Chris Boardman has sold the car

[Tom B]

I am 51 though

Oh, and that's with legal cover, NCB protected, loan car, and £100 compulsory excess, £0 voluntary excess. Hastings Premium, if anyone is intestrested, although I do shop around every year.

@screenman Whaddya mean manufacturer profit? Lets keep the maths simple - a new car costs £100,000, but a dealer sells it for only £50,00 without making a loss. Who is deprived of the difference? And that's only on new cars. The fact that the dealer was selling used models for more that Dad was able to source them new suggests that there is an extremely healthy profit in the nearly new used market if they're able to do that.

Insurance is a mine field and and on the face of it can seem crackers. It costs £180 to insure my 2008 ford focus for me and the issues. The commonlawinlaws have put us on their campevan insurance on the proviso that we put them on one one of our cars so they can take our car if we borrow their van. Without changing the annual mileage adding two 50yr olds with good histories added £40 (20%). Crap deal on insurance but great deal on camper van hire. Incidentally adding two 30odd year olds with 15 yrs+ driving and no claims also caused their van insurance to go up.

My hobbyhorse is what poor value a PCP represents, I've demonstrated it to several of my colleagues who have binned their PCPs and probably ranted about it here.

We have two cars in the household at the moment. We definitely need one and one car makes financial sense. If the focus died tomorrow I don't think I'd replace it, certainly not right away. Last year it did 4k and 1200 of them were in two weeks on holiday. The long term plan is to get a campervan in a few years when the little lad is a bit older. That would then be used like the focus and although available for daily use would likely do very little except when camping.

My insurance expired just before lockdown and I only restarted it again on 15th June.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

My hobbyhorse is what poor value a PCP represents

That has to be the understatement of the month so far

 

[raleighnut]

If only it was that easy, this time next year we would all be millionaires. Not paying more than book. are you kidding.

I'm still waiting for my Unicorn, it must be on 'Back Order'

 

[dodgy]

I've had PCPs, no hassle, new car every 2 or 3 years. For me it was worth it in a stressful job when the last thing I wanted to worry about was servicing, mot, repairs or other admin.
For me the expense was obviously more than some here would be prepared to pay, but it wasn't a big enough slice of my salary to worry about.
Cut your cloth accordingly 🤷‍♂️
Probably retire next year, then everything changes. I'm starting to drift away from the idea of having a new car, though.

 

[raleighnut]

I've had PCPs, no hassle, new car every 2 or 3 years. For me it was worth it in a stressful job when the last thing I wanted to worry about was servicing, mot, repairs or other admin.
For me the expense was obviously more than some here would be prepared to pay, but it wasn't a big enough slice of my salary to worry about.
Cut your cloth accordingly 🤷‍♂️
Probably retire next year, then everything changes. I'm starting to drift away from the idea of having a new car, though.

Really the best idea is if you absolutely need a car is to buy a brand new one and then keep it.

 

[screenman]

That has to be the understatement of the month so far

For some it is good value, if not why would so many go for it.

 

[dodgy]

Really the best idea is if you absolutely need a car is to buy a brand new one and then keep it.

Definitely an option. We'll be car free in September, we're planning on trialling that for a few months and see how it works out.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

For some it is good value, if not why would so many go for it.

Vanity, keeping up with their FB friends, too much money & not enough sense, keeping up appearances shall I continue?

 

[screenman]

Really the best idea is if you absolutely need a car is to buy a brand new one and then keep it.

That is seldom a good idea if penny pinching after all 20% goes straight into the VAT pot, buy a couple of years old and get rid of the worst of the depreciation, of course that only matter to those whose main concern is saving money, a hell of a lot of people do not worry about that at all.

 

[screenman]

Vanity, keeping up with their FB friends, too much money & not enough sense, keeping up appearances shall I continue?

That one I was waiting for, do you ride around on £100 worth of bike? how much lack of sense do you need to have money to spend? Do you wear £10 shoes, do you have the cheapest of everything in fact. Some people like different things to others, not wrong just different. Most of the people I know without much money would like some more, they just do not have it in them to make some more though, nothing wrong again we are all different. The more money than sense line just smacks of green eyed monster.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

That is seldom a good idea if penny pinching after all 20% goes straight into the VAT pot, buy a couple of years old and get rid of the worst of the depreciation, of course that only matter to those whose main concern is saving money, a hell of a lot of people do not worry about that at all.

Definitely an option. We'll be car free in September, we're planning on trialling that for a few months and see how it works out.

Not sure how you can trial it, as @screenman says the biggest depreciation is as soon as the wheels hit the road, to make it work you have to commit to a car & then never change it until it turns to dust, buying a 1-2-3 year old car is likely to be the best option.

 

[dodgy]

Not sure how you can trial it, as @screenman says the biggest depreciation is as soon as the wheels hit the road, to make it work you have to commit to a car & then never change it until it turns to dust, buying a 1-2-3 year old car is likely to be the best option.

Eh? Thought it was clear I was on about trialling being car-free.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

The more money than sense line just smacks of green eyed monster.

Which is also the response I was expecting,

In my current situation I could should I wish pay £800 a month on a car, however I have no desire to do that nor can I think of a situation where I would. This is just another marketing ploy, as you know cars are lasting so much longer these days, in the late 70's I was running 8 year old Fords, Hillmans & Vauxhalls that had all just about rusted away at that point. Our current main car is a 13 year old Toyota Rav4 which has no visible rust at all, the car manufacturers had to come up with a new scam to get people to buy new cars, so they adopted the US model of PCP where renting something is far more acceptable. The only problem in the UK is that it is run by the finance houses & the amount of trouble with excess mileage & damage claims make the process stressful.

If you (the collective you, not you personally) want to do a PCP then feel free to do so, I personally think it's mainly based on vanity to have a new car on the drive to show off.

Eh? Thought it was clear I was on about trialling being car-free.

Apologies I misread your post, I read it in conjunction with @raleighnut's post about buying a new car & read it as your were buying a new car to trial it.

 

[screenman]

No pcp or finance in this house, no way on earth everything paid for my boys are the same. You never answered the question about the other things though. Options that is what pcp is options, we are very lucky to have those things some people do not have them.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

No pcp or finance in this house, no way on earth everything paid for my boys are the same. You never answered the question about the other things though. Options that is what pcp is options, we are very lucky to have those things some people do not have them.

With regards to shoes, I currently have 1 pair of sandals which I bought in Florida in 2014, 1 pair of Sketchers which is the 2nd pair of a pair of pairs I bought for £40 a pair when they were on offer, both pairs will be replaced when this are no longer viable, 1 pair of steel toe capped work boots bought from Screwfix several years ago, a pair of Hi-tech fabric walking boots for riding my MTB on, a pair of leather walking boots, again they were on offer under £50 although the claimed Retail was £100+ & a pair of black leather shoes for hatches, matches & despatches.

Yes I do tend to buy the cheapest of anything I can find, it is only in the last 2-3 years that there has ever been any disposable income, financially we have always struggled & for many years has been my biggest worry & to some degree still is, I have no pension nestegg, I could never afford to fund it, so the future could be very bleak for us in a few years time.