I disagree, I think £8,500 is quite a lot of money.
It's 5% of the cost of the average terraced house. It's more than I have spent on cars in the last 11 years. It's just under 50% of the average UK annual salary.
I agree, if I was in a position where 8.5k was a small amount of money to me, obviously it wouldn't be that bad a choice. To most people, my self included, 8.5k is a **** load of money, I could probably live off it for a year.

