Not adjusted for inflation but including resale, about 40K in 44 years.
However about 22 years driving company lease vehicles with “benefit in kind” costs. Some of them very nice. I would never spend my own money on expensive cars though. Priorities I guess.
Answer : Not many ( cars ).
As we tend to keep them.
Just as an example…
Bought a Volvo V70 2.4 estate @ maybe £33k when new. (Same as once used by traffic police).
It was brilliant and you could do pretty much anything in it.
Filled it with kids and dogs
Cruised comfortably around the UK’s motorway network
Pulled horse boxes
Once did 120mph on a German autobahn going to Frankfurt
Moved large pieces of furniture and even larger loudspeakers too
Met and moved business clients around, in comfort
Put a roof rack on the roof and took 2 adult, 2 kids and 2 dogs to Norfolk every summer.
Received at least two speeding tickets in it. ( Really frustrating, as only doing 35ish on each occasion. Honest )
Got us through the “ Uni years”, so much stuff back and forth each year.
Even moved a friend into a new home - several trips, everything, his whole life - following a divorce.
Surprised a few boy racers at traffic lights too
Always got us there, all over the UK and Europe. Never let us down
We kept it for maybe 18-20 years and 265,000 miles on the clock, until it cost too much to keep running.
The breakers took it for £500
£33,000 - £500 = £32,500 spent
Love and fun and family life = 100% value for money
R
Brain fade means can’t remember exactly how much paid for cars
But…
Since 2003 when we stopped sharing a company car.
Shared for ‘best’
Corolla T Sport great little car although needed high revs to make progress.
2 x BMW 1 series on PCP 116 and 118i loved em not great in snow when living on a 14% gradient hill
Subaru BRZ ( £27k) Mrs VV’s mid life crisis car😁 current
Volvo XC60 T6 Recharge (£49k) retirement car current
My personal mobile offices since 2007 all cheap and cheerful as befits shifting sand cement stone etc
Clio
RAV4
Subaru Forester
RAV4
Since 1988 when bought first of our horses
3 x Horseboxes
Man 7.5t (v cheap)
Renault S (midliner) 7.5t ( about £10k)
DAF LF45 150 7.5 T (chassis £15k custom built body £45k)
I’m very much not a car person. In 24 years of ownership I’ve had 2 cars, on which I’ve spent maybe £5K (current exchange rate, not adjusted for inflation). I’ve spent many times that amount on hi-fi.
I have dyspraxia (although it wasn’t diagnosed at the time) and failed my test three times. I was told by the examiner on the third – almost catastrophic – failure that he could not recommend me as a driver and that I shouldn’t bother taking another test. I’ve lived in London most of my life so I’ve never really needed to drive anyway.
Hi Kev,
I can relate to this. My eldest boy has dyspraxia, he is acutely aware of the limitations dyspraxia places on him and has never asked to learn to drive, he recently turned 19. He also suffers from severe verbal dyspraxia, also known as Apraxia of Speech and has trouble communcating verbally.
It’s a condition that doesn’t get the recognition and support he needs (like many conditions) unfortunately.
It’s a strange condition. I am always getting lost, cannot read maps or drive, have virtually no sense of direction and I can’t even do up shoelaces or tie a tie properly. I bump into things, trip over, lose my balance, cut myself with knives or injure myself with hammers etc and most frustratingly, cannot locate things when I put them down.
At least these days it is a “thing” and hopefully your lad will get some help, even if it’s not enough.
Having bought a total of 32 cars, 3 tractors, 2 planes, a couple of motorbikes and one quad bike over ~48 years I genuinely hate to think how much I have spent on purchasing them, but I regret none of it; cars have always been a passion of mine & I hope they will continue to be for a good few more years to come!
One can never have too many machines - just not enough space to keep them in.