Drivers of expensive cars : what do they do for a living ? ! ?

[Cyclone]

T

 

I must say with very personal experience that most Solicitors don't drive anything near to what is deemed the "expensive car" category. For the majority, their hourly rate certainly doesn't reflect their salary.

 

I think you're probably right.

 

Several of my friends are solicitors, but the one with the new Jag became general counsel to the UK division of a multinational company a few years ago. He works harder now (and he already worked hard before), but he's salaried and paid well (instead of being a partner and pay depending on work coming in).

The car is a company car of course, he has an amount built into his contract to pay for it.

 

---------- Post added 15-12-2015 at 09:21 ----------

 

it is when you are self employed:hihi:

 

It isn't. At least not according to my accountants.

 

---------- Post added 15-12-2015 at 09:23 ----------

 

I don't think its as simple as that, as is being discussed above.

 

Expensive car does not automatically mean high earner.

 

Some people on modest income may stretch themselves to breaking point and scrimp on other things because they WANT a flashy car.

 

Other people may sell their soul to the devil and get tied in to a huge credit agreement because they WANT a flashy car.

 

There are people who may be lucky enough to be given a flashy car for company use due to their job.

 

Others may not be buying one at all and would simply lease or even short term hire one. I have seen quite a few services offering such ability.

 

If I go back to my previous sample of a Range Rover. You can get 2-3 year old used models for around £550 a month on credit. If someone wanted it enough, you could just about afford that on a 25k a year salary. If you have a couple who both work (even if one was just part time) it would be even less of a struggle to afford such an "expensive car".

 

Now, I will concede that £25k is more than a lot of people earn a year BUT you would hardly consider it to be mega rich luxury car levels. Thanks to credit, anything can become affordable to those who want it enough.

 

And equally there are people who earn plenty but simply aren't interested.

I have a friend who's a dentist, he earns plenty, but drives a middle aged focus. He's just not interested in cars apart from them being reliable and large enough for his needs.

 

---------- Post added 15-12-2015 at 09:27 ----------

 

£800 a month is £9,600 a year ! ! So you`d have to be spending around £15,000 of your (untaxed) salary on just buying your car. Then you`ve got to run it. Unless one is the type of sado who still lives at home with their parents (i.e. you`ve no other outgoings) and is not making any serious attempt to save [e.g. for a house] you`d have to be on a pretty big salary to be able to afford that.

 

Have you ever considered how much people in a variety of different roles earn?

 

I'd guess not, based on that comment.

 

Some examples in a table here

 

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/article-2067258/Best-paid-jobs-2011-Tables-official-figures-UK-salaries.html

 

Remember that these are the averages for each profession, so someone who's experienced and/or good might be earning 50% more than it says in the table (or even more).

 

---------- Post added 15-12-2015 at 09:28 ----------

 

A lot of truth to the first part of this. When I was a retail manager for a well known electrical chain I always thought it quite amazing how many people would purchased own brand videos/tvs/hi-fis etc and load em up into a flashy Merc CL or similar. I guess all their wealth was being shown externally and they were happy to put up with cheap crap in their homes.

 

As for jobs that people do in order to pay for them... interesting question. A friend of mine works as a computer programmer in 'that London' and, as a result, doesn't own a car. He fancied a BMW 6 series convertible (£65k worth of car) but to make it worth while would have to move out of London. Tried to get a job in Reading (which is a bit of a centre of some of the big IT brands) but would have to take a £14K PER YEAR wage cut in order to do so, which meant he would no-longer be able to afford his BMW... Bit of a catch 22, but does make me wonder what kind of salary he is on that a move out of the city would cost him £14K per annum...

 

Decent software developer in London could easily be on 70k.

 

Which would be about a 20% premium compared to Reading, which sounds about right.

 

---------- Post added 15-12-2015 at 09:35 ----------

 

I don`t know how many middle managers would have a company Jaguar, or similar....... I`d have thought it`d be more likely to be the owner of the company, or if it`s a medium size company, at the very least a director.

 

The MD of the company my friend works for (the one who's general counsel) is a millionaire from selling the UK company to the international group. I don't know what he drives, but it could be a proper supercar if that's what he wanted.

 

You probably overestimate how much a low end Jag costs these days.

[Obelix]

A lot of truth to the first part of this. When I was a retail manager for a well known electrical chain I always thought it quite amazing how many people would purchased own brand videos/tvs/hi-fis etc and load em up into a flashy Merc CL or similar. I guess all their wealth was being shown externally and they were happy to put up with cheap crap in their homes.

 

As for jobs that people do in order to pay for them... interesting question. A friend of mine works as a computer programmer in 'that London' and, as a result, doesn't own a car. He fancied a BMW 6 series convertible (£65k worth of car) but to make it worth while would have to move out of London. Tried to get a job in Reading (which is a bit of a centre of some of the big IT brands) but would have to take a £14K PER YEAR wage cut in order to do so, which meant he would no-longer be able to afford his BMW... Bit of a catch 22, but does make me wonder what kind of salary he is on that a move out of the city would cost him £14K per annum...

 

Banking or financial services IT will easily have salaries topping 100k in London for a lot of positions, database admins/developers, infrastructure design and maintenance. Figures for Leeds are not that much further behind. When you get into proper IT - and I dont mean the sort of stuff the average firm has the level of specialisation and technical ability goes up and so do the salaries. High end IT is very much in demand, and its something that is difficult to train people for so the people are in short supply and command a lot of wage.

[Justin Smith]

The MD of the company my friend works for (the one who's general counsel) is a millionaire from selling the UK company to the international group. I don't know what he drives, but it could be a proper supercar if that's what he wanted.

 

You probably overestimate how much a low end Jag costs these days.

 

I`m talking about the bigger Jaguar. When I last worked for a business back in the early 1990s (HSS Hire, a big company) you`d have to be a regional manager to get even a car like a Vauxhall Senator [a high end Ford Granada type]. Anything bigger than that and you`d have to be a director.

[Cyclone]

Things have changed Justin.

 

---------- Post added 15-12-2015 at 10:01 ----------

 

Banking or financial services IT will easily have salaries topping 100k in London for a lot of positions, database admins/developers, infrastructure design and maintenance. Figures for Leeds are not that much further behind. When you get into proper IT - and I dont mean the sort of stuff the average firm has the level of specialisation and technical ability goes up and so do the salaries. High end IT is very much in demand, and its something that is difficult to train people for so the people are in short supply and command a lot of wage.

 

London still pays a large premium over Leeds (or anywhere else in the country).

 

You'd be lucky as a developer, DBA, designer, etc... in Leeds to get much more than 50k.

Maybe 60 as a team lead. 70 as an architect or development manager.

[Obelix]

Things have changed Justin.

 

---------- Post added 15-12-2015 at 10:01 ----------

 

 

London still pays a large premium over Leeds (or anywhere else in the country).

 

You'd be lucky as a developer, DBA, designer, etc... in Leeds to get much more than 50k.

Maybe 60 as a team lead. 70 as an architect or development manager.

 

You want to start looking at the banks - a lot of them are moving operations from London and these jobs still command London salaries without the weighting. Theres a big building up near Tankersley that's stuffed with silly money...

[truman]

You want to start looking at the banks - a lot of them are moving operations from London and these jobs still command London salaries without the weighting. Theres a big building up near Tankersley that's stuffed with silly money...

 

The one that used to be Midland? With the "teletubbies" garden?

[Cyclone]

I`m talking about the bigger Jaguar.

 

Jaguar

XE 27k (5 door sports saloon)

XF 32k (5 door luxury business saloon)

XJ 60k (5 door luxury saloon)

F-type 50k (2 door sports car)

 

What you're seeing regularly are probably the XE and XF models. Not that they look visually all that different from the XJ.

 

---------- Post added 15-12-2015 at 10:05 ----------

 

You want to start looking at the banks - a lot of them are moving operations from London and these jobs still command London salaries without the weighting. Theres a big building up near Tankersley that's stuffed with silly money...

 

I've worked for Citybank and HSBC before, I still have a lot of friends working for HSBC in Sheffield and Leeds.

[Justin Smith]

Have you ever considered how much people in a variety of different roles earn?

 

I'd guess not, based on that comment.

 

Some examples in a table here

 

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/article-2067258/Best-paid-jobs-2011-Tables-official-figures-UK-salaries.html

 

Remember that these are the averages for each profession, so someone who's experienced and/or good might be earning 50% more than it says in the table (or even more).

 

And you`ll notice the great majority of those jobs pay less than £30,000.

Your comment about it being averages is correct, some will earn more, but some will earn less....... Anyway I have in instinctive mistrust of table like that, as an example most of the health professionals* I know earn a lot less than £49,000.

 

* Physiotherapists or occupational therapists etc, at levels generally needing degrees in their subject.

[Cyclone]

You want to start looking at the banks - a lot of them are moving operations from London and these jobs still command London salaries without the weighting. Theres a big building up near Tankersley that's stuffed with silly money...

 

This is pretty indicative of what's available

 

http://www.cwjobs.co.uk/JobSearch/Results.aspx?Keywords=developer&Sort=1&JobType1=10&LTxt=Sheffield&Radius=10

 

(Obviously "developer" is very broad, I did that on purpose).

 

Change Sheffield to Leeds, more jobs, but pretty much the same pay.

 

http://www.cwjobs.co.uk/JobSearch/JobDetails.aspx?JobId=64279220&Keywords=developer&JobType1=10&Rate=60000&RateType=1&LTxt=leeds&Radius=10&distance=1.1&precision=1

 

One of the best paid in Leeds that's being advertised right now, 50 - 65, you can bet that they don't really want to pay 65.

 

This seems a bit underpaid for the level

http://www.cwjobs.co.uk/JobSearch/JobDetails.aspx?JobId=64232440&s=header&sp=%2FJobSearch%2FResults.aspx&Keywords=development+manager&LTxt=Sheffield&Radius=10&distance=0.0&precision=2

[carboy42]

One thing slightly over looked on the thought that a £100k Merc is only worth £10k in 10 years is that it still has a £100k car service bill in 10 years time and its a lot older so more will go wrong with it.

 

It can be cheaper to run a nearly new one with a warranty than to buy an old one and be paying through the nose to maintain it.