Possible Poll - What percentage of annual income was your car worth at time of purchase?

Soldato
Joined
19 Jan 2006
Posts
4,525
As I'm in the market for a new car, I was just wondering what seems to be an average spend in relation to income - I was just curious as to what OcUK deems as affordable and worthwhile.

When I bought a car last in 2014 I bought it outright as a cash purchase of 16% of my annual income at the time. I'm looking to purchase something longer lasting but likely to part finance it this time around but I'm wondering how much I can realistically spend.

Would it be possible to have a poll? The price and annual income to be answered as at the time of purchase

Car value <10% of annual income
Car value 10-15% of annual income
Car value 15-20% of annual income
Car value 20-25% of annual income
Car value 30-35% of annual income
Car value 35-40% of annual income
Car value 40-45% of annual income
Car value 45-50% of annual income
Car value >50% of annual income
 
Commissario
Joined
23 Nov 2004
Posts
41,851
Location
Herts
Too many options, should be in increments of 10!
And is it a percentage of salary, take home, total earnings (including any benefits, overtime), self employed etc?
 
Soldato
Joined
5 Apr 2009
Posts
24,796
I would have thought you'd need to go higher than 50% in this day and age of cheap and easy PCP. Headline figures of what the car is 'worth' I would expect to be very high for a lot of people.

A 520d is a £40,000 list car but I doubt most people buying them are on £80,000 salaries.
 
Don
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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22,698
Location
Wargrave, UK
At the time I bought it, 50%. But it was coming from downsizing a car that cost 120%. However when I bought it, it was only 20%.
I changed jobs from a very highly paid role to a very low paid one.
 
Soldato
Joined
21 Mar 2013
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3,022
Location
Lincolnshire
first car was a ford focus for £5k when i was on £18k or so, but expecting significant pay rises soon, so that was just over 25%
I went a bit mental next time on the 340i; that would've been close to 85-90% but it was (and still is) costing me £40 a month to live including utilities so I could do that :p

Next car will be around 25% again in a few months time.
 
Soldato
Joined
8 Nov 2003
Posts
5,521
Location
Bedfordshire
>120% on dealer PCP for a new car at the time. Probably shouldn't have but it got paid off in full at the end of the term, I still have it 3 years after that and will probably keep it going until it's written off.
 

mjt

mjt

Soldato
Joined
31 Aug 2007
Posts
19,999
About 35-40%, but it was on a very cheap loan of 0.5%!
I could have sold some shares, etc. to purchase for cash, but obviously didn't make sense.
Could totally afford £300 a month though.
 
Soldato
Joined
6 Oct 2004
Posts
18,300
Location
Birmingham
Previous car was ~10%, current one about 50%, but it's saving me ~8%/year in fuel and VED (fully electric) over the previous one, and probably a lot more in lack of repairs :p
 
Soldato
Joined
15 Dec 2008
Posts
2,681
Location
London
^^ Needs man maths spreadsheet.

I'm going to spend ALL this money so I can save *some of this money*.

...Says the man who took delivery of an M2 comp 2 September has now done 600 ish miles :-/
 
Associate
Joined
21 Jul 2005
Posts
1,557
Location
New York
If your using PCP its probably better to look at it as a monthly payment as the actual value of the car doesn't matter as your not paying the full amount and your paying it off over a few years. Personally I wouldn't want to spend more than 10% of monthly take home on a car
 
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