25 years of cheap motoring
Discussion
Wasn't sure where to post this, but since a decent number of my cars have been super/high end cars I thought here might be appropriate. I just worked out that in 25 years of driving, and completed (i.e. bought, owned and sold) ownership of 22 cars (it's basically the middle column on my PH garage list) including silly depreciation bombs like a Caterham 620R, I've only lost a shade over £50k in depreciation, so a little over £2K/year to drive some really fun (both fancy and non-fancy) stuff. Seems like an incredible bargain to me.
Obvs overall running costs are more than that, but still, feels like I've had an awful lot of fun for my money and I feel very lucky.
I'veonly had one car that have made money (550), but my favourite "achievement" was collecting a 981 Boxster GTS from the factory, running it for almost 2 years and 10k miles, then chopping it in for a 997 GTS when my 1st daughter arrived, with it only having costed me 22p per mile
Any other feel good stories for cheap (relatively) long term high end motoring out there?!
Obvs overall running costs are more than that, but still, feels like I've had an awful lot of fun for my money and I feel very lucky.
I'veonly had one car that have made money (550), but my favourite "achievement" was collecting a 981 Boxster GTS from the factory, running it for almost 2 years and 10k miles, then chopping it in for a 997 GTS when my 1st daughter arrived, with it only having costed me 22p per mile
Any other feel good stories for cheap (relatively) long term high end motoring out there?!
What was the Caterham bomb ?
Having just ordered a 7 myself I'm interested in the buy / sell price you experienced on yours.
My fully specced 420R is about 50k - by the time I add in a few extra bits for the engine not coming from Caterham (Throttle body's etc). I've been looking at ads for them out of curiosity and the like for like ones seem to depreciate very little in the first couple of years.
Personally I'm only curious as I don't intend to sell mine. Its a toy for as long as they sell petrol
Having just ordered a 7 myself I'm interested in the buy / sell price you experienced on yours.
My fully specced 420R is about 50k - by the time I add in a few extra bits for the engine not coming from Caterham (Throttle body's etc). I've been looking at ads for them out of curiosity and the like for like ones seem to depreciate very little in the first couple of years.
Personally I'm only curious as I don't intend to sell mine. Its a toy for as long as they sell petrol
It was a 620R. To be fair it wasn't so bad in the grand scheme of things, but the cost per mile was rather eyewatering
https://www.pistonheads.com/members/showcar.asp?ca...
I think the main issue was it was unusable as a road car with the sequential box, so I only really used it on track (where it was fabulous). I don't regret owning it, but if I could do over with hindsight I would have kept my 997.1 GT3 as a track car, and just made it a bit more road friendly as I had planned orginally (RS final drive, slightly softer springs, comfier seats), basically a GT3 Touring before Tourings were a thing.
If i bought another caterham ever it'd be a 360R SV with 5 sp box as I think - that'd be a great compromise for road use. Had one as a courtesy car and enjoyed it so so much. For track, having done bonkers power to weight, I'd probably get something dedicated and with aero like a radical. But it's pretty academic unless I won the lottery and suddenly had time to do it all!
https://www.pistonheads.com/members/showcar.asp?ca...
I think the main issue was it was unusable as a road car with the sequential box, so I only really used it on track (where it was fabulous). I don't regret owning it, but if I could do over with hindsight I would have kept my 997.1 GT3 as a track car, and just made it a bit more road friendly as I had planned orginally (RS final drive, slightly softer springs, comfier seats), basically a GT3 Touring before Tourings were a thing.
If i bought another caterham ever it'd be a 360R SV with 5 sp box as I think - that'd be a great compromise for road use. Had one as a courtesy car and enjoyed it so so much. For track, having done bonkers power to weight, I'd probably get something dedicated and with aero like a radical. But it's pretty academic unless I won the lottery and suddenly had time to do it all!
AinsleyB said:
What was the Caterham bomb ?
Having just ordered a 7 myself I'm interested in the buy / sell price you experienced on yours.
My fully specced 420R is about 50k - by the time I add in a few extra bits for the engine not coming from Caterham (Throttle body's etc). I've been looking at ads for them out of curiosity and the like for like ones seem to depreciate very little in the first couple of years.
Personally I'm only curious as I don't intend to sell mine. Its a toy for as long as they sell petrol
Having just ordered a 7 myself I'm interested in the buy / sell price you experienced on yours.
My fully specced 420R is about 50k - by the time I add in a few extra bits for the engine not coming from Caterham (Throttle body's etc). I've been looking at ads for them out of curiosity and the like for like ones seem to depreciate very little in the first couple of years.
Personally I'm only curious as I don't intend to sell mine. Its a toy for as long as they sell petrol
Thanks, that's interesting.
I considered a 620 but as mine will be for 99% road use I went for the 420 R on the basis that anymore would be undrivable (for me anyway).
Just have to build it now, which is the other reason I ordered one. Should be an enjoyable couple of months spannering.
I considered a 620 but as mine will be for 99% road use I went for the 420 R on the basis that anymore would be undrivable (for me anyway).
Just have to build it now, which is the other reason I ordered one. Should be an enjoyable couple of months spannering.
Jealous mate, would love to build one myself.
I'm no track hero like most people, and would never claim to have driven the 620 to anywhere near its capability, but it was a riot, and I would recommend it to anyone as a dedicated track car. BUT, in that sense it's a bit of a one trick pony, and also too easy. Any other road car with less than 600bhp driven by another regular person just becomes a mobile chicane when on track
I'm no track hero like most people, and would never claim to have driven the 620 to anywhere near its capability, but it was a riot, and I would recommend it to anyone as a dedicated track car. BUT, in that sense it's a bit of a one trick pony, and also too easy. Any other road car with less than 600bhp driven by another regular person just becomes a mobile chicane when on track
AinsleyB said:
Thanks, that's interesting.
I considered a 620 but as mine will be for 99% road use I went for the 420 R on the basis that anymore would be undrivable (for me anyway).
Just have to build it now, which is the other reason I ordered one. Should be an enjoyable couple of months spannering.
I considered a 620 but as mine will be for 99% road use I went for the 420 R on the basis that anymore would be undrivable (for me anyway).
Just have to build it now, which is the other reason I ordered one. Should be an enjoyable couple of months spannering.
Since 2015 I've had an V8 Vantage, a DB9, a brief stint in a Jag XK and a Ferrari F430. The V8 I had 2.5 years, bought it at a dealer and traded it in for what I paid for it. The DB9 depreciated quite steeply (as they do) and lost 10k in 2.5 years. The XK I only had for 6 months, but I sold it for a £1000 profit. The F430 I still have, but at a guess I could pretty easily sell it for about £5000 less than I paid almost 3 years ago.
In 9 years that's £14k in depreciation, with £10k of that coming from just one car. Comes to £1550 a year for some pretty special cars, I'm pretty happy with that. Running costs have dwarfed that thanks to the DB9 and the Ferrari, both of which require a fair bit of maintainance, however the Jag and Vantage were both very reliable and genuinely cheap to run (fuel aside). In fact the Vantage was so cheap that factoring in fuel, insurance, servicing and depreciation, my V8 Aston Martin cost less to own and run than the Renault Scenic we were running as a family bus at the same time.
One of the questions I get asked most often in my cars is how much they cost, or how I afford them. My answer is usually along the lines of "if you run a new or nearly new car, no matter what it is, then it's probably more expensive to own than my car".
In 9 years that's £14k in depreciation, with £10k of that coming from just one car. Comes to £1550 a year for some pretty special cars, I'm pretty happy with that. Running costs have dwarfed that thanks to the DB9 and the Ferrari, both of which require a fair bit of maintainance, however the Jag and Vantage were both very reliable and genuinely cheap to run (fuel aside). In fact the Vantage was so cheap that factoring in fuel, insurance, servicing and depreciation, my V8 Aston Martin cost less to own and run than the Renault Scenic we were running as a family bus at the same time.
One of the questions I get asked most often in my cars is how much they cost, or how I afford them. My answer is usually along the lines of "if you run a new or nearly new car, no matter what it is, then it's probably more expensive to own than my car".
I have kept track over all my cars. During 33 years, 34 cars & 408,000 miles.
Total purchase costs:- £858,875
Total sales achieved:- £850,400
Depreciation cost per mile overall = 2 pence.
This includes 6x Porsches, 2x McLarens, 4x Lotus, 1x Ferrari, 2x RS Audi, 2x BMW M cars & various other sports cars.
I have only bought one car new, in 1998, an Elise S1. So I have never benefited from 'overs' to skew those figures.
Plenty of my cars have been older and had issues. I have totted up the costs of all 'abnormal' repairs, extra spending (after market wheels, carbon fibre parts on McLarens, upgraded stereo's etc.) and warranties (including McLaren & Porsche warranties). Over 408,000 they total £65,150. That's an extra 16 pence per mile.
So excluding insurance, petrol, road tax & consumables (as they are mostly much of a muchness when you consider my 675LT does 36 mpg on the M-Way) my average cost is 18 pence per mile.
The most expensive cars were my BMW M635CSi - £2.50 per mile, Ferrari F355 £2.13 per mile, 981 Spyder £1.56 per mile (bought at slight overs)
Other interesting cars, E39 M5 - 53ppm, 996 C2 - 39ppm (over 7 years ownership), NA MX5 - 1ppm over 75k miles, MP4-12C - £1.14 pm, 2 older Boxster's 33 ppm & 38 ppm.
I have made small profits on 2x Lotus, 1x B7 RS4 & 1x E46 330i SE.
Admittedly here are also quite a few Vauxhall Astra's + normal dross in there to help massage the figures on the favourable side. But it helps the supercar and sports car ownership look more favourable when averaged out.
Total purchase costs:- £858,875
Total sales achieved:- £850,400
Depreciation cost per mile overall = 2 pence.
This includes 6x Porsches, 2x McLarens, 4x Lotus, 1x Ferrari, 2x RS Audi, 2x BMW M cars & various other sports cars.
I have only bought one car new, in 1998, an Elise S1. So I have never benefited from 'overs' to skew those figures.
Plenty of my cars have been older and had issues. I have totted up the costs of all 'abnormal' repairs, extra spending (after market wheels, carbon fibre parts on McLarens, upgraded stereo's etc.) and warranties (including McLaren & Porsche warranties). Over 408,000 they total £65,150. That's an extra 16 pence per mile.
So excluding insurance, petrol, road tax & consumables (as they are mostly much of a muchness when you consider my 675LT does 36 mpg on the M-Way) my average cost is 18 pence per mile.
The most expensive cars were my BMW M635CSi - £2.50 per mile, Ferrari F355 £2.13 per mile, 981 Spyder £1.56 per mile (bought at slight overs)
Other interesting cars, E39 M5 - 53ppm, 996 C2 - 39ppm (over 7 years ownership), NA MX5 - 1ppm over 75k miles, MP4-12C - £1.14 pm, 2 older Boxster's 33 ppm & 38 ppm.
I have made small profits on 2x Lotus, 1x B7 RS4 & 1x E46 330i SE.
Admittedly here are also quite a few Vauxhall Astra's + normal dross in there to help massage the figures on the favourable side. But it helps the supercar and sports car ownership look more favourable when averaged out.
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