Another story where its someone else’s fault they screwed up.
Snowflakes … need a slap of reality and common sense !
Perhaps its just what the BBC see as newsworthy now. How people try to abdicate responsibly when something goes wrong. Had she kept her job then all would have been dandy and the guy at the car showroom a great guy.
Mmm… 23 years old, a University student, yet unable to withstand the sales pitch ???
I hope she learns a lesson from this mess she and her family are in.
“Read the print right the way through and don’t sign anything unless you fully understand the content and the implications.”
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Hehe, you have not met an Electrolux, or US used cars sales men?
The growing trend is that you “hire” the car, with monthly payments. But for the financially savvy it does have the benefit of lots of stock of nearly new (in warranty) cars to offer cash on.
Our last second car in 2016 was a 3 year old 3 door aygo with 15000 miles on the clock. We paid £89. a month with the option to pay £2200 to keep it at the end. The only restriction is mileage which at 8000 pa was fine. We had gone out with the intention of buying a car outright but this was much better value for us and at the end my dad bought it off us and is really happy with it. We could have paid £98 for a 5 door but were too mean.
Why a 23 year old university student thinks £329. Per month is a good deal for her circumstances is beyond me. A very expensive lesson learned.
She only had a part-time job! How on earth did she think it was affordable?
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Someone who needed PPI but they are probably scared to sell it nowadays
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I’ve no idea about PPI in UK - but I do know a salesman sold the equivalent of an “Insurance against being out of work” to a 75 year old pensioner, here in France. 
did they make a claim 
I would have done… 
Worserer and worserer - they signed for 2 insurances and 2 Credit Agreements/Loans or whatever it was, for the same thing…
No wonder I have grey hairs 
I call them the “couldn’t believe it” generation…
“I bought 12 million tonnes of gold bullion for £5000 and it turns out to be a con…I couldn’t believe it. It must be the government’s fault init”
" a bloke from the HMRC call me up and asked for my credit card details. My bank account is cleared owt. I couldn’t believe it. The bank shoulda stopped em"
“I bought a house for 1.1 million and I’m a dustman. I now owe billions. I couldn’t believe they didn’t stop me from being so fecking dumb”
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Audi driver.
Audi salesperson.
Need I say more?
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She was upsold a more expensive car than she set out to buy; this is not “the system”'s fault (unless you count the salesman as part of “the system”).
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Despite being a student with a part time job she obviously could afford the repayments because she managed to do so from “late 2017” when she bought the car until “recently” when she lost her job - so it is not at all clear an affordability check would have prevented this purchase.
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She lost her job with a significant financial commitment still existing, sh*t happens but she should have a) had a buffer covering essential outgoings (1 month minimum, preferably three) and/or b) discussed the situation with the lender as soon as it became apparent she was not going to be able to swiftly find a new job.
I have loads of sympathy - it’s easy for me as a reasonably secure middle aged bloke to sit in my Ivory tower and say the above, but it is also clear her financial planning could have been better.
PCP is a con anyway - the idea is that you just pay the depreciation - which, ironically, makes high value marques like BMW and Audi more “affordable” because they depreciate less but - of course - you wind up paying significantly more than the depreciation (and typically get massively stung if you go over mileage limits which are often quite low in order to preserve the value for the seller).
I have lots of daughters of whom 2 drive, they have little cars, a Fiat and a Lancia respectively, which are old and a bit bashed about but work very well (the only essential thing)- bought outright for a very small 4 figure sum.
I don’t know why a student really needs some spivvy vehicle seeing the use it will get and the care other student roadusers will take of it.
On the other hand this is in the UK and I expect students are a lot more image conscious than they are here. Fur coat and no knickers springs to mind.
I read somewhere that 75+% of credit card debt in Europe is the UK’s, I suppose this girl is just an example of what happens in a society where debt is the norm and socially acceptable.
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Actually Paul. I don’t have any sympathy at all. I had a crappy Renault 5 when I was her age and paid for it myself.
An Audi is a premium brand and she got suckered in.
The parents didn’t help and the fact they are on the beeb suggests they are just as silly as the student.
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I know things are different now- BUT - at her age I was working fulltime + part-time - to pay a mortgage and run a home.
My proudest achievement in those days (once I had learned to cook) was my ability to make a pound of sausages last a week
Money was tighter than tight, but the mortgage was paid without fail.
Some modern folk seem to have lost the plot …
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Maybe.
Maybe given student debt and precarious jobs they think that they will never save the 15-20% deposit they need to buy a house. As the average UK house price is £226k you are looking at needing a £34-45k down payment - way more in London, less in the North.
Even saving £500 a month that’s a minimum 6 year slog to save up.
There’s no wonder they decide they might as well have a nice car for £300 a month and a few take-outs and not bother with the idea of property ownership.
Some do, of course. Some get a leg up from their parents but house price inflation in the UK has outstripped wage inflation for years and by hefty margins - houses are much less affordable than they were in the 80’s, even taking into account the silly interest rates back then.
Young folk live in a different financial and employment environment and, correspondingly, make different decisions.
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To be fair to her she probably didn’t plan to lose her job when she took the loan.
Debt is not just socially acceptable, though I agree that it is so in a way that it just wasn’t prior to roughly the mid-80’s but it is actually more than that in the modern world - it is, quite simply, how the financial world works.
It is estimated that 80% of the money supply in the modern world comes from debt - it quite literally makes the (fiscal) world go round.