All Backroomers have an interest in their cars, but do you show as much interest in your home as your car?
We all buy cars to get from A to B. Our needs are always different and choices are limited by our budget (or someone elses for a company car).
When buying a home are you as fussy as when buying a car? Is the specification of extras with a car more important than at home e.g. do you have air conditioning in your car and home?
Do you maintain your car to a high standard and likewise with your home?
There are different considerations that could be compared like road tax and company car benefit to council tax. Would you buy a home by how much the rates were?
Motoring is only one expense that a household has, do these other pressures seriously impact your decission to either maintain your car or improve your home?
Personally I run a 7 year old car and am currently renovating my home to a very high standard. The car is useful to transport rubbish to the dump, an older car makes sense to do this. Car maintenance is important and sometimes I carry our simple DIY, but also use garages for speed and reliabilty. Most of the work around the home I will do, but again I will call in tradesmen to work that is either beyond my skills or they can do a better job as they have specialist skills or equipment. I bought my car because I wanted it, not because it costs £170 in Road Tax (ouch!), but there again where I live has the highest village precept on the rates bill adding a couple of hundred pounds a year to the bill. I certainly do not have air conditioning at home, but there again neither do I have it in the car. I will probably fit it to the house before I get a car with aircon. I believe that my money is better spent on the appreciating asset of my home as it make life better for the family, rather than buying a newer car which is a depreciating asset. Also remember that you usually do spend a lot more time at home than in your car.
What do you think?
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Roger
I read frequently, but only post when I have something useful to add to the thread.
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Lots of folk spend serious money on a car because its a very visible status symbol. You often see a grotty semi with a newish MB or BMW parked outside - and no doubt a vulgar great 42" plasma TV in the lounge!
I'm pretty careful with money and in my little 'close' there are mainly 'upmarket' cars (couple of Mercs, a BMW, a Porsche, one neighbour has a an XK8 and the other side has a newish Imprezza) - but I probably have the lowest-value cars. I have owned newish 'prestige' cars in the past, but to be honest they cost too much in depreciation and were too much of a worry (i.e. getting dinged in the supermarket etc.) - it would have been different if they were company cars.
My house is in very good shape and yes, I do have airconditioning in two rooms (in one lounge and in the main bedroom) - but any spare money goes on enjoying time with the family and taking holidays. I work about 6-8 months of the year and spend the rest of the time with the family (from about Easter through till about now! - they've gone back to school so I'm going to start doing some work again).
Really, I think a lot of money is wasted on cars. I often wonder what would happen if some of the money that companies invest in 'perk' cars was invested in productive plant and machinery instead. Moreover it would reduce the current oversupply of used vehicles which has pushed new car depreciation to crazy levels. I gather that in France, Germany etc there is much less of a 'company car' culture - its probably a good thing.
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Round here (inner London) you see blocks of council flats with Rolls Royces parked outside. Owner occupiers of smart houses tend to have small, old cars. MK ii Polos abound.
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One of my mate's Dad's is seriously loaded. He's a plumber - but he must charge a grand an hour or something!
He's on his 2nd XK8, his neighbours have,
A Lambo,
2 Continental GT's,
Numerous brand spanking new BM 5 series,
A new Range Rover,
A TVR Tuscan,
and...
An R reg Peugeot 406 with an N reg Fiesta in the same drive.
They're all very very nice houses but the nicest house in the street is the one with the cheapest cars! I don't know how I could stand washing my Fiesta on a Sunday if my neighbour was waxing his Bentley!
I'd want a decent car first off simply because a house if nearly a liftetime committment so you can save. Cars come and go.
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Adam
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One of my mate's Dad's is seriously loaded. He's a plumber
May I ask someone please explain to me that 'loaded-plumbers-in the UK-everywhere-you-go' phenomenon ? I presume we're talking 'modern' plumbers dealing with sophisticated electronical equipment rather than leaking taps in the kitchen ?
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I am the only Pole over here.
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I've no idea. I know on his last Jag he put ladders on teh side of it as a joke.
Works van is a crappy little Fiesta Courier though.
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Adam
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Houses over time appreciate in value. They can be adapted reasonably easy. However the main reason we bought our house was that my wife lived here since she was born and because of its location. We are fortunate that it's a 1927 house that can be converted easily e.g. two reception rooms into one and the loft just needs four binders moving to allow conversion.
Cars depreciate to nothing in a reasonable small time. They're a consumable, just like a washing machine, and rightly or wrongly, that's how i regard my car. It's a device that properly serviced will do what's asked of it. There's little point modifying it, and I'll wash it before i sell it!
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About 15 years ago and due to a growing family, we needed to extend our house to make it 4 bedroomed with bigger bathroom.
Cost was about £13k and I had to use £10k which I had saved with the itention of buying a brand new Toyota Carina!! (Good family car). I didn't buy having put the £10k into the house.
If I'd bought the car the £10k would have gone long long ago. That £10k is now worth say £75k on the value of the house - maybe more!
As an investment Houses are great, cars are Cxxp. Long live the house, any day.
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The car is like any other item of white goods - buy cheap, keep as long as you can, throw away.
The house is rented. Prices aren't going up, and my landlord's gross yield is 3.5%, plus I don't have to faff around repairing things
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went to the main dealer recently to enquire about a rr sport as disco is now 3yo, the sales man if thats what you could call him just simply couldnt be bothered, he opened it with the remote from the front of the showroom and told me to look for myself!!.I hope he finds a new job but anyway I decided to buy another house instead ,bought at95k and have just let it out for £500/month,my asset is increasing and the percentage of the rent equivelent to the price of the motor car will pay any bills on keeping the old one for a while longer.I should have thanked him instead of phoning his boss.Adam you could do worse than buy to let at a young age as its a great start when you do need a house
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I learned this lesson when I was about 19.
I fell to temptation to buy a kit car. It was a Pimlico - based on a Mini 1275GT. The bodyshell and kit were supplied by the compamy that makes the body panels for the Jago Jeep. They're down in Hants somewhere. They are a good company and the Pimlico was a great kit car.
Well the car was part built by me, I couldn't finish it so the kit supplier got a mechanic to finish it for me. Several little things went wrong etc. It really needed someone to strip it down and rebuild it. I think some of the doner parts had seen better days.
When I added up the cost of this I was shocked.
I bought my first house just before my 20th Birthday. It was the best investment I could have ever made. It set me up for life. All the subsequent investments I've made have been partly enabled by having equity in property.
The Mortgage payments were made possible by rent revenue from lodgers even with interest rates at 12%! We were in a university city. Oddly enough I found a time when property was cheap but rental costs were high.
We now run 3 vehicles. The new one is offset against the business, so I save tax on depreciation. The other two are worth less that £5k between them.
My view is that in this country your property should come first, then extra cash can be spent on the toys, unless you have a good business case for investing a sizable sum in a vehicle.
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How can Adam afford buy a house at his age when 'buy to let' landlords have been the major contributor to the ridiculous house price inflation, especially at the lower end of the market?
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Lets see now...
- At most I'll probably spend 2 hours in my car each day commuting to work and back.
- I'll then spend 10-12 hours in my home.
- Cars are certain to depreciate in value. Homes more often than not appreciate in value.
I know which I'll be spending my money on!
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Mike Farrow
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Resolve your internal conflict once and for all - buy a Winnebago.
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>>Also remember that you usually do spend a lot more time at home than in your car.
True but during the week I spend more waking hours in the car than I do at home. Wake up at 6am , out on the road 6.30 am, back home at 7 to 8pm, asleep by 11pm. 12 hours away from home, 3 to 4 hours in meetings, (if I'm lucky) 8 to 9 hours driving or stationary in the car phoning, laptoping, scribbling etc.
On our driveway we have a Picasso and a Mondeo - combined value about £8k, next door a BMW X5 and SL55AMG both black and fully loaded value - £100K, opposite Polo and Mondeo value £3K. Most of our road take the property over car option but some do appear to have sussed out how to have their cake and eat it.
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This is a no brainer - buy a house at as young an age as you can and watch your money grow as long as you don't buy a property thats got rot or needs undepinning.A house is a far better investment than a pension.
I put a lot more thought and effort into finding exactly where I want to live and the maintenance of my home and garden than I do for any of my cars.
I have never made money on a car but I have made serious money by buying and selling of houses . The only problem now is how to pass that money on without incurring inheritance tax....
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>The only problem now is how to pass that money on without incurring inheritance tax....
Easy, give the houses to the little helicopters now. IHT free. And they'll love you too....
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In fact Mapmaker - Helicopter Jr is an accountant with one of the big four and has already suggested this.I have to admit that I am loath to do this at the moment although it may have to be done in the future.
It annoys me intensely that those who save and invest wisely are hit with iniquitous stamp duty and inheritance taxes.
Do you realise that anybody who dies in London and has a one bed flat is likely to leave enough in their estate to incur inheritance tax, currently hits in at £265,000.
I realise that this has gone a long way from motoring however , so before the Mods step in ,I'll leave my little rant at that.
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>>Is a car more important than a home?>>
No.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Do you realise that anybody who dies in London and has a one bed flat is likely to leave enough in their estate to incur inheritance tax, currently hits in at £265,000.
True. But for a lot of folks that's 10 years gross salary. A pretty decent windfall even if the last few k are taxed.
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It depends.
Obviously a roof over my head is essential.
On the other hand getting away from boredom and housework (better half disabled) occasionally is to me highly desirable. And going for messages such as prescriptions is a necessity too.
Equal importance?
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>>Equal importance?>>
I have pretty similar circumstances.
But the prescriptions are delivered by the chemist FOC and there's always Shank's Pony if you need to get away for a while - boredom is relived by a broadband connection...:-)
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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I went for a walk once; didn't like it!
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PU towers is an ongoing project a mixture of old and new. It is a home not a house. I have no idea, and I don't care to know what its worth.
Cars are another matter, my latest is the first I've owned for years and when I sell it soon it will have cost me a packet - but I can't help myself.
I like cars but I prefer my house.
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