News Published on : 25-Apr-2022 17:32:48

The total price of a car is becoming increasingly meaningless to car buyers with new research from AA Financial Services suggesting people now think about the cost in monthly amounts with the majority having a clear idea of their monthly spend. A new report tracking the average monthly car budget of drivers looking to change their car in the coming months found 94% had a monthly rather than total figure in mind. This proportion rose to 98% of prospective car buyers under 35 falling only slightly amongst older car buyers (84% of those aged over 55). The figures showed that among drivers looking to change car in the coming months the average amount people are looking to spend is £ 422 per month. There were however some notable differences in the average monthly budgets of some groups. The results showed that men planned to spend on average 38% (£ 130) more each month than women on their next car. As a proportion of all outgoings for the month male car buyers were prepared to commit 22% of their monthly income for their car compared with 20% of female car buyers. Men were also more likely to be planning to change their car in the coming months than women - 30% vs 22%. By region car buyers in London had by far the largest monthly budget for that next car of £ 649 with one in seven (15%) car buyers intending to spend more than £ 500 each month. This figure was more than double that of other regions including the East Midlands (£ 280 per month) and the South West (£ 272 per month). London car buyers were prepared to commit around 26% of their total monthly budget to get the car that they wanted compared with an average of 21% for the rest of the country. London was also the region most likely to be looking to change cars in the coming months - 33% (compared with 26% of the rest of the UK). Similarly those in the South East had the next highest budget (£ 506) which equated to 24% of their monthly budget.