What makes you grin? Antidote to grumpy thread

[warren t claim]

These people are total victims. I shouldn't laugh but I find their sob stories fucking hilarious.

 

I owe between taking a vehicle at £6000 and a loan of £5000 I owe Welcome £29000 for interest etc nearly three times the amount of the loan!!!

I'm 99% certain that post was typed out on a Bright House laptop...

 

CSE Grade 5 in maths as well.

 

Here's an English scholar...

 

i agree that they are a complete con i applied with them they said i had been accepted all i had to do was send a copy of my drivers lisance and a waged slip and also pay a 1 off payment of £60 i paid this and then i recived an e-mail telling me they were not giving finace out as they had gone bust and if i paid yet another 60 pounds thay would pass my information on to another company but i didn't do this and it took me a good few month to recive my 60 pounds back after sending letter after letter i told them if i did not recive a refund i will take it to tradeing standards thats when i got my money back.

just be awere of this as i went to citerzans advise and was told NEVER PAY AN ADMINISRTION CHARGE AS YOU SHOULD NEVER NEED TO IF THE COMPANY ARE LAGITAMTE.

WILL GO FAR.

[warren t claim]

 

They agreeded they would clear my old debt and start again with new credit for the same car, this is only £60 a week, which i can afford but this is over 1oyrs!!! Ok i guess i will have to deal with that but i recently recieved a letter from them, i guess its a yearly statment saying i have 9 years left and owe...£260000! 26 grand on a car that is barley worth 3k!

I need to move into car finance. Anyone want to buy a Punto on "easy terms"?

[John F]

I need to move into making cars out of barley, if they multiply their value by a factor of more than eight...!

[cort16]

If it really is HP and lot some dodgy personal loan you can return the car half way through the period no matter how much interest they've lashed onto it. That rule's there to protect from this kind of thing.

If it's a personal loan then it's secured to you and not the car. It means it's easier to sell it (doesn't show up on an HPi check) but you're lumbered with it.

[vulgalour]

£60 a week is affordable?  Ã‚£60 a week!  That means you could afford to buy a £3k car outright once every year.... defies all belief that you'd go finance if you've got that sort of spare cash floating around.  I'd love to have £60 a week just lying around doing nothing.

[warren t claim]

Personal bankruptcy would be a better option for most of these people.

[autofive]

i love to read stories of stupid people sadled with debt. it reminds me how clever i am for not ever getting car finance.

[cort16]

There's nothing wrong with car finance unless you're stupid.

[wuvvum]

Rolls-Royce Merlin engines make me grin.  Just had a Spitfire do a low pass over the office.  Lovely.

[Mr Livered]

26 grand on a car that is barley worth 3k!

Unbefuckinglievable.

 

Sometimes it seems expensive to have a modest collection of shite (like me: I've got three cheap cars and I'm trying to figure out whether adding a van would be a massive extravagance or not). But a lot of people who appear to have taken the "sensible" and financially restrained option of a nearly-new Focus or whatever might be spending a lot more than I am.

[vulgalour]

My old housemate got press ganged by family into getting a new Peugeot on finance.  On paper, it seemed to be less hassle than a second hand car... so he's paying £10K for a £7K car.  Recently, someone ran into the back of his little Peugeot hard enough to write it off and he could either take an approx. £5k payout and buy an identical but better condition used Peugeot to the one he currently had OR take out another finance plan on a brand new version of the same car.

 

Last I heard he was planning to go the finance route even though I waved a good number of cars - both Autoshite and not autoshite stuff - at him and proved that it was actually pretty difficult to spend the full £5k on a suitable replacement.  No educating some people though, he wanted the apparent 'security' and 'hassle-free' finance plan over a scary used/second-hand car that might break.  Strange mentality really.

[Mr Livered]

No educating some people though, he wanted the apparent 'security' and 'hassle-free' finance plan over a scary used/second-hand car that might break.  Strange mentality really.

I've had a couple of conversations on this topic, with people who always buy new or nearly-new cars, trying to understand their thinking.

 

Basically the advantage of finance, I'm told, is that at least you know how much it's going to cost in advance, whereas the maintenance costs of an older car are unpredictable. Because, as we all know, new cars never go wrong.

 

The only thing wrong with that plan, as Blackadder would have appreciated, is that it's bollocks. I've only ever bought a brand new car once in my life, and it was the least reliable car I've ever owned fo' sho'.

 

I suppose if you really really wanted to prostitute yourself totally, and work your nuts off in order to be able to afford a bleak and miserable Eurobox on finance, you could make sure you only ever have cars that are still under warranty.

 

I think I might be rambling. Sorry. I am depressing myself, so I'll piss off now.

[cort16]

There's loads of great, fair deals out there on new cars especially ones with guarenteed future values. You get a new car very 3 years at the end you just give it back and get another and continue to pay the same monthly payment.

Vulgalour you're just thinking of it from your point of view. For some people paying a monthly payment on a new car is the best way to do it as it allows you to manage a budget and if you do it over 3 years you have no MOT, no repairs and probably never need to put tyres on it.  The only restriction is mileage but you can alter that to your needs. I like shite cars but I've ran enough of them to know that they go wrong and if I can afford a relatively small amount it I'd rather have my Mrs driving around in a car she feels comfortable in and I feel comfortable in her being in. It's not for very one and I can see why you'd want to run old cars but there's 2 sides to it.

[Bobthebeard]

There's loads of great, fair deals out there on new cars especially ones with guarenteed future values. You get a new car very 3 years at the end you just give it back and get another and continue to pay the same monthly payment.

Vulgalour you're just thinking of it from your point of view. For some people paying a monthly payment on a new car is the best way to do it as it allows you to manage a budget and if you do it over 3 years you have no MOT, no repairs and probably never need to put tyres on it. The only restriction is mileage but you can alter that to your needs. I like shite cars but I've ran enough of them to know that they go wrong and if I can afford a relatively small amount it I'd rather have my Mrs driving around in a car she feels comfortable in and I feel comfortable in her being in. It's not for very one and I can see why you'd want to run old cars but there's 2 sides to it.

Very well said. And fair point.

Suspect that for many people running a new car has less to do with budget management and more to do with vanity. Many of the folk I have talked to have admitted as such, but do tend to play the 'budget management' card when pressed.

Reliability seems to be the main 'reason' people give for buying new. Fair enough I suppose.

[cort16]

There's no doubt new cars have reliability issues but the worst that'll happen is it needs to go back to the dealer and you get a courtesy car. Annoying but there's not going to be any huge bills at the end of it.

The deal my Mrs got even had 3 years free servicing thrown in.

[Bobthebeard]

Lets not forget that everyone involved in supplying a new car to the end user is in it to make money. The manufacturers, dealers and finance company.

Ok, a new car, hassle free, can be yours for a monthly payment of... Lets say, £300. Soooo £3600 a year.

Yours for three years. £10,800. Then after three years it all starts again..

This doesn't usually include insurance, and certainly not fuel. Servicing a new car 'free' over three years ain't going to cost very much. But seen as a benefit.

No one is doing the buyer a favour. It's just business.

A new car on the drive for an amount of money that seems affordable each month. But it's no bargain. Just another direct debit!

IMHO.

[John F]

In terms of repairs and consumables, I've probably spent less than £1,200 on my Calibra in the 6 years / 70,000 miles I've owned it.

 

And that includes buying it.

 

But the value of tidy, non-barried Calibras is starting to rise, so over the next few years it might well become worth more than it's cost me to own it.

 

[cort16]

I recon eventually manufacturers will offer a plan where you pay a monthly payment then you have access to all their models for a certain period of the year. Something sporty for  a weekend away, a 7 seater for taking the sprogs to lego land and an electric car to have on a daily basis.

[Mr Livered]

I recon eventually manufacturers will offer a plan where you pay a monthly payment then you have access to all their models for a certain period of the year. Something sporty for  a weekend away, a 7 seater for taking the sprogs to lego land and an electric car to have on a daily basis.

Maybe a van when you need to lug some stuff about, too.

 

For city dwellers there are schemes like zipcar.co.uk which is maybe a bit like wot you've got in mind? (not run by car manufacturers though).

 

You're not even expected to buy your own pez!

[skattrd]

Not really a grin, along the same lines as the above posts on finance. I've been toying with the idea of getting a contract lease car as I'm fed up of spending my weekends fixing/maintaining my daily.

Direct from Skoda it'd be £500 a month for an Octavia 1.6 tdi auto, that includes servicing with an estimated 40k miles a year. I also tried Seat, and a Leon worked out about the same price as well

 

£6k a year, forget that, 'll keep fixing my boring and other assorted heaps at the weekend.

[Cavcraft]

I can see why people buy new cars on that sort '£199 deposit, £199 a month' deal for three years but to me I can't see past this being anything other than leasing it. You don't really own the car unless you make a payment at the end, and I bet a large percentage get sucked in to giving it back and starting again.

 

Horses for courses and everyone's different, I just don't see the point of it really.

[cort16]

The flaw is the mileage. If you're doing 40k a year then leasing probably isn't going to work for you. Anyway this is a forum for old cars and not moneysupermarket so I'll shut my cake hole.

 

I've just been out for my first drive in my 520 as I couldn't get it on my insurance until today. To counteract everything I've just said I can't believe you can get a car as nice as that for that little cash. It's totally spotless under the bonnet and inside. My shopping list is some new headlight lenses and a drivers seat.

I'm taking it to work tomorrow. It'll probably break down.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

If i was rich I'd be all over a leased car. Who cares about the cost, the important thing is that when it gets old it goes away and is replaced by this year's model. 

[Cavcraft]

I believe we may think differently about 'important'.

[pompei]

My neighbour has just "bought" a new Seat to replace the 3 year old 15,000 miler she bought, er, 3 years ago.  It was due an MoT and may* have needed 4 new tyres she was told.  Plus a cambelt.  And while you're at it a waterpump.  A lot less hassle to punt it in against a new one.  Hmmm...

[dollywobbler]

My neighbour has just "bought" a new Seat to replace the 3 year old 15,000 miler she bought, er, 3 years ago.  It was due an MoT and may* have needed 4 new tyres she was told.  Plus a cambelt.  And while you're at it a waterpump.  A lot less hassle to punt it in against a new one.  Hmmm...

 

This is the scary bit. Folk get faced with a bill of a few hundred quid and go "ooh, I'd better get a new car, this one's getting iffy." So they rush out and buy something on finance, which ends up costing them hundreds every month!

 

That said, I had to have my eyes opened to the world of finance. It was my wife who showed me there was another way. So, I started spending a few hundred quid at a time on buying shite old cars and haven't looked back since. What a woman. She made me Autoshite. If you like changing cars every five minutes, old is definitely the way. What on earth I thought I was doing committing to three or four year deals on cars I'll never know. Longest I kept one of them was 18 months!

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I believe we may think differently about 'important'.

 

If you've still got last year's E-Class without that bit of silver trim on the grille then I'm going to petition the country club to cancel your membership. 

[Cavcraft]

If you've still got last year's E-Class without that bit of silver trim on the grille then I'm going to petition the country club to cancel your membership. 

 

I've got last century's Peugeot with a bit of tin foil on the grille and I don't like farmers. Go for it.

[Hendry]

I am not against the idea of trading in your current car, getting say a grand for it, using that as a deposit and then paying £200 a month for the next 3 years as you actually own the car at the end of it. Particularly if you buy say a low mileage 3 year old car and intend to keep it for ages, that way you are getting your money's worth.

 

Can't see the point of PCP deals where you never actually own the car at the end of it, just chucking the money down the drain IMO, particularly those where there's not even an option to buy the car outright with a lump sum at the end of it. It seems like it was dreamed up to appeal to folk who care too much about what other people think of them, and are living out with their means, some of the PCPs you see in the papers are shocking, £2.5K deposit down, £229 a month for 48 months then something like £10K lump sum at the end of it if you want to keep the car. All for a base model BMW 1 series.

 

What's even more stupid is those lease/PCP deals Peugeot and Renault do, think the Pug ones called just add fuel, £179 deposit and £179 a month for 48months, then if you want to "keep using the car" after that you pay like £3.5K lump sum BUT the car is still not yours even after all that, the terms and conditions say if you want to keep using the car after paying the lump sum you need to pay them a fee each year equivalent to a months rental so £179 a year for every year after the lease term has passed, and that you will never own the car, so if you were silly enough to do this for 15years and the car was fucked and ready for the scrappy you'd still need to give it back to Pug.

 

It's a stupid idea, I know a guy who had a 56 plate Astra, chopped that in for an 07 Laguna, then had a 50/50 accident in the Laguna, being 19 his insurance was ridiculous so he chopped the Laguna in and got a white base model Kia Picanto on a PCP, he was close to exceeding the annual mileage limit when he had to go and work in Wolverhampton for a while so he bought a fucked old 02 plate Almera to use, obviously then had to insure and tax 2 cars, then when he came back up here flogged the Almera, I tried saying to him it was pointless to buy the Picanto on PCP for cheaper tax insurance and fuel costs if every so often he had to buy another car to keep the mileage down as that would work out more expensive than if he had just kept the Laguna, the Almera or just bought the Picanto on an HP agreement where there's no mileage limit and he would own it outright at the end and recoup some of his outlay, he just kept saying that was pointless because the Picanto would cost him £2.5k more to buy on HP, couldn't grasp he was going to spend much more than that doing it his way.

 

I'd imagine most folk who buy on PCP think like that, for me personally I'd rather own a relatively modern (4yr old) car out right than lease a brand new decent car I was strapped up for and was living out with my means to pay for with no chance of owning it outright.

 

I remember at school I'd see most of the other kids mums and dads getting brand new or under a year old cars then getting rid after 2 years and doing the same again, and thinking my mum and dad were poor or cheapskates, even sometimes getting slagged by some other kids for being not as well off, until I asked my mum about it and realising they were the mugs, my folks had better paying jobs than a lot of the other kids parents but because they weren't all that bothered about cars and it was just a tool to them, my dad always bought 3 year old cars and kept them 5 or 6 years, this meant they had more money, more to spend on me and my sister, other more important things like a nice house, and after paying the car off for 1, 2 or 3 years had another 2 years of a car which was theirs outright before they got another, while te other parents probably never stopped paying for their cars. As a result I think unless I won the euromillions I'd never buy a brand new car, probably 2 years old+ and keep it a while.

 

I should probably stick to old cars because I dread to think how much I've wasted on buying 2/3 year old cars and then got rid for another after a year or less for another because I like too many different cars and get bored and want a change.

[autofive]

just had a phone call from my mother.

 

"how do i save this webpage?" she says

 

I have to tease out the information from her that the webpage is from Ancestry.con, and (when i have a look at their website) is using a lot of flash.

 

"mmm, its not easy' I tell her. and spend 10 minutes getting links to screengrab software for her, and explaining how the software works, then she says "will you do it and email it to me"

 

okay, says I, just email me the address of the page and I will have a go

 

cue another 5 minutes explaining how to copy and paste the web address

 

i get the email, start looking at the page (all the while still connected by landline to her, long-distance) until we finally, finally, get to the bottom of it.............

 

 

she only wants to bookmark the page so she can revisit it without searching