If you like me seem to have been going through cars like
they were going out of fashion - like changing car every 3 months! And finding
it very easy to change cars because of finance. Here’s a rule (or set of rules)
to save your money/encourage restraint.
Yes,
by-all-means buy another car if you so wish. But you cannot use part-exchange.
If
you want to buy a new car*, you must have the money in the bank to do so,
and you must not have any debt except the mortgage**.
You
can sell a car anytime you want***.
*By new car, this just means a car that’s new to you.
It might be brand new, or it might be very well used.
**That is no credit card debt, no personal loans, no car
finance, all that stuff cleared.
***But not as part-exchange - either private sale, sale-or-return,
webuyanycar or similar.
How does this rule affect me?
Well, I borrowed £31990 to buy my Exige (on top of an
£11k deposit). The monthlies are £338.79 for 48 months, with a final balloon
payment of £23000 on 10th January 2024. Total charge for the credit is £7’500
(yes, I’m surely a plonker.)
I also have around £10’000 on an interest free credit
card (interest free until mid-2021). Interest-free deals are bad deals - unless
you absolutely need it - since they encourage you to spend, spend, spend!
So, assuming I stick to my plan to keep the Exige forever
(I really hope I do) or at least as-long-as I possibly can. I cannot buy
another car until I’ve cleared the credit card - £10000k - and cleared the
finance down - £31990. Even if say I fancied changing the TT, I couldn’t do
anything until my credit card and finance are cleared, and I have some money in
the bank (technically, I could sell the TT to then use those funds to buy
another car, but the TT’s not going to be worth much in a few years’ time with
the mileage I do.)
I’ll just have to resist temptation.
I’d love to get another Evora again and have two Lotus.
If I got another Evora it would be the V6 NA (Normally Aspirated) version, as it
makes more sense to have an Evora V6 NA as my daily car, and the Exige V6 S as the
crazy fun/track car.
I absolutely love this Evora: Lotus
Evora 2+0 Chrome Orange Sports Racer Styling @ Will Blackham. Very nearly
dream spec. Not sure if Signature Orange or Chrome Orange is the best orange
for the Evora. My preference for the interior would be the Sports Racer styling
(like on my previous 2014 car.)
Image: Lotus Evora 2+0 Chrome Orange
One of my favourite quotes is from Ursula Le Guin’s book ‘The
Dispossessed’, specifically the highlighted bit below -
“You are rich. You own. We are poor. We lack. You
have. We do not have. Everything is beautiful here, only not the faces. On
Anarres nothing is beautiful, nothing but the faces. The other faces. The men
and women. We have nothing but that, nothing but each other. Here you see the
jewels. There you see the eyes. And in the eyes you see the splendor, the
splendor of the human spirit, because our men and women are free possessing
nothing. They are free. And
you, the possessors are possessed. You are all in jail, each alone,
solitary with a heap of what he owns. You live in prison, die in prison. It is
all I can see in your eyes, the wall, the wall.”
- it is something to keep in mind when lusting after a
new possession. All our possessions possess us in a way. Cars must be looked
after and paid for. Yes, we possess our car, and our car possesses us.
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