Potential owner.. Do you have to be mechanically minded?

[renmure]

I have fancied an Ultima for a while but never really taken things much further than browsing from a distance, although I did go the 400 miles down to the Stoneleigh show a couple few years ago to see a decent selection of cars at once.

Looking through the classifieds, I tend to know what I like in superficial cosmetic terms re looks, colour, interior etc but would probably need a bit of guidance in terms of engine / spec.

But... the thing that tends to stop me in my tracks is that I am in no way mechanically minded and don't really have much interest, skill or motivation to change and would be kidding myself if I imagined myself "enjoying" a weekend in the garage tinkering with oily bits.

So, assuming I was buying something decent, well speced, well built, well cared for and not running some extreme power: Are the cars generally reliable? Do most owners who tinker around fixing stuff all the time do so because they want to or because they have to? Are the cars generally suited to being used in the manner of a conventionally reliable "weekend fun car" that you can use for a few days then cover up and forget about for a few weeks, service/MOT once a year etc or do you really need to be on top of fixing/fettling *stuff* all the time?

• I don't really know what I mean by "stuff" but have mental images of this type of car being more suited to someone who has their own boiler suit and knows what they are doing with spanners

[renmure]

Nabbott said:

I got out of a 360 Spider so I could be more 'hands-on' but guess if you went for an LS engine powered car you'd spend less time fettling.

I got out of an F355 and into my F360 Spider because the 360 felt less like it needed "looking after" which probably gives an indication of my comfort zone.

A better example is, a Caterham. I recently owned a lovely K-Series R300. It was probably a premium car, well built by the 1st owner who obviously was more into the build side than the driving side. It had great spec, low owners, low miles and was an unmolested and pampered car. In my 3 years of ownership it was 100% reliable and didn't actually need anymore input from me other than driving it and generally looking after it although I guess I could have changed, upgraded or tuned bits and generally got oily.

Suppose I was hoping that lots of Ultima cars might be like that R300.