Is it worth buying a snotter to preserve your main car?
Discussion
I have a Mondeo ST220. It's not much to most people I'm sure, but I love it, and I'm a bit anal about how it's looked after. It's an 04 with 109k miles on but cosmetically (apart from a couple of very small dings) it's very good, and immaculate inside. Mechanically it's perfect too.
Half of me is tempted to buy an ultra-cheap but reasonably reliable snotter/banger so that I can use it for general local driving / bumping around town / dump runs / general use that a mechanically sympathetic person would ideally not bestow on a car that they consider their pride and joy. It's things like the fact that parking at my girlfriend's house is poor and I often have to bump up the kerb to park etc., that make me think about it. I also hate parking in supermarket and shopping centre car parks, mainly because people are stupid.
Doing this would mean I would use the Mondeo for longer trips and generally more "pleasurable" driving.
Has anyone else done so in order to better preserve their car? Should I bother? I'm thinking something that costs less than £500, meaning I could buy and insure it for comfortably less than a grand.
Should I just not bother and man the f
k up?
Half of me is tempted to buy an ultra-cheap but reasonably reliable snotter/banger so that I can use it for general local driving / bumping around town / dump runs / general use that a mechanically sympathetic person would ideally not bestow on a car that they consider their pride and joy. It's things like the fact that parking at my girlfriend's house is poor and I often have to bump up the kerb to park etc., that make me think about it. I also hate parking in supermarket and shopping centre car parks, mainly because people are stupid.
Doing this would mean I would use the Mondeo for longer trips and generally more "pleasurable" driving.
Has anyone else done so in order to better preserve their car? Should I bother? I'm thinking something that costs less than £500, meaning I could buy and insure it for comfortably less than a grand.
Should I just not bother and man the f
k up? If it was an expensive sports car or supercar then maybe but for a Mondeo I can't really see the point. Surely the reason for buying the Mondeo was because you like driving it, why then leave it at home and get some cheap nasty thing to drive instead? I doubt it will save you money as owning multiple cars is expensive and an ST220 is not worth much so you won't be making any notable difference to its value by driving it a bit more/less. I would just drive it and enjoy it and stop worrying about little scratches and blemishes.
TurboHatchback said:
If it was an expensive sports car or supercar then maybe but for a Mondeo I can't really see the point. Surely the reason for buying the Mondeo was because you like driving it, why then leave it at home and get some cheap nasty thing to drive instead? I doubt it will save you money as owning multiple cars is expensive and an ST220 is not worth much so you won't be making any notable difference to its value by driving it a bit more/less. I would just drive it and enjoy it and stop worrying about little scratches and blemishes.
Whilst it's not about saving money, it's more about keeping the car in as good condition as I would like it to be in, I suppose you have a point. 
Howard- said:
Whilst it's not about saving money, it's more about keeping the car in as good condition as I would like it to be in, I suppose you have a point.
True but that to me is a bit like keeping toys in the box and leaving the plastic film on your phone screen etc. Cars are meant to be used and enjoyed and a Mondeo (fine though it is) is not a precious work of art or irreplaceable piece of history so I would use it and enjoy it.I used to own one of the last registered ZS180's which was 2 years old with just 4k on the clock. I decided to buy a cheap sierra to help preserve the Zed.
3 major flaws with this plan were:
1) I didn't like driving the Sierra
2) The Sierra cost more to run and maintain than I thought and sucked up a sum of money that had been set aside for the ZS's tax bill resulting in the ZS needing to be sorn'd. This made me feel dumb.
3) The MG was depreciating at about 1k per month regardless of mileage, so who cares - just drive it. It won't be worth anything in 3 years time anyway. Which was true. I got 4k for it with 16k on the clock.
So, in summary it was a terrible plan. Just drive the car you enjoy driving.
3 major flaws with this plan were:
1) I didn't like driving the Sierra
2) The Sierra cost more to run and maintain than I thought and sucked up a sum of money that had been set aside for the ZS's tax bill resulting in the ZS needing to be sorn'd. This made me feel dumb.
3) The MG was depreciating at about 1k per month regardless of mileage, so who cares - just drive it. It won't be worth anything in 3 years time anyway. Which was true. I got 4k for it with 16k on the clock.
So, in summary it was a terrible plan. Just drive the car you enjoy driving.
Lots of people do, depends on your emotional connection with your main car really. It's not going to make financial sense really - a second lot of insurance, tax and maintenance will be more than the cost of keeping an ST220 looking and feeling fresh however much life throws at it.
As others have said what's the point in spending more money, to drive a worse car 90% of the time.
I think it might make sense if you've got some expensive supercar tucked away that costs twenty quid a mile to drive in depreciation and all that stuff, but, and this is a personal thing, if I couldn't afford or face actually using something as I wanted because of how much it would cost me down the road or worrying it might get 'hurt' I wouldn't bother buying it in the first place - it's only a car, it's a consumer item.
As others have said what's the point in spending more money, to drive a worse car 90% of the time.
I think it might make sense if you've got some expensive supercar tucked away that costs twenty quid a mile to drive in depreciation and all that stuff, but, and this is a personal thing, if I couldn't afford or face actually using something as I wanted because of how much it would cost me down the road or worrying it might get 'hurt' I wouldn't bother buying it in the first place - it's only a car, it's a consumer item.
Precisely as above, keep the ST on the road, there's no point in wasting time with insurance, MOT and VED on another vehicle just to keep your Mondeo pristine. Parts aren't about to become suddenly difficult to obtain.
If you were daily driving a classic E-type or similar I could understand it...
If you were daily driving a classic E-type or similar I could understand it...
If you dont need another car, it isnt worth getting one unless you are running soemthign very valuable or very expensive to run.
We have two other cars, so I can not use my 350Z for shopping trips, short journeys and when its raining, I use my push bike as well, basically because the 350Z does 20 mpg on SUL, so its 30 odd p in fuel per mile, the bike gives me a bit of exercise and to be honest a tiny car is just so much easier in car parks, but we have to have the others anyway.
When you buy soemthign cheap, it usually comes with tax of a couple of hundred quid a year, anything with free/£30 tax is expensive to buy, then the insurance, an mot, a bit of maintenance so the minumum is about an additional £600 a year in terms of standing costs, most cars a bit more, plus a little bit of depreciation unless very very cheap.
Financially it doesnt stack up, but it may work for you.
We have two other cars, so I can not use my 350Z for shopping trips, short journeys and when its raining, I use my push bike as well, basically because the 350Z does 20 mpg on SUL, so its 30 odd p in fuel per mile, the bike gives me a bit of exercise and to be honest a tiny car is just so much easier in car parks, but we have to have the others anyway.
When you buy soemthign cheap, it usually comes with tax of a couple of hundred quid a year, anything with free/£30 tax is expensive to buy, then the insurance, an mot, a bit of maintenance so the minumum is about an additional £600 a year in terms of standing costs, most cars a bit more, plus a little bit of depreciation unless very very cheap.
Financially it doesnt stack up, but it may work for you.
Good mate of mine used to have a Lancia Delta Integrale of some flavour or another. When they were doing resurfacing work near his house he bought a Fiat Tipo so he wouldn't get dirty marks on the Delta!
I'd never mention he used to park the Delta in the garage and put it on axle stands so as not to get flatspots on the tyres.
Overnight
Nutter.
I'd never mention he used to park the Delta in the garage and put it on axle stands so as not to get flatspots on the tyres.
Overnight
Nutter.
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