Why are people so plate/age obsessed?

I hate the fact that people will go and take out finance on a car just to impress the neighbours.

No-one is impressed though, because they're either doing the same thing, or like me, don't care. I drive a 96 2.0 eGT Primera and I wouldn't swap it for any of these eco lunch boxes if you paid me to.

Also, private plates are a stupid obsession. Unless they're funny.
 
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I'm not exactly "plate obsessed" but there is always a nice feeling around owning a brand new car.
With just a few miles on the clock you know that every mile that goes has been done by you - if it's been thrashed to hell then it's your own fault!

Add in no MOT's and anything that goes wrong with it (except wear and tear) covered by the warranty.

Saying that, I don't agree with massive and long finance deals at silly APR.
On my current car purchase my mum is lending me the money and I'll be paying her back - so a 0% APR loan, which is far more acceptable.
 
Tediore said:
Also, private plates are a stupid obsession. Unless they're funny.
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I don't usually buy into them either, but when I saw HE11 YEA yesterday I did wish I had enough for an 11 plate car and £3.7k+tax for that.

This discussion pops up on here quite often. Your mum obviously knows very little about cars if she's suggesting swapping a BMW for a new Polo (although there were a few people who did this during the scrappage scheme), but at least she is going for a 60 plate and not a brand-new 11 plate, you usually save a decent packet that way.

I think people do get tempted into buying car because of the finance deal, especially when they don't look at the final payment because they intend on giving it back.

Although my car cost the same as the deposit on a new poverty spec 1.2 Polo, and I know which I'd rather have. :p
 
Old women like new Polos, deal with it.

[In before some smartarse says 'so do you' :p.]

I bought a new Golf during the srappage scheme but I don't consider myself a numberplate whore, as we're planning to keep it for a very long time.
 
People can be easily swayed by the perception that they are throwing money at an older car with repairs.

It is also worth remembering that the fact that a car is brand spanking new means as much to some people as the car being able to do 0-60 in 6 seconds or that it has dual zone climate, adaptive cruise and sat nav does to others.
 
It seems that the people with older cars often have a far bigger problem with new cars that new car owners do with old cars.

You hardly ever never see people with new cars posting on here going 'lol old banger lol', whereas as soon as someone mentions a new car it's 'What's wrong with my car it's only two years old? New cars are a rip-off anyway' *raaage*. It just seems a bit defensive? See Gaygle's post above for example.
 
Robbie G said:
It seems that the people with older cars often have a far bigger problem with new cars that new car owners do with old cars.
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I don't at all. In fact, i wish that many many more people bought a brand new 330i 3 years ago. What i find dumb, is when people think that they're saving money by buying a new car. The number of times i've heard people saying that they're spending £12k on a brand new car because it does 50mpg and costs £120 to tax, which is SOOO much better than their current car which only does 40mpg and costs £170 to tax.

I often find that many new car buyers have convinced themselves that they NEED a new car, because anything that isn't brand new will fall apart and break often. And the number of stupid reasons i've heard that they use to justify this is mental (someone on here even said that they didn't want a used car because a woman may have used the gearstick to "pleasure herself" as part of the jusitification that they must only buy new.)

Robbie G said:
You hardly ever never see people with new cars posting on here going 'lol old banger lol', whereas as soon as someone mentions a new car it's 'What's wrong with my car it's only two years old? New cars are a rip-off anyway' *raaage*. It just seems a bit defensive? See Gaygle's post above for example.
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My post was firmly tongue in cheek. On here you don't hear people saying it much, but i've heard people in the past saying that they want a new car because they don't want an old banger. To them, there is only two types of car - 1) An old banger 2) A brand new car. So i imagine that since a 3 year old car isn't a "brand new car" that they class it as a banger.
 
Firestar_3x said:
^This, tis why women in 11plate Kia's always feel they've done better than someone in an 06 plate Cooper s (for example)....
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Personally I don't think this is true. I would imagine that the person in the Kia might be thinking:
  • They wanted a "new" car rather than second hand
  • They were worried about getting ripped off buying second hand
  • They were concerned about reliability and wanted a warrenty
  • They thought that the Kia represented better value for money

but I honestly think the "I'm better than you" attitude is quite a rare one.

Maybe I'm getting a little age obsessed myself simply because the older my car gets the more time it seems to spend broken in some way or another! I'm considering a replacement at the moment and I must admit that the age of the car that my money can buy is a big factor.
 
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I don't care about plate status, never have and this his why I've never had a private plate and why I don't give a flying **** about driving around in an 06 plated car.
 
The only reason I'm buying brand new this time around is because of the "deal".
I wanted the new style Octy vRS to replace my older Mk2.
I was looking at 18-24 month old models.
However with the "VAT Free" offer from Skoda at the moment you really save nothing by going for an 18-24 month old.

And with the brand new I get to spec it exactly as I want it.
Basically I've got exactly the car I want, which will be on an 11 plate and the VAT free offer has paid the first 18-24 months of depreciation for me.
 
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