Next time you pull up alongside a shiny new BMW 3 Series, don’t look at the driver with envy. Regard them as pitiful owners of a magnificent failing financial delusion. Around 95 per cent of new UK cars now find owners through fleet or contract purchase schemes. It’s a monetary sedative disguising how we rent a depreciating block of steel for £450 a month, blind to being taken for a colossal global ride.  The current mainstream narrative is comforting: cars are expensive because of inflation and supply chain problems – with a few carrots for right-leaning thinkers about eco-levies, union interference and nasty Russians. It’s a neat lie. The reality – according to figures for bodies like Germany’s Center of Automotive Management – is more spectacular.