2 nice cars or 1 gorgeous one?

[LaurasOtherHalf]

ie, a nice hot hatch for day to day driving & something special for track days & euro hoons, or soemthing mega like a V8 vantage, 911gt3 to use every day for everything?

[dele]

I look forward to seeing where this thread is going

[Vocal Minority]

Pokey road car and weekend plaything please

[Actus Reus]

Hopefully soon to have a Civic Type R or Mk.V Golf GTi and a Porsche Cayman. Rather that than just a 911 I think...

[Dblue]

Option 1
Using a "special" car like that day to day is impractical and a waste.
All cars are compromises, nothing does everything perfectly.

If I had to have 1 car to do it all, M3 E90 4dr. Shopping trolley, motorway cruiser, refined family car and brilliant sportscar whenever the mood takes you.
Just the 20mpg though

[otolith]

Or one adequate car and one nearly gorgeous one?

[LaurasOtherHalf]

Dblue said:

Option 1
Using a "special" car like that day to day is impractical and a waste.
All cars are compromises, nothing does everything perfectly.

this is of course, true. But..... Having spent plenty of time spent driving daily "snotters" you do miss out on the occasional blast when the mood takes you. Insofar as day to day driving is pretty restrictive & you never know when you get the chance of an open road blast.

[Captain Muppet]

I always go for multiple cars. It stops me getting bored/frustrated with just one car. Plus you can work on one and drive the other, which is handy.

Hence the current Elise/MX5 turbo pair. Sure I could have a single car that would do everything and cost the same to run, but would I be happy to run just one thing as my only car for 4 years? That's how long I've been happy with my current fleet. If I had to run just the Elise I'd spend all winter worrying about being hit by idiots who can't drive, and if I had to run just the MX5 the stupid welded diff would annoy me to distraction within a month.

So always two cars, or more.

[mackay45]

Option 1 for me - running around in something like a V8 Vantage or a GT3 as a daily would be fairly ruinous depending on how many miles you do per annum.

[sparks_E39]

With no idea of budget, let's say you had £45k to spend. I'd rather have an Aston Martin DB7 GT and an E39 M5, rather than a Ferrari 355 or Aston Martin DB9/V8V.

[mat205125]

If you can afford to have the one mega car and run it every day of the year, rain of shine, then my experience says that your gross car budget will got a lot further if spent on something normal for day to day use, and even more special than the costly to run car you were planning to subject to daily duties in the first place.

Experience has always led me to believe that the multi car option is better if you are happy to pootle along commuting with the sheep on the roads.

[mrmr96]

The answer is always to get two, less compromised, cars. IMO.

[otolith]

It depends on your usage patterns too - you might use your nicer car every day but require a big old barge for occasional tip/garden centre/DIY barn runs or long family trips. I drive the Elise more than I do the Saab estate, but I couldn't live with just the Elise.

[LaurasOtherHalf]

mackay45 said:

Option 1 for me - running around in something like a V8 Vantage or a GT3 as a daily would be fairly ruinous depending on how many miles you do per annum.

The more I look into it the less I think this is true. I don't do mega mileage & these types of cars could stand 30k miles being put on them easy over a few years.

[LaurasOtherHalf]

To clarify we already have another car that the other half uses that the dog fits in etc.

[ajh38]

Surely you could go for something like a GT3 and a car for under a grand? Petrol Mondeo or something similar, keeping your special car special.

[LaurasOtherHalf]

ajh38 said:

Surely you could go for something like a GT3 and a car for under a grand? Petrol Mondeo or something similar, keeping your special car special.

this is the problem.

i find that you just end up using the snotter more & more & you're left with an expensive trinket so the next owner can brag about the mint low mileage car he found!

[Wolands Advocate]

I take the two cars approach. One practical-ish and decent daily driver (decent for precisely the reason outlined by the previous poster) and one non-practical open-topped w/end classic.

I have contemplated the "consolidate to one car" approach, not least because my GF thinks that would be an excellent idea and thinks that the one car should be a Porsche 911 (largely because she'd like one). It would also save on things like maintenance, insurance, tax, garaging etc etc.

But that would mean parting with my Z1 and I just don't want to do that.

[OlberJ]

Depends on the needs.

GT3, very nice car, great all rounder but not extreme. Costly to run if you try to use it extremely.

2 cars for me :

• Something fun but practical for Hooning, taking out on an evening, taxi-ing the missus, visiting family etc.
• Something balls out track car you can use on the road. Noisy, impractical and alive.

The former has to be able to be used for trips and can't be a boring car.

The latter should be something specialist, kit car/classic. Not used too much and cheap to insure and run.

If you try to do 1 car for all, it will always miss out on some factor somewhere and depreciate a lot quicker too if you pile on the miles.

[JDMDrifter]

Id say personally have one pretty naff car as a daily then have more cash to spend on the nice car.

Say for instance buy a cheap sub 1k car like a small hatch or a big volvo if you need practicality.

Then have more to spend on a really special car like say a Caterham.

This way if the weathers naff or you need a decent car use the cheap run around , if you have a bad day nip home and get the special car and hoon yourself silly