We don't have a car for the simple reason that we cannot afford one outright right now...we don't like to live beyond our means and be paying off something that will rapidly depreciate (I can't see us buying and fixing up a classic!). Although we could afford car repayments, it's just not what we personally want to do. We are lucky though, we live in a large city and have access to public transport. Every bit of spare cash we have goes towards a deposit for a home, for our situation personally a first home is probably the only thing we would take out a loan for, everything else we've ever purchased (whitegoods, electronics etc) has been cash. It's just the way we are with money, I guess