Monthly spend on car vs income?

Bit of a pistonheads question. How much do you spend a month on a car repayment as a percentage or income? Don’t answer or feel aggrieved if you don’t want to put it . You don’t have to .

The reason I’m discussing is I’m mulling things over. I’ve always ran old bangors, always. I’m late thirties now. I’ve never been into cars - to me the normal ones are like buying a fridge, or a new cooker. Necessary, but dull as dishwater.

But there are one or two cars I actually really always liked. And before heading into midlife crisis territory I took a fancy to owning one, for a while. But, I’m Mr cautious, as a result I have very few material things. No fancy stereos. Never one for trinkets or the latest phones, designer clothes, fancy this and that etc. Equally, I’m not a Mr caustious who’s got lots of capital to lay down as a result either! A few years ago I was saving like a Trojan for a house deposit when a nasty redundancy had it all hit the skids and my house deposit I’d saved disappeared! All that cautiousness for nowt. Should’ve blown it on hookers and booze! (Joking!!!)

Anyway, it kind of threw me to be even more cautious. For example, I’ve only ever had 1 loan in my life. I’m back sorted now and have a pot steadily trickling up again to get out of the rent trap world. However, I can’t help ■■■■ after having a little indulgence for all this grind we all do through our working lives.

I’ve been donkeying in my job field for 13 years and I sense I’ll probably pop my clogs at this rate having lived a life of careful worry and strain about houses and the future without ever having spent much on any for the now indulgences other than the odd pair of new walking boots every blue moon, gym membership, cinema and curries out and the odd holiday every few years with the Gf.

The figures it would need I think I can afford, but the same plodding careful voice in me keeps saying “that’s too much, not sensible, you’re cutting your saving in half”. Spending large sums on a bit of metal to me will never be sensible, or justifiable logically as they will rot away, eventually. I guess one of those things we do because we want to such as buying whatever gadget or iPhone, but on steroids.

I’ve read various articles that say 20-25 percent of annual income if you’re into something more than a bog standard a-b car. But I find that useless. More sense would be a percentage of your monthly take home pay on payments. Like no more than 10 percent etc. Looked it up on pistonheads and similar thread but people’s figures and opinions varied wildly . Just curious on thoughts?

if your going to buy a car with borrowed money then take out a bank loan or credit union…never buy from a dealer,go to an auction with cash.(thats where your dealer is buying it from anyway) itl be cheap as chips and if not perfect,you will have saved a fortune with the auction price anyway.buying cash means that its you thats on finance,not the car.you can sell it without messing with settlements ect and easier to work with the insurance co if its accident damaged as they pay out depending on how much finance is left on your car…never buy from garages,never take out any add on insurance for anything or warranties as its only a scam for the dealer to ■■■■ you for more dosh.the warranties will be worth something but mostly just a loophole with a bit of paper round the edges.buy cash,buy auction is the most cost effective way.i had a petrol station,garage,workshop,credit broker licence and approx 50 car sale pitch for over 10 years a while ago and the general public are just complete victims when it comes to car sales.you just need to go to the auction a few times beforehand to clock the faces and get the feel of things.about 70 percent or more of the same cars will be there for weeks on end,there only new stock the 1st time you go and usually open to offers if they dont sell 1st time around.

I paid 4994 for my current 63 plate MG3 less 400 quid part ex for my knackered Ford Focus, less 2000 in cash and borrowed 3000 from my mum, of which I give her 30 quid a week to pay it off. Had it 7 months and could currently pay off the balance if I wanted too, but I like to keep some money in reserve but hopefully by the end of the year I should be able to pay off what’s left so will have paid the remainder within a year. It’s the newest car I have ever bought usually 5 year old plus. Might look at changing it sometime next year for something newer and bigger, bought it as I needed a reliable car for work, fed up of spending half my free time repairing my cars, mainly as I don’t like paying garages extortionate amounts of money.

Oh and my tale home currently is about 80 quid a week less than it would be, basic week is around 440 a week take home so currently less than 10% of my weekly wage. Obviously it’s down to what you want etc but as with anything being able to afford it and run it is what counts.

dieseldog999:
if your going to buy a car with borrowed money then take out a bank loan or credit union…never buy from a dealer,go to an auction with cash.(thats where your dealer is buying it from anyway) itl be cheap as chips and if not perfect,you will have saved a fortune with the auction price anyway.buying cash means that its you thats on finance,not the car.you can sell it without messing with settlements ect and easier to work with the insurance co if its accident damaged as they pay out depending on how much finance is left on your car…never buy from garages,never take out any add on insurance for anything or warranties as its only a scam for the dealer to ■■■■ you for more dosh.the warranties will be worth something but mostly just a loophole with a bit of paper round the edges.buy cash,buy auction is the most cost effective way.i had a petrol station,garage,workshop,credit broker licence and approx 50 car sale pitch for over 10 years a while ago and the general public are just complete victims when it comes to car sales.you just need to go to the auction a few times beforehand to clock the faces and get the feel of things.about 70 percent or more of the same cars will be there for weeks on end,there only new stock the 1st time you go and usually open to offers if they dont sell 1st time around.

Really appreciate your advice, especially as you’ve run a garage and been on that side of the fence! Ive always been wary of auctions as always thought it was the lemons that went through them or the accident damaged ones. Shows how much I know, nadda . I’d need financing of some sort and was keen to use a loan that had no security attached to the car just like you say to keep it seperate.

an auction has to tell you if the cars on the vcar register…part of their commission is an indemnity so that if you buy it and it eventually comes up stolen,or financed ect then you get your dosh back…any nice helpfull salesman is there to get as much money as possible from you when your buying a car and will be laughing behind your back once he has done so.the kids get bunged into a cartoon tv room so they can focus on selling you the deal.you get a cup of scalding coffee so you cant escape for 15 mins.itl be referred to ad “your” car and they might even touch you on the arm…aall ways to influence parting you from your dosh.if a car goes through the ring and dont make reserve,itl be up for neotiation afterwards when its calm and quiet.thats sometimes easier for a newbie at auctions and you have less chance of becoming a victim.

With the exception of something like a VXR 8 buying anything modern/recent and that’s out of manufacturers’ warranty is too much of a risk and that’s just something simple with manual transmission.Let alone anything more complicated.Which just leaves the personal choice of the easiest way to pay for something new or nearly new with plenty of manufacturers warranty left on it and best residual value and when trading it in.With numerous options like leasing or PCP etc.

If not classics are another option.But fuel costs and parts availability and also their replacement value can make them a problem for everyday general use.IE certainly don’t want to park a classic Jag in the local supermarket car park for example or even use it for that type of journey.

Having said that if you’re happy to work on it yourself and it’s more about the mid life crisis thing than looking for a shopping car or local runabout then the VXR 8 would be at the top of my shopping list.

My tuppenceworth is never to pay interest on a depreciating asset, though in your case you’d be eating into savings.
I can well understand the draw, unless you’ve got some clever scheme going your savings are earning bugger all interest, so why the hell not.

However, IMHO we’re heading for another downturn and a big one, the national debt is unserviceable, so your guess is good as mine what’s likely to happen, the experts proved they knew sod all last time, so whatever they say i’m taking with a big pinch of sodium chloride.

There, no help at all

Thanks chaps. Some really good stuff there and certainly had me thinking. Mmm.

Like you guys have said paying interest on something that loses value doesn’t make any sense financially. Another way I visualised that is it’s like viewing the depreciation as going down even more! When viewing this I’ve certainly written off any of it being sensible and all that’s left is just because I want to. There’s no use trying to make it sensible I’ve realised. That’s me being honest. I rarely get this over objects. Guess I’m bored of being sensible and having nothing much to show for it and got a serious case of the “stuff it’s” . But my clarity head is coming back and if I did pull the trigger on it, I’ll prob lay down as much cash from savings as I can to limit the interest.

I can afford to lay down about 40 percent using savings accrued from the last 14 months. I worked out the depreciation very roughly and looks like (wild no-knowledge-of-the-car-industry guessing warning) if I sold it at each year point, after clearing the finance I’d have just under my initial cash input left. But obviously the money put into the repayments would have been lost, so like renting I suppose in that sense. Repayments wise, if I put in 40 percent the repayments per month will be about 5.5% of my monthly take home. Plus I suppose with the cash input I won’t be over leveraged if I need to exit the finance by selling the car.

It’s not a new car, it’s a 7 year old little Porsche. So on one hand it’s done a lot of the initial sharp drop of the off forecourt depreciation but then the running costs go up and risk of being hit with bills larger than dipper Dave’s innuendos.

Carryfast:
With the exception of something like a VXR 8 buying anything modern/recent and that’s out of manufacturers’ warranty is too much of a risk and that’s just something simple with manual transmission.Let alone anything more complicated.Which just leaves the personal choice of the easiest way to pay for something new or nearly new with plenty of manufacturers warranty left on it and best residual value and when trading it in.With numerous options like leasing or PCP etc.

If not classics are another option.But fuel costs and parts availability and also their replacement value can make them a problem for everyday general use.IE certainly don’t want to park a classic Jag in the local supermarket car park for example or even use it for that type of journey.

Having said that if you’re happy to work on it yourself and it’s more about the mid life crisis thing than looking for a shopping car or local runabout then the VXR 8 would be at the top of my shopping list.

Cheers CF, what you say makes sense. But my head has always been attracted to a coupl of cars that kind of are an issue fitting into your sensible advice. And that’s being honest (again ). Probably why they’ve always remained a day dream. Most cars pass me by like tubs of paint but I see one of these and my eyes always light up.

One is a 964 Carrera, the other is the Cayman gen 2 onwards. Annoyingly I had the chance to buy a 964 back when they were cheap (6 years ago sub 10k) but passed up, me being mr sensible. Now 964s are silly money and over 40k. Plus they are classics and not daily drivers. The little caymans gen2 onwards are out of my bracket brand new or if still in warranty as you’re looking 35k plus. I could be a mad man and lay down finance on a 2 year old one but to me that’s too big a loan. An older Cayman with reasonable miles, well looked after and gen2 onwards isn’t cheap but more sensible for my price point. From chatting around the gen2s are pretty reliable as daily drivers. But of course they devalue pretty much like any other normal German car such as an Audi TT. I can and have done mild spannering like radiators, belts and alternators etc, but wouldn’t have a clue on a Porsche and would probably break it. I was optimistically hoping that doing such a thing pre 40 years old I could dodge the mid life crisis moniker

No doubt about it there’s no sense to one and prob why I’ve never brought any car I liked (except the bmw). My potted car history so far for laughs. Everything but Noddy’s car…

1st car - Volvo 340DL
2nd - 1980 Mercedes 200
3rd - Austin Montego
4th - Nova 1.0
5th - Citroen something or other 1.0
6th - 1986 Ford ■■■■■■ popular
7th - 1992 BMW 325i
8th - Peugeot 206 cc (current)

So you can see I won’t feature much in the annals of motoring history

Freight Dog:

Carryfast:
Cheers CF, what you say makes sense. But my head has always been attracted to a coupl of cars that kind of are an issue fitting into your sensible advice. And that’s being honest (again ). Probably why they’ve always remained a day dream. Most cars pass me by like tubs of paint but I see one of these and my eyes always light up.

One is a 964 Carrera, the other is the Cayman gen 2 onwards. Annoyingly I had the chance to buy a 964 back when they were cheap (6 years ago sub 10k) but passed up, me being mr sensible. Now 964s are silly money and over 40k. Plus they are classics and not daily drivers. The little caymans gen2 onwards are out of my bracket brand new or if still in warranty as you’re looking 35k plus. I could be a mad man and lay down finance on a 2 year old one but to me that’s too big a loan. An older Cayman with reasonable miles, well looked after and gen2 onwards isn’t cheap but more sensible for my price point. From chatting around the gen2s are pretty reliable as daily drivers. But of course they devalue pretty much like any other normal German car such as an Audi TT. I can and have done mild spannering like radiators, belts and alternators etc, but wouldn’t have a clue on a Porsche and would probably break it. I was optimistically hoping that doing such a thing pre 40 years old I could dodge the mid life crisis moniker

No doubt about it there’s no sense to one and prob why I’ve never brought any car I liked (except the bmw). My potted car history so far for laughs. Everything but Noddy’s car…

1st car - Volvo 340DL
2nd - 1980 Mercedes 200
3rd - Austin Maestro
4th - Nova 1.0
5th - Citroen something or other 1.0
6th - 1986 Ford ■■■■■■ popular
7th - 1992 BMW 325i
8th - Peugeot 206 cc (current)

So you can see I won’t feature much in the annals of motoring history

Mine was

Triumph 2.5 PI
BMW E3 3.0 Si
2 Granada 2.8 i manual estates in quick succession used as my work commuting hacks.Together with 2 1980’s Jag XJ 12’s first from 1988 - 2,000.
The second from 2,000 to date modified with a 6.0 litre XJRS engine and 5 speed manual box.

Also one of all the three generations of Zafira to date used as a local runabout/shopping car.

No need and too late anyway now for the mid life crisis.

On that note you’ll see a liking for quick saloons in all that and I never really liked the sports coupe thing.But I might just have been tempted by a Ferrari 550 if only I could have afforded to run and maintain one.While the appreciation would more than have paid for itself.While if the time ever arrives to get rid of the Jag then the VXR8 will be the first choice.If not maybe a later V8 type Jag XJ which I’ll then probably put a nice simple pushrod Chevy LS motor into like this one which is a no brainer choice v the complicated supercharged Jag motor…

youtube.com/watch?v=OTAXykiqsGs

I was thinking about treating myself to a sports car.
Nothing too flash…but something to keep and cherish until I die.
I really love the classic sports car shape(long bonnet short boot)so the z4,coupled with the 3litre 6 cylinder engine was earmarked.
I then went on the forums,which totally put me off.
Too Many horror stories.

Buy a quality older car out right for £2k ish .No dramas if it goes pop .Just get another and you will probably recover a good wad selling the “Quality bits” off the old un.Waste not want not.

For the last 3 years has a 2010 diesel poxy Passat that was clear of any finance but from day 1 didn’t rate it so got shot and now have a '08 plate 520d BMW Tourer with all the toys that goes like the proverbial crap off a shovel with it’s 177bhp whioch will soon rise when I have it remapped …

I ran a '98 Nissan Micra for 8 years, and that cost around 5% of my takehome pay to run (M.O.T, service, tax, insurance, petrol, other repairs).

I more recently bought a car cash for £4.5k, and 12 months ownership will be around 10-12% of my takehome pay. It’s my only real indulgence as it’s the car I always wanted.

Once I’m bored, I’ll be going back to Micras because they do wonders for one’s savings pot.

I’ve pulled the trigger on it after finding one I like. Shocking for me