Thanks to PH and the 'Best Smoker Barges 1 - 5 Large' thread I've developed a hankering for a barge. My situation, however, isn't an easy one as I'm currently saving all of my spare cash for a house. I have a dilemma.

I currently run a 57 Mazda 3 Sport (2.0 litre petrol, for those who don't know). It's a nice car. It isn't massively quick, but it's no slouch. It's the sort of car usually driven by old people . However, it isn't a V8 barge.

I have sort of convinced myself that I can sell the Mazda and use the money to get myself a tidy barge. I could also get myself a snotter/shed for daily use if required, without costing any more money than that made from the sale of the Mazda. I live 15 miles from work so commuting mileages aren't massive.

My workings are as follows:

Sell Mazda for £5.5k (Autotrader shows vehicles around the £6k mark for low mileage examples like my car, so I'm going for the absolute lowest i'd expect).
Buy, insure and tax barge for £3.5k.
Buy, insure and tax shed for £1.5k.
Pocket £500 for rainy day.

Are my man maths correct? Or am I letting my heart rule my head and I will indeed be losing some money? Am I overvaluing my current car too?

In relation to barges, do people find them expensive to fix? I know it depends on which barge you have (BMW, Honda, Mercedes, Volvo, Alfa etc), but are they quite expensive to run?

My OH thinks that i'm mad and thinks that by doing the above i'll be losing more money than if I just kept the Mazda. A little part of me says she has a good point, but my blood is slowly turning into petrol and I can't help myself.

Help!

(If the above seems like a good plan, I'll be barge hunting soon)

If you buy a barge for 3.5K then the likelihood is that you need repair money/warchest for the inevitable. I've owned V8's and they can be reliable but like anything when they go wrong expect a big bill especially for the German brands like BMW and Audi. If you really want a V8 barge then get one as it will make you happier but if you can live with the Mazda it will more than likely be lighter on your wallet because it will cost less to run that two cars and less repairs.

There you go.....

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/3887391.htm

Agree with the 'why 2 cars' question.

£2k will buy a decent V8 barge

Pre 2001 to insure against future silly VED rises.

LS400 Mk4 to insure against future silly big repair bills and give mid-30mpgs on a motorway run.

But insuring 2 cars is not double 1 car
Tax, agreed
Service cost is the same as 1 car, cos each car does half the miles
Same with tyres

If you don't NEED two cars then I'd definately agree with running one, better car day in day out. So much easier. Unfortunately I don't NEED two cars day in, day out but there are ocassions where two cars are a must. It's a bit crap, if there was a way round that I'd have one nice car for everything and then a rusty pile of crap in the shed for man time tinkering. So to speak.

Sounds good to me.

My current road tax is £245 per year. My last service was done at Mazda. My 3 isn't that fuel efficient.

I would have more than £500 available for repairs etc, but this would be eating into my other funds slightly. If I got more for the Mazda i'd be happy.

In my circumstances this is the cheapest motoring possible. Seriously.

Piss easy to service yourself too. It's not rocket science

Only 13k on the clock? Blimey