Moral Dilemmas for PHers
Discussion
A couple of exaggerated, heart-string-pulling WWYD scenarios:
1) You happen to get talking to a little old lady, and the conversation happens to get on to cars. She says she's trying to sell an 'old banger' that belonged to her late husband's late father. She knows nothing about cars and she asks for your help and advice on how/where to sell it, and for how much.
You go with her to see this car, and the old banger turns out to be not only an extremely rare, desirable and expensive classic car, but also your favourite car of all time; the one you had pictures of on your wall as a child, that you dreamed of owning even though the would always be beyond your reach.
Mrs Little Old Lady, thinking it's just an old car, wasn't expecting much more than £500 for it; you know it could be a thousand times more than that. Do you buy it for what she thought it was worth (maybe plus a bit - ease your conscience, and all) to own your ultimate dream car (or to make a big wadge of cash), or enlighten her to the goldmine she is sitting on?
2) You are the lucky owner of a very exotic car. This is now the last example of the model, a model which was extremely important in motoring history (either through technological advancement, motorsport success, just a sheer legend of a car or any combination of these). It is a work of art and desirable to many people around the world.
Do you keep it pristine, accessible to people who want to come and see and admire this automotive legend for many years to come, but preventing it from ever turning a wheel again, or do you drive it and enjoy it in the knowledge that it will bring around its eventual demise (potential of someone smashing into it, or mechanical failures, etc.)?
1) You happen to get talking to a little old lady, and the conversation happens to get on to cars. She says she's trying to sell an 'old banger' that belonged to her late husband's late father. She knows nothing about cars and she asks for your help and advice on how/where to sell it, and for how much.
You go with her to see this car, and the old banger turns out to be not only an extremely rare, desirable and expensive classic car, but also your favourite car of all time; the one you had pictures of on your wall as a child, that you dreamed of owning even though the would always be beyond your reach.
Mrs Little Old Lady, thinking it's just an old car, wasn't expecting much more than £500 for it; you know it could be a thousand times more than that. Do you buy it for what she thought it was worth (maybe plus a bit - ease your conscience, and all) to own your ultimate dream car (or to make a big wadge of cash), or enlighten her to the goldmine she is sitting on?
2) You are the lucky owner of a very exotic car. This is now the last example of the model, a model which was extremely important in motoring history (either through technological advancement, motorsport success, just a sheer legend of a car or any combination of these). It is a work of art and desirable to many people around the world.
Do you keep it pristine, accessible to people who want to come and see and admire this automotive legend for many years to come, but preventing it from ever turning a wheel again, or do you drive it and enjoy it in the knowledge that it will bring around its eventual demise (potential of someone smashing into it, or mechanical failures, etc.)?
xRIEx said:
A couple of exaggerated, heart-string-pulling WWYD scenarios:
1) You happen to get talking to a little old lady, and the conversation happens to get on to cars. She says she's trying to sell an 'old banger' that belonged to her late husband's late father. She knows nothing about cars and she asks for your help and advice on how/where to sell it, and for how much.
You go with her to see this car, and the old banger turns out to be not only an extremely rare, desirable and expensive classic car, but also your favourite car of all time; the one you had pictures of on your wall as a child, that you dreamed of owning even though the would always be beyond your reach.
Mrs Little Old Lady, thinking it's just an old car, wasn't expecting much more than £500 for it; you know it could be a thousand times more than that. Do you buy it for what she thought it was worth (maybe plus a bit - ease your conscience, and all) to own your ultimate dream car (or to make a big wadge of cash), or enlighten her to the goldmine she is sitting on?
2) You are the lucky owner of a very exotic car. This is now the last example of the model, a model which was extremely important in motoring history (either through technological advancement, motorsport success, just a sheer legend of a car or any combination of these). It is a work of art and desirable to many people around the world.
Do you keep it pristine, accessible to people who want to come and see and admire this automotive legend for many years to come, but preventing it from ever turning a wheel again, or do you drive it and enjoy it in the knowledge that it will bring around its eventual demise (potential of someone smashing into it, or mechanical failures, etc.)?
1st one : I'd enlighten her. My 'dream' car being worth (tops) around £8000 for a pristine one, it would hardly be a problem to buy it from her for a fair amount.1) You happen to get talking to a little old lady, and the conversation happens to get on to cars. She says she's trying to sell an 'old banger' that belonged to her late husband's late father. She knows nothing about cars and she asks for your help and advice on how/where to sell it, and for how much.
You go with her to see this car, and the old banger turns out to be not only an extremely rare, desirable and expensive classic car, but also your favourite car of all time; the one you had pictures of on your wall as a child, that you dreamed of owning even though the would always be beyond your reach.
Mrs Little Old Lady, thinking it's just an old car, wasn't expecting much more than £500 for it; you know it could be a thousand times more than that. Do you buy it for what she thought it was worth (maybe plus a bit - ease your conscience, and all) to own your ultimate dream car (or to make a big wadge of cash), or enlighten her to the goldmine she is sitting on?
2) You are the lucky owner of a very exotic car. This is now the last example of the model, a model which was extremely important in motoring history (either through technological advancement, motorsport success, just a sheer legend of a car or any combination of these). It is a work of art and desirable to many people around the world.
Do you keep it pristine, accessible to people who want to come and see and admire this automotive legend for many years to come, but preventing it from ever turning a wheel again, or do you drive it and enjoy it in the knowledge that it will bring around its eventual demise (potential of someone smashing into it, or mechanical failures, etc.)?
2nd one : I'd drive it. I can't see that it's much of a moral dilemma. It's my car, and I want the pleasure of driving it. On the flip side, if I had something like that, it would attend all the relevant shows and hopefully other people would derive great pleasure from that.
1st one - I'd give the lady some cash as a loan of the car explaining its worth a bit more than £500, but I'd always wanted one and that it would be such a great way of keeping her families memories alive.
2nd one - I'd drive it. Like I stole it. Go to shows, let people look at and sit in etc
2nd one - I'd drive it. Like I stole it. Go to shows, let people look at and sit in etc
I was involved in a scenario very similar to (1). I was asked to value a car a family wished to sell because the owner had died before he could complete the restoration. I went to see it, immediately realised its worth (it had been re-shelled in the 1980s and never completed). I explained all this to the widow and told her that I would like to buy it myself, complete the restoration and take it to her so she see I'd completed exactly as her late husband had intended (with the exception of a MGA twin-cam engine, it'll have a MGB engine instead.)
The price I offered her for it was half as much again as the friend (a car restorer) I'd taken with me reckoned it was worth. She was happy and so was I.
As for (2), drive it of course - that's what cars are for.
The price I offered her for it was half as much again as the friend (a car restorer) I'd taken with me reckoned it was worth. She was happy and so was I.
As for (2), drive it of course - that's what cars are for.
1.) Give her what she wanted for it. I'll probably get slated for saying this but the fact she is old doesn't mean squat to me, a mid-twentiess guy could be in exactly the same situation and I would suspect that more people would only give him the £500.
2.) Drive it of course. I'd be sharing the pleasure with other people who might not come into contact with the car otherwise. I'd hate to do that to the last model of anything. It should be used.
2.) Drive it of course. I'd be sharing the pleasure with other people who might not come into contact with the car otherwise. I'd hate to do that to the last model of anything. It should be used.
Charlie Michael said:
1.) Give her what she wanted for it. I'll probably get slated for saying this but the fact she is old doesn't mean squat to me, a mid-twentiess guy could be in exactly the same situation and I would suspect that more people would only give him the £500.
2.) Drive it of course. I'd be sharing the pleasure with other people who might not come into contact with the car otherwise. I'd hate to do that to the last model of anything. It should be used.
I suppose fair enough that is your answer but the comparison with a guy in his mid 20's is not valid. The reason is you would expect a normal guy in his mid twenties to do a reasonable amount of research whereas you would surely have less of an expectation of an old lady. If the guy failed to make any effort to look into the value of the car then there is more of a case to handing over the £500. 2.) Drive it of course. I'd be sharing the pleasure with other people who might not come into contact with the car otherwise. I'd hate to do that to the last model of anything. It should be used.
A better comparison would be a mentally impaired guy in his mid twenties (i.e. not capable of doing the research - I'm not implying old people are mentally impaired)...you would have to be a monster to hand over the £500!
I think you are way off the mark!
1. Enlighten her. Explain that you know its worth because it's your dream car but you could only offer her £x. Maybe she needs the money and you've just given her a lifeline, maybe she can afford to give the car to someone who will cherish it.
2. As much as I like to look after them, I wouldn't buy a car I couldn't drive.
2. As much as I like to look after them, I wouldn't buy a car I couldn't drive.
1) If she was clearly struggling for money, I'd offer her more but still enough that I could sell the car on if necessary and not lose any money. If she appeared to be OK financially, I'd probably just buy it at the price she offered it to me.
2) I'd drive it, but be a lot more careful with it than I am with my current car!
2) I'd drive it, but be a lot more careful with it than I am with my current car!
t continue 
1) Buy it for £500.
2) Flog it for as much as you can.
3)Go back to her afterwards and say "i managed to sell the car for a lot more than i thought, so here is lots of cash".
4) Keep the rest.
The way she is going, she will get ripped off by someone, so you might as well give her a nice amount back and for your trouble, you'll make a nice tidy sum. She'll be made up and so will you!!
2) Flog it for as much as you can.
3)Go back to her afterwards and say "i managed to sell the car for a lot more than i thought, so here is lots of cash".
4) Keep the rest.
The way she is going, she will get ripped off by someone, so you might as well give her a nice amount back and for your trouble, you'll make a nice tidy sum. She'll be made up and so will you!!
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