How the hell do people afford cars these days?
Discussion
@the RS6 guy, people suggesting Oracle finance and Magnitude will probably be comparable to Audis rate but they will do HP with balloon which you can set yourself but it’s not a GFV.
Paying £25k in interest when you have the spare cash to buy outright when your cash is making next to nothing in the bank, is a no brainer.
P.S. people that have £110k spare to buy a car usually have maxed out there pension and ISA before anyone that presents the BBC world service in the 1950s pipes up.
Paying £25k in interest when you have the spare cash to buy outright when your cash is making next to nothing in the bank, is a no brainer.
P.S. people that have £110k spare to buy a car usually have maxed out there pension and ISA before anyone that presents the BBC world service in the 1950s pipes up.
Tomanybikes said:
@the RS6 guy, people suggesting Oracle finance and Magnitude will probably be comparable to Audis rate but they will do HP with balloon which you can set yourself but it’s not a GFV.
Paying £25k in interest when you have the spare cash to buy outright when your cash is making next to nothing in the bank, is a no brainer.
P.S. people that have £110k spare to buy a car usually have maxed out there pension and ISA before anyone that presents the BBC world service in the 1950s pipes up.
Thank you. Yes you’re right, I think there’s only one real choice. And yes pension and isa is (or will be) maxed this FY. I do have a mortgage, I could be ultra sensible and pay that down a chunk, but that’s all factored into my retirement planning and plus I could die next week so got to have a bit of fun in case I do!Paying £25k in interest when you have the spare cash to buy outright when your cash is making next to nothing in the bank, is a no brainer.
P.S. people that have £110k spare to buy a car usually have maxed out there pension and ISA before anyone that presents the BBC world service in the 1950s pipes up.
Technoholic said:
Thank you. Yes you’re right, I think there’s only one real choice. And yes pension and isa is (or will be) maxed this FY. I do have a mortgage, I could be ultra sensible and pay that down a chunk, but that’s all factored into my retirement planning and plus I could die next week so got to have a bit of fun in case I do!
Get the RS6 while you can before we don’t have the option to enjoy ICE. I was it’s PH what car or cars have you had before moving to the next chariot ?
Technoholic said:
Tomanybikes said:
@the RS6 guy, people suggesting Oracle finance and Magnitude will probably be comparable to Audis rate but they will do HP with balloon which you can set yourself but it’s not a GFV.
Paying £25k in interest when you have the spare cash to buy outright when your cash is making next to nothing in the bank, is a no brainer.
P.S. people that have £110k spare to buy a car usually have maxed out there pension and ISA before anyone that presents the BBC world service in the 1950s pipes up.
Thank you. Yes you’re right, I think there’s only one real choice. And yes pension and isa is (or will be) maxed this FY. I do have a mortgage, I could be ultra sensible and pay that down a chunk, but that’s all factored into my retirement planning and plus I could die next week so got to have a bit of fun in case I do!Paying £25k in interest when you have the spare cash to buy outright when your cash is making next to nothing in the bank, is a no brainer.
P.S. people that have £110k spare to buy a car usually have maxed out there pension and ISA before anyone that presents the BBC world service in the 1950s pipes up.
Welshbeef said:
Get the RS6 while you can before we don’t have the option to enjoy ICE.
I was it’s PH what car or cars have you had before moving to the next chariot ?
I’ve been running two cars for a while, so the recent fun cars have consisted of Audi R8 V10 Plus, M6, multiple TVRs (Tuscan and chimaeras), briefly an RS7, some cheaper but fun hot hatches and others that I forget now. My dailies have been bmw 540 factory tuned touring, Merc CLS etc etc. basically family-mobiles. I was it’s PH what car or cars have you had before moving to the next chariot ?
I decided that I’m not getting the opportunity as much as I’d like to drive two cars so I’m consolidating family and fun duties into one car for a while
Welshbeef said:
Food prices fuel prices energy prices cannot be influenced by UK population.
So upping interest rates in the UK will do exactly what to change those prices?
Little can be done regarding the supply side, but it could be made alot worse (general inflation) if people are also borrowing / spending with cheap money.So upping interest rates in the UK will do exactly what to change those prices?
Why at a time of already high inflation caused by energy and material shortages would you want to make cheap money available to drive up house prices and car prices even further, or any asset for that matter. Its a gamble but the aim is to cool consumer spending and hope that it helps to ease inflation on the consumer side. As things get more expensive so do the demands for pay rises, its a vicious circle.
Theoldguard said:
Little can be done regarding the supply side, but it could be made alot worse (general inflation) if people are also borrowing / spending with cheap money.
Why at a time of already high inflation caused by energy and material shortages would you want to make cheap money available to drive up house prices and car prices even further, or any asset for that matter. Its a gamble but the aim is to cool consumer spending and hope that it helps to ease inflation on the consumer side. As things get more expensive so do the demands for pay rises, its a vicious circle.
Control credit for individuals. No need to kill the economy with base rate rises. Why at a time of already high inflation caused by energy and material shortages would you want to make cheap money available to drive up house prices and car prices even further, or any asset for that matter. Its a gamble but the aim is to cool consumer spending and hope that it helps to ease inflation on the consumer side. As things get more expensive so do the demands for pay rises, its a vicious circle.
Remember in addition to price rises interest rate rises people will be saving much more where they can concerned about the future.
Tomanybikes said:
P.S. people that have £110k spare to buy a car usually have maxed out there pension and ISA before anyone that presents the BBC world service in the 1950s pipes up.
Your obsession with me is almost flattering but mostly weird and creepy.By "usually", you probably mean that it depends. Which is what I have been saying all along. Different people make different decision based on their fiscal positions, age, cashflow etc etc...
As for the 1950s BBC thing, however absurd, I still just about take it as a compliment as English is still only my 3rd language.
Welshbeef said:
Control credit for individuals. No need to kill the economy with base rate rises.
I dare say there will be quite a lot of people out there with savings that will have little sympathy for people choosing to (as opposed to having to) live beyond their means whilst their savings interest income has all but disappeared.Welshbeef said:
Control credit for individuals. No need to kill the economy with base rate rises.
Remember in addition to price rises interest rate rises people will be saving much more where they can concerned about the future.
Controlling credit can be difficult, what kind of criteria do you have. If someone has a good credit score and low debt ratio do you refuse them. Do you cap the amount someone can borrow v income. Alot of this is already in place.Remember in addition to price rises interest rate rises people will be saving much more where they can concerned about the future.
The base rate is not purely for individual borrowing, its businesses, banks and the wider markets. It sends a message to consumers and business that monetary policy is changing.
A side benefit is also for those savers who will after many years see a higher return, many of these are pensioners and the like on fixed incomes who will welcome a higher savings rate at a time of rising costs.
At this level of inflation, rates should be at least 2% now not 3-6 months time.
It's only those living beyond their means or overstretching themselves on the never never who should worry about rising rates, for everyone else they will see a higher savings rate and more realistic prices set at level that people can afford without having to take on huge amounts of debt.
Edited by Theoldguard on Friday 13th May 09:19
Theoldguard said:
Welshbeef said:
Control credit for individuals. No need to kill the economy with base rate rises.
Remember in addition to price rises interest rate rises people will be saving much more where they can concerned about the future.
Controlling credit can be difficult, what kind of criteria do you have. If someone has a good credit score and low debt ratio do you refuse them. Do you cap the amount someone can borrow v income. Alot of this is already in place.Remember in addition to price rises interest rate rises people will be saving much more where they can concerned about the future.
The base rate is not purely for individual borrowing, its businesses, banks and the wider markets. It sends a message to consumers and business that monetary policy is changing.
A side benefit is also for those savers who will after many years see a higher return, many of these are pensioners and the like on fixed incomes who will welcome a higher savings rate at a time of rising costs.
At this level of inflation, rates should be at least 2% now not 3-6 months time.
It's only those living beyond their means or overstretching themselves on the never never who should worry about rising rates, for everyone else they will see a higher savings rate and more realistic prices set at level that people can afford without having to take on huge amounts of debt.
Edited by Theoldguard on Friday 13th May 09:19
If you don’t have the cash to hand nor can you borrow to buy it then naturally demand eases which should impact inflation.
I think there will be alot less people being able to afford anything shortly, some of the lease prices I'm looking at, not that I ever want to jump on that bandwagon, PCP also etc is eye watering just for mundane A-B transport.
Think we are in for a dark few months/years with this cost of living situation, some people it won't duelly really affect, but I'm sure a huge % of the population propped up by the finance/debt they have or will accumulate will be in dire straits.
Think we are in for a dark few months/years with this cost of living situation, some people it won't duelly really affect, but I'm sure a huge % of the population propped up by the finance/debt they have or will accumulate will be in dire straits.
Welshbeef said:
Putting tighter controls on affordability controls - which would reduce what an individual can borrow. That alone would stop house prices rocketing (so much) but also for vehicles PCP and any personal loans (new kitchen bathroom car on HP).
If you don’t have the cash to hand nor can you borrow to buy it then naturally demand eases which should impact inflation.
Those controls should already be in place to prevent anyone borrowing more than they can afford, but people get around them. If you increase the cost of borrowing then it has a greater impact, even those who can afford to borrow say £200k / £900 month, that suddenly becomes £1100 a month, and it also will not only affect those who are taking on new debt but those who currently have credit cards, variable mortgages, so it should reduce their spending power elsewhere as more is needed to service the debt. It also encourages saving which combined should deflate asset prices. If you don’t have the cash to hand nor can you borrow to buy it then naturally demand eases which should impact inflation.
If I go and buy a car today for £10k with my savings, its very easy for someone to come along and offer £11k using some cheap loan, that has now added £1k to the price of that car, the same applies to houses, building work, people are outbiding each other and driving up prices on borrowed money, when inflation is generally low its not do much an issue but now its adding fuel to the fire and needs to be brought under control. Higher borrowing costs is one way of dealing with alongside tighter affordability criteria. It's not without risk but with inflation approaching 10% the BoE cannot just sit on its hands.
757 said:
I think there will be alot less people being able to afford anything shortly, some of the lease prices I'm looking at, not that I ever want to jump on that bandwagon, PCP also etc is eye watering just for mundane A-B transport.
Think we are in for a dark few months/years with this cost of living situation, some people it won't duelly really affect, but I'm sure a huge % of the population propped up by the finance/debt they have or will accumulate will be in dire straits.
I wondered if better finance deals were coming back?Think we are in for a dark few months/years with this cost of living situation, some people it won't duelly really affect, but I'm sure a huge % of the population propped up by the finance/debt they have or will accumulate will be in dire straits.
Earlier I got an ad from Bristol Street motors offering a new Puma ST for £349 deposit and £349 a month over 2 years. It was a 0% offer with a balloon payment of 18k at the end. Given that you can't get a 3 year old puma of any kind for under 20k I'd imagine there would be decent equity in that at the end of the period. Ultimately not for me but I didn't think it was all that bad.
Well after my post about a stupidly priced m240i PCP I found what I thought was a fairly decent price on a Mustang 5.0. I've always fancied one, coming close to buying a few years ago. Anyway, my usual check in drivethedeal revealed a £4k discount which when factored into fords PCP calculator gave a fair price. Just checked today and the list price according to DTD has gone up about 7%! It's almost like I feel the need to panic buy a new car as prices are spiralling!
rix said:
Well after my post about a stupidly priced m240i PCP I found what I thought was a fairly decent price on a Mustang 5.0. I've always fancied one, coming close to buying a few years ago. Anyway, my usual check in drivethedeal revealed a £4k discount which when factored into fords PCP calculator gave a fair price. Just checked today and the list price according to DTD has gone up about 7%! It's almost like I feel the need to panic buy a new car as prices are spiralling!
Not sure what you are driving now but that engine is very thirsty. Makes a tremendous noise and gets you moving mind. Always liked the Mustang but never had the balls to get one
a_dreamer said:
Not sure what you are driving now but that engine is very thirsty. Makes a tremendous noise and gets you moving mind.
Always liked the Mustang but never had the balls to get one
Currently a GR Yaris so other end of the scale! However, in the past a 6.0 Monaro and a 6.1 Jeep SRT8 so I do love my V8s...Always liked the Mustang but never had the balls to get one
Moved 2 years ago from a village where most folk were retired. They pretty much all drove sensible non-'premium' cars. Moved to a cheaper house on a new-build estate in a neighbouring town where none of my neighbours are retired. Despite mostly having 'normal' jobs (copper, school office administrator, car salesman etc) I notice a big difference in materialism... It's all BMW, Merc, LR/RR, Lexus round here. Along with the hot-tubs, designer shades, sleeve tattoos & so on there's a lot of conspicuous high-consumption lifestyles. Each to their own, YOLO, living-my-best-life & all that, but it seems that older folk recognise the value of things, have seen the economy go through a number of cycles, & understand how to cut their cloth accordingly. A lot of younger folk might be in for a wake-up call in the coming recession. No doubt it'll be called as the government's/middle-class'/boomers/pensioners/rich people's fault but this artifical economy of QE, low interest, easy credit & excessive consumption couldn't last forever and there's not much that a government of any political persuasion can do about it. If I was still on my low wage of a few years ago, it'd be a 10+ year old Aygo/C1/107 + some tools for me. If you can't afford to buy it outright then you can't afford it period.
As an aside, a lot of left leaning people got quite upset, wailing that 'America was turning in on itself' when Trump moved to make the US less reliant on imports & more self-sufficient. With the current situation in the world economy, that seems like a pretty sound philosophy right now.
As an aside, a lot of left leaning people got quite upset, wailing that 'America was turning in on itself' when Trump moved to make the US less reliant on imports & more self-sufficient. With the current situation in the world economy, that seems like a pretty sound philosophy right now.
Romford4 said:
.................but it seems that older folk recognise the value of things, have seen the economy go through a number of cycles, & understand how to cut their cloth accordingly. A lot of younger folk might be in for a wake-up call in the coming recession. No doubt it'll be called as the government's/middle-class'/boomers/pensioners/rich people's fault but this artifical economy of QE, low interest, easy credit & excessive consumption couldn't last forever and there's not much that a government of any political persuasion can do about it.
Spot on.I probably qualify for the older folk title, most people I know are around 60. When I posted up above that the majority of people I know bought their cars for cash (fact) I was pretty much called a liar and accused of making up stuff to fit the narrative. Why(?) - because if it were true they would have to come to terms with the fact there are others out there that are doing better than they are.
Maybe what they are missing is those same people did without or waited for stuff on their way up and now they can afford to do it. There are a lot of people who spend everything they earn and then some as they go along and are therefore forced to finance stuff because they do not have the cash to pay for it. The only other option would be to wait or do without and quite frankly that is never going to be an option for some. That would be like telling a child they cannot have the toy they are pointing at, it wouldn't end well.
The truth is what the short term game plan merchants don't get is that the sacrifices you make when you are on your way up allow you to live better later on. The older folk you describe worked that out years ago and are now reaping their rewards. As you suggest it will not be because they were smarter with their money it will obviously be because it was easier to do then, obviously, what other reason could there be. Those same folk may not all have iphone 14s with enough data to run a space program but guess what they don't have to PCP a toaster either.
981Boxess said:
pot on.
I probably qualify for the older folk title, most people I know are around 60. When I posted up above that the majority of people I know bought their cars for cash (fact) I was pretty much called a liar and accused of making up stuff to fit the narrative. Why(?) - because if it were true they would have to come to terms with the fact there are others out there that are doing better than they are.
Maybe what they are missing is those same people did without or waited for stuff on their way up and now they can afford to do it. There are a lot of people who spend everything they earn and then some as they go along and are therefore forced to finance stuff because they do not have the cash to pay for it. The only other option would be to wait or do without and quite frankly that is never going to be an option for some. That would be like telling a child they cannot have the toy they are pointing at, it wouldn't end well.
The truth is what the short term game plan merchants don't get is that the sacrifices you make when you are on your way up allow you to live better later on. The older folk you describe worked that out years ago and are now reaping their rewards. As you suggest it will not be because they were smarter with their money it will obviously be because it was easier to do then, obviously, what other reason could there be. Those same folk may not all have iphone 14s with enough data to run a space program but guess what they don't have to PCP a toaster either.
Deferred gratification increasingly seems to be shunned. As Lou Mannheim in Wall Street once said, "Good things- sometimes, take time". He also talked about "too much cheap money sloshing around the world". Quite prophetic I probably qualify for the older folk title, most people I know are around 60. When I posted up above that the majority of people I know bought their cars for cash (fact) I was pretty much called a liar and accused of making up stuff to fit the narrative. Why(?) - because if it were true they would have to come to terms with the fact there are others out there that are doing better than they are.
Maybe what they are missing is those same people did without or waited for stuff on their way up and now they can afford to do it. There are a lot of people who spend everything they earn and then some as they go along and are therefore forced to finance stuff because they do not have the cash to pay for it. The only other option would be to wait or do without and quite frankly that is never going to be an option for some. That would be like telling a child they cannot have the toy they are pointing at, it wouldn't end well.
The truth is what the short term game plan merchants don't get is that the sacrifices you make when you are on your way up allow you to live better later on. The older folk you describe worked that out years ago and are now reaping their rewards. As you suggest it will not be because they were smarter with their money it will obviously be because it was easier to do then, obviously, what other reason could there be. Those same folk may not all have iphone 14s with enough data to run a space program but guess what they don't have to PCP a toaster either.
Gassing Station | Car Buying | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff