Finance repo's

[stripped fred]

Just one comment to make. For me, I get a lot of satisfaction buying something cheaply, secondhand, old etc whether it's a car, the £100 TV or £10 settee off ebay (all in good condition I might add), the petrol mower that i was given, and then seeing how long they will last me with tinkering where required with parts from my shed and recycling of mechanical parts. With cars it's about using something at the end of it's life (in most people's opinions). It's not just about the money but something about anti consumerism i think. I'm not clever enough to explain it any better than that. Maybe some of you will know what I mean?

[stripped fred]

PS. This thread has kept me going through a boring day at work and for that I salute you fellow shiters.

[JohnK]

Just one comment to make. For me, I get a lot of satisfaction buying something cheaply, secondhand, old etc whether it's a car, the £100 TV or £10 settee off ebay (all in good condition I might add), the petrol mower that i was given, and then seeing how long they will last me with tinkering where required with parts from my shed and recycling of mechanical parts. With cars it's about using something at the end of it's life (in most people's opinions). It's not just about the money but something about anti consumerism i think. I'm not clever enough to explain it any better than that. Maybe some of you will know what I mean?

My £230 214 is a much more satisfying drive than my £1300 Civic, simply because I know it owes me sod all.

 

I know exactly what you mean.

[Sloth in a bowl]

I recommend going to Ascot at least once and you'll see. You can't polish turds, but you can roll them in a lot of glitter!

It's surprisingly easy to polish a turd.

Firstly dry it out in the sun then soak it in varnish. Finally dry it out again. This preserves the turd in a state where it can be polished.

It also makes it look like the sort of person to whom 'you can't polish a turd' often applies.

[derskine]

PS. This thread has kept me going through a boring day at work and for that I salute you fellow shiters.

 

Same here!

[sierraman]

I think we ought to agree to disagree, I'll keep plodding on in the banger, the man in the Kia will keep the finance company in business. If it wasn't for people losing a shit load of money on a new car I wouldn't have a car to buy with my paltry £500.

 

For me it's just part of a lifestyle having an old banger, I've got a cheap Nokia phone, don't spend a lot on clothes - as my wife will bear testament to, drink cheap Lidl beer etc. The rest I fritter away on bills and household shit. I like living my life like that, but I'm not going to enforce it on others.

[New POD]

Or Money Saving Expert.

I often put the AUTOshite point of view on there.

[New POD]

But I want it NOW!

We have a rule in our house.

 

We define NEED and WANT.

 

Want is luxury, Need is essential. Save up for want, after you've paid for the need.

[New POD]

So in the grand scheme of things. Autoshite is not about finance though some individual Autoshiters may own a newer financed car.

 

In other news, why are we imitating the Angry forum with threads about modern shit?

Mumsnet ?

[HH-R]

I want it all,

I want it all,

I want it all,

and I want it now

*guitar*

[Split_Pin]

Not one post so far recognises that some people don't have the cash upfront for a car, like me. I didn't want a 700 quid car for my family, which is all I could afford, so I had to take finance. We were desperate for a working automobile. It's 0%, it was on our terms, they said it will be 153 pcm and always has been. The car will be mine after 5 years.

 

Yes the depreciation is a cunt but if I have to bin it after 5 years then I couldn't give a monkey's uncle, even though the whole warranty was useless for the 3 years that it was valid. I'll just build a bridge and get over it.

Walk a mile, man's shoes and all that.

[Lacquer Peel]

£700 might not buy you a good car at short notice, but just north a grand would buy you something well looked after if unfashionable.

[twosmoke300]

Is rather carry my family in my 800 quid Saab than some built to pass ncap euro box .

[Bear]

Not one post so far recognises that some people don't have the cash upfront for a car, like me. I didn't want a 700 quid car for my family, which is all I could afford, so I had to take finance. We were desperate for a working automobile. It's 0%, it was on our terms, they said it will be 153 pcm and always has been. The car will be mine after 5 years.

 

Yes the depreciation is a cunt but if I have to bin it after 5 years then I couldn't give a monkey's uncle, even though the whole warranty was useless for the 3 years that it was valid. I'll just build a bridge and get over it.

Walk a mile, man's shoes and all that.

 

Sounds like a perfectly sensible deal. 0% finance keeps liquidity in your hands rather than a depreciating asset in the sense of "I paid £10K in savings and it's only worth £2K now", 5 years is a good sensible time to run a car, the monthly outgoing is easily manageable and could easily be spent on a banger just doing wear & tear items if you picked the wrong one.

[warren t claim]

But we can afford it

 

We can also afford to run and maintain an 06 jaguar S type and run an abarth 595 and keep an Mgf in the garage ready to go for the crisp winter days or the hot summer days!!

 

We like new stuff and know how to reign it in if it gets out of control.

Did you once buy a silver Clio from Carcraft?

[sierraman]

Can't see the shame in having a £700 car? If people make a judgement about you from the fact you have an old banger you ought to fuck them off. If someone wants a new car, buy one, if you don't then don't.

 

I took an informal survey on the way home of new cars. Most of them were company cars. There are loads of people these days with 7-10 year old cars. As there always have been and will always be a market for cars for a few grand or so. I think we're all getting paranoia about this mythical person whose going to force us all, hand up back to set up a finance agreement on a Kia. I'll tell you now once interest rates go up the market for cars for under 3 grand or so will go up, when people can't afford to keep a roof above their heads let alone run that Audi...

[New POD]

Not one post so far recognises that some people don't have the cash upfront for a car, like me. I didn't want a 700 quid car for my family, which is all I could afford, so I had to take finance. We were desperate for a working automobile. It's 0%, it was on our terms, they said it will be 153 pcm and always has been. The car will be mine after 5 years.

 

Yes the depreciation is a cunt but if I have to bin it after 5 years then I couldn't give a monkey's uncle, even though the whole warranty was useless for the 3 years that it was valid. I'll just build a bridge and get over it.

Walk a mile, man's shoes and all that.

There is no doubt in my mind that if you buy a sub £1000 car, you have to work hard to avoid buying a £1000 POS.

The astra I recently bought for £950 started leaking fuel after I'd owned it for 3 weeks, on the eve of an important 440 mile round trip to drop my daughter off at university. Had I not been mechanically minded, it would have cost me more than £6:50 for a new fuel filter, plus about 20 mins of labour and a trip to a motor factors.

I reckon that it would have cost the average punter £60, (plus the inevitable theft of 5 gallons of fuel), and it wouldn't have been fixed before we needed to leave, so alternative transport/dates might have been required. For a moment I thought I'd have to borrow or rent a car, because all the student shit would not fit in the MINI

If I look at my history of the teething problems I've had over the years having bought a cheap car, all of which were fixed with a bit of TLC and thought, and not much money, I can understand why the risk is seen by most as not worth it.

[sierraman]

I've enough experience with cars to get a gist as to whether it's any good of not. If you can't do this then fair enough spend £2-3k on a good car. It's all about you expectations, when we bought the Focus, it wanted a few jobs doing, I was aware of this, but it was fairly cheap. It has a few knocks and bangs here and there but its perfectly safe. If you can't accept a few dents or an occasional problem don't have a car.

 

After all with a new car it's all £300 services and the warranty is only valid whilst you agree to the manufacturers recommendations, so if they say you ought to replace the brake fluid, god forbid you if the ABS module goes as they will do their utmost to get out of the warranty.

[Bear]

In 2008 I worked out that from 1992 to then, I had lost over £140,000 on cars. That was running the gamut from £50 bangers and keeping them on the road, to brand new cars and contract hire deals. Without a doubt the best deals were the bargain contract hire/lease and the "so cheap I don't give a shit" cars - though they generally ran an average of 3 months before economic write-off or boredom.

 

The worst were the 5-7 year old and 10-13 year old, corresponding with substantial wear and tear items. Naturally there's also that factor of things being a bit broken on the older cars, which makes you sad if you like the car.

 

But context. All that money lost; in 2010 I owned a Mercedes 500SL for fun. It cost me £5,500. It started at £78,000 in 1992. If I could have financed that money I'd have been SO much better off, and would have spent 26 years driving a car I loved. I could have been 17 and driving a 330bhp Mercedes V8. Likewise, I love my current SLK - if 16 years ago I'd known how much I'd like them, I could have skipped the 3 contract hire cars and just got a new SLK all of my own, with my maintenance standards. And the E320 estate.

 

We're car enthusiasts. We understand cars. We like change. We're not average or normal car users. Going back and working out how many cars you've had, what they've cost (rail fares to collect 'em? Cancelled and changed insurance admin? Taxing mid-month? Servicing the car that looks like it's been run with crude oil and dogshift in the sump for 4 years...).

[Bear]

After all with a new car it's all £300 services and the warranty is only valid whilst you agree to the manufacturers recommendations, so if they say you ought to replace the brake fluid, god forbid you if the ABS module goes as they will do their utmost to get out of the warranty.

 

Most PCP packages, particularly at the lower end, include servicing for the duration; if you can't haggle to get it included, try harder or go elsewhere. And christ, you should replace the brake fluid. Like tyres and suspension and bushes. There's really no excuse for neglecting safety things on a car you drive every day - it's one thing to nurse a neglected project home, but running an old car doesn't exempt people from servicing costs - remember not everyone has the time, space, skills or existing investment in tools to DIY.

 

And how many times have you gone to change brake fluid and the bleed nipple has snapped off?

[Lord Sterling]

The SMMT likes to big up the amount of new cars that are sold every month and always states that attractive finance options boost sales. I was wondering how many cars are repossessed within the first year after buyers realise they can't afford the 'just' £350 a month that seemed so attractive when they first sat in that shiny new car in the showroom, before they started having to pay it every month.

 

A friend of mine is a manager at ATS and he was telling me a young girl came in with a puncture on her 4 month old Vauxhall Adam. She'd driven it several miles with the tyre flat therefore nuking it, so it had to be replaced. When she was told that the 18" tyre she needed (yes, the Adam has 18" wheels as standard!) would be £180 (has to be like for like or it can invalidate the manufacturer warranty) she burst into tears as she said she wouldn't be able to afford the monthly payment if she bought it. In the end her mum paid it.

 

I do wonder why people sign up to long term finance deals for large amounts as it's a foregone conclusion that the car will depreciate faster than it can be paid for. 'Just' £270 a month for 5 years is a bloody long time for run of the mill chod.

This is something that's been going on for a very long time. The general public are basically targeted and the "must have shiny new etc..." lifestyle is shoved down peoples throats, then, before you know it, you've got scenes like that "Black Friday" of people tearing shreds into each other just to have shiny new things just because its shiny and new.

 

When it comes to cars, it is because it's shiny and new. The numberplate tells other people around you how new your car is, which is why people sign up to these things. Another reason is the a similar reason to why Facebook exists, to tell other people of your perceived "success". It's really a load of bullshit but it makes them feel better about themselves, which, in a certain way, I can understand. But when it comes to buying things just to show off to your office colleagues/mates/family members then you really need to give yourself a good shoeing.

 

We have a generation of people who now think that if something doesn't work, it must be binned and replaced with a new one. It's too much effort to investigate/repair or simply sell.

 

What many people are not being taught these days is that you can buy nice things, but they don't necessarily need to be new. You might be able to buy a shiny new flatscreen TV for £500, but I can buy a better spec second-hand one for £200 or less. Same with cars, yep, you've got a shiny new Econobox 1.3 'Sport' with "18 alloys for 'just' £250 a month, but my £250 has bought me a mid 90s excutive barge outright.

 

Do I care? No. If anything, this throwaway culture leaves cheap things for the likes of me and you. Yes it's a bit galling to see a fairly nice car/TV/fridge/sofa chucked away because it's a bit old, but there are plenty more around £not much.

[Split_Pin]

I definitely don't care about image as the 'new' car is a Chevrolet Aveo. My own car is a 15 year old Corsa that not even shiteists want 😂

 

I just don't have the time to work on cars now, family comes first and the Aveo has fulfilled its role of invisible family hack pretty well.

[Twiggy]

It`s a fascinating thread.......

[sierraman]

What about the folks who can't afford to spend 250-300 a month on a car?

[Bear]

What about the folks who can't afford to spend 250-300 a month on a car?

 

Then they're more likely to be able to consistently afford £99/month than £250 on a banger then £100+fitting on tyres then £400 getting the gearbox & clutch sorted, then £40 + an afternoon trying to get the windows open 'cause it hasn't got A/C and the kids are sweltering in the back.

 

There's no absolute here. Everyone's solution for their situation is what suits them best - the market provides for all, and the only time to get angry is when an outfit like Motorcraft or whatever is taking 7 year old cars that are worth £3-4000 and marketing them at £5995 at 29.5% APR and £250/month (or £60/w) repayments to people who are shit scared of another £1000 bill because the cambelt snapped, or £600 MOT and all the welding needed ("and it'll be lucky to pass the next one mate") and can't get decent finance rates. One or the other would be fine - take the bad credit and charge more for the car, or charge the higher APR, but FFS, don't do BOTH.

 

I work from home. I don't give a shit, practically, if my car breaks down. I need a working car because I'm psychologically bound to the idea of having a car for freedom (to the extent that when freaking out in a Canadian blizzard in a totally safe, warm house, being given the keys to the car and told I could use it whenever I wanted fixed the anxiety).

 

I'm just going to go over this bit again, because I feel like the bangernomics argument is unfairly weighted by Autoshite expectations and experience. I wanted to cut down my outgoings, paying £250/month for my 300C estate. I still needed an estate car, and I find automatics preferable. I bought a Mercedes E320 CDI estate with almost a full year's MOT, good tyres, good brakes, clean interior, 112,000 on the clock for £900.

 

I serviced it myself, at a cost of around £80 IIRC - genuine airfilter and oil filter because Merc parts aren't expensive, a couple of small items to tidy things up, good oil because I want the car to last.

 

It did 2,000 mostly trouble free miles - one flat battery incident, and the rear suspension clonks because the bushes are gone (£120, needs a lift and press to do properly, moderate chance of where they bolt in being rusty).

 

It's a good choice if you're being thrifty. 50mpg, 40 mixed, very capable, comfortable and quick. Also has 7 seats.

 

Then I was going down south for an important event. I dithered over taking the MG F "because it's an unreliable heap of shit that has let me down twice already". Got into my lovely E320, drove 8 miles, went to get on to the motorway and there's a shudder like someone's grabbed hold of the back axle. Car won't go into any gears. 2nd and reverse is the lot. 30mph. This happened on the sliproad to the motorway.

 

Now, with kids in the car, stressing over recovery would be a panic. With a non-car savvy partner I can only imagine the earbending grief I'd get. As it was I limped the car home at 30mph and missed the appointment.

 

Time for diagnosis. For reference, when my friend Alex had the SLK off me for a month, he took it to a gearbox specialist for a fluid change, as I'd advised. They charged him £205, told him the box was shagged and needed replacing. I'm glad, because I think that spooked him and I bought the car back for what he'd paid - I noticed the locking tab on the dipstick was exactly as I'd left it. Dipped the box - same fluid. Not fresh red. Looked underneath - sump had been wiped clean, but no marks from undoing it to drain and change filter.

 

Car had been put into W on the switch when he drove off, so it slurred changes.

 

if I were clueless/pressured, I'd take my car to a gearbox specialist and it would be entirely plausible that they'd tell me the car needed a £1500-2000 new gearbox. It sounded utterly fucked. I'd then be torn - up to twice what the car cost for a repair? Or try to find another and risk the same thing happening again? And what about when it's being repaired, if I need the car.

 

Fix the gearbox and I've spent £3000 on a car worth in the eyes of any buyer, £1000. And it's still a 13 year old car. £3000 is almost 3 years of a £99/month deal on a new car, which will have warranty, roadside assistance, will almost certainly have A/C, will generally not need tyres or brakes in that period, and if it matters, has that feel-good feeling of a brand new car that is all yours and hasn't been spoiled by the mistakes of another owner. No-one else's sweaty back or Gingsters Sausage & Egg Roll farts have sullied the fabric, if there's chewing gum in the ashtray or bogies wiped on the seat*, I know where they're from.

 

None of these things are absolutes, but come on - we've all had that sort of experience, but as AS types we've probably just chucked the car, or spent a month scrounging for bits to fix it, or bought another one and swapped bits until it works.

 

There is sense, logic and good reason for people to buy a new car on finance, particularly at the cheapest end of the market where the driving force isn't status, but being able to have the greatest reliability for the lowest outlay.

 

* no shit. My Chevette had grey seats, vinyl on the side. On the driver's outside edge was a black streak, maybe oil I thought. Then I sneezed when driving, and almost instinctively wiped my hand on that bit of the seat, and it was like OH GOD THE HORROR.

[Junkman]

What really pisses me off is that I, like everybody else in Britain, am still paying installments on a new fucking Jaguar, that isn't in my driveway.

When Golden Brown took away my money to give it to the banksters, so they can lend it to me with interest, which they subsequently didn't do,

and Jaguar, to blow it on bubbly stuff and hookers, I wrote him a letter, asking when my new car will be delivered.

That robbing gormless plonker didn't bother to answer one way or the other.

[PiperCub]

As I drive around, I have for years asked myself the same question, that is, How many of these 'nice' new cars, esp the bigger fancy-nancy ones like SUV/4x4's are actually OWNED by their 'owners'? By owned I mean they don't have any sort of finance outstanding. IMO, I'd bet a weeks money it's not a big percentage.

 

Hearing that cash sales are rare or even pretty non-existant is not a great surprise. I'd heard it's long been the case that dealers only want to flog stuff on finance as the profit margin is way better than a cash sale, the kickbacks from the finance companies are that good.

[Jim Bell]

These kind of threads always spark the same debate, don't they?

 

Ultimately, what people do with their money and what people decide that they want to drive, is up to them, isn't it?

 

It comes down to the fact that not everybody has an interest in cars. Cars are an appliance. Much the same as I wouldn't know a 'Hoover' from a 'Dyson', beko1987 knows the ins and outs of them all because that interests him. To me it is an appliance that I have to use to get a job done. Mine is a no make, £35 jobby from the supermarket, which some people might turn there nose up at. Much the same as my 20yr old Rover then, to the majority of joe public?

 

If people have zero interest in cars and just want something to get about in, then they don't want to/don't have the skills to fix it themselves on a weekend, ready for the Monday morning commute. Somebody earlier on hit the nail on the head - if I had no interest in cars, spunked £1500 on something and then 6 months down the line had to throw £800 at it in a garage (for what we all consider 'consumable items', it's going to stick in the back of some peoples throats as 'not being worth it, it's a money pit' etc, because people who don't know about cars don't understand that they are consumable items and determine that 'it must be fucked'. Many of us, when we first buy a car, chuck a few quid at it in the first few months of ownership to 'get it right' (servicing, timing belts etc) which is completely out of the comprehension of many people - if the bonnet is up, it must be knackered. Afterall, when you buy a car from a dealership it has already been serviced (allegedly) before sale, as they don't need to worry about that.

 

I had much the same with my neice recently, against my advice spunked £600 on a 53 reg Clio which was an absolute dog. Refused to take any of the car savvy family members with her so we just let her get on with it. A week later when it conked out and needed another £400 throwing at it and owed her 1k, it was a piece of shit. She couldn't comprehend that a) it wasn't worth £600 in the first place b ) previous owner had got shot before it needed the work because 'it wasn't worth it' and blatantly saw her coming. In her mind it was then much easier to scrap it 'because it's fucked' (I kid you not - AFTER the work had been done, because it conked again) and spunk 3k on a 08 reg Corsa. Which promptly went into limp home mode a week after she bought that as well.

I will add that before her dad worked in IT, he was a time served mechanic, but my neice wanted a 'proper' mechanic to have a look at it, so paid for a garage to do the work. This was for both the Clio & Corsa. Family free labour is not exploited enough in our family it seems.

 

We have a 4yr old BMW sat outside which is losing money on a daily basis. Not the wisest decision maybe, but I have confidence that Mrs JohnK can get about in a fairly safe manner, in a nice car and the kids are safe. She hates the fact our house looks like the local breakers yard and has no interest in running cars on a shoestring budget (tried and tested - ultimately every car she had failed big style - Peugeot 106 blew up at the side of the road, Renault Laguna went into electrical meltdown on a roundabout, the Peugeot 306 got rammed up the arse whilst stationary and wrote off (okay not a mechanical meltdown as such) and the Nissan Almera stopped dead on a 70mph dual carriageway. I can honestly say that in all the old cars I've owned, none of them things have happened to me.

 

Yes I'm fully aware that the BMW could conk out tomorrow, but that is a chance I will take. I can't deny that it is a nice car, we aren't financially stressed by having it parked out the back and I'm sensible and put money in my car fund savings account every month and that counts towards maintenance, not just buying shite.

 

On the other hand, I don't particuarly care what I drive. My daily is the 05 Civic Diesel, at £1300 it was cheap to buy, it costs pennies to run as it is so frugal and does everything I want/need a car to do, although it is boring. Coincidentally, it's off the road at the moment as it needs a few jobs doing, so the Rover 214 is in daily service whilst I do it. And there is the key - by being interested in cars and having a few kicking about, I can sort the Civic in my own time. If it was just an appliance, then it would have been in the local garage last Monday to get it fixed as I can't get to work without a car and need it and it might have cost me £500. That would be seen as 'the car is fucked' by lots of the motoring public. Actually, it's minor jobs that need doing, but the knackered exhaust was really getting on my tits when I was driving it, hence why I'm not using it until I've got chance to sort it. The same with the BMW - if it needed work, I could take it off the road, hand the Civic keys to the missus and I would use one of my other cars.

I bought the Civic from my sister after 9 years of ownership - she bought it at 1 yr old for 10k, used it and has now upgraded to an Audi A1. So, her fully paid off, reliable car has been replaced with a car she pays £340/month for. But she's good for it, her and her husband are wadded and it was her treat for working so hard. The Civic was financed by her when she bought it, her husband was made redundant 2 years into the agreement but they battled on, she worked extra hours, he worked a minimum wage job and they kept their £300k house and all of the goodies they had worked for. Finance worked for this, as by buying the car on finance they still has an extra 10k in savings to help out if needed and didn't have to sell the car for 6k for example to release equity.

 

When I was growing up in the early '90's, on a typical council estate, my dad had a 12 year old and a 10 year old Cortina. The blue 2.0 Ghia on a W was fautlessly reliable, the yellow 1.6 L on a Y was hopeless. My dad had two cars because he was on a top job in Grangemouth in Scotland and needed transport to get there, but being skint he was a home mechanic, so if one screwed up it sat there until he fixed it.

 

One of my fondest childhood memories was helping my dad change the wheel bearing on his Y reg 1.6L Sierra that replaced the E23 728i (which had replaced both Cortina's). I was about 5 and knew sod all, but it was the thing to do - that particular Sunday, there was about 5 dad's on the street out fixing their clapped out shit.

 

That doesn't happen anymore, because it doesn't need to happen. Attractive finance deals with options such as the Kia 7 year warranty etc are very attractive to people because in their minds, if it breaks, they take it back. They have no interest in the car at all. And because 90% of people do it, we then get into the culture of needing to have the latest registration, needing to have a car with warranty and not needing an MOT, needing to have the premium brand BMW or Audi when actually a Mondeo would do (I know when we replace the 520d I will be looking at the new Mondeo range as VFM they look great and more exclusive than our 5-series).

 

Let people get on with it is what I say. It keeps the car manufacturers and dealerships in business so therefore people are working as there is demand for new cars, there is scope for second hand car dealerships to stay in business because of the cars coming through at 3 years old which can then be re-financed and sold and it allows worthless shit such as Rover R8's to knock about unwanted so that I can buy them all. Yes, it might mean that some toffee nosed twat in a swanky office somewhere is rolling around in a Bentley on the money earnt from interest payments, but it keeps so much more of the economy going (the call centre handler at Black Horse finance on minimum wage etc).

 

I have no problems with finance per se, as finance can be a good thing and is sensible if used properly. The issue is, many do not use finance properly and completely abuse it and that's when things such as people not being able to afford 18" tyres because they haven't budgetted appropriately happen. One of the reasons why my current 520d is an SE model and the previous 525d was an SE too. I don't need 19" alloy wheels and a bodykit, my cock is big enough thank you and I know I can get decent tyres at actually really reasonable prices in 17" flavour.

I think this is the longest post I've ever read.

[Ghosty]

All this finance stuff is why Mother Ghosty is at the other end of the spectrum - she had absolutely zero credit score until a couple of years ago - absolutely everything we own, we own. No finance anywhere, somewhere along the line she was taught that it's the work of the devil and that you should pay for everything yourself (then again her dad was a shopkeeper).

She had a couple of Metros I know nothing about, then in 1992 bought a Mk2 Fez, 3 years old, we kept that until about 2003 (Old Man used it for a few years when his Capri's back axle grenaded). 1998, paid cash for a sad face Fiesta at 3 years old in 1998 and kept it until it shat its third gearbox in 70k (it was CVT), 2008 replaced it with a three/four year old Polo for about £4k. Cash again. Seven years and that's now been replaced with a Bini (£9k cash) that'll be used until it dies, etc. Doesn't owe a penny to anyone, mind.

Old Man does the same thing but with £1-2000 cars every few years - he's had a lot, while I'm alive he's had a Capri Laser, the Mk2 Fez, 190E, Prelude, two Civics and an A4, seldom younger than 10 years old. In fairness he's doing all he's ever known as a working class Manchester man who's always been careful with his hard earned.

 

Old Man has always serviced our cars, but all the same I dread to think how much my family have spent on cars and parts.

[PiperCub]

I've owned over 100 cars and a dozen bikes - paid cash for them all, like 'Mother Ghosty', I was bought up with the same attitude to credit, ie: if you can't pay for it outright, you can't afford to own it (house aside), it's worked for me but it's not the currently fashionable way.

 

Don't get me wrong, if anyone wants to get themselves up to their yingyang in debt buying the latest and greatest car/phone/TV/holiday etc and beforever in the red then that's their business, if it works for them and they are happy with it then frankly I don't really care, you're an adult and it's your choice. It's just not my way that's all.