm getting too old for the trendy internetz acronyms. :)

Me, I've been driving company car for last 27 years. I think I'm in for a big dose of reality and a taste of real life pain when I have to purchase and pay to maintain a vehicle when I retire in a few years.
 
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7% for:
8k miles of electric
Insurance
No mot required.
No service required (only minimal in the future years)
No VED required
A little tyre wear.
Some washer fluid.
A year of depreciation from new. (The main cost, but less than expected)

So I guess we can learn that buying an expensive new car is expensive.

I did save over half of that in petrol costs though from my 24mpg Golf R. So 3% adjusted. I also lost out on the opportunity to lose a large chunk on shares or gain a small amount in intererest...
 
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HangTime said:
Honestly don't know any more and I don't think it's that easy to work out for us. I find these sort of comparisons a bit flawed because some people may have paid for their cars upfront and hence don't include any cost of purchase in their %age whereas others on finance agreements might do. Even 'take home' can be a bit misleading, as some people may choose to 'artificially' reduce their takehome by overpaying pension etc.
Click to expand...
yes % doesn't include factors you list,
how much does your car cost you, per mile, all in(depreciation/fuel/ins..) , and how many miles/year is what I'd choose


personally with covid/wfh & lower miles annual insurance&tax is more significant; calculating depreciation that incorporates impact of inflation might be difficult.
 
jpaul said:
yes % doesn't include factors you list,
how much does your car cost you, per mile, all in(depreciation/fuel/ins..) , and how many miles/year is what I'd choose


personally with covid/wfh & lower miles annual insurance&tax is more significant; calculating depreciation that incorporates impact of inflation might be difficult.
Click to expand...
There was a thread a while back. It is super tricky. My car pays me £1.24 a mile each time I use it because of the reverse depreciation that happened lol.
 
interesting one, we have 2 older cars both paid for with cash over 7 years ago so depends how you do the accounting. Do you include depreciation or not?

If i factor in depreciation then add tax, insurance, servicing (which i do myself) and MOT but without fuel as unless i got an electric car that'd be much of a muchness on any car and i think it's cost me about £86 a month. But that number is a bit meaningless as my cars current values are weirdly artificially high now due to the madness of the car market.

If we're not counting depreciation then its just over 1% of our income, with fuel it's something like 5% if my maths is right.

How do you fellow cash buyers do it for your next car? Do you put a certain ammount away into a savings account each month to buy your next car with cash? I don't save for anything specific as it's just my savings in general for whatever is needed, holiday, fixing something in the house or a new car when the time arises for example so when it comes time to buy something new i have to see how much i've got and go then look for whatever i can afford as i don't have a specific new car savings pot or anything.
 
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