A reason cars are big and expensive today is the shift to leasing on PCP. These mean there's little incentive to build a small car with a low headline price, as people just see the monthly (rental, effectively) cost. If bells & whistles & bulk add £10k, the makers don't care: you'll pay for it - ThreadSky

ianwalker.bsky.social • 77 days ago

A reason cars are big and expensive today is the shift to leasing on PCP. These mean there's little incentive to build a small car with a low headline price, as people just see the monthly (rental, effectively) cost. If bells & whistles & bulk add £10k, the makers don't care: you'll pay for it

Reposted from James O'Malley

🔥 @mjrobbins.bsky.social is writing again! 🔥

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Comments

andybanshee.bsky.social•77 days ago

And people will continue to pay because they accept that they NEED a car. They have to go to work by car so that they can afford to pay for the car. They ignore all the costs of owning a car but big up 'all' the 'advantages' of owning one.

tallentire.bsky.social•77 days ago

To be fair with the transport and housing situation in the UK many people do need a car.
Unfortunately most tend not to consider this when house buying "this one is 30k cheaper!" overcomes "this one is 5 mins to a decent station"

andybanshee.bsky.social•77 days ago

Or will I be able to park my megaton vehicle there.

damohaywood.bsky.social•77 days ago

Yes the "never, never" used to be reserved for the poorest quintile, now it is standard.

ianwalker.bsky.social•77 days ago

"Because I'm worth it"

robonabike.bsky.social•77 days ago

"After all, why shouldn't I...?", etc.

ianwalker.bsky.social•77 days ago

Interesting how marketers have fed us these exact thoughts

bumm0r.bsky.social•77 days ago

But isn't this great? It means that after all, the car industry itself will facilitate a push towards active travel and public transport. Who would have thought?

ianwalker.bsky.social•77 days ago

Ha ha ha

bumm0r.bsky.social•77 days ago

Argh.. Any chance this is a post-pandemic rebound, and is there at least an opportunity that by pro-actively using the cost argument towards prospective buyers, one could _facilitate_ a modal change?

gazza-d.bsky.social•77 days ago

The cost of new cars is insane.
And yes it's all the unnecessary frippery.
Do people really need heated and ventilated seats and 360 cameras and all the other crap?

ian.spennys.world•76 days ago

The 360 camera thing was on my hired MG HA. As the direct visibility is so poor, parking in a space is near impossible but it magically creates an overhead shot so you can see where you are - though it distracts you from observing where you are going.

The overload from the car aids was very high.

fhvjhvgvb.bsky.social•76 days ago

Agreed. I also hired a car recently and was gobsmacked by how much tech was built it. The parking stuff seemed to be mainly because the visibility was so poor, and the car was so large.

ian.spennys.world•76 days ago

Rear window was a slit blocked by headrests. High overhanging front end with droop snoop and invisible projections. Needs a rear camera to reverse safely

I like parking sensors because I don't trust what I can't see, but they should not be the excuse to design out visibility.

freedomforall.net•77 days ago

Not least as £7k of that will be profits to someone in the supply chain.

ambrosen.bsky.social•77 days ago

Funny really, because it used to be really stigmatised when it was TVs.

ianwalker.bsky.social•77 days ago

Good call. Like with our motonormativity work, I'd love to ask the public what they think about people buying luxury goods on finance (without mentioning cars)

lycraoptional.bsky.social•76 days ago

My parents bought a house and rented a TV

andydrummond.bsky.social•76 days ago

Is this an international phenomenon, though? Or are UK vehicles better specced than equivalent European models?

trickydickybe.bsky.social•76 days ago

As an ex auto industry employee I can confidently answer "Definitely not". I live in Germany now and the cars here seem to be conspicuously tricked up. The auto industry keeps on kidding us that we need all that fancy tech and extra size.

andydrummond.bsky.social•76 days ago

Aye, that's what I'd assumed. The UK market on its own just isn't big enough for this (especially given that mainstream manufacturers e.g. Renault don't engineer some 'premium' models in RHD).

None of this means that we don't need to have a long, hard look at the effects of PCP.

jonnybaum.bsky.social•77 days ago

People who fail to understand the difference between correlation and causation often end up dying.

padders123.bsky.social•77 days ago

Plus no mention of running costs - if you look at the RAC cost of motoring index, cars are actually cheaper to run than in 2014, when you account for inflation.

If they want to do a good article, they should do it on using a bus.

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