What's the Real Cost?

[nibortaweh]

I know that economic science is a bit vague, but over the last few hours I have been trying to gauge some idea of the real cost of buying Standard Triumph cars in 1948. To make sense of this it is important to find out what the AVERAGE earnings (per annum) of a working person (and I do not mean working class person) were in 1948. One figure I have obtained is £376 and another comes out at over £500. Now, I know that the price of a Triumph Roadster/Renown was just under £1000 but this figure includes extortionate purchase tax. I think Standard 12/14 and Vanguards were around the £500 mark but I am unsure if this includes purchase tax. Was something like a Standard 8 just within the reach of, let's say, a middle-aged qualified electrician? In the 1940s, I believe that there was a 3 year waiting period for new car buyers!

Can anyone out there help me out with some relevant facts and figures..........or any anecdotal tales?

Robin.

[petefoster]

In March 48 a Standard 8 (tourer or saloon) was £305 basic £390 inc tax. a drophead was £320 (£409),12hp saloon £495 (£633), 12 coupe £520 (£665), 14hp saloon £525 (£671), coupe £550 (£703).The price of the Vanguard hadn't been finalised. The Triumph Roadster/saloon were both £775 (£991). The purchase tax wasn't much more than todays 20%VAT , but increased sharply for cars of over £1000 basic. The "rub" was that cars were very scarce for anyone to buy, as most were going for export. The cheapest car on the market was tghe Ford 8 (Anglia) at £255 (£326) & the Morris 8 was £270 (£345), so the Standard 8 was relatively expensive. The cost of the Autocar magazine(from which the above figures were obtained) was 6d (2 1/2p). I don't know what an average wage would have been then.

[nibortaweh]

Thanks for the info Pete, it should prove useful. Any contribution about average wages would be gratefully received.

Robin.

[markaren76]

Hi

According to www.connected-earth.com/Learningresources/HowhaslifeinBritainchanged/Lessonsupportmaterial/Lessonsupportmaterial.pdf The average weekly UK wage in 1978 was £7.28 in todays money or about £7/5s/6d in old. The average household income was estimated at around £3500.

To be fair there were vast differences between men & women and the various 'upper', 'upper middle', 'middle', 'working' and 'poor' classes. The class system was still quite feudal outside of growing towns so the poor really were poor and the rich really were rich. Only the 'upper' and 'upper middle' classes would have even considered a car. Even in the late '60s my dad refused to have a car purely on the grounds he couldn't afford one big enough for all the family (9 kids). And larger families were fairly common then in 'blue' collar or working class families, while 'white' collar families tended to have one or two children.

I found this handy site to calculate the actual value of the currency in different years. www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-1633409/Historic-inflation-calculator-value-money-changed-1900.html Might be of help. It seems to suggest the cost of a new car purchase, in real terms, in 1948 was actually about the same as today, except for we have much more to spend on these days.

Hope this helps Mark

[nibortaweh]

Thanks Mark,
I have encountered both your sources in my web travels but the figures they quote are contradicted by other 'experts'. I believe the £7.28 per week figure was for the 1950s and there was in reality a fair difference between incomes in the two decades. In a 1947 issue of The Aeroplane magazine there is an advert for an aircraft electronics fitter in civil aviation with an annual wage of just over £250. Of course, the gulf between the haves and have-nots was enormous but possibly exagerated because of the state of mind fostered by the class system. In actual fact, in today's Britain the gulf between the top 2% and the remainder is absolutely stunning! At the end of the day the today's average annual wage of about £25,000 can buy you a pretty nice brand new car. In 1948 it would seem that the average annual wage would hardly be enough to buy the cheapest new car on the market.

[markaren76]

Based on the employment practices of the day the lower valued jobs often included family accomodation. I'd site this for almost all aggricultural, coal, gas, electricity, waterways, country estate workers, water, armed forces, civil forces, transportation amongst others. Like me you probably know many folk who eventually bought 'their' houses following the right to buy started in the eighties, effectively stopping the free Accomodation practice for ever.

Mark

[nibortaweh]

For anyone interested in changing costs and values, go to www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/archive/index.php/t-128554.html and you will discover some fascinating insights, particularly when it comes to housing, cars, and everyday household items.

Robin.

[petefoster]

I found an old 1947 diary which had belonged to my Dad. He was a Petty Officer in the Navy at the time & it appears he was on £203 per annum at the time, but as a previous correspondent has stated, that presumably covered his food & accommodation costs. He didn't get a car until 1956, when he bought a 1937 Standard 12 for 125gns ( a guinea was £1 1s 0d & was a throw back to horse traders who traded in guineas!)from a big London dealer called Rowland Smith in Hampstead. I remember getting it, I was only 4 at the time, & was very excited at us getting a car. That's what got me into old Standards!

[nibortaweh]

Interesting response, Pete. I have just had a look on the web and it would seem that RN junior ranks are relieved of about £150 (£1800 a year) per month for their meals, accommodation and council tax. Junior rank pay in the navy quickly rises above £20,000 a year. These days it would be fair to say that a Petty Officer earns around £33,000; that is about 162 times your dad's rate in the 1940s (and even then I am not sure if deductions were not made for meals, accommodation etc.). Take the 1948 price of a Standard 8 (inc Tax) of £390 and multiply it by 162 and the result is £63,180. Imagine what you could get for that today! The same calculation for a Standard 14 DHC, £703, (like wot I have got) results in £113,886! We are now getting close to supercar territory.

[kiwi10]

While I am on thee opposite side of the world.. My mother whoa has now passed away used to do a quarterly "thing" in which she compared the pay actually received to the cost of a range of things and equated them to hours of pay. Apart from car purchase she collated that the lowest cost of such things was when my dad was in the army during the war as a sergeant. Her "shopping basket included; lace up shoes, a mans shirt, various items of groceries, some specified vegetables.
In regards car purchase there are a number of cars available new (our family has never bought a new car) which are actually cheaper in $ terms than they were for the cheapest car in the 1980s.
The average wage is a strange calculation as in most countries it is calculated by dividing the declared total income by the number of people employed. This is far different from what the average person earns as it is distorted by the few people who "earn" (should we say are paid?) vast sums for very little input.