Charlie Don't Surf Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 (edited) Just interested to know how much people spend (or would spend) on their cars. One reason I ask is every time I park up somewhere I get car envy, but I know 1) how much these people have spent on their cars and 2) statistically I probably earn twice as much as them and have no mortgage. Still can't bring myself to fork out £15k on a decent second hand car though (plus my wife would ask me why I can't pay for her not to work then!) So how much would you spend on a car? 1/2 salary 1x salary more? Also any examples of people who can't afford to eat but drive a Range Rover would amuse Edited March 25, 2009 by surfgatinho Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AteMoose Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 (edited) between 5 and 8k.... Edited March 25, 2009 by moosetea Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay76 Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 Just interested to know how much people spend (or would spend) on their cars. One reason I ask is every time I park up somewhere I get car envy, but I know 1) how much these people have spent on their cars and 2) statistically I probably earn twice as much as them and have no mortgage. Still can't bring myself to fork out £15k on a decent second hand car though (plus my wife would ask me why I can't pay for her not to work then!) So how much would you spend on a car? 1/2 salary 1x salary more? Also any examples of people who can't afford to eat but drive a Range Rover would amuse My limit is 0.25 x salary. If you can't find a decent 4 year old second hand car, in any size class for £5,000, you're not looking very hard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie Don't Surf Posted March 25, 2009 Author Share Posted March 25, 2009 between 5 and 8k.... But that doesn't tell me much. You might be Alan Sugar for all I know! Multiples would be good - or if you want tell us how much you earn (if you don't mind waving the old financial c0ck about!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wannabe Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 stop worrying about what everyone else is driving - they're probably all 'owned' by Ocean Finance anyway... I really miss their adverts. Plenty of excellent value 3-5 year-old cars out there if you look hard enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Skellan Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 Well you're only 'spending' the depreciation, marginal running costs and any finance fees. The underlying goods are re-saleable. I totally depends on your attitude to cars. For some people its a hobby and an interest that they derive a great deal of pleasure from. For others its no more than a white good on wheels and no more interesting than their choice of kitchen sink. I think the biggest trick is not to change too often as you always pay the dealer his profit margin. Therefore spending a bit more to acquire something that you will be happier with for longer can make sense. Finally - get something that is not going to suffer from servicing outside of the main dealer network. So something with 3 years and 60,000 miles under its wheels and just out of warranty. Main dealer servicing costs just aren't reflected in the difference in service or quality of work. They only make sense when there is warranty terms to comply with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Henrik Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 (edited) Just interested to know how much people spend (or would spend) on their cars. One reason I ask is every time I park up somewhere I get car envy, but I know 1) how much these people have spent on their cars and 2) statistically I probably earn twice as much as them and have no mortgage. Still can't bring myself to fork out £15k on a decent second hand car though (plus my wife would ask me why I can't pay for her not to work then!) So how much would you spend on a car? 1/2 salary 1x salary more? Also any examples of people who can't afford to eat but drive a Range Rover would amuse A subject close to my heart I bought a brand new car once for 20k (six years ago), which I still have. I also bought another one for 471 pounds last june (12 years old). Leaving aside the looks etc, the 20k car is marginally faster, but only because I've spent lots of money on it. The 471 pound car is incredibly comfortable and great value for money, for sure. If I needed to buy another car, it would be sub 1k *unless* I bought myself a 1999'ish BMW M5 (which I'd expect to pay about 7k for) Edit: Btw, I was the noodle eating range rover guy above (in a different car) whilst I paid the 20k car off - never again! Edited March 25, 2009 by Henrik Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youthoftoday Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 About £10K max. Pay cash. Would want new or nearly new for that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VeryMeanReversion Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 Last 3 cars were all very close to £14K, still have all of them ! VMR. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DissipatedYouthIsValuable Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 4k at the most. Car values only ever go down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PotNoodle Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 (edited) Nissan Estate £1,500 in 1998 - bought at 70,000 Now at 185,000 - still getting 40mpg. Just got a Rover 214 - £600... 60,000 Service them myself. Edited March 25, 2009 by PotNoodle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keef Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 £5k so 10% of net income. The saloon I have at the moment I bought for £4k in 2005, it was two years old, have never had a problem with it. Like the OP I always have to fight my urge to go out & buy (in my case) a Lotus Elise ... Luckily I probably couldn't get into the thing these days Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gilf Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 Depends on the definition of spend, in terms of what the car costs most I have spent was £11K but I traded in another car for £6K so most I have ever and would ever spend would be around £5k of actual money. A friend gave me a car last year, best car I have ever owned. In the end couldn't justify or spare the space to keep it so gave it to my brother-in-law. I like cars but not enough to be in debt to own one marginally better* than the one I have. Having said all that I used to own motor bikes and spent £7K on a new one of those once. However I was getting what would have been the equivalent to a top level car in bike terms. The difference between a £4k bike and a £7k bike would be similar to the difference between a £10k car and a £40k one.** * All subjective of course, at the end of the day you sit in it and go somewhere, I very rarely go any significant distance (I do drive to central France once a year) so spending £5-6k because it is more comfortable seems incredibly extravagant to me. ** Bikes of course are an even bigger example of that as there are no creature comforts involved, what you are paying the extra for is technical and performance differences which in the main you can't even use on the roads. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shamrock Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 I limit myself to £20k but I tend to give it a good few months before purchasing as I need to make sure I really want it. I only buy in cash, if I haven't got 150% of the value in cash then I presume I can't afford it. I bought myself an M3 a couple of years ago for £12k which still puts a smile on my face. However I am tempted to go down the lease route as it is starting to look quite appealing although I am still in the early days of looking into it. As said above, don't envy more valuable cars as the majority are probably not owned outright by the driver. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HAMISH_MCTAVISH Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 About 8K to 12K per car, which is roughly 10% of household income per car. For that price we tend to buy German, Audi/BMW, 3/4 years old, but I look for low miles (<40K) single owner cars. I then sell at 90K and repeat the process. I used to run bangers when I was young, and then flash new cars when I started making decent money, but I've been happily running these 3 y/o cars for the last decade or so now, and never had any problems or breakdowns. Plus they're new enough to look/feel new, and you get the recent toys and safety improvements, but without the silly depreciation. Works for me anyway, I couldn't see myself buying a new car again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laurejon Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 VW Golf V5 2003 model, paid 7k last year and for me thats a fortune to spend on a car. Best car I ever had was a Vauxhall Vectra from Blackbush Auctions 2 years old ex company smoke for 2k full service history but 60k miles. Then the missus left me, said Vectra's are boring and I do kind of agree hence the V5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ethel Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 My, some people are interested in peculiar things. My latest car was just under 2 years old when I bought it in July. A Mitsubishi Colt sport, £5,913. The one before that was a brand new Rover 25, circa £11k, which I kept for nearly 10 years and it did me proud. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the end is a bit nigher Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 I have 2 cars. One cost me £4k when it was 2 years old and the other cost me £50k new. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Sacks Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 £300. I've had two cars in the last ten years. One cost £100 the other £230. However, I did buy a Land Cruiser which is an item of plant not a car, and that cost significantly more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lulu Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 I am thinking of replacing my knackered old car the budget for a new one would be about £3/4000 which is about 10% of my salary. I dont have flash tastes so it would just be something in the 206/Clio range. For a car that very rarely gets out of the City they are more than adaquate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AteMoose Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 About 8K to 12K per car, which is roughly 10% of household income per car. For that price we tend to buy German, Audi/BMW, 3/4 years old, but I look for low miles (<40K) single owner cars. I then sell at 90K and repeat the process. I used to run bangers when I was young, and then flash new cars when I started making decent money, but I've been happily running these 3 y/o cars for the last decade or so now, and never had any problems or breakdowns. Plus they're new enough to look/feel new, and you get the recent toys and safety improvements, but without the silly depreciation. Works for me anyway, I couldn't see myself buying a new car again. buy for 12k flip for 90k.. what do you do to achieve such a flip? is selling cars your household income? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soul Reaver Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 Just interested to know how much people spend (or would spend) on their cars. One reason I ask is every time I park up somewhere I get car envy, but I know 1) how much these people have spent on their cars and 2) statistically I probably earn twice as much as them and have no mortgage. Still can't bring myself to fork out £15k on a decent second hand car though (plus my wife would ask me why I can't pay for her not to work then!) So how much would you spend on a car? 1/2 salary 1x salary more? Also any examples of people who can't afford to eat but drive a Range Rover would amuse The Aston was 90K and costs me 1173 a month + running costs etc so maybe about 1500 all in. That is 6% of my monthly Net take home pay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ethel Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 Oh yeah I earn about £23k Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mid_gen Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 I had a Z4 3.0l until last year which cost a bomb over the 18 months I had it, but I did put over 35k miles on it. Did have enormous fun with the car and it never gave me any problems, put a smile on my face which is all that really matters in life when it comes down to it. Paid the majority in cash, was about 25% of my salary over the time I had it I suppose. Now have an undeniably comfortable and well screwed together Audi company car, which is boring as sin, but at least I don't have any potential horror costs cropping up, I just stuff diesel in it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HAMISH_MCTAVISH Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 buy for 12k flip for 90k.. what do you do to achieve such a flip? is selling cars your household income? 90k miles, you nugget Buy for £8-12K @ 40k miles, sell at 90k miles..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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