I genuinely do not understand where the money comes from for the number of very new BMWs, Mercs, Audis and Range Rovers on the roads comes from. It seems way out of step with my impression of "normal" salaries (in the UK).

I guess either it's a dangerous amount of finance or I'm just very underpaid. Not that's I'd buy a new car anyway, I'll let someone eat that five-digits depreciation thank you.

A lot of people get a new car as a company benefit. And you can get a new BMW from like £27k they aren't that expensive.

When we had our house built. The builder only required 5% down (2016). We later got an FHA mortgage with 3.5% down and we got the other 1.5% back.

Of course we refinanced when the housing market got crazy and reduced the interest rate to 1.5% and got rid of PMI (FHA MPI)