Young people driving 60k cars

Like any age group, some have good wages and can easily afford it. Others stretch themselves because they like cars and will sacrifice holidays etc for a nice car.

Others cannot afford it whatsoever but managed to get the finance so will drive it anyway.

I haven't seen this at all.

Usually when I see a Tesla there is an older dude driving it. Usually works for a Dublin megacorp & has a well manicured holiday home down in West Cork or Kerry. Come to think of it I don't think I've ever seen someone below 40 with one. I'm sure they are there, you always get the odd fella who won it on a scratch card or has rich parents or worked his way up the corporate ladder quickly after graduating.

Exactly, motors and booze 😁

Bitcoin car?

Their finance is arranged through AIB, but I think the buyer has to go about it themselves. So you are probably right

I know a few lads with Tesla’s and they’re all self employed and buying through the company with zero BIK. Tesla’s are fast becoming the builders car :)

I haven't seen any "young" people driving Teslas but this would be my guess too, probably self employed IT contractors able to write off a lot of the cost and possibly living at home because the real question is where are they charging it...

Its sometimes easier to afford a decent car in your 20s than late 30s. No mortgage, no childcare costs, feeding a family, family holidays etc.

I would have spent a 3rd of my monthly salary on my cars in my 20's easily, now in my early 40's i wouldnt even do a PCP or take a loan on a car let alone the amounts i spent back in the day. Im just not arsed.

Max price for 0% BIK is €50k though so a bit limited in what Tesla you could get for that money.

I drove a more expensive car in my 20s than I did in my 30s …. In my 20s I didn’t have kids, wasn’t married and priorities were different and driving a nice car was one of them

In my 30s - I was married, had kids, dogs and a mortgage .. so my car reflected those priorities .. so efficient, space and reliable.

Now I’m in my 40s and I’m back to looking at nicer cars again !

I knew a lad who had a BMW M4 in his mid 20s … met him there recently and he is driving an old 320d now …. He got a few years out of the M4 before having to buy a house, get married and think of kids. he spent about 60% of his wages at the time to keep the M4 on the road - and he doesn’t regret a minute of it

So it matters to you as to where someone's finances come from. Fair enough. I am sure there are plenty out there who would not even think about it for a second.

Younger generations can afford things now that I was unable to when I was their age. This is partially down to the fact you can get easy credit at very low interest rates now. Once these generations have to step on to the property ladder, it will be a different story. There aren't enough IT wiz kids on 80k salaries out there, trust me... I have worked in IT for 25 years and the salaries are not that high unless you are a programmer or systems architect and most of those jobs have been offshored or outsourced by now.

The "average" salary in this country is just over the €40k mark which will give you about €2600 a month after tax (back of a napkin calculation). If a young person is even coming out with €2000 a month after tax and living at home with parents, not saving for their own home and have no other bills then paying €500 or €600 per month on a vehicle is not beyond them. Teachers in their late 20s with several years under their belt can be making up to that average salary so it would not be beyond the realms of possibility to see them driving around in Teslas or the like.

At the end of the day, it really doesn't matter how they are affording it. We all have different priorities at different stages of our lives. Right now, I would be happy to go on a nice holiday and not bother with a car at all. 20 years ago, everything in my life revolved around a car and I stretched myself almost to breaking point to get the one I wanted at the time. That was my choice and I considered it to be no-one else's business as to how I managed to afford it. If I was in debt and could not afford it, that was my responsibility. I sold that car to fund a deposit on my first home. As adults, we make decisions based on what we want at any particular moment. If it is a good or bad decision then that is something we have to face when it all comes time to pay back a debt or to let something go.

Unless you are a millionaire, there will always be someone out there with something you consider "better" or more expensive than what you have. Let them at it and concentrate on your own life. The world has got a lot more materialistic in the past few decades but spending time worrying what others have will only lead to anxiety and making questionable decisions which could financially ruin you.

Besides, in a few years time, you can buy that €60k Tesla for less than half of what some random 20 something year old paid for it. 😀

I know my post was a little TLDR, however I never said the average IT wage was 40k. I said that the average wage in the country is 40k...

I am acutely aware of shortages of developers and skilled software engineers in Ireland and they can command very high salaries however they do not make up the sum total of what is considered IT. For every software engineer, there are several other support functions that do not get anywhere near the 80k wages earned at the top end.

The point I was making is that any young person earning close to the average wage of 40k and living at home with no bills or major living expenses could afford to pay the PCP or HP cost on an expensive car.

In the end, what does it matter? Let them at it. The more expensive cars they buy now means a decent second hand market for everyone else in a few years.

And yes, as another poster pointed out previously, there is a difference between an expensive car and a "high end" car too.

Maybe they just earned it? I'm 28 and I could buy one without the need for any help. My other half is 24 and I'd say she could buy one too.