No one would insure our £105k Range Rover, so we had to sell it

[The Angry Capitalist]

13 hours ago, Orb said:

Me too. In 2021 paid £1200 for a 21 year old Nissan Micra with 26k on the clock and one owner from new. All costs, fixed costs plus petrol, totals around £1500 per year. The particular model is the K11 Micra. They're getting rare now, and prices have risen since I bought it. It's got 38k now but is already worth more than I paid for it. Plus, it's not had a single issue in the 2+ years I've owned it. Someone recently asked me if I wanted to sell it to them. 

Work mates take the piss, a few questioned my sexuality, and one even scratched his head and asked "how on earth can you be happy driving that?". I usually just smile and tell them real men drive Micras 😄. But the reason I'm happy is because the money I have saved over the years (I've had several old Micras) is now enough to buy me a small bungalow in county Durham without a mortgage, meaning I can practically semi-retire now aged 44. Buying a house without ever having to borrow from a bank has been one of my ultimate ambitions, and driving old but very reliable cars has helped me achieve it. 

I once had one nice flash car. It was a money pit, and it taught me that no matter how nice a car is, if you feel an inner emptiness in life, you will still feel it, even if you're driving a Ferrari. I go for spiritual and soul fulfillment, and cars never help achieve that. Quite the opposite. 

My Micra is currently the best asset I've got and I'm in love with it. I smile every time I drive it, and I mean that. It gets me anywhere, it's warm, dry, and is beautifully simple. The money it save me is priceless.

The financially illiterate will never understand.

I hated my little Toyota when I purchased it but have grown to love it.

Saved me a lot of money too.

I actually think small economical cars will go up in value in the coming years as people downsize and realize big cars are money pits.

Then again this is Britain and most people like to spend the rest of their lives up to their eyeballs in debt.

[clarkey]

14 hours ago, cdd said:

I bought a second hand car in early 2020, directly from the person who no longer wanted it. Barely used, only 5k miles done, paid him £5k for it. Not only has the We Buy Any Car valuation increased by about 50% since then, it's significantly higher than what I paid for it.

No repairs needed at all, and no trouble with it. Just £60 yearly for MOT, and around £160 yearly for insurance.

Meanwhile there are people paying £600 a month for PCP and £40k end payments, or others being charged significantly more than the price I paid for my car just to insure their range rover for 1 year.

This is how I saved enough money to buy my own house without debt, and it's how I've continued to save ever since, the amount generating a significant tax free income from cash ISA accounts.

People should to learn to live within their means. If you spend or waste most of what you earn, how will you feel if that income were to ever stop and you had wasted it all?

Many in this world go one step worse than this. They're spending the money before they've even earned it, via debt. That's on things they often don't need, or could have gone for a much cheaper option.

 

spot on, I can believe all these idiots with their PCP's and they never really own the car in the end

[clarkey]

13 hours ago, Orb said:

Me too. In 2021 paid £1200 for a 21 year old Nissan Micra with 26k on the clock and one owner from new. All costs, fixed costs plus petrol, totals around £1500 per year. The particular model is the K11 Micra. They're getting rare now, and prices have risen since I bought it. It's got 38k now but is already worth more than I paid for it. Plus, it's not had a single issue in the 2+ years I've owned it. Someone recently asked me if I wanted to sell it to them. 

Work mates take the piss, a few questioned my sexuality, and one even scratched his head and asked "how on earth can you be happy driving that?". I usually just smile and tell them real men drive Micras 😄. But the reason I'm happy is because the money I have saved over the years (I've had several old Micras) is now enough to buy me a small bungalow in county Durham without a mortgage, meaning I can practically semi-retire now aged 44. Buying a house without ever having to borrow from a bank has been one of my ultimate ambitions, and driving old but very reliable cars has helped me achieve it. 

I once had one nice flash car. It was a money pit, and it taught me that no matter how nice a car is, if you feel an inner emptiness in life, you will still feel it, even if you're driving a Ferrari. I go for spiritual and soul fulfillment, and cars never help achieve that. Quite the opposite. 

My Micra is currently the best asset I've got and I'm in love with it. I smile every time I drive it, and I mean that. It gets me anywhere, it's warm, dry, and is beautifully simple. The money it save me is priceless.

I had a '51 plate micra from 2001 to 2015 never had any issues with it . I got the usual comments from absolute Tools but you drive what you can afford and apart from wear there was no need to change. probably shouldnt have had the salmoln pink one though....

[SlimJ]

I went from a (cash purchased) BMW M2 that cost me around £2000 a year just to tax, insure, service and maintain warranty before any fuel costs - while it was a great car and felt quite a special place to be the amount of anxiety it induced just from having it was quite uncomfortable.  Wondering if it was going to be dented while parked in car parks due to inconsiderate others, wondering if it was safe on the driveway, wondering if putting too many miles was likely to reduce the value of it, etc.

In the end, during the covid boom in 2021, I decided to sell it for pretty much what I paid for it (lucky as WBAC now values it at around £12k less than I got!). In it's place I now have a 2012 VW Up, cost £6k, 25k miles on the clock, £20 tax, £140 insurance, 50mpg, and no anxiety. To be honest, I feel happier driving the VW than driving the previous BMW - trying to explain that to others that would rather have a fancy car on PCP is quite interesting!

I don't think I would ever understand why someone would put a deposit down of £10k then pay £600/£800/£1000 per month for 3 or 4 years, then hand the car back at the end of the term with zero to show for it.  You may as well just take the £40k+ and just burn it! These are likely the folk that complain when times are tough and they don't have reserves to fall back on.

Surely people are not that financially illiterate to understand that they could buy a cheap runaround and invest the £40k+ in cash or S&S ISAs and have something to show for it?!  However, I guess we need these idiots to keep the wheels of the economy turning...

[funinhounslow]

5 minutes ago, SlimJ said:

 In it's place I now have a 2012 VW Up, cost £6k, 25k miles on the clock, £20 tax, £140 insurance, 50mpg, and no anxiety. To be honest, I feel happier driving the VW than driving the previous BMW - trying to explain that to others that would rather have a fancy car on PCP is quite interesting!

Yep I have its cousin the SEAT Mii. 56,000 fault free miles and counting. 
 

Capable cars. Ok it takes its time getting to 70 but will then sit there quite happily at 3k rpm. And if you’re stuck in city traffic you could be driving anything. 
 

Entertaining to drive too with the 3 cylinders rasping away. I think it was James Hunt who said it’s more fun to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow…