How can people afford cars?

I've never owned a car and am just about to move back to London and decided I'm getting a van. I have no intentions of driving it to work or to get the shopping and really hope I stick to it, I hate driving so think I should. For me I really want it so that I can get out of London easily and go mountainbiking and do other activities, having your own just makes it sio much easier to go on a whim. Then again if I find myself not using it regularly I'll probably just join that street car thing. Never heard of it before but just had a look and it looks good although if your using it for a few days you might be better of hiring a car from a regular place.

I've never owned a car and am just about to move back to London and decided I'm getting a van. I have no intentions of driving it to work or to get the shopping and really hope I stick to it, I hate driving so think I should. For me I really want it so that I can get out of London easily and go mountainbiking and do other activities, having your own just makes it sio much easier to go on a whim. Then again if I find myself not using it regularly I'll probably just join that street car thing. Never heard of it before but just had a look and it looks good although if your using it for a few days you might be better of hiring a car from a regular place.

methinks a Renault 5 would be a tad better than a vans...

Good idea to get a van and use more parking space :(

There are lots of residential roads that could be so nice to cycle through but as they are jammed packed with parked cars on each side and there's hardly any space for even one car to pass at a time.

a word on your van idea, mate;

you'll be paying higher insurance, many of the cheap insurers don't do commercial (you'll be paying that for a van, despite the fact it'll be used privately) and they seem to guzzle fuel, probably cos of the increased weight, they are made to carry more than cars, so the chassis must be uprated and all that?

if you do a lot of mountainbiking, a hatchback where you can put the seats down is probably a better choice. if you're still set on it, renault kangoo or citroen berlingo size vans are good for bikes and take up the same space as a car (considerably less than some "cars" round here)

we have a kangoo for work, for essential journeys only, carrying shit. it pisses me off when I have to squeeze past massive 4wd with a single occupant, I'm the one with the commercial vehicle and it's fucking smaller!

+1 on a the van thing. I had an old van about 5 years ago and even though it was a "car derived van" it was a bitch to get insured. Get a small car and take the back seats out, get a roof rack or rear cycle rack if you want or may be a small trailer. If you experiment you can still sort out a comfy bed for two inside a smallish car too. I've had it down in my old car and would use it for some good road trips.

bump, how can people afford cars? seems like a clear cut case of addiction to me,
however high the price goes, they still keep buying it.....
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/7450106/Petrol-to-hit-120p-a-litre-as-motorists-mugged-by-oil-companies.html

I like to spend 120p on a chilled can of Red Bull every now and then.

bump, how can people afford cars? seems like a clear cut case of addiction to me,
however high the price goes, they still keep buying it.....
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/7450106/Petrol-to-hit-120p-a-litre-as-motorists-mugged-by-oil-companies.html

Amazing, isn't it? It's exactly like with Campagnolo Super Record chainsets or Croce d'Aune brakes...

How can people afford houses?

How can people afford houses?

They send their parent to a nursing home

How can people afford houses?

by not having a car.

and a mortgage is cheaper than rent.

apart from needing to give the bank a certain amount of sum in order to do that (been saving up for that since I was 15).

as for car (I'm aware this is an old topic);

I was wondering the exact same thing the other day as I was driving along the motorway. Especially the nice expensive ones. How the hell do people afford them?

I would love to buy some massive gas guzzling thing that I could chuck loads of bikes into and drive to Newport or HH

and a mortgage is cheaper than rent.

apart from needing to give the bank a certain amount of sum in order to do that (been saving up for that since I was 15).

as for car (I'm aware this is an old topic);

So you mean people pay for their very expensive houses in lots of small affordable amounts? If only you could do that with cars...

I was wondering the exact same thing the other day as I was driving along the motorway. Especially the nice expensive ones. How the hell do people afford them?

A lot of these £30-40K cars you see on the road are leased, mate.

A lot of these £30-40K cars you see on the road are leased, mate.

Sure or on hire purchase. If you make 50-70k a year and your wife the same I think it's fairly easy to buy things... Even Colnagos and houses.

And a lots of people who have those cars tend to be in debt already.

Yeah, it's fun. Still better than having a mortgage and being a slave.
Personally I prefer to be in debt (to certain extent) and have things than wait until I'm 65 until I've saved enough money to buy what I want and die a week later.

Yeah, it's fun. Still better than having a mortgage and being a slave.
Personally I prefer to be in debt (to certain extent) and have things than wait until I'm 65 until I've saved enough money to buy what I want and die a week later.

so you are a slave to what you want to buy now and your debt?

When my previous employer got taken over by Nokia people of a certain grade were given a car allowance. My grade, which wasn't that high, got £700 a month to spend, intended for leasing a car although it was paid as part of your salary, plus free petrol via a fuel card. That kind of perk is fairly common in large companies, mainly because it is a non-pensionable and non-bonusable way of increasing someone's salary.

so you are a slave to what you want to buy now and your debt?

Sure. Why not.

I wouldn't be if I was single, but I'm not.

I have VW camper that I keep at my mums house in Suffolk. I love it more than any of the bikes I have or probably will ever own. However I would never dream of bringing it to London due to the costs.

so you are a slave to what you want to buy now and your debt?

As long is the debt is not massive I think you can live normally and not be a slave.

It's hard to avoid using a credit card when you have three kids, it's Christmas and your boss fucked you about with your bonus again.
It's easy to say, that you should bring up your kids properly in a humble way and similar bollocks. Yeah, when I was their age I used to play with sticks and pretend they are made by Lego.

I was wondering the exact same thing the other day as I was driving along the motorway. Especially the nice expensive ones. How the hell do people afford them?

I would love to buy some massive gas guzzling thing that I could chuck loads of bikes into and drive to Newport or HH

It is nice.