How (much) do people in the UK pay for cars?
October 17, 2020 6:50 AM Subscribe
At the population level, how much do people in the UK spend on their cars? Do they normally pay outright, with loans from banks or dealers, lease-to-buy, etc? What are typical prices for new cars, what's the median price paid for cars in various categories, etc? I'm interested in population-level stats/summaries/analyses of car purchases and lifetimes, not individual anecdotes.
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British car buying trends - a breakdown with some percentages of how many people own cars, how many plan to buy new cars in the next few years, and how they finance those cars (with data apparently from an uncited Google report that I can't find quickly). The breakdown of purchase data suggests 59% cash buyers, 37% funding by part-exchanging their existing vehicle, 13% making a hire purchase credit agreement, 10% making a personal contract purchase agreement, 6% making a lease contract purchase and another 6% making a contract hire agreement (I have no idea what the difference between these various types of credit is but they might be useful search terms).
The Finance & Leasing Association also has stats from the last couple of years on car finance lending: 2019, 2020.
Motors.co.uk also has a car price guide that allows you to search prices across makes and models. The RAC's guide to car types might also be helpful as it shows the most common body types over here.
I know you said no anecdotes, but I found the stats on buying patterns pretty interesting; I've only ever paid cash for a car (on my third now as an adult) and I thought I was more of an outlier than I actually am on this. My perception was that way more people were leasing than the statistics suggest.
posted by terretu at 7:41 AM on October 17, 2020 [2 favorites]