The cheapest one on the UK site is the 116i for 16185 pounds.

> If that's the case, why do all the people driving them act like they own 
> the entire road network then? I always thought that the BMW drivers' 
> massive superiority complex comes from the fact that the car costs as much 
> as a small house...

Well it depends which model you get, like I said the cheapest is 16k, but 
it's very easy to spend double that if you want a bigger one that's a bit 
faster.

> I wouldn't drive a Ford if you paid me. I have no idea what a Peugeot 407 
> is, but it sounds much more inviting...

The Ford Focus is actually a really nice car to drive, the handling is great 
and everything seems of pretty high quality.  If you told me I had 10k-15k 
to spend on a new car for my family, it would probably be my choice.

> Seriously?

Yes, this one:

http://www.porsche.com/uk/models/boxster/boxster/

> Heh, good thing my dad doesn't have 33k! ;-)

Personally, if I was going to get a Porsche, I would save a bit more (or buy 
2nd hand) and get this one though:

http://www.porsche.com/uk/models/cayman/cayman-s/

> Well, I guess at 10k it might as well be 10,000k - either way I don't have 
> that kind of money

But you said you spent 6k on your car.  10k isn't much different, in 5 or 10 
years it's not going to be impossible that you might be thinking of spending 
10k on a car.

>  - but I find your statements extremely surprising. Cars contain *metal*, 
> and metal is very expensive.

No it's not.  The cost of the actual metal is pretty much zero compared to 
the other costs.  Designing a car that works is the expensive bit.  A lot of 
people have absolutely no idea how much effort and how many different 
companies and people are involved with designing something like a car.  It 
usually takes around 6 years from concept to production start, with 
literally hundreds of different companies involved.  It's totally amazing 
that anything actually ever gets built.

> Cars require extensive safety testing, and that's expensive.

Much cheaper nowadays with accurate computer simulations that don't need a 
supercomputer.

> And few people make cars, so they can charge the earth for them. Why 
> *wouldn't* they be expensive?

Actually lots of people make cars, especially in the high-volume low-price 
market.

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