Originally Posted by
PeteHski
Yeah I agree. From my limited experience over the pond people tend to keep their cars a lot longer. Interesting thing here is that the hire purchase "model" now pretty much applies to every relatively expensive product, including high-end bikes. Nearly all of the £10k bikes on our roads will be financed over 3-5 years exactly like a car. Not many people will walk into the shop and put down £10k up front. Most people just don't have that kind of cash to hand.
Indeed, over here our LBS's have one bank or another offering plans. My KTM MTB was €7600 and on interest-free 36 months with Santander. I took it because, interest-free. Done now. My road bikes I paid cash for.
I changed my car every 2-3 years like clockwork in the UK. In hindsight, a waste of money for me. Always 'needed' the latest BMW or Porsche...then moved here, rekindled my love of cycling, spend half my days doing just that, living a slower-paced lifestyle and couldn't care less about cars anymore.
I've been in Portugal for 5 years and that's how old my car is. It was financed over 5 years on straight HP with a healthy deposit; it is paid for now - last month - and I've had the call from the Dealer about getting into a new one but decided no, keep it awhile longer.
Tax on cars here though is really high - you rarely see cars with engines larger than 2L and most are older than 5 years. HP/PCP etc isn't typically 3-5 years like in the UK either, they go straight to 10 years!
