First car / how do people afford cars when in low paid work?

[AnnO'Neemus]

I've got an interview later this week. If I get it, the job will involve some travel around the country. While I suppose I could travel by train and whatnot, I think it'll be the decisive factor in terms of me finally getting a car. (Although first I'll have to pass a UK driving test.)

I've nearly always worked in the city centre, or close to home, so I've never needed to drive, it's always been more convenient to use the trams, buses or to cycle or walk. (Except when I lived and worked in the Middle East, when I had a car.)

If I get the job, the salary will only be £25k, which isn't that much above the current minimum wage, and when the new minimum wage comes in it will probably be less than the minimum wage (depending on the number of hours in a working day/week), so it might go up a bit more.

Lots of people who are in low paid jobs drive a car, although when I've worked in those kinds of situations before, low-paid colleagues who drove cars tended to either be young folk who still lived with their parents or coupled up, living with a partner and splitting rent/mortgage and other household costs.

How do single people in low-paid work manage to afford to run a car? Insurance, petrol, breakdown service, repairs, servicing and MOT, etc, etc. How do all the sums add up when living costs already amount to so much.

And how much does it cost to run a car? I know that's like how long is a piece of string, but assuming a little run-around car. I think I'd be constantly worried that 'the head gasket' would blow and a guy and the garage would suck his teeth and tell me it's going to cost a grand to fix it when I wouldn't be able to afford those kinds of costs out of the blue, except through putting it on my credit card.

 

[Silas Loom]

If you’re doing a lot of driving in a cheap banger you’ll be earning nearly as much from expenses at 40ppm as from your job. Something to factor in, at least.

 

[Chz]

There's a fair number of those things that people tight on money don't have. Breakdown cover, regular services, etc. You buy the cheapest old diesel that isn't actually falling apart and hope it MOTs until you can afford to replace it. If you're lucky, it will go years without any serious costs. If you're lucky. If you're not...

So long as you've somewhere to put it, and get mileage on job-related use, it can actually be quite cheap to run a car so long as it holds out. If you blow a head gasket on a cheap car, you don't repair it. You hit AutoTrader and get the next thing that costs less than the repair and hope it holds out longer.

 

[Elpenor]

Some thoughts.

Would want to confirm first that this is driving for work purposes which would mean mileage is expenseable as opposed to commuting to a regular place of work which means it isn’t.

A lot of jobs provide a car allowance as part of your remuneration package. Eg £25k salary, £5k car allowance. This is often a bit of a sneaky trick to save money as the car allowance element isn’t included for calculating holiday pay, isn’t pensionable, isn’t part of death in service or redundancy calculations etc. if you need to drive for the job I would expect a car allowance but maybe that’s more in the corporate sectors I’ve worked in before.

My salary is £29k, I would estimate running my car costs £2k per year. It’s old, is not efficient mileage wise, pricey to tax but cheap to insure as I live in a safe area with minimal crime. I do around 10k miles per year. I own the car outright, bought 7 years ago for £6k. I bought it secondhand, paid a grand deposit, got a standard loan at 4% and overpaid it quickly so the loan was paid off quickly. I earned a lot more then, if my car died tomorrow I’d not be able to replace it. I don’t take any chances with cover though for reasons.

If I had to get a car for a job having not been a driver I’d consider a lease or PCP for a new car, as potentially you may want to hand back the car quickly if the job ends. You’d want a car to be reliable too. But not sure if this adds up. Also they may chuck in insurance for the first year which will be helpful if you don’t have an insurance history and if you live in an area where insurance is pricey. Perhaps servicing too.

Also, where is your current licence from? Did you pass your test in a designated country? If so the licence may be transferable.

Where did you pass your test? - Driving in Great Britain on a non-GB licence - GOV.UK

www.gov.uk

 

[SpookyFrank]

There's a fair number of those things that people tight on money don't have. Breakdown cover, regular services, etc. You buy the cheapest old diesel that isn't actually falling apart and hope it MOTs until you can afford to replace it. If you're lucky, it will go years without any serious costs. If you're lucky. If you're not...

Previous car I bought was a total punt off facebook marketplace and it has served me well for four years and many miles.

Unfortunately this experience convinced me I was a used car buying genius and now I've bought a fiesta that only wants to turn right, without bothering to test drive it first. Best case, a few hundred to fix, worst case I've just dropped two grand on a completely unsalvagable pig of a thing.

It really is just blind luck. If you're buying something old, try and get a model you still see plenty of on the roads. That means a) they generally last well and b) it'll be easy to find parts, garages will know how to fix them etc. Also never buy anything without test driving it. Even if it's a nice colour and you just want to get car buying over with as quickly as possible.

 

[trabuquera]

2 things come to mind - as you may already be aware there is a MASSIVE backlog in the number of people waiting to take their UK driving test - within the London area most test slots are booked up for the next 6 months ... so factor that into your plans if you have a non convertible license at the moment.

And consider parking charges - at both your home address and the places where you'll be taking the car for work - as they can be very high, depending on where you live and what size engine / fuel type the vehicle is - councils have got wise to using any possible pretext to charge more for the right /privilege to park. obviously not an issue if you've got your own garage, driveway or off street parking though (and if you DO have your own it's also likely to reduce your annual insurance premiums.)

 

[cesare]

Factor in how much it will cost you to learn to drive.

 

[hash tag]

Adding to what Elpenor said, you might want to consider some sort of leasing arrangement, there are quite a few out there. That will normally cover tax, servicing, breakdown cover ( not sure about insurance )etc. you will need to be careful of get out clauses as they are very expensive if you have to give the car back because you don't keep the job.

 

[dessiato]

You might find some useful insights here Bangers chat

I'd also suggest that, if your licence is transferable, you still have an hour or two to get into UK driving.

 

[nogojones]

I've only ever bought bangers and I've mostly been lucky/had an eye for obvious faults/don't give a fuck about cosmetic nice things.

My current van is the most expensive I've ever bought. It's nearly 20 years old, cost me £1600 and has lasted me three years, with the average MOT coming in at £4-500. I treated it to a service this year as it passed without too much grief. I don't care about dents and scratches. In the past I've driven cars without heaters or windows that closed fully, sometimes mirrors were optional extras. It's just as cheap as possible a tool that I need to do the job.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Insurance will be higher if driving for business, rather than social/pleasure/commuting.

 

[planetgeli]

Insurance will be higher if driving for business, rather than social/pleasure/commuting.

My business insurance has only ever cost £5? And this year they added it for free.

 

[Elpenor]

Possibly that depends on your occupation

 

[Looby]

Insurance will be higher if driving for business, rather than social/pleasure/commuting.

Mine isn’t.

Worth considering if you need your own car at all though. When I worked for local government and civil service we could only use our own car for local trips. We had pool or hire cars otherwise and needed permission to use our own.

Plus if you’re getting travel time back I’d rather be relaxed on a train than driving 2 hours home after a meeting.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

a few thoughts -

I pay something around £ 450 a year for insurance and breakdown cover. That's with being in what's considered a low risk job, somewhere outer suburban / rural-ish, and with maximum no claims discount. With no licence history / no claims it's potentially going to be a fair bit more, and I've no idea where you live - where I live is ranked a B on this list (A is lowest risk / price, F is highest, 'refer' means it's going to be bloody expensive.)

The breakdown bit is maybe 100 of that, but in theory avoids the risk of being stranded in the middle of nowhere. (although with previous provider who were RAC, that turned out to be a possible.)

Insurance will be slightly lower for an older / lower value car (mine is worth maybe about 5 grand), but the damage you can (potentially) do with one is similar so it's not going to be half that for a car worth half as much. Going comprehensive with a reasonable excess (the amount of any claim you pay) can come out cheaper than going for 'fire, theft + third party', for reasons I don't fully understand.

Annual MOT and repairs / maintenance is going to be at least somewhere round £ 150 a year, more if they find anything dubious. Last year, I probably spent too much on an old car hoping that each repair would be the end of problems for a year or so. In the end I had to scrap it, which got me about £ 200 in scrap value. Generally speaking, any car is losing value all the time it's on the road (although car before that was old enough to have started going up in value again.)

Car tax varies according to CO2 emission banding.

This banding is not the same as what triggers Ultra Low Emission Zone charges - these apply in some city centres,. and generally, older cars (especially older diesels) don't meet the ULEZ standards and you have to pay a daily charge for going in to the zone (don't know if that might be an issue for you.)

Some places are trying to implement higher parking charges for non ULEZ compliant cars.

Is having something cheap and potentially unreliable going to be an issue with new job?

 

[newme]

We got ours off a relative who was annoyed the bluebook value was apparently £700 for a immaculate ex driving instructors car (yaris). Like it was factory clean and serviced continually, all receipts and main dealership etc. Lasted 6 years (?) I think so far with no MOT plus repairs coming in over £500. The things just last. I can't drive the thing tho since it would cost a fortune to learn professionally and SO is too nervous to take me out in it basically, did motorbikes for nearly 2 decades but this thing I can't put my feet down to reverse since its not quite a flintstones car. Did do my theory then it happily sat there and ran out during covid when we were supposed to do lessons in it but we did one session in an abandoned carpark and never again (I was up to reversing around corners before knowing said driving instructor rather well since it was my step mum).

Kid's got motorbike funds, cbt, insurance for a year and bike cost. Then you can earn your way to whatever from there easy enough living at home. Idk how people do it otherwise unless they have very large incomes.

 

[Elpenor]

Is having something cheap and potentially unreliable going to be an issue with new job?

This was my thought. If for example you need to be in Birmingham at 9am and your car won’t start at 7am, then that will be a problem if it happens more than once

 

[Chz]

Car tax varies according to CO2 emission banding.

Not for post 2017 cars. Christ knows why they've removed an incentive for fuel economy, but it might be due to discouraging diesel.

 

[AverageJoe]

I stl remember that number plate from my first car that I had 34 years ago. Yet I forget my Pin all the time.

B939UKL

 

[Puddy_Tat]

I stl remember that number plate from my first car that I had 34 years ago. Yet I forget my Pin all the time.

B939UKL

change your pin number to B939 UKL